Here it is. A great big post all about our Great Big Southwest Adventure Road Trip! Every year, we head out to spend some time on the West Coast. And our 2018 adventure took us on a week long road trip through Nevada, California, and Arizona.
I've been sharing bits and pieces from this road trip for a while now, but here is our itinerary with links and budget all in one place.
The Itinerary
In just 9 days, we covered more than 1,000 miles across 3 states.
Day 1 Travel Day
We began this trip with me flying into Boston, meeting Husband at the airport there, and then flying into Las Vegas together.
Day 2 Las Vegas
It's taken us far too long to cross Vegas off our bucket list. We loved every minute our day in Las Vegas...walking the strip, playing the slots, and discovering where the neon lights go to die.
Day 3 Rhyolite Ghost Town & Death Valley National Park
We spent the morning in Nevada, exploring Rhyolite Ghost Town---then crossed over into California to spend the day in Death Valley National Park.
I got to hike through the hottest place on Earth with the hottest guy I know.
Day 4 Palm Springs
One of my absolute favorite stops of the trip was pretty palm springs. We kept our first day there low key....touring the cactarium, biking through all the posh neighborhoods, and enjoying drinks by the pool.
Yet another full day in Palm Springs because it was just too hard to leave. We did a morning hike through a desert oasis before spending the afternoon hiking the top of mount san jacinto.
Day 6 Joshua Tree National Park
And the whole reason for our trip this year, visiting Joshua Tree National Park. Hiking through the desert amongst the Joshua Trees was even more beautiful then we could have dreamed.
Waking up after a night of camping in Joshua Tree, we decided to be a bit adventurous and leave the beaten path for a secret hike full of cacti, rattle snakes, scorpions and a few hidden gems that made it all worth the risk.
Then we capped off our last evening in California with the prettiest sunset in the Cholla Cactus Garden.
Day 8 Saguaro National Park
Next stop Arizona! For a place that wasn't originally on our itinerary, Saw-wah-roh National Park was a true showstopper.
Jumping for joy to be in another new city, but not happy to see our time out West come to an end. After a morning at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, it was time to fly home.
The Budget
Are you still with me? Ok, good. Then let's talk about the budget. Because spending a week exploring the West Coast is not exactly cheap, especially when your itinerary includes pricey destinations like Palm Springs and Las Vegas. But thanks to a little bit of travel hacking, we didn't do too bad. Keep in mind, that all prices listed are for two people.
Flights
You guys, I was so close to travel hacking our way to yet another trip with FREE flights. I didn't quite make it, but flights out West and back for two people with less than $100 spent out of pocket, I'll take it. ✈️ At the time of this trip, Tom and I were still living in separate states-me in North Carolina and him in Massachusetts. So flights for us entailed me first flying to Boston. From there, we flew Boston to Las Vegas direct. Then on the way home, we flew out of Phoenix, taking separate flights to our perspective states. Crazy to organize, but we got there. Here's our flight cost breakdown:
Departing
Raleigh to Boston
I learned a long time ago the importance of us flying to our final destination together vs. meeting there and having something go wrong. So I flew out to Tom using my United Airline frequent flyer miles. I only had to pay $6 in taxes.
Boston to Las Vegas
If you can believe it, we managed to find non-stop flights for only $159/person out West. Flying into Vegas is always so so so cheap, which is why we flew into Vegas on this previous West Coast trip as well.
Phoenix to Boston
Coming home, we both departed from Phoenix, with Tom using our JetBlue frequent flyer miles to get back to Massachusetts. We just had to pay for taxes.
Phoenix to Raleigh
I was able to cover most of my flight back home with points from our travel credit cards, leaving just $64 to pay out of pocket.
Accommodations
For 8 nights out West, we paid $258, which works out to $32/night at $16/person/night. We had a mixed bag ranging from camping to luxury hotels. I've broken down our accommodations by state.
Nevada 2 nights
In Nevada, we stayed two nights at Tru by Hilton Las Vegas. It was just a 10 minute drive to the strip, but since it wasn't on the strip, it was extremely affordable at $80/night. We booked this hotel directly though a travel credit card, so our stay in Las Vegas was completely FREE.
The Saguaro Palm Springs
While in Palm Springs, we stayed at the famous Saguaro Hotel. We rarely splurge on nice hotels like this, but found a great deal at $350 for 2 nights since we were there in the off season. We got a free night there through this favorite website and then paid off the second night with travel credit card points.
Joshua Tree Camping $40
As if there aren't enough reasons to love camping, the fact that it's kind on the budget is a bonus. Two nights camping amongst the boulders and incredible night stars in Joshua Tree was totally worth every dollar.
Arizona 2 nights $218
We had plans to tent camp while in Arizona, but the weather had us changing our plans and booking a hotel at the last minute. This was a true bummer to miss out on camping out West AND to have the added unexpected expense of a hotel, but what can you do. Thankfully, we got a decent last minute booking deal at the Hilton Garden Inn Phoenix.
Adventures
It felt like our days were packed doing all the things, but we managed to spend just under $8/day/person on activities. Here's how our excursion costs breakdown by state.
Nevada $30
Our major stop in Nevada was Vegas, which is such a pricey place. We kept things simple with walking the old strip and new strip for free. We toured the Bellagio lobby (also free) and played the slots, but we came out even so nothing spent there. We did visit the Neon Sign Museum, but the student tickets only ran us $30 for two people.
In Califonia, we hiked through two national parks...Death Valley National Park ($30) and Joshua Tree National Park ($30). And while both of these parks do have entrance fees associated with them, we are the proud owners of the America the Beautiful Pass that allows unlimited entry to any national park for a year, so we didn't have any costs associated with our national park visits. Otherwise, I've listed all our California excursions and costs below.
Indian Canyon Hike $14 (student tickets)
Palm Springs Aerial Tram $53
Biking Palm Springs $0 (free rentals through hotel)
Death Valley National Park
Joshua Tree National Park
Arizona $30
With only two days in Arizona, we managed to visit both the Tucson & Phoenix areas.
Saguaro National Park
Desert Botanical Garden Phoenix $30 (student tickets)
Food & Drinks $372
We ate well out West. Quinoa Pancakes. Agave Lattes. Prickly Pear Ice Cream. The food was incredible, but we made sure to budget and keep things under control. Since we spent most days hiking, we normally did just two meals a day with a big breakfast and a large dinner in between our hike. We managed to do food and drinks for just under $21/day per person---not too bad considering every meal was eaten out.
We may have gone a little overboard with buying all the souvenirs and gifts to bring home. Tom and I both got a t-shirt. We of course bought our favorite souvenir-Christmas ornaments for our travel tree.
Then lots of random things too...scorpion lollipops, a poster for our place, a live golden barreled cactus that survived the flight home, and all things prickly pear. This set us back a good $142. A few other odds and ends included firewood ($21) and showers at the bathhouse ($16) while we were camping.
Original Trip Cost = $3,018
What We Paid = $1,549 for 9 days = $86/person/day
We loved every minute of our 2018 West Coast Road Trip that crossed so many items off the bucket list. A true highlight was visiting 3 more national parks, which bumps us up to 20 national parks visited---I think we may actually hit our lifetime goal to visit all 59 national parks together. And this whole adventure was made even better knowing that we managed to do it all on a budget that worked for us. Through travel hacking and conscious planning, we shaved nearly $1500 off our bottom line, meaning that we paid for less than 50% of this trip out of pocket. See more travel itineraries here, plus more travel budgets and tips on travel hacking here.
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