Where to stay for the Grand Canyon, Route 66 and northern Arizona: areas compared

Tusayan is a short strip of hotels, restaurants, petrol stations and a general store on AZ-64, just south of the park's South Entrance; the National Park Service puts the entrance 6 miles (10 km) north of the town. There is little to do in Tusayan itself: it exists to serve the park. Its value is time. From here you can be at Mather Point for sunrise or stay on the rim until dark without a long drive in the dark afterwards.

Prices follow the park's seasons and are usually the highest of any gateway town, with October and the summer months the dearest. Inside the park, the lodges of Grand Canyon Village, among them El Tovar, Kachina, Maswik and Yavapai, are closer still, and book up well ahead. Note that the free Tusayan shuttle into the park is not running as of October 2026; the park says it returns in summer 2027, so plan on driving in.

Williams is a small town on Route 66 and Interstate 40, about 60 miles (97 km) and an hour's drive south of the South Rim via AZ-64. Its compact centre runs along the old highway, with diners, souvenir shops and neon signs, and the Grand Canyon Railway depot is close to the centre. The train leaves every morning, gives you more than three hours at the rim and brings you back in the late afternoon, so you can see the canyon without driving or parking.

Williams has the widest range of prices of the three canyon bases, from older motels and chain hotels to forest cabins outside town, and it is generally cheaper than Tusayan. It gets busy in late November and December, when the Polar Express Christmas trains run in the evenings and fill much of the town. Williams also works as a stop on a Route 66 drive, between Seligman and Flagstaff.

Flagstaff is the largest town in northern Arizona, at about 7,000 ft (2,130 m) in ponderosa pine forest, and the only base here that feels like a real town rather than a stop on the road. Its historic downtown sits on the original Route 66, with the visitor centre in the old railway station. Lowell Observatory, where Pluto was discovered, is on a hill above the centre, and Flagstaff was the world's first International Dark Sky City. Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater and Wupatki are short drives away.

The South Rim is about 79 miles (127 km) away, roughly an hour and a half via US-180; the National Park Service also gives 90 minutes. That makes the canyon a day trip, not a sunrise outing. In exchange you get the widest choice of restaurants and hotels in the region, from chains along the interstate to restored Route 66 motor lodges, and Flagstaff is also the natural base for heading on east to Winslow and the Petrified Forest.

West of Williams, the old road leaves the interstate near Crookton Road and runs about 120 miles (193 km) through Seligman, Peach Springs and Hackberry to Kingman and on to Topock on the Colorado River, the longest surviving original stretch of Route 66. Seligman, a village of a few hundred people, calls itself the birthplace of Historic Route 66: after I-40 bypassed it in 1978, local shop owners led by the barber Angel Delgadillo founded the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona in 1987. It has a handful of small independent motels.

Kingman is a much larger town with chain hotels, the Arizona Route 66 Museum in the old Powerhouse (its exhibits were renovated in November 2025) and the road over Sitgreaves Pass to Oatman to the west. It is about 2 hours 45 minutes from the South Rim, so it is a stop on the way rather than a canyon base, but it is the closest town in this guide to Grand Canyon West and the Skywalk, about 1.5 hours away.

East of Flagstaff, the high desert opens out and Route 66 runs alongside I-40 through Winslow and Holbrook. Winslow, about 60 miles (97 km) east of Flagstaff, is known for Standin' on the Corner Park, the corner from the Eagles song, and for La Posada, a 1929 hotel designed by Mary Colter for the Fred Harvey Company. Meteor Crater is about 20 minutes to the west. Holbrook, further east, is home to the Wigwam Motel, with its concrete teepees, and lies 19 miles (31 km) from the southern entrance of Petrified Forest National Park.

This is the area for travellers who want the Petrified Forest and the roadside architecture of Route 66 rather than the Grand Canyon itself. The South Rim is a long way off: roughly two to two and a half hours from Winslow and about three and a half hours from Holbrook, by our own estimate from the distances. Plan to sleep here on a road trip, not to commute to the canyon.

Sedona sits among red sandstone buttes at the bottom of Oak Creek Canyon, roughly 30 miles (about 50 km) and an hour south of Flagstaff on SR-89A. The town has its own resorts and hotels, a main street of shops, galleries and restaurants in Uptown, and trailheads for Cathedral Rock, Soldier Pass and Bell Rock within a short drive. The Village of Oak Creek, a few miles south on SR-179 between Sedona and I-17, is a quieter place to stay beside Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte, and it is closer to the interstate. Many trailheads need a Red Rock Pass ($5 a day as of October 2026) or an America the Beautiful pass, and the free Sedona Shuttle to the busiest trailheads runs Thursday to Sunday. See our Sedona day trip for passes, the shuttle and what to see.

As a Grand Canyon base, Sedona is far: Visit Sedona gives 114 miles (184 km) and about two hours to the South Rim via Flagstaff, so the canyon becomes a long day out. It suits travellers who want a few days of hiking and treat the canyon as one part of the trip, or who drive up from Phoenix, about two hours away, on the Sedona route. The 2026 Pocket Fire closed Oak Creek Canyon for part of the summer; most trails reopened on 17 September, but the West Fork area is still closed as of October 2026.

Cameron is a small settlement on US-89 where AZ-64 turns west to the park's East Entrance, 25 miles (40 km) away. The Cameron Trading Post, beside the 1911 suspension bridge over the Little Colorado River, has a motel, a restaurant and a gift shop, and it is the usual stop for fuel on the way to Page or Monument Valley. From Cameron it is roughly 50 miles (80 km) to Grand Canyon Village by our own sum, entering by Desert View and driving the 23 miles (37 km) of Desert View Drive past the eastern viewpoints; see our guide to the South Rim viewpoints. Tuba City, further north-east on US-160, is about 1 hour 40 minutes from the Grand Canyon and has the Moenkopi dinosaur tracks just south of town.

Both are on the Navajo Nation, which uses daylight saving time, so from 8 March to 1 November 2026 they are an hour ahead of the Grand Canyon. Tuba City adds a twist: US-160 is the boundary with the Hopi village of Moenkopi, which stays on standard time all year, and the Moenkopi Legacy Inn across the road from Tuba City is on the Hopi side. This area makes sense as a single night on a loop to Page or Monument Valley, not as a base for several days at the rim.

Page is a small town on the shore of Lake Powell, near the Utah border, about 130 miles (210 km) and roughly two and a half hours from Grand Canyon Village via Desert View and Cameron. It is the base for three sights close to town: Horseshoe Bend, about 5 miles (8 km) south, where the City of Page charges $10 per car to park; Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon, just east of town on Navajo land, which can only be seen on a guided tour; and the lake itself, in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, which charges $30 per vehicle for seven days. All fees are as of October 2026; our guide to Page, Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend has the details.

The town has a compact choice of chain hotels and motels, and Lake Powell Resort stands by Wahweap Marina inside the recreation area. In summer, book the room at the same time as the Antelope Canyon tour. Page itself runs on Arizona time, but the Navajo Nation around it uses daylight saving time, so check which clock your tour is on. Monument Valley is about 125 miles (201 km) away, roughly 2 hours 15 minutes, and the lake's low water levels mean boat trips depend on current conditions.

Monument Valley is a Navajo Tribal Park on the Arizona–Utah line, about 181 miles (291 km) and 3 hours 20 minutes from Grand Canyon Village. It charges its own entry, $10 per person per day plus $15 per vehicle as of October 2026, and does not accept national park passes. There are three places to sleep nearby. The View is the only hotel inside the park, with rooms facing the Mittens, and Goulding's Lodge is about 2 miles (3 km) west on the Utah side. Kayenta, about 30 miles (48 km) south on US-163, has the most hotels in the area. Mexican Hat, a village on the San Juan River in Utah about 20 miles (32 km) north of the valley, has a handful of small motels, a petrol station and no chain hotels.

The reason to stay here is the light: the buttes look their best early and late, and sunrise and sunset tours with Navajo guides start from the valley. A day trip from the South Rim means about seven hours of driving and misses both. The valley and Kayenta follow Navajo Nation time and Mexican Hat follows Utah time; both use daylight saving, so from March to early November all three are an hour ahead of the Grand Canyon and Page. Our guide to Monument Valley from the Grand Canyon covers the Valley Drive, tours and the loop with Page.