Salt Lake City to Arches National Park (Pre Trip Report)
Please check out my Delta SkyMiles Award Flight vs. Pay with Miles comparison post. In this post, I will show you some of my planning. If you have any suggestions for things to see/do or places to eat along the way, please leave a comment below. I am always curious what others have done before. You can only learn so much from Trip Advisor.
Anyways, the plan is to fly into Salt Lake City, Utah and drive the 235 miles to Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. See map below for the exact map.
Since Moab has a really tiny airport, they do not have many rental car companies. Actually they just have one – Enterprise. I have never rented from Enterprise before, I have always used Hertz when given the choice since they are really “under-25 friendly” for us young drivers. If I went directly to Enterprise’s website, I would have gotten a price of $221.95 for the 3 day weekend.
Alternatively, I used Daraius’s advice from his Rental Car Series (link) to go through the USAA shopping portal. USAA has a better relationship to Enterprise than I do, so they get special members-only perks and lower rates. I was able to get a rate of $180.10 through the USAA shopping portal, saving me $41.85 on my weekend rental. The biggest savings comes from no underage drive fee.
The USAA shopping portal has relationships with all major rental car companies, so I always go through them when I need to book a rental car.
Off topic, but I took a Hertz survey after my last car rental, so they sent me a promo code for discounts on weekend or weekly car rentals. Just use PC# 172196 to receive your discount.
Ok, back on topic. One of the things I realized about these “road trip vacations” across the country is that there are a lot of Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels across the country. And I mean A LOT! I was able to get a pretty good deal at a Holiday Inn in Price, Utah, located about half way from Salt Lake City and Moab. I have around 80,000 IHG Rewards Club Points from the IHG Rewards credit card (details). I could have chosen any of the below point levels, but the 5,000 IHG Rewards Club Points + $70 seemed like the best deal with the highest cent per point (CPP) value. Plus, I make my brother pay the cash portion since he is “cash rich and points poor.”
For the second night, we are staying at the Holiday Inn Express Moab. This place seems kind of pricey, but I decided to go with the 25,000 IHG Rewards Club Points + $70 option, even though it isn’t the best deal. I still make my brother pay the $70 cash portion.
As for activities, I really want to go on the Max Zipline course, located outside Provo, Utah. This looks like a lot of fun, so I’m sure we will end up doing this.
Also, the Alpine Coaster located in Park City, Utah, looks awesome. Check out the YouTube video below.
If you have any suggestions for places to see, things to do, or restaurants to eat at, please let me know. Have a great weekend!
Hey Grant, for USAA portal, is it open to public? Can you explain it a little bit? TIA!
It is open to the public, check out the link to the MMS post for more information.
Thanks!
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Thank you for the interesting article! I only use Miles and More and succeeded to get a discount on my hotel reservation at http://www.reservationcounter.com/ but I have no idea if I can use it somewhere in Australia. I’m going to Sidney, Melbourne and Salt Lake City in June and I have a lot of miles to spend, but I’m left with the impression that Miles and More is more like an European program and I won’t have a lot of opportunities to use my miles down there.
Lufthansa’s Miles and More program is best for flights, especially Star Alliance flights. You won’t get very good value using the points for hotels.