Organized Tours

A number of nationally recognized companies offer tours that include the Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks areas, although they don't necessarily go within the park boundaries. In most cases, all you do is pay and then the outfitters arrange everything, including lodging, meals, and transportation. Offerings range from fairly standard bus tours to luxury adventure vacations where you spend your days hiking or biking and your evenings being pampered with gourmet meals, hot tubs, and first-class hotels. You'll want to contact tour operators as far in advance as possible, since reservations are required and group sizes are limited. The adventure tour operators generally specialize in small groups and have trips for various levels of ability and physical fitness. Trips are offered in a range of price categories, from basic to luxurious, and are of varying lengths.

For a complete list of outfitters in Utah, as well as a lot of other useful information and Web links, contact the Utah Travel Council, P.O. Box 147420, Salt Lake City, UT 84114-7420 (tel. 800/200-1160 or 801/538-1030; www.utah.com).

In addition to the companies listed later in this section, two well-respected national companies that offer tours to southern Utah's national parks are Maupintour (tel. 800/255-4266; www.maupintour.com) and Tauck Tours (tel. 800/788-7885; www.tauck.com). A good online source for a variety of outdoor adventure trips offered by various outfitters is GORPtravel (www.gorptravel.com). Now, here are some of our favorite tour operators:

American Orient Express, 5100 Main St., Suite 300, Downers Grove, IL 60515 (tel. 877/854-3545 [brochure requests], 800/320-4206 [reservations], or 630/663-4550; www.americanorientexpress.com), offers a luxurious excursion throughout the American West that includes stops at Zion National Park, Cedar Breaks National Monument, and other locations in Utah. You'll travel in trains with restored vintage passenger cars outfitted in polished mahogany and brass, and dining cars decked out with china, silver, crystal, and linen, serving cuisine to match the surroundings.

Austin-Lehman Adventures, P.O. Box 81025, Billings, MT 59108-1025 (tel. 800/575-1540 or 406/655-4591; www.austinlehman.com), offers guided multiday mountain biking, hiking, and combination tours in the Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks areas.

Backroads, 801 Cedar St., Berkeley, CA 94710-1800 (tel. 800/462-2848 or 510/527-1555; www.backroads.com), offers a variety of guided multiday road biking, mountain biking, and hiking tours in the areas surrounding southern Utah's national parks.

Bicycle Adventures, P.O. Box 11219, Olympia, WA 98508 (tel. 800/443-6060 or 360/786-0989; www.bicycleadventures.com), offers guided multiday hiking and biking excursions in the Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks areas.

The World Outdoors, 2840 Wilderness Place, Suite F, Boulder, CO 80301 (tel. 800/488-8483 or 303/413-0938; www.theworldoutdoors.org), offers a variety of trips, including multi-sport adventures that include hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, and rafting to the Canyonlands area, plus hiking/biking trips in the vicinities of Bryce Canyon, Zion, and the north rim of the Grand Canyon.