Zion & Las Vegas · Oct 21

At a Glance

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; every room below is booked on that basis.

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

Flights ✓ Ticketed · conf. GRZOXZ

Date	Flight	Route	Fare
Wed 21 Oct	DL807	JFK 11:25am → LAS 2:08pm	Main Extra (T)
Wed 28 Oct	DL333	LAS 9:59am → JFK 6:12pm	Main Extra (V)

All three on one PNR. Ticket 0062452822303, issued 1 Aug 2026. Main Extra = fully refundable, not eCredit-only.

Shape of the week

Nights	Where	Booked
Wed 21	Las Vegas — The Venetian	✓ Booked
Thu 22 – Mon 26	Springdale, Utah — VRBO townhome	✓ Booked
Tue 27	Las Vegas — Signature at MGM Grand	✓ Booked

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.

Wed 21 OctLas Vegas · night 1

Arrival

2:08pm — land at LAS on DL807.
Collect bags, then the free Rent-A-Car Center shuttle. T1 doors 10–11, T3 doors 51–54, every ~5 min, ~7 min ride. There is no in-terminal rental at LAS — the shuttle is unavoidable.
Avis at the Rent-A-Car Center, 7135 Gilespie St · open 24 hours. President's Club — skip the counter, go to the stalls.
At the hotel by ~4pm.

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.
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.

Evening: family night, everyone together. The solo casino evening is Tue 27, not tonight — you drive to Zion in the morning.

Thu 22 OctVegas → Springdale

The drive ✓ Verified 3 Aug

Routing	Driving	Miles	vs direct
Straight through, no stops	2 hr 33	162	—
FeelLove + Sprouts + Hurricane ← the plan	2 hr 49	167	+16 min
Swapping FeelLove for Bonrue Bakery (downtown)	2 hr 56	170	+23 min

Google Maps, live traffic. Three stops cost sixteen minutes of driving — everything is essentially on I-15. Add ~70 min actually stopped and it's about 4 hours door to door.

Leave after 7am at the earliest, ideally later. Breakfast at the Venetian first.
Utah is Mountain Time — you lose an hour at the state line. Leave Vegas 9:00am Pacific → Springdale ~2:05pm Mountain with all three stops.
Check-in is 3:00 PM, so even the full version lands with time to spare. Don't rush.

Stop 1 · FeelLove Coffee — the treat Call to confirm vegan items

~1 hr 50 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. Nothing here is confirmed yet.

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

Five days of breakfasts and lunches. The townhome has a full kitchen and 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.

Frozen items sit ~50 minutes to Springdale from here. Fine in late October, but take a cool bag if you're buying ice cream.

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

29 minutes out from Springdale, and the last real town. With Sprouts done, this is mostly a gas stop — fill here, it's the last cheap fuel before the park.

Lin's Market — 1120 W State St · (435) 635-4477 · Mon–Thu 6am–11pm. Anything Sprouts didn't have.
Walmart Supercenter — 180 N 3400 W · (435) 635-6945. Bigger, cheaper, duller.

Springdale Townhome 1 ✓ Booked

Booking: Vrbo HA-82L7C8 · property 743959 · hosts Matt & Trista
Arrive: Thu 22 Oct, 3:00 PM
Depart: Tue 27 Oct, 10:00 AM
Total: $3,078.56 — $1,921.72 paid 2 Aug, $1,156.84 auto-charges 7 Oct
Refund: 100% to 8 Oct 11:59pm · 50% to 15 Oct · nothing after
Why this one: 2.5 baths rather than 1 — the deciding factor at 26 weeks. Full kitchen.

The street address is not released until three days before arrival — Vrbo sends check-in instructions then. Add it here when it lands; several things below depend on it.

Evening: unpack, cook, early night. Nothing scheduled — you've done a flight day and a drive day back to back, and the clocks moved.

Zion — how the park works

The shuttle ✓ NPS, checked 2 Aug

During shuttle season you cannot drive the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive. Everything up-canyon is reached by the free shuttle. No ticket, permit or reservation — just turn up.

Your dates	First	Last
Thu 22 – Sat 24 Oct	7:00 am	6:00 pm
Sun 25 – Tue 27 Oct	7:00 am	5:00 pm

The last shuttle moves an hour earlier on 25 October, mid-stay. Easy to get caught out on the Sunday. Season boundary dates are the currently published ones — re-check in October

Stops, in order

1 Visitor Center · 2 Human History Museum · 3 Canyon Junction · 4 Court of the Patriarchs · 5 Zion Lodge · 6 The Grotto · 7 Weeping Rock · 8 Big Bend · 9 Temple of Sinawava

Getting to the shuttle from Springdale

A separate free Springdale town shuttle runs 9 stops through the village. Get off at Zion Canyon Village and walk across the Pedestrian Entrance footbridge into the park — that's where the canyon shuttle starts. Saves fighting for a visitor-centre parking space, which fills early.

Entry ✓ NPS, checked 2 Aug

$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.

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.

Trail	Distance	Gain	Time	From	Surface
Pa'rus Trail	3.5 mi end-to-end	50 ft	~2 hr	Visitor Center ↔ Canyon Junction	Paved · wheelchair, stroller, bikes, dogs
Riverside Walk	2 mi round trip	57 ft	~1 hr	Stop 9 · Temple of Sinawava	Mostly paved
Lower Emerald Pool	1.2 mi round trip	69 ft	~1 hr	Stop 5 · Zion Lodge	Unpaved, gentle
Court of the Patriarchs	0.1 mi round trip	40 ft	1–3 min	Stop 4	Paved, 4 ft wide, steep — strollers need a push

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.

The one road you can drive ✓ Verified 3 Aug

The shuttle-only rule covers the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive — the canyon floor. It does not cover the Zion–Mount Carmel Highway (Route 9), which climbs the east side. That road is open to private vehicles year round.

From Canyon Junction it's ~4.5 miles of switchbacks up to the 1930s tunnel, then completely different country on the far side — slickrock domes and checkerboard sandstone rather than canyon walls.
Serious scenery for zero walking. The best move for an afternoon when Leela is done, or if the weather turns.
Tunnel limits: 11′4″ high, 7′10″ wide, 35′9″ long. Any normal SUV clears it easily; oversized vehicles need a permit and an escort.

Canyon Overlook Trail sits just past the tunnel — and I'd skip it. It's only 1 mile and ~200 ft, but the overlook is largely unfenced above drops of several hundred feet and there have been fatal falls. Every guide says carry small children the whole way. Wrong trade with a 3-year-old who wants to walk. Parking is also only 8–10 spaces.

Late October means cold mornings and early dark. Sunset is early enough that a 5:00pm last shuttle is a real constraint on the Sunday and Monday. Layers, and plan to be down-canyon by mid-afternoon.

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.

Fri 23 OctZion · day 1Plan proposed — verify

Pa'rus Trail + get oriented

Slow start. Drive or take the town shuttle to the Pedestrian Entrance.
Pay the $35 vehicle entry — covers all five days.
Pa'rus Trail — paved, flat, 50 ft of gain, right at the visitor centre. Do as much or as little as you like and turn round; it's out-and-back. Leela can walk it, and a stroller works.
Visitor centre: get the current shuttle times and ranger advice on anything closed.
Back for lunch at the townhome from the Hurricane shop.

Deliberately the easiest day — first full day, everyone still adjusting to the altitude and the hour change.

Sat 24 OctZion · day 2Plan proposed — verify

Riverside Walk — the big one

Shuttle all the way up to stop 9, Temple of Sinawava — about 40 min end to end, and the ride itself is the scenery.
Riverside Walk: 2 miles round trip, 57 ft of gain, ~1 hour at an adult pace — budget 2 hours with a 3-year-old. Follows the Virgin River between 1,000-ft walls.
It ends where The Narrows begins. Stop there — that's the turnaround.
Ride back down, get off at stop 5, Zion Lodge if anyone wants a break before the last leg.

Go up early-ish — the shuttle queue at the visitor centre is worst mid-morning. Last shuttle today is 6:00pm.

Sun 25 OctZion · day 3Last shuttle 5:00pm

Lower Emerald Pool

The last shuttle drops to 5:00pm today. Be heading down-canyon by 3:30pm at the latest.
Shuttle to stop 5, Zion Lodge. Trailhead is directly across from the lodge.
Lower Emerald Pool: 1.2 miles round trip, 69 ft of gain, ~1 hour. Ends at a small waterfall you walk behind.
Do not continue to Middle or Upper — those climb properly and get exposed.
Lunch at the lodge, or carry it. Then down.

Half day by design — the third day is when a 3-year-old runs out of patience for hiking.

Mon 26 OctZion · day 4Deliberately open

Flex day

Left unplanned on purpose. By day four you'll know what worked. The two strongest options first:

🚗 Drive the Zion–Mount Carmel Highway. No shuttle, no walking, no queue — you just drive it. Switchbacks, the 1930s tunnel, and slickrock country on the far side that looks nothing like the canyon floor. The single best thing you can do on a day when Leela has run out of hiking. Turn round whenever you like.
🏔 Court of the Patriarchs (shuttle stop 4) — 0.1 mile and about a minute uphill for a full canyon view. Paved but steep. The highest payoff-per-step in the park, and easy to bolt onto anything else.

Then, in order of how gentle they are:

Do the favourite again. With a toddler, repeating a hit beats forcing a new thing.
Zion Human History Museum (shuttle stop 2) — indoors, short, and there's a park film. Good if it's cold or wet.
The rest of Pa'rus — whatever stretch you didn't do on Friday, on wheels this time.
Springdale itself — the village is walkable and flat, and it's the one day to browse it rather than drive through.
A genuine rest day at the townhome. You drive back to Vegas tomorrow and fly home the day after.

Last shuttle 5:00pm. Also: pack tonight — checkout is 10:00am sharp.

Tue 27 OctSpringdale → Las Vegas · night 2

Drive back ✓ Verified 2 Aug

Checkout is 10:00 AM Mountain — a hard time, not a suggestion. Pack the night before.
2 hr 33, 162 miles back down I-15. Leave 10:00am Mountain → Vegas ~11:35am Pacific (the hour comes back).
Fill the tank in Hurricane on the way out, 29 min in. It's the last cheap fuel and you're returning the car.
Check-in at the Signature is 3:00 PM, so you'll arrive well before. Leave bags at the desk and eat.

The Signature at MGM Grand ✓ Booked

Itinerary: Delta Stays 73512107767292
Room: Deluxe Balcony Suite · 1 King + queen sofa bed · 550 sq ft · non-smoking · sleeps 4, crib permitted
Times: Check-in 3:00 PM · check-out 11 AM · min. age 21
Paid to Delta: $379.23
At property: $56.69 resort fee
Total: $435.92
Cancel by: Sat 24 Oct, 12:01am — free. After that, 100% penalty.
Address: 145 E Harmon Ave · (702) 797-6000

Complimentary valet parking and EV charging — no parking cost.
Smoke-free, non-gaming tower, built 2006. Quiet floor for Leela.
Marble bath: separate tub and shower, oversized whirlpool tub, double vanities.
Stovetop, microwave, dish supplies. No fridge listed — ask at check-in.
$100/day card authorisation at check-in, released after checkout.
Earns up to 1,338 SkyMiles.

Solo evening

No rideshare. MGM Grand's casino is a 7-minute walk Delta's figure, unverified
Park MGM — the Strip's only fully smoke-free casino and its only smoke-free craps table ($15, 3-4-5x odds). Reachable on foot; verify the route before relying on it.
No show booked — the evening is gambling only.

Blackjack: insist on 3:2. A low minimum almost always signals 6:5, which triples the house edge (~1.9% vs ~0.5%).

Wed 28 OctHome

DL333 · LAS 9:59am → JFK 6:12pm. At the airport by ~8:00am.
Checkout is 11 AM but the flight is earlier, so it doesn't bind.
Open: whether the car goes back on the 27th (with a solo round-trip Uber) or is kept overnight and dropped at LAS this morning. See open questions.
Build a lounge plan — Delta Sky Club, Priority Pass via CSR (2 members + 4 guests), Centurion, Capital One.

Lodging

Night	Property	Room	All-in	Cancel by
Wed 21	The Venetian 5.0★ · 9.2/10	Luxury Room, 1 King	$205.44 +$20 parking	18 Oct
Thu 22 – Mon 26	Springdale Townhome 1 Vrbo HA-82L7C8	2.5 baths, full kitchen in 3pm · out 10am	$3,078.56 $1,156.84 due 7 Oct	100% to 8 Oct 50% to 15 Oct
Tue 27	Signature at MGM Grand 4.5★ · 9.0/10	Deluxe Balcony Suite, King + sofa	$435.92	24 Oct

Why not the obvious ones

Park MGM / The Reserve — every King sold out on 27 Oct, and the Kings are Sleeps 2 regardless.
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.

Car & driving

Vendor: Avis, LAS Rent-A-Car Center — President's Club
Pick up: Wed 21 Oct, ~3pm, after the shuttle
Drop off: Tue 27 Oct under review — see open questions
Location: 7135 Gilespie St · open 24 hours
Shuttle: T1 doors 10–11 · T3 doors 51–54 · every ~5 min · ~7 min ride

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.

Food

The rule. Adithya is strict vegan and Jain: no meat, dairy, egg or honey, and no onion, garlic, leek, chive, scallion or shallot, and no mushroom. Vatsala and Leela are ordinary vegetarians. Never pick a place on cuisine alone — vet vegan, allium and open-on-the-day separately, and prefer fully plant-based kitchens so only allium needs confirming.

To call before the trip

Truth & Tonic — (702) 414-3600 Allium not yet confirmed
Eataly (Park MGM) — (702) 730-7777 Allium not yet confirmed

Ask the question the cuisine demands: for Italian it's the sauce base and the stock; for a juice bar it's the savoury blends and dressings.

Springdale — candidates, none vetted yet Call before you rely on any

These appear in current vegan guides and are open. Not one has been checked for allium, so treat every row as a lead, not a plan. Ask specifically about the sauce base and the stock — that's where onion and garlic hide.

Place	Address	Hours	Phone
MeMe's Cafe Crêpes; breakfast all day	975 Zion Park Blvd	Daily 8am–9pm	(435) 772-0114
Whiptail Grill Mexican; allium risk is high in salsa	445 Zion Park Blvd	Daily 11:30am–9:30pm	(435) 772-0283
Park House Cafe Vegetarian-leaning, vegan options	1880 Zion Park Blvd	Mon–Fri 8am–2pm closed Sat & Sun	(435) 772-0100

Park House is shut on your Saturday and Sunday — only Fri 23 and Mon 26 work.

Cafe Soleil is permanently closed — it still appears in several vegan guides for Zion. Don't plan around it.

Self-catering — the actual strategy

Springdale has three viable restaurants and none is allium-confirmed. The kitchen is the plan; restaurants are the bonus.

Springdale townhome — full kitchen. Buy five days of breakfasts and lunches at Sprouts in St. George on the way in (see Thu 22) — organic, properly labelled, and far better stocked than anything closer to the park.
Pack lunches into the canyon. There is one restaurant up there (Zion Lodge) and you can't easily leave and come back — the shuttle round trip is 40+ minutes.
Signature — stovetop, microwave, no fridge listed.
Venetian — no kitchen.

📍 Addresses & numbers

Place	Address	Phone
The Venetian	3355 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas NV 89109	(888) 283-6423
Signature at MGM Grand	145 E Harmon Ave, Las Vegas NV 89109	(702) 797-6000
LAS Rent-A-Car Center	7135 Gilespie St, Las Vegas NV 89119	—
Springdale Townhome 1	Address released 3 days before arrival — Vrbo HA-82L7C8	via Vrbo app
FeelLove Coffee (drive stop 1)	558 E Riverside Dr #208, St. George UT	(435) 922-1717
Sprouts Farmers Market (drive stop 2 — the shop)	1525 S River Rd Unit 1, St. George UT 84790	(435) 301-0739
Lin's Market (drive stop 3 — top-up)	1120 W State St, Hurricane UT 84737	(435) 635-4477
Zion Visitor Center	Zion Canyon Visitor Center, Springdale UT	(435) 772-3256
MeMe's Cafe	975 Zion Park Blvd, Springdale UT	(435) 772-0114
Whiptail Grill	445 Zion Park Blvd, Springdale UT	(435) 772-0283
Zion Lodge (reservations)	Inside Zion National Park	833-778-9290
Park MGM	3770 S Las Vegas Blvd	(702) 730-7777
Delta Stays support	Itinerary 73512107767292	(866) 202-1813

Springdale townhome address to be added from the VRBO confirmation.

Dated deadlines

Date	What	Consequence
Thu 6 Aug	Delta Stays 4X miles promotion ends	Both hotels booked before it — nothing outstanding
Wed 7 Oct	Vrbo balance $1,156.84 auto-charges	Card on file is billed automatically
Thu 8 Oct, 11:59pm	Springdale 100% refund deadline	Needed if a Zion Lodge night opens up
Thu 15 Oct, 11:59pm	Springdale drops to 50% refund	After: nothing back
Sun 18 Oct, 11:59pm	Venetian free cancellation	After: 100% penalty on $205.44
Sat 24 Oct, 12:01am	Signature free cancellation	After: 100% penalty on $435.92
48 hrs before each stay	Reconfirm + re-flag the diet	—

Open questions

1. Rental car end date

Current plan drops the car at LAS on Tue 27 Oct — a solo run out to Gilespie St and an Uber back — then Ubers to the airport on the 28th. But the Signature includes valet parking. Keeping the car overnight and dropping it at LAS on the way to DL333 removes both Uber legs. Re-price Avis for the extra day before changing anything.

2. The Delta Stays credit

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, against the ~$57 remaining.

Credits post 6–8 weeks after the charge. Confirm both land on the statement.

3. Verify before relying on them

Signature → MGM Grand casino walking route (Delta says 7 min; not independently checked)
Signature → Park MGM on foot, for the smoke-free craps table
Vegas → Springdale drive time and the Hurricane grocery stop
Whether the Signature suite has a refrigerator

4. 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
Whiptail Grill (435) 772-0283 — daily 11:30am–9:30pm; Mexican, so ask about the salsa specifically
Park House Cafe (435) 772-0100 — Mon–Fri only, so Fri 23 or Mon 26
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.

5. Add the townhome address

Vrbo releases it three days before arrival (~19 Oct). Add it to the addresses table and re-check the drive time against the real address rather than "Springdale, UT".

6. Re-check the shuttle season boundary

The 25 October step-down from a 6:00pm to a 5:00pm last shuttle comes from the currently published schedule. NPS confirms 2026 dates closer to the season — re-check in early October, because Sunday and Monday's plans depend on it. Park info: (435) 772-3256.