Have you been on the AAA Grand Canyon Railway trip? What month did you go, and did you enjoy it?

We are travelling from Los Angeles, and need to decide if we should take the motorhome to the RV park, or do the hotel.

There are lots of choices re: which train service -- we are hoping to get the dome! Will early in December be good?

Thanks!

I took my Mom on the train in June. She LOVED it. Mom's retired and this was the first trip she had been on since her honeymoon so I though we'd do some really nice things. like I said, she loved it. The dome is nice. There is a nice little breakfast buffet served. The views were nice. The trip was entertaining. We took the parlor car back from the canyon. That was very comfortable. For me, the 2 hour train ride got a bit tedious. The entertainment was corny but worked well with most of the passengers. I would have liked to spend more time hiking around the canyon and probably would not have taken the train if it wasn't for mom. For me, it was allot of money however, it was money well spent since that ride was one that my mother got so much enjoyment out of.

If you take the train as a one day trip (I'm not sure what the AAA package is) you will only spend about 3 hrs at the rim before you have to go back. The Grand Canyon Railway does offer overnight packages that you may want to look into.

As far as the motor home/hotel decision. I'd say stay in a hotel. First, the price of gas is outrageous and not likely to go down anytime soon. Secondly, if you book an over night package, you will be paying for a night in the RV park and a night in a hotel.

As for the type of car you ride in, in Dec it is unlikely to be crowded on the train so you should be able to get any type of ticket you wish to purchase.

On a side note, it will be cold in Dec. The rim and Williams are at about 7000 feet. Snow is possible that time of year too. Make sure you check the weather and pack warm clothes.

OH, and PS to TopGun. There is an RV park inside the park gates. It is over by Yavapi Lodge. In fact there are two. One run by the Xanterra (they run all the lodges) with hook-ups and one run by the Park Service with out hook-ups.

No RV park in grand canyon, you can park in william, and take train ( $65) to grand canyon village, leave earlier morning and return late afternoon.

Dec is nice to go( 50 to 60F)