Day Trips

Day trips from Phoenix offer a way to see Arizona’s biggest sights in a single day, from the Grand Canyon to Sedona’s red rocks and desert canyons. These tours are popular with visitors who want to cover a lot of ground without renting a car or planning a route, and they account for 18% of all tours sold in Phoenix.

With 60 day trips available and none rated below 4 stars, this is the city’s best-reviewed category. Most tours are full-day excursions, with durations ranging from two hours for off-road adventures to 14 hours for Grand Canyon and Antelope Canyon trips.

Phoenix’s day trip selection is both broad and consistent in quality: 60 tours, none rated below 4 stars, and several with thousands of reviews. This is a higher bar than other categories in the city, where lower-rated options are more common.

Prices in this category are steep. The median is $500, far above the citywide median of $156. There are no day trips under $120, and 53 of 60 are priced above $250. Only 7 fall in the $120–$250 range. By comparison, walking tours in Phoenix start at $63 and historical tours at $188, making day trips the premium option.

Most day trips are long, full-day journeys to the Grand Canyon or Sedona, but there are also off-road adventures and air tours. The high price reflects the distances covered, inclusions like admission fees, and small group or private formats.

Most travelers book a day trip from Phoenix to see the Grand Canyon or Sedona without the hassle of driving. The best-reviewed tours, such as the Small-Group or Private Grand Canyon with Sedona Tour, combine major sights with knowledgeable guides and comfortable vehicles. These tours often include hotel pickup, bottled water, and admission fees, but meals and tips are usually extra.

For those seeking a lower price, off-road adventures like the Bulldog Canyon UTV ride offer a much shorter experience (2 hours) for $150, but lack the iconic destinations of the longer trips. The majority of options, however, are full-day tours priced between $174 and $454 per person, with private or air tours reaching $980 or more. A fair price for a classic Grand Canyon or Sedona day trip is $175–$230 per person in a group setting; private or luxury options cost several times more.

What sets the best-rated tours apart is consistency: guides who know the region, comfortable transport, and itineraries that balance sightseeing with time at each stop. Even the most popular tours maintain ratings above 4.7 stars, with thousands of positive reviews. However, the higher price does not always guarantee a better experience—some private tours simply offer exclusivity, not more stops or inclusions.

Disappointments are rare but do occur. On group tours, reviewers sometimes complain about long pickup routes, uncomfortable vans, or rushed schedules. Some mention guides being curt or overly talkative, and a few note that the value for money drops when too much time is spent in transit or on logistics. On off-road tours, a few solo travelers have felt uneasy about the meeting location. Air tours have received critical reviews when group sizes were larger than expected or when the experience did not match what was promised. Still, with no tour rated below 4 stars, serious issues are the exception.