Zion & Las Vegas

Travellers

• Adithya — strict vegan + Jain. No meat, dairy, egg, honey; no onion, garlic, leek, chive, scallion, shallot; no mushroom.
• Vatsala — vegetarian. ~26 weeks pregnant (due 31 Jan 2027). Plantar fasciitis — stability + cushioning, no long standing.
• Leela — 3y10m. Vegetarian. The three of you share one King at the Venetian, ARIA and the Cacti Casa. Zion Lodge is the exception — 2 Queens, because its King rooms are second-floor with no lift.

No allergies. Leela has outgrown dairy and soy as of July 2026.

Flights ✓ Ticketed · conf. GRZOXZ

All three return on DL333, Tue 27 — confirmed 13 Sep. Adithya's ticket was reissued 13 Aug as 0062455525156. Main Extra = fully refundable, not eCredit-only.

Shape of the week

Pace

Never up before 7am — leave later where possible. One major thing a day. Dinner early enough for Leela's bedtime. Restroom stops roughly hourly at named cafés or visitor centres, not every 20 minutes.

The Venetian ✓ Booked

Itinerary

Delta Stays 73508401569624 · booked 29 Jul

Room

Newly Remodeled Luxury Room, 1 King · non-smoking

Times

Check-in 3:00 PM · check-out 11 AM · min. age 21

Paid to Delta

$143.08

At property

$62.36 resort fee

Total

$205.44 (21% off — saved $33.80)

Cancel by

Sun 18 Oct, 11:59pm — free. After that, 100% penalty.

Wynn instead?

✗ checked 15 Aug — no, on the room as well as the price $515 vs $207, with Wynn's resort fee on top — a gap of roughly $365. But the price is the weaker half of the argument. You already have the better room.

VIP Access

$20 beverage credit + $25 casino credit per room, per stay

Why

5.0-star, 9.2/10 from 17,997 reviews, tower renovation complete. Cheapest genuine 5-star of the week.

Address

3355 S Las Vegas Blvd · (888) 283-6423

$150/night card authorisation at check-in. Earns up to 882 miles. Parking is $20/day self-park, not included — budget it on top of the $205.44.

No door between bedroom and living area — the Venetian's layout is a sunken living room with an open bedroom. Accepted deliberately; the alternative at 5-star with a door was $2,449 at the Wynn.

Book the Palazzo instead? No. Its tower is the next phase of the $1.5B renovation, running through late 2026.

🎰👧 Wed 21 + Thu 22 morning — two tracks rebuilt 13 Sep

Every meal is together; otherwise you go separate ways. Nobody takes a rideshare — Adithya's tables and everything for Vatsala & Leela are inside the Venetian.

For Vatsala & Leela

• Gondola verified 13 Sep — indoor canal, 10–13 minutes, seated the whole way. Sun–Thu 10am–11pm. $39 per person (about $34 on select weekdays), and Leela pays full — roughly $68–78 for the two. Thursday at 10am means a short queue and a fresh 3-year-old.
• No street performers any more. The Venetian's street-performer programme ended in December 2023 — the canal and the painted-sky ceiling are still there, the living statues aren't.
• Not this trip: the Bellagio Fountains — F1 grandstands block ground-level views from 15 Sep to 10 Nov.

For Adithya

• Blackjack: check the placard for 3:2, not 6:5. The low-minimum tables are often 6:5, which roughly quadruples the house edge.
• The credits aren't automatic — no status mention at check-in, no credits.

Stop 1 · FeelLove Coffee ✓ Answered in full, 13 Aug

~2 hr of driving in, St. George. The only place on the route that explicitly advertises "vegan and organic breakfast, lunch and dinner" alongside French pastries — rather than a conventional bakery you'd have to interrogate.

Address

558 E Riverside Dr #208, St. George

Phone

(435) 922-1717

Hours

Mon–Fri 6am–7pm · Sat–Sun 7am–4pm — you arrive on a Thursday, so wide open

What to ask when you call: which pastries are actually vegan (butter and egg wash are the usual traps in French baking), whether they have oat milk, and whether anything savoury is allium-free. ✓ Answered in full by Instagram DM on 13 Aug — an itemised list, with the exclusions volunteered. The best written evidence on the trip; screenshot it before you lose signal.

Alternative: Bonrue Bakery, 18 S 200 W · (435) 986-7777 · daily 6am–4pm. Better-known bakery, but it's downtown so it adds 7 more minutes, and vegan availability is unverified — a conventional bakery is a long shot for vegan and Jain.

Stop 2 · Sprouts Farmers Market — the real shop ✓ Verified 3 Aug

This is the one that matters. Two minutes from FeelLove, same side of town. Organic produce, a proper vegan freezer and bulk bins — and unlike a restaurant, everything is labelled, so vegan and allium are things you can simply read rather than negotiate.

Address

1525 S River Rd, Unit 1, St. George

Phone

(435) 301-0739

Hours

Daily 7am–10pm

Buy here

• Breakfasts and lunches for Fri–Sun. The lodge room has a mini-fridge and a shared microwave, no kitchen — buy what's fine cold or reheats well. This removes most of the week's dietary risk in one stop.
• Lunches to carry into the canyon. There's one restaurant up there and the shuttle round trip is 40+ minutes — you can't nip out.
• The vegan treats. Sprouts' freezer and bakery carry clearly-labelled vegan ice cream, cookies and packaged sweets. This is the reliable treat; FeelLove is the nicer experience.
• Canyon breakfasts and Saturday's picnic. Friday dinner is the Red Rock Grill, so this shop is breakfasts for the 23rd–25th, Saturday's Grotto picnic and shelf-stable backups — mini-fridge and shared microwave, no kitchen. Full list under Fri 23.
• A cool bag. Genuinely needed — it carries chilled food the last hour up to the lodge, Friday's dinner, and on Monday night the flight food.

Stop 3 · Hurricane — fuel and top-up ✓ Verified 2 Aug

29 minutes out from Springdale, and the last real town. You don't need fuel on Thursday — the fill is Sunday (below). If anyone needs a restroom before the park, Maverik, 15 N State St (24 hrs) is right on SR-9.

• Lin's Market — 1120 W State St · (435) 635-4477 · Sun 7am–10pm, Mon–Thu 6am–11pm, Fri–Sat 6am–midnight (linsgrocery.com, 29 Sep). Sunday's condo shop — see Sun 25.
• Walmart Supercenter — 180 N 3400 W · (435) 635-6945. Bigger, cheaper, duller.

Entry ✓ NPS, checked 13 Sep

• $35 per private vehicle, valid 1–7 days — covers the whole stay in one payment.
• America the Beautiful annual pass, $80 — worth it only if you'll hit two more federal sites within the year.
• No timed entry or reservation to enter the park. (Angels Landing needs a permit — not relevant here.)
• The shuttle is free.
• Non-US residents aged 16+ now pay a $100 per-person nonresident fee on top — US citizens and residents don't.

Trails that fit this crew ✓ NPS distances

NPS classes Zion Canyon's easy hikes as 0.4–3.5 miles with no more than 100 ft of elevation gain. These three are the ones that work for a 3-year-old on foot and someone who can't do climbs.

Court of the Patriarchs is the best payoff-per-step in the park — about a minute uphill for a full canyon view. Worth doing on any day you're passing stop 4.

Pa'rus is the only stroller-friendly trail in the canyon — and it's also the only one dogs are allowed on. Riverside Walk is the signature easy walk and the one most worth doing.

Not doing: Angels Landing (permit, chains, sheer drops) or The Narrows (river wading, cold in October). Neither is appropriate.

Current park conditions nps.gov, updated 16 Sep — read 29 Sep Nothing on your list is closed. The live closures are the East Rim Trail (partial, after a large rockfall), which also closes Hidden Canyon and leaves Observation Point reachable only from the east side. None of the three was in the plan.

Don’t let Leela put her face in the river. cyanobacteria advisory, live NPS advises against submerging your head in, or drinking, untreated water anywhere in the park because of toxic cyanobacteria. Riverside Walk runs along the water and she will want to paddle — hands and feet are fine, face and mouth are not, and wash hands before the Grotto picnic. Same rule for the filled bottles: park taps only, never the river. (This is also why The Narrows closes above 150 cfs.)

What you're not doing, and why

Zion's two signature hikes are out — not by preference, but because both are categorically unavailable to this group.

• Angels Landing — 5.4 mi, ~1,500 ft, final half-mile on chains along a knife-edge with 1,000+ ft drops either side. Also permit by lottery. Impossible with a toddler; genuinely dangerous at 26 weeks.
• The Narrows — wading the Virgin River. Late-October water is cold enough to need a drysuit, and the riverbed is loose and moving underfoot.

Riverside Walk recovers most of it. It is the paved approach to The Narrows and ends exactly where the river walk begins — same canyon, same thousand-foot walls, same river. You look straight into the mouth of The Narrows. You just don't step in.

Lodge food — menus received 7 Aug ✓ Castle Dome IS open

Sierra at the lodge confirmed by email: "the Castle Dome Cafe will be open during your stay in late October." That's two restaurants up there, not one. She also sent both menus.

Red Rock Grill — the manager's own answer ✓ Confirmed 8 Aug

Heather McBee, Manager of the Red Rock Grill, replied directly — and was unusually straight: "Many of our vegan options at the Grill do contain garlic, onions, or shallots, so your safest option may be to plan on shopping at the natural grocer here in town." That is a kitchen telling you not to lean on it. Believe her.

And then she went further. Asked whether anything hot was possible, she came back with two things ✓ 11 Aug:

• Sautéed vegetables — "I could offer you sauteed veggies for sure."
• The nightly vegetarian pasta, made plain with no sauce — "if you request with your server, can be made plain with no sauce." Note this is the same nightly pasta I had written off after her first reply; she has now offered it herself, unprompted.

No baked potato — they don't carry whole potatoes at all. And ask at the table sautéed means a pan, and a pan usually means garlic before you got there. Worth one sentence to the server about a clean pan, and the same for the pasta water.

Cold options, from her first reply:

• Emerald Pools Power Salad — shaved broccoli and Brussels sprouts, carrots, apples, cabbage, kale, pecans, cranberries. Ask for oil and vinegar in place of the herb vinaigrette — her instruction, not an inference.

correction I had read the menu description and called the citrus-herb vinaigrette clean because no allium was named in it. The kitchen says swap it. That is the whole reason for asking rather than reading.

The Chef's Vegetable Pasta Bowl is off. I had it as the single most promising thing to ask about — a nightly chef's dish being the easiest thing to build allium-free. Heather didn't offer it, and her blanket warning covers it. Don't build an evening on a special she declined to name.

Vatsala and Leela are fine — her words: "your wife and daughter should have no issue ordering from the Red Rock Grill."

Still true from the menu: the Elk Chop carries a wild mushroom demi and the Steak Frites black truffle oil, so mushroom and truffle are live in that kitchen, and the footer warns "cross-contact may occur."

Castle Dome Café — snacks, not dinner

Counter-service. For you it comes down to fresh grapes ($4.30), fresh berries ($4.60), fruit ($2.20), Cafe Green Salad ($6.30) and maybe fries. The Veggie Wrap and Veggie Cup both come with hummus (garlic), and the Black Bean Burger isn't marked vegan. Useful for a quick lunch or to grab fruit; not somewhere to plan a dinner.

and the menu rotates Heather: "Since the menu changes, I am not able to confirm the exact offerings that will be available in October." So even the fruit and salad above are last season's menu, not a promise.

So the two nights work out as

superseded An early answer from the Grill was "one salad, and shop in town", and for a while carrying dinner was the plan. Heather McBee's written reply (8 and 11 Aug) replaced it: Friday dinner is the Red Rock Grill, with Thai Sapa takeaway (to 9:30pm, 12–15 min) as the backup.

What to know before you go up

• Much of the park has no mobile signal. Download maps offline and tell someone your plan. Lodge Wi-Fi is satellite — join "Zion Free WiFi" — and it will be slow.
• Two queens, not a king. It's what was available, and it's the right room anyway: Lodge Suites and King rooms are all second floor with no lift, which at 26 weeks is worth avoiding. The 2-queen Lodge Rooms have no such restriction.
• $30/night incidental hold on a card at check-in.
• No laundry on site — nearest is Zion Park Laundry, downtown Springdale, 7am–10pm daily (per the lodge).
• Dial 0 from the room for porter help with bags. Dial 9 first for any outside number.
• EV charging is by the cabins in the south lot.

🌵 The Cacti Casa, Hurricane ✓ Confirmed 13 Aug

Check in Sun 25, 4:00pm · out Mon 26, 11:00am · 2 adults + 1 child. Jordyn confirmed within the hour: "The Water Park is so fun 🤩 thanks for booking with me! I'll send your check-in details before your arrival." Free cancellation to 20 Oct. Airbnb charges the $304.30 on 12 Oct — still refundable until 20 Oct, 4pm.

Entire condo at Terra Resort · 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1,044 sq ft · $304.30 · Sun 25 Oct, in 4pm — Mon 26 Oct, out 11am · 2 adults + 1 child · host Jordyn will send check-in details before arrival · 5.0 from 22 reviews, Airbnb Guest Favourite, top 1% of homes

This solves the hard part. One night with two bedrooms was the constraint — vacation rentals almost all carry a 2-night minimum, and the Hurricane one-night search returned 13 properties, none of them 2-bed. This one takes a single night and has a King in the second bedroom, a bunk room for Leela, a full kitchen with a side-by-side fridge, and in-unit laundry.

And it is built for a 3-year-old. Terra Resort access comes with the condo: lazy river, waterslide, kiddie pool, sports pool, five-section hot tub, tennis and basketball, plus a heated indoor pool and hot tub — the indoor pools at the connected Coral Springs clubhouse run year-round, so late October doesn't kill it even if the outdoor lazy river is shut. The host stocks toys, books and board games, and 100% of families who stayed rated it 5 stars. The Rush Funplex — bowling, mini golf, go-karts — is two minutes away.

Five things to be aware of before booking:

• The host has been hosting for one month. 22 five-star reviews in that time is a strong start, but it is a brand-new operator and you would be booking ten weeks out.
• ✓ accepted Second floor, stairs, almost certainly no lift. The description says "Located on the 2nd Floor." The accessibility section lists exactly four things — disabled parking, a lit path, a 32-inch doorway, a pool hoist — and neither "step-free entrance" nor "elevator" is among them, though both are standard Airbnb tags. A host who bothered to tag a lit path would have tagged a lift. None of the six reviews Airbnb renders mentions stairs, but people only mention stairs when they are a problem, so that is not reassurance. Not a blocker for one night — you arrive at 4pm and leave in the morning, so it is an overnight bag each and the rest stays in the car. The booking message did not ask. It said only that you were coming and were excited about the water park — so this is still open. Jordyn replies within minutes; one line settles it.
• ✓ RESOLVED 18 Aug The outdoor water park is heated and running in October. Jordyn: "The pools are heated in the outdoor waterpark. I don't advertise that because it can still be pretty chilly in the winter time… Weather is still pretty warm in October, so the pools should be fine."
• Free cancellation until 4:00pm on 20 Oct, non-refundable after. Tighter than your usual rule, though the exposure is $304.30. The page previously said $268 — that was the pre-fee quote; the booking total is $304.30.
• Check-in is after 4pm — and the museum plus lunch does not fill the gap. take the 2pm for +$25 With the groceries and the fuel stop built in (below), you reach the condo about 2:25. Without the 2pm check-in that is ~1.5 hours with nowhere to sit, at 26 weeks, with a toddler due a nap. $25 buys all of it back — recommended; you're deciding by 20 Oct.
• The listing claims "Zion 20 minutes." ✗ corrected 13 Sep The condo is by I-15 exit 16, west of Hurricane itself: Zion Lodge → condo is 57 min, 36.9 miles (Google Maps). Budget an hour.

Against the alternatives: $131 more than the Holiday Inn La Verkin ($173) buys twice the space, a second bedroom, a kitchen and a waterpark. Half the price of a single night at the Springdale townhome (~$556), which is nearer the park — but you are leaving the park that morning, so proximity has stopped paying for itself.

🚗 Sunday's drive, stop by stop Google Maps, 29 Sep

64 minutes of driving in all, longest stretch 31 — no rule triggers. What it needed was a named grocery shop and the trip's one mid-trip fuel fill, both on the way.

Why fuel here: the whole trip is ~390–400 miles. An Explorer's 17.9-gallon tank at a realistic ~24 mpg is ~430 miles, with the low-fuel light near 380 — which would come on on I-15 coming into Vegas on Monday, before Monday night's ARCO. Fill here; ARCO becomes a top-up for the return.

🎰👧 Mon 26 — two tracks rebuilt 13 Sep

Meals together; otherwise separate. Adithya's only outing is Sphere at 2; Vatsala & Leela stay indoors on the tram line.

For Vatsala & Leela

• Bellagio Conservatory verified 13 Sep — free, open 24 hours, indoor and flat. The fall display runs 19 Sep – 7 Nov 2026.
• Skip the Fountains — F1 grandstands block ground-level views 15 Sep – 10 Nov.
• Skip Fall of Atlantis at the Forum Shops — the free show plays in front of the Forum Shops aquarium.
• Monday is Vegas's dark night for shows, so nothing ticketed is being missed.

For Adithya

• Blackjack: insist on 3:2. At ARIA and Bellagio the 3:2 games sit at $25–100 a hand; the $5 and $10 tables are 6:5.
• The tram runs 8am–2am if you'd rather ride to Bellagio than walk it.
• Sphere re-checked 29 Sep — 255 Sands Ave, 9 min from ARIA by car (Google Maps). Mon 26 Oct showtimes confirmed: 2:00, 5:00 and 8:00pm — doors open 45 minutes before, so 1:15 for the 2pm, and late seating is not permitted. On parking, Sphere’s own words: “Limited on-site Sphere parking is available… Parking can also be found at Howard Hughes and other local garages” — it is bought separately and sells out, so buy it with the ticket. They also say to “allow for more travel time due to street closures”; leave ARIA at 1:10, not 1:20. Standard Admission enters via the Venetian Bridge stairway. Solo, because Sphere recommends ages 6+ and tells pregnant guests to check with a doctor. Tickets on Ticketmaster (resale listings ~$90–200). Small bags only (about 6×6×2 in), no outside food or drink.
• Poker PokerAtlas, 16 Sep — ARIA's room is open 24 hours with 24 tables, just off the valet and self-parking entrance · (702) 590-7230 · 21+. Usual games: 1/3 and 2/5 no-limit hold'em, 1/3 and 2/5 PLO, 4/8 limit. Clock in with your MGM Rewards card for comps (listed at $2/hour). Skip the daily $200 hold'em tournament — it starts at 1pm and would run through Sphere and Mint. The PGT Poker Masters series at ARIA ends 22 Oct, before you arrive.

🥡 Pack tomorrow's flight food tonight TSA rules checked 13 Sep

DL333 is 9:59am PT → 6:12pm ET, 5 hr 13 in the air. Nothing airside at LAS is both vegan and allium-free, and there's no time to hunt at 8am — so order extra at Mint and carry it on. It's lunch for all three.

• Order dry dishes for the plane — roti, rice, a dry sabzi. TSA treats dal, curry and gravy as liquids: anything over 3.4 oz gets binned at security. Eat the saucy dishes at dinner.
• Ice packs must be frozen solid at screening. Hotel ice will have melted by morning — tip it out before security and refill the bag from a café airside.

no usable fridge ARIA's Deluxe King has a stocked minibar, not an empty fridge. Keep the cool bag topped up with hotel ice overnight.

🌵 Cacti Casa — reservation facts pulled from Airbnb, 18 Aug

Confirmation

HMCNJMP5SK · hosted by Jordyn · typical reply 50 minutes

Address

206 N Chapparell Drive, Unit N-202, Hurricane, UT 84737
Terra Resort Building N — 2nd floor, as expected map

Directions

Take exit 16 off I-15 North, then the first exit onto Coral Canyon Boulevard, right at the first stop sign

Times

In 4:00pm Sun 25 · out 11:00am Mon 26

Check-in

Keypad, self check-in helps the 2pm ask — no one has to meet you, so early access costs Jordyn nothing if the unit is clean

Wi-Fi

Details appear in the app 48 hours before check-in

Total

$304.30

Cancel by

4:00pm, Tue 20 Oct — free. After that, non-refundable

Occupancy

8 guests maximum · no pets · booked as 2 guests + 1 child

Jordyn already knows the shape of your trip — your booking message said "my wife, toddler and I are planning to stay at your spot on our way back from Zion to Vegas", and she replied enthusiastically about the water park. So the early-check-in ask does not need re-explaining, just asking.

💳 The VIP Access credit — confirmed real from the booking, 18 Aug

Your booking states it plainly: "Your VIP Access benefits at this stay — $30 resort credit per room, per stay." I briefly talked myself out of this after reading the public listing, where the only "$30" is the refundability surcharge. The signed-in booking is the authority and it says otherwise.

What VIP Access gets you at ARIA, in full:

• $30 resort credit per room, per stay — a property credit for on-site spend, posted to the room.
• Room upgrades, early check-in and late check-out — "when available". Discretionary, so ask at the desk rather than assuming; a Monday in a convention week is not the best odds.
• A tier discount of 15%+ on VIP Access properties, but only at Silver tier or higher.

What it actually buys — and two things that could sink it

How these normally work: a property credit is spent on-site by charging to your room, and it comes off the bill at checkout. MGM's own credits are described as covering room charges — dining, spa, entertainment, and in some cases the resort fee, redeemed at an MGM Rewards desk. general MGM guidance, not ARIA-specific terms

But two things bite specifically on a one-night stay, and neither is documented anywhere I can find:

1. Does it cover the resort fee? If yes, that is the perfect use — $30 straight off your $62.36, guaranteed, zero effort, nothing to remember. If no, you have to go and spend it.
2. When does it activate? Some MGM food-and-beverage credits start the calendar day after check-in. On a one-night stay that would leave you only Tuesday morning — and you leave at 7:35am, so it would be all but worthless.

So: ask one question at the front desk when you check in. "I have a $30 resort credit on this booking — can it go against the resort fee, and is it usable tonight?" Thirty seconds, and it settles both. Do it at check-in, not checkout — at 7am on departure day it is too late to change plan.

If you do have to spend it, your window is narrow. You arrive ~4pm, eat at Mint at 5pm off-property, do Bellagio with V&L, then the tables. So the realistic uses are drinks on the casino floor, or something for Vatsala and Leela at an ARIA outlet on the way back from the Conservatory. Tuesday breakfast is not the answer — you will be in the Centurion Lounge by 8:00 anyway.

💰 ARIA rebooked cheaper 8 Sep

Rate dropped, so the booking was cancelled and rebooked. Verified against the new reservation — nothing degraded.

From the fine print: ARIA counts anyone 20 and under as a child, and the room maximum is 3 people total. You are exactly at capacity — no room for a fourth if plans ever shift. Extra-guest fee is $50 per person.

Worth repeating the method: the rate is refundable to 23 Oct, so re-checking it periodically costs nothing and the downside is zero. Book the new rate first, then cancel the old — never the reverse.

Why not the obvious ones

• Park MGM (the 4.0-star tower) — a King Strip View is available on 26 Oct at $211 total, but it is Sleeps 2 and everything else is two queens.
• The Reserve at Park MGM ✗ two corrections, 18 Aug — this is a separate 5-star property (Delta lists it "Property class: 5 and above · Luxury", 9.2 from 804 reviews); it is the NoMad boutique hotel above Park MGM, and I wrongly applied Park MGM's 4.0 rating to it. I then wrongly said the sold-out objection was stale — it is not. On 26 Oct every King is sold out: Atelier, Classic King, Grande Suite and Classic Accessible King, all four. Only two-queen rooms remain — Classic Two Queen $305 and Salon Double $433, plus a $56.69 resort fee. Genuinely lovely otherwise: non-smoking, hardwood, quiet halls, private pool, "loved by families". It fails on the bed, not the hotel.
• Marriott's Grand Chateau — the $258 rate is a studio; the real 1-bedroom villa is $371, and refundable costs $464. Only 3.5-star.
• Jockey Club — $192 and three minutes from Bellagio, but 3.5-star, four different management companies renting individually owned units, and the door could never be confirmed.
• Bonvoy points — every Strip property redeems at 0.42–0.56¢ against a 0.7–0.85¢ baseline. Pay cash.

Full reasoning in BRIEF.md.

Vendor

Avis, LAS Rent-A-Car Center — President's Club

Pick up

Wed 21 Oct, ~3pm, after the shuttle

Drop off

Tue 27 Oct — kept deliberately ✓ decided 13 Aug

Booked

direct with Avis — reservation 23173928US1, Ford Explorer or similar, est. $385.60, pay at pickup

Location

7135 Gilespie St · open 24 hours

Shuttle

T1 doors 10–11 · T3 doors 51–54 · every ~5 min · ~7 min ride

Why the end date stays at the 27th. Shortening it to a 26 Oct return saves about $30. Keeping it buys the right to hand the car back any time on Monday evening — or on Tuesday morning — which is the plan: you drive yourselves to the airport, no rideshare. Thirty dollars for that call is cheap, and it is a call better made on the day than in August.

duplicate — cancel A second rental for the same dates is still live: Costco Travel C497625646 (Avis 22051618US1), $574.06. Keep the direct Avis booking ($188 cheaper); cancel the Costco one at costcotravel.com or 1-877-849-2730 — no fee.

• Never Budget, especially at airports.
• Spouse is a free additional driver in Nevada — not a differentiator between brands.
• Plan a gas stop before the return leg.
• Carrying Leela's own car seat — no rental seat needed.

Outreach log closed 17 Aug — outcomes in the Final picture

Every contact recorded, including the dead ends — so nothing gets chased twice. Nothing is confirmed until the venue says so. Until then the self-catering column is what the trip runs on.

The whole trip, meal by meal updated 29 Sep

✓ confirmed by the venue  ·  ? plan exists, not confirmed  ·  ✗ nothing yet

Both blockers are now answered.

• Mint — the menu does the work, but one call is still worth it. Dishes carry (J) for Jain ("no onions, garlic and/or potatoes") and vegan items are labelled separately. Stronger than anywhere else on the trip — and as of 19 Sep Chana Masala and Vegan Aloo Gobi Masala carry both marks, so the intersection is on the menu. For the two dinners you can sort that at the table. For the flight takeaway you cannot — that meal has no fallback at 35,000 feet. One call: which dishes are both, and will they pack it. (702) 894-9334
• The ARIA room has no usable fridge. confirmed The Deluxe King has a fully stocked minibar with no space for your own food — the same trap Virgin had. Only the higher suites get a separate fridge. Bring the Sprouts cool bag and it stops mattering; hotel ice is free. Worth also asking housekeeping to clear the minibar, which is a routine request. (702) 590-7111

Everything else is covered. Sixteen of the twenty travel meals are self-catered or venue-confirmed. The Zion days rest on Sprouts, a confirmed Red Rock Grill, and a Sol Foods run 14 minutes down-canyon — no single place has to say yes.

🆘 Backups, slot by slot added 19 Sep

One rule from the last three trips: every meal slot needs a named fallback, not a hope. These are all places already vetted on this page.

Zion Lodge — Red Rock Grill ✓ answered 8 & 11 Aug — see Fri 23

Inside the park · 833-778-9290 · frontdesk@zionlodge.com

The highest-value vetting on the trip. Two nights up-canyon with the gate behind you and no way to pop out — five meals ride on this. If they can do an allium-free vegan main, the carried-food load halves.

The draft asks the cuisine-specific question — stock and sauce, not just "no onion" — and asks whether Castle Dome Café is open in late October. It also folds in the gate-code timing question, so it's one email doing two jobs.

Whiptail Grill sent 7 Aug from adithyabanavar@ — no reply

Mexican · 445 Zion Park Blvd · daily 11:30am–9:30pm · (435) 772-0283 · whiptailgrill@yahoo.com

Highest allium risk of the three, so the draft asks about the four places it actually hides in Mexican cooking: the bean base, whether the rice is cooked in sofrito, whether any salsa is allium-free, and whether they can plate something filling without it.

The draft explicitly offers them the honest out — that the family can eat freely while Adithya eats lightly. A clear "no" here is worth more than a vague "we'll try."

🍽️ Final picture — the vetting is done 17 Aug

Every meal on this trip now has a confirmed answer or a named fallback. Two outstanding, both minor.

🎰 Las Vegas

🏜️ Zion and Springdale

What this settles

• Thursday is no longer conditional. Rutba is chef-confirmed, so lunch there plus the canyon takeaway is the plan, not a hope. Same-floor parking also removes the only accessibility question that was open.
• Monday is settled. Mint does Jain and vegan together — dinner at 5:00pm and the flight food in one sitting.
• Springdale narrowed to one. Wild Thyme joins Bit & Spur as a no, so Thai Sapa is the only confirmed Springdale dinner and Red Rock Grill is the in-house backup. That is enough for three nights, but it is thin — which is the one argument for still calling Oscar's.
• Two walk-ins, zero risk. POMA and Park House both refuse to be phoned and both are counter transactions where the worst case is ordering something else.

The pattern worth keeping for next time: the wins came from asking one precise question and reading the answer back — "is the base sweetened", "what is the egg substitute", "can you do Jain and vegan on the same dish". The near-misses came from the ingredient nobody volunteers: Wild Thyme's onion powder, JUST Egg's dehydrated onion, FeelLove's seasoned potatoes. Powders and seasonings are where this diet actually fails, not the obvious dishes.

Park House Cafe Phone only — call

1880 Zion Park Blvd · (435) 772-0100 · hours unresolved — ask first

I had "Mon–Fri, closed weekends" here and I can't stand that up. Their own site publishes no hours at all; Yelp (updated Jul 2026) shows Fri & Sat 8am–10pm with dinner in season, and open Sunday. Those can't both be right, and it changes which day this is. Question one on the call.

The most promising of the three. Their own site says they "specialize in vegetarian & vegan" and that everything is made from scratch daily — a kitchen that cooks from raw is far likelier to leave the allium out than one opening jars.

If the Fri/Sat dinner service is real, Fri 23 opens up as well as Mon 26. Settle the hours, then the allium.

FeelLove Coffee Zion In Springdale itself

1101 Zion Park Blvd, Ste A · daily 6am–8pm · (435) 772-5980 · Instagram @feellovecoffeezion

There's a branch in Springdale, not just the St George one. Same group that advertises "vegan and organic breakfast, lunch and dinner" — so this is the fourth Springdale option, and the only one that says vegan unprompted.

6am opening is the useful part — it's the only place in Springdale open early enough for a proper breakfast before a canyon day. The 8pm close means it works for an early dinner on a lodge night if you come down by 5.

MeMe's Cafe Replied 8 Aug — thin

975 Zion Park Blvd · daily 8am–9pm · (435) 772-0114 · IG @memescafezion

MeMe answered the DM personally, and honestly: "We can make some substitutions, but we have a small kitchen and restaurant so our options limited." No dish named — she pointed at the menu.

So I read it. What vegans actually report eating here: a vegan patty (on a salad, or on lettuce when the bun won't do), a house-made vegan meatloaf with mash and veg, and salads. Buns and fries are not vegan. One reviewer found "only 1 option that could be made vegan by subtraction."

And that is all before allium. A veggie patty and a vegan meatloaf are precisely the two things that carry onion and garlic. Strip those and MeMe's is a salad — the same place we landed with Red Rock Grill. Keep it as the late-hours fallback it always was, not a dinner plan.

Oscar's Cafe New — best vegan menu in town

948 Zion Park Blvd · daily 7am–8pm · (435) 772-3232

This surfaced from a vegan reviewer who left MeMe's and came here instead, and it was not on this page. Mexican and American, and the menu labels vegan items explicitly — salads, enchiladas, burritos and burgers. Named vegan dishes: sweet potato burrito, black bean guac salad, portobello avocado sandwich (and an Impossible burger).

Two catches, both real. The portobello is out on mushroom. And Oscar's Dill Vinaigrette contains honey — it arrives on the side salad that comes with a burrito, so it has to be refused explicitly.

The bigger question is cuisine. Mexican is the hardest kitchen in the world for allium — onion and garlic are in the salsa, the guac, the beans and the enchilada sauce. A labelled-vegan menu solves half the problem and says nothing about the other half. Worth a call precisely because they clearly think about diets. Ask about the sweet potato burrito — whole food, and the most likely thing to survive an onion-and-garlic strip. not the Impossible burger Ultra-processed, and not what you want to be eating on a hiking week.

not yet contacted

FeelLove Coffee ✓ Answered in full, 13 Aug

558 E Riverside Dr, St George · Thu 6am–7pm · (435) 922-1717

Now the most solidly-vetted place on the trip. They replied on Instagram with an itemised list rather than a vague reassurance, and volunteered what you cannot have — the mark of a kitchen that actually understands the question.

For you: avo toast without the everything seasoning, the VLT avo toast same way, the vegan protein bowl, vegan parfait, and a shelf of vegan pastries — coffee cake, carrot cake bite, chocolate chip and matcha white chocolate cookies, donuts, salted tahini bar. For Vatsala and Leela: the vegan breakfast burrito and the vegetarian breakfast croissant.

The one exclusion, in their words: "the potato's have garlic & onion seasoning" — so the breakfast burrito is theirs, not yours.

Originally advertised as "vegan and organic breakfast, lunch and dinner" plus French pastries — the only place on the route that says it unprompted. Ask which pastries are genuinely vegan (butter and egg wash are the traps) and whether they have oat milk.

Mint Indian Bistro — Mon 26 and the flight food ✓ booked 5pm · phone-confirmed 17 Aug

730 E Flamingo Rd, Ste 9 & 10 · (702) 894-9334 · map

Hours — corrected ✗ the page said 3pm–midnight

Open 7 days including holidays, but service is split, not continuous:

Lunch buffet

11:00am – 2:45pm — a buffet, so useless to you: cross-contamination and no Jain+vegan guarantee

Dinner

5:00pm – 10:45pm — this is your window

Closed between

2:45pm – 5:00pm

So Monday's dinner cannot start before 5:00pm. That happens to be exactly the time you want — early enough to get Leela down before the 7:00 alarm — but it is a floor, not a preference. Arrive at 5:00 sharp and order the flight takeaway at the same sitting.

And go to the right one. There is a second Mint at 4246 S Durango Dr which is 25 minutes west and comes up first in search. Flamingo is the 10-minute one.

Does the menu answer the question? ✓ yes now — re-read 19 Sep

Mint publishes both axes and never crosses them. The legend is real and it is good:

• (J) = Jain — "Jain preparations do not include onions, garlic and/or potatoes"
• Vegan — "All our vegan preparations use dairy substitutes such as organic soy products or almond milk"

Two dishes now carry both marks current menu, read 19 Sep 2026 — so this is no longer the Rutba problem:

• Chana Masala — V, VN, G, J, H
• Vegan Aloo Gobi Masala — V, VN, G, J
• Vegan but not marked Jain: Dal Tadka (the tadka is the problem — ask for it Jain-style), Vegan Tandoori Roti, Jeera Rice, Plain Rice, Vegan Veggie Biryani, Vegan Masala Dosa, Vegan Vegetable Samosa.

Their legend: "Jain preparations do not include onions, garlic, and/or potatoes" · "Vegan preparations use dairy substitutes such as organic soy products or almond milk, without ghee or eggs." The "and/or" is loose, so still say it at the table: no onion, no garlic, no mushroom.

Where Mint is genuinely better than Rutba, though: that vegan legend proves the kitchen already stocks dairy substitutes — soy products, almond milk — as standing practice. So converting a (J) dish to vegan is a swap they have the ingredients for (ghee → oil, cream → soy or almond), not a special favour. Rutba answered the same question by phone on 17 Aug (ghee-free roti, dal, chana masala), so both kitchens are covered.

The call is one question: "Can you make a (J) Jain dish using your vegan substitutes — no ghee, no cream, no paneer, no yogurt?" Same question you are asking Rutba. Ask both, take whichever answers better.

The overlap — an older reading superseded 19 Sep

Don't order from this table. It was read off an older menu and is wrong: on the current dinner menu (re-read 19 and 29 Sep) only Chana Masala and Vegan Aloo Gobi Masala carry both marks, and Dal Tadka is vegan but not Jain. Kept for the prices only:

On the current menu the full meal is chana masala or aloo gobi, jeera rice and Vegan Tandoori Roti ($3.99).

Vegan alone is not enough here. The menu also lists a "Vegan Onion Chili Lemon Salad" — vegan, and obviously not for you. And the Mango Cauliflower Masala is explicitly "cooked in an onion & fennel seed base." Trust the (J), not the word vegan.

You can keep the potatoes. Their Jain prep drops root vegetables, which is stricter than you need — say so and aloo comes back.

Vatsala and Leela eat freely — full paneer menu, naan, lassi bar.

settled 17 Aug Covered by the phone call — see the outreach log. Still say vegan + Jain together when you order, and that the flight portion is takeaway, dry.

Crossroads Kitchen Called 14 Aug — pasta and bread only

Resorts World, 3000 S Las Vegas Blvd · 7 min / 1.3 mi from the Venetian · Wed 4–10pm, dinner from 5 (Resorts World, 29 Sep)

The only upscale fully-vegan restaurant on the Strip, from chef Tal Ronnen. 100% plant-based, which means vegan is solved and only allium needs checking — the profile we want.

Two real risks. It's Mediterranean, a cuisine built on garlic. And the signature dish is a Truffle Mushroom pizza — mushroom and truffle are both out for you. Worth a call precisely because the upside is high: a proper dinner out where the whole menu is already vegan.

Best used on the 21st, when you're at the Venetian and have no takeaway requirement.

The Modern Vegan ✗ dropped 17 Aug — kept for the record

700 E Naples Dr · daily 10am–10pm · 100% plant-based

American diner food done entirely plant-based — burgers, comfort classics. Voted best vegan restaurant in Vegas. The most 3-year-old-proof option on the list, and a kitchen doing diner food from scratch can usually plate something plain.

Allium unverified. The useful question is whether a burger and fries can come without seasoned sauce or spiced patty.

Chef Kenny's Status confused — verify before going

The original Asian Vegan on Spring Mountain Rd reads CLOSED on Yelp, while Chef Kenny's Vegan Dim Sum, 5570 W Flamingo Rd appears to be trading. Vegan dim sum is a lovely idea, but it's further west and Chinese cooking is allium-heavy. Confirm it exists before driving.

Backups if Mint disappoints

• Rutba Indian Kitchen — advertises “Jain & Vegan Options” on its own site, but names no dishes there; the dal / chana masala / ghee-free roti came from the chef by phone (17 Aug).
• Taste of Gujarat — Gujarati thali, a cuisine that is frequently allium-free by tradition.
• Truth & Tonic — reversed 16 Aug it is Thursday's confirmed breakfast, the 4th-floor Canyon Ranch café, direct line (702) 414-3633. Eataly at Park MGM (702) 730-7777 is unresolved (their line has a one-way-audio fault). Rutba (702) 202-1444 is the live lead.

✗ Ruled out

Cafe Soleil, Springdale — permanently closed. It still appears in current vegan guides to Zion. Don't plan around it, and don't re-check it.

• Sprouts, St George, 22 Oct — the one real shop. Organic, properly labelled, so vegan and allium are things you read rather than negotiate. Breakfasts and lunches for the canyon days, and the cool bag.
• The Cacti Casa, Sun 25 — the one full kitchen of the trip. Cook dinner and pack Monday's lunch.
• Zion Lodge — mini-fridge and a shared microwave, for three nights. Nothing is cooked beforehand any more: it is Sprouts on the drive in, Red Rock Grill for hot food, and a Sol Foods run down-canyon if you need one. Favour food that's fine cold — the microwave will have a queue at 7pm.
• ARIA, Vegas — no kitchen; sensor minibar. The Mint takeaway has to hold ~19 hours (5pm Mon to Tuesday lunch), so ask at check-in for a fridge as a medical request (pregnancy); the cool bag and hotel ice are the fallback.
• Venetian, Vegas — no kitchen at all.

Screenshot this table before the drive — much of the canyon has no signal.

Every night has a bed 3 loose ends

Flights, the Venetian, three nights at Zion Lodge, the Cacti Casa, ARIA and the car are all booked — plus the tram. The trip is 21–27 October, six nights.

Lodging is fully booked — nothing left to do. ARIA stays; the Vdara swap was rejected on 14 Aug at $401 with no door on the studio. ARIA remains refundable to 23 Oct if anything changes.

Every held price is still the best price price watch, 29 Sep

The automated watch has re-priced all four re-bookable items since the 19th. Nothing has come down — stop looking.

The watch could not re-price ARIA or the Cacti Casa (both already past their best rate and inside free cancellation anyway). It also confirms no booking on this trip has changed or been cancelled since the 19th.

1. Zion Lodge deposits ✓ confirmed 13 Sep

All three nights are secured. Free cancellation ends 15, 16 and 17 Oct.

2. Gate code ✓ Answered by the lodge, 7 Aug

Code 54143 works at any hour of the day, in and out. So on Thursday you drive straight up to the lodge whenever you arrive, and you can leave and come back across all three nights — down to Springdale and back up is fine. The one hard limit is unchanged: you may not drive beyond Zion Lodge on the Scenic Drive, or stop at other pullouts.

The red rearview parking card changed used to be posted about two weeks out. Recent guests report it is now issued at the front desk on arrival, and the lodge's current policies page says nothing about mailing it — so don't chase it; ask at check-in. The gate code is what gets you in.

3. Rental car — keep it until Tuesday morning ✗ reversed 15 Aug

The old plan returned it Monday on the way in from Zion. That was self-contradictory: it returned the car and then had you drive ten minutes to Mint for dinner. It also stranded you without a car seat — Leela is 3y10m and legally needs one in Nevada and Utah, and every taxi leg after the return would have been illegal or grounded.

Keep the car through Monday night. Self-park at ARIA, drive to Mint at 5:00pm, back by 6:30. Then Tuesday: up 7:00, out of ARIA ~7:35, car back ~7:50, Terminal 1 ~8:15 — 1 hr 45 before departure, and no taxi legs.

The car is booked to 27 Oct already, so nothing needs changing on Avis 23173928US1 — this is just a decision about when you drop it. Budget ARIA self-parking for the night. And bring your own car seat: Delta checks them free, it works in the rental and in any taxi, and renting one from Avis recreates the problem.

4. The Delta Stays credit ✓ All posted, 7 Aug

The $200 annual Amex Delta Reserve credit applies to prepaid Delta Stays bookings. Both hotels qualify:

• Venetian — $143.08 prepaid 29 Jul. Amex confirmed a credit was earned on 1 Aug.
• Signature — $379.23 prepaid 2 Aug, cancelled 11 Aug. watch the refund Confirm the reversal posts, and that the credit it consumed is released for the $224.04 Virgin charge.

Both credits have posted. Nothing further to watch.

5. Verify before relying on them

• Vatsala & Leela on DL333, Tue 27 — ✓ confirmed 13 Sep.

Cleared 7 Aug: the Vegas → Springdale drive and the Hurricane grocery stop are verified (2 Aug). The Signature fridge note is now moot — that booking was cancelled on 11 Aug for Virgin, which has no fridge at all.

6. Vet the Springdale restaurants for allium

Three places are open and vegan-friendly, none is allium-confirmed. Call and ask about the sauce base and the stock:

• MeMe's Cafe (435) 772-0114 — daily 8am–9pm. Replied: limited, no dish named. Salad at best.
• Oscar's Cafe (435) 772-3232 — daily 7am–8pm. New, and the best labelled vegan menu in town. Mexican, so allium is the whole question.
• Whiptail Grill (435) 772-0283 — daily 11:30am–9:30pm; Mexican, so ask about the salsa specifically
• Park House Cafe (435) 772-0100 hours unresolved — listings disagree voicemail only, so it is a walk-in; Monday you are in Vegas, so Friday or not at all
• FeelLove Coffee, St. George (435) 922-1717 — the drive-day treat stop. Ask which pastries are genuinely vegan, and about oat milk.

Record every answer here, including the no-answers, so nothing gets re-vetted.

7. Shuttle season boundary ✓ confirmed 13 Sep

NPS's 2026 schedule (updated 1 Jul) confirms the step-down: through 24 Oct the last shuttle up is 6:00pm and the last bus down 7:15pm; from 25 Oct, 5:00pm and 6:15pm. Park info: (435) 772-3256.

Retired — and now actually off ✓ trigger deleted 19 Aug

It caught three separate in-park cancellations between 5 and 12 August and turned them into 153522 (22 Oct), 152956 (23 Oct) and 153027 (24 Oct) — three consecutive nights inside Zion, which is not something you can simply book eleven weeks out. That was the entire point of building it.

Why it is off now. The trip reshaped around what it won: the Springdale Vrbo is cancelled, the flight home moved to 27 Oct, and the 25th and 26th are Hurricane and Las Vegas. A lodge room on either would cost money rather than save it, so there is nothing left worth watching for.

✅ Switched off 19 Aug. It had still been running — the project's last modification was 12 Aug, so the retirement edit never reached the account, and the trigger was still firing every five minutes (last run caught at 22:35:51 on the 19th, polling the 25th and 26th, both long since filled). The trigger is deleted; the project shows 0.

Also checked account-wide: your Apps Script triggers now number five — School tour automation, Restaurant agent, and three for the Vatsala to-do reminder. Nothing Zion-related fires any more. The editor still holds the pre-retirement code, which no longer matters with no trigger attached; the corrected file lives at ~/Claude/zion-lodge-alerts/Code.gs.

Kept, not deleted. Source stays at ~/Claude/zion-lodge-alerts/. The next trip that needs a cancellation watcher should start from this rather than from scratch — the two things it taught (poll /availability/live, never page on a 429) cost real time to learn.