Who hasn’t dreamt of one day going to the Grand Canyon?
This was one of the best trips of my life, and thanks to the “Travel Agent from Hell,” also one of the worst, especially at the start and in the next two years!
The start of the trip was one bit of bad news after another. Two friends from A Coruña, Spain, were to join me in New York City, where I lived, and then fly to Colorado to start a National Parks Tour in the southwest United States.
Unfortunately, my friends’ plane was delayed, meaning we would miss our flight to Colorado and the first day of our tour.
So I called the travel agent, who had arranged the whole trip, to see if we could meet the tour group on the second day. The travel agent said unequivocally that this would not be possible because, given we hadn’t shown up on the first day, our reservations for the tour and hotels were all canceled!!!
WHAT?!
We were in shock. My two jet-lagged friends and I were in my small Manhattan apartment, with no AC, no vacation, and less money in our bank accounts.
A trip we were so looking forward to had just vanished.
I had to do something, looking frantically through the New York Times Travel Section to get ideas. We had just lost a lot of money so I wasn’t sure we could afford a whole new trip. After much looking I saw an interesting advertisement and a couple of days later we were off to the start of quite an adventure!
Our off-the-cuff trip started and ended in Las Vegas, Nevada, the place furthest from the image of what you’d call a natural park. But I had found a great deal that included round-trip airfare from New York to Las Vegas, a few nights’ stay in a hotel in Las Vegas, and a car rental for a week, all for a little over $400! What a deal!! Maybe the fact that it was July 🔥 had something to do with it? LOL!
Because I had extensively studied the areas and parks included in the itinerary of our paid tour, I planned a possible route as many places on the map sounded familiar. However, everything was up in the air. We had no hotel reservations and no fixed plan.
I figured we’d find something, if not we’d sleep in the car! Remember, there was no Internet or GPS in those days; we’re talking 1994.
We got to Las Vegas, super happy, took pictures at the airport by a huge slot machine, left our bags in our floor-to-ceiling flowery hotel room at the Golden Nugget, and hit the Strip!
The next day we would pick up our car and start the drive towards the parks.
Only one of us had a driver’s license; Belén took the driver’s seat and noticed there were only two pedals. It was an automatic car and she had never driven one before.
I had a driver’s permit, which you get when you pass the written exam. I knew the theory and Belén had the driving experience. Luckily, I remembered what P R N D meant and quickly translated this for her. I then told Belen there was no need to worry about the pedals, there are only two, stop and go.
At this point, the three of us burst out laughing. After all the stress, this broke the ice and we knew we were going to have a great time.
Apart from being the interpreter, I was the designated copilot, with the paper maps on my lap, telling Belén where to go next. I had a vague idea of where we could go but much of the trip was improvised. It was tense for me as I had never been here before and every decision I made would affect my friends, too.
My other friend, Ana, like me, was the entertainment. She sat in the back seat and joked throughout the adventure. She was quite funny, spoke zero English, and communicated in Galician with the locals. We laughed so hard at the craziness we were living. We felt like Thelma and Louise Plus One!
We drove along the Grand Circle, through several National Parks like Zion, Bryce, and Natural Bridges, hopped on a ferry in Lake Powell, crossed the Hoover Dam, and drove around a reservation or two. We didn’t know we couldn’t drive through the reservations, so we had to go around them. We ended up doing many more miles than expected. Belén was quite a trooper!! Fabulosa!!
The Grand Canyon was one of these dream stops on our route. But it was quite a challenge to find a hotel in the area. We drove for miles and miles and all the hotels were full. We ended up at an odd place, with a little booth for the Reception Desk.
The room smelled like food and had 2 double beds with stained sheets. We were so happy to find a hotel we didn’t even care but surely laughed about the ordeal once in bed and resting. It was one of the last stops before driving back to Las Vegas.
WOW!!! Amazing places! Amazing colors! I never thought rocks could be so beautiful. It was a memorable trip!
Once back home, I was curious about my Travel Agent from Hell. I saw she had cashed my check, so she kept our money!! I then made a few phone calls and discovered that the whole story she had given us about the cancellations in Colorado was a lie!! I also found she had used this same Modus Operandi on several other people. Unfortunately, we weren’t the only victims.
With the help of a generous lawyer friend who felt terribly sorry for us, we sued her, and two years later we recovered all of our money, the tour bookings for the 3 of us.
Although the start was awful, we agreed that this was one of our all-time favorite trips. We loved it! There were plenty of obstacles but we still truly enjoyed the trip! I HIGHLY recommend visiting this region! Go for it but first make sure you know who you are booking with!!!
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