My parents flew over from the UK last month to join me, Shae and Truffles on our road trip for the month.
Their main request was to see the Grand Canyon, but we decided to build an itinerary that took in a lot more than that. We wanted to show them around some places we’d already visited and loved on the road trip, while also experiencing some places that would be new to all of us.
They flew from London to Phoenix as that meant they could fly direct and would be a good starting point for our route that would take us from Arizona to New Mexico to Utah and back to Arizona.
The map above shows our entire route over the course of the month, but in this post I wanted to share what we did during their first 1.5 weeks with us. This post is more of a roundup rather than a deep dive of the different things we did because much of what we did with my parents during those first 1.5 weeks was stuff we’ve covered on the blog before. We’ll have much more in-depth posts about the places we visited in Utah because a) all that was new to us and b) they were all awesome!
Day 1
My parents arrived in the evening and, having spent so long on the plane flight, we didn’t want to make them have a long car journey the next day.
We therefore all stayed at the Holiday Inn & Suites Phoenix Airport North for a couple of nights. Shae and I had stayed there a couple of times last year and really liked the property, particularly because every suite had a separate living room and bedroom.
Another reason we liked the hotel is because it had a nice outdoor pool and courtyard that I knew my mom would enjoy. The only downside to the hotel in the past was the service, but it was much-improved this time around. Here’s the full review I wrote last year.
Truffles was pleased to see her British grandparents too, especially seeing as it meant she got a new toy.
Day 2
I had to work the day after my parents got in, so while I did that my parents relaxed by – and in – the pool at the hotel.
After I’d finished work, we all went up to Dobbin’s Lookout at sunset which looks out over Phoenix.
For dinner we introduced them to Chipotle. My parents are much better about portion control than we are, so their burrito bowls weren’t as loaded as they could (and should 😉 ) be.
Day 3
We were due to check out of our hotel on their third day, but we managed to get a slightly late checkout of 1pm. I had to work again that morning, so while I did that Shae kindly took my parents to the Pioneer Arizona Living History Museum.
The Pioneer Arizona Living History Museum is pet-friendly, so Truffles got to join them rather than having to hang out back at the hotel with me.
Once they got back from the museum, it was time to check out. Our destination was Albuquerque, NM, but it’s an almost 7 hour drive from Phoenix to Albuquerque and there was somewhere we wanted to visit along the way.
As a result, we decided to stop overnight along the way to split up the drive. We therefore booked a one night stay at the Baymont Holbrook, AZ as it was a reasonable price, had no pet fee and had decent enough reviews. It ended up being a good choice for the night; there was a surprisingly nice shower and it put us nice and close for an attraction on the way to Albuquerque the next day, although the internet was extremely slow.
Day 4
Holbrook is very close to Petrified Forest National Park, so after checking out of our hotel we drove half hour east on I-40 to the first of many National Parks we’d take our parents to during their visit.
As we mentioned after visiting it last year, Petrified Forest National Park is a great place to visit if you’ll be driving along I-40 because the history of how the trees turned from wood to minerals is fascinating, but I wouldn’t necessarily make it a destination in its own right.
After driving through Petrified Forest National Park, we continued on our way to Albuquerque. We booked a week-long stay at the Hyatt Place Albuquerque Uptown which we stayed at last year because it was only 5,000 World of Hyatt points per night.
After getting settled in, we all went out for dinner at California Pizza Kitchen which was just across the road from the hotel. I’d never eaten at California Pizza Kitchen before and was pleasantly surprised by how flavorful my pizza was seeing as it’s a large chain. Their Thai chicken pizza sounded good, but I ended up going for their Jamaican jerk chicken pizza which was delicious.
Day 5
We took it easy during the day the next day, running a few errands like going to the pet store to get food for Truffles, but where she also got another new toy (she’s not at all spoiled 😉 ).
That evening we took my parents up on the Sandia Peak Tramway.
After having a drink from Ten 3 Restaurant at the top of Sandia Peak, we walked along a path to the cliff edge to watch the sun set in the distance.
Shae caught a really nice photo of my parents as they tried to keep warm while watching the sun go down.
Day 6
My parents and I got a fairly early start the next day as we drove up to Los Alamos to visit Bandelier National Monument. We knew it would be a very long day and the day’s activities weren’t pet-friendly, so Shae stayed back at the hotel with Truffles which meant she could get caught up on some stuff.
Bandelier was home to Ancestral Puebloans more than half a millennia ago and you can go inside some of their cliff dwellings built into the volcanic tuff. Check out this post from when Shae and I visited Bandelier last year for more about that.
After visiting the main Bandelier site, I took my parents to Tsankawi Prehistoric Sites which is an outlier site of Bandelier. Tsankawi has more cliff dwellings and Ancestral Puebloan history – see more about it here.
The trail around Tsankawi Prehistoric Sites requires you to be somewhat nimble, so I was pleased to see that my parents didn’t really struggle with it considering a couple of hikes we had planned later in the trip.
Day 7
It’s a bit of a drive from Albuquerque up to Los Alamos (about 1.5 hours), so the following day we stayed in Albuquerque. We all visited the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center which we’d had recommended to us in the past, but hadn’t had an opportunity to visit until now.
The center had some interesting exhibits containing artifacts and other history of the Puebloan people, as well as a temporary exhibit displaying skateboard art.
We then got to watch the Cultural Dance Program which was performed by young people from one of the nearby pueblos.
After visiting the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, we drove a short distance up the road to visit D.H. Lescombes Winery & Bistro. We’d visited the main D.H. Lescombes Winery while in Deming last year, then visited D.H. Lescombes Winery & Bistro in Albuquerque a couple of times after that.
Their wine is very good and their food is delicious too, so we had an early dinner and drinks there. I got their Southwest Meatloaf which contains wagyu beef, pork, mango-chipotle glaze, shoestring onions and hatch green chile and is served with Yukon gold mash and vegetable medley. It was spicier than I was expecting, but that wasn’t a bad thing and it was very tasty.
Their wine was as good as usual too!
Day 8
The exploring continued a little further afield the next day as we headed up towards Santa Fe. Our first stop was Pecos National Historical Park which is another Ancestral Puebloan site, but where Spanish settlers also set up Mission churches.
Pecos is somewhere else we’d visited last year (read more about it here) and found interesting which is why we wanted to return with my parents. Another benefit of Pecos is that it’s pet-friendly, so Truffles was able to join us for a day out.
After Pecos, we made a quick stop in Santa Fe, but it wasn’t as great an experience as we were hoping to give to my parents as the plaza was being worked on and visiting on a Monday meant there weren’t as many vendors.
We made up for it by having dinner at Sopaipilla Factory and introducing my parents to sopaipillas in all varieties – stuffed with meat, savory, with honey drizzled on them and stuffed with ice cream. As you might expect, we were all as stuffed as sopaipillas by the end of the meal!
Day 9
This was another of my days writing for Frequent Miler, so I needed to stay back at the hotel to work. After several days on the go, my parents were ready for a day off, so we all ended up staying at the hotel that day. Truffles got busy though trying to destroy the new toy my parents had brought with them, pulling out as much stuffing as she could.
Day 10
Our final day in Albuquerque was another work day for me. My parents stayed at the hotel too, with my dad joining me to watch Liverpool play Benfica in the Champions League.
Shae wanted to visit somewhere for her virtual field trip classes, so she headed to the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History.
Day 11
After a week in Albuquerque, it was time to move on to our next destination – Monticello, UT. The drive was due to be more than five hours, so we decided to make a couple of stops along the way to split up the drive and make it more enjoyable.
Our first stop was Wines of the San Juan near Bloomfield, NM. We’d visited there when in Farmington, NM last fall and enjoyed their wine and the vibe of the winery, so it seemed like a great spot to stop and have some lunch while also getting to do some wine tasting.
After the wine tasting, the fastest route to Monticello would’ve been to drive via Cortez, CO. We decided to take a less direct route though that took about 30 minutes more. That was so that we could take my parents to Four Corners Monument to enable them to stand in four states – Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah – all at once. We took a few quick photos of them doing that, then had someone else take a photo of us all together there.
Those two stops made it a long moving day, so we were all grateful to finally arrive at our Airbnb in Monticello, UT about 90 minutes after leaving Four Corners Monument.
It was a spacious two bedroom trailer, but that doesn’t do it justice. It was very nicely renovated, had comfortable beds, was well-equipped (including a washer and dryer) and was very good value. Hotels in Moab (about an hour away) were closer to $300 per night, but this Airbnb with everything we needed was less than $120 per night. It meant having a longer drive to get to Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park, but it was hard to argue with saving about $200 per night.
We’ll be sharing more about those two National Parks in upcoming posts, as well as Dead Horse Point State Park, so stay tuned for those.