Salt Lake City Walking Tour
Temple Square, Pioneer Park and the stories behind them, on foot, in three hours.
3 hours
From
$44 per adult
Operated by Southwest Adventure Tours
Small-group day tours from Salt Lake City.
Stand close to wild bison on Antelope Island. Walk out across the Bonneville Salt Flats. Ride a tram to 11,000 feet. We keep the groups small, pick you up at your hotel door, and get you back the same day. Pick your tour below.
From $44 per adult · 10 of 11 bookable online · hotel pickup included
Small groups
Maximum 14 guests
Hotel pickup
Included from downtown SLC
Local guides
Up to 5 languages
No hidden fees
Taxes and fees in the price
Every day tour we run from Salt Lake City
Prices are per adult and include taxes, fees and hotel pickup. Children’s fares are lower on every scheduled departure.
Salt Lake City Highlights Driving Tour
The whole valley in three hours, with stops at the Capitol and the overlooks.
3 hoursMax 14
From
$59 per adult
Salt Lake City Museum Tour
Three indoor stops, one guide, zero parking stress. The tour built for a weather day.
5.5 hours
From
$89 per adult
Hardware Ranch Elk Refuge Adventure
A horse-drawn sleigh into a herd of several hundred wintering elk.
7.5 hoursMax 14
From
$99 per adult
Park City & Olympic Heritage Excursion
The 2002 Winter Games venues, then free time on a silver-mining Main Street.
8 hoursMax 14
From
$129 per adult
Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island
Wild bison, a 7-mile causeway across the lake, and the oldest ranch house in Utah.
6 hoursMax 14
From
$145 per adult
Salt Lake Antelope Island Dark Sky Experience
A certified International Dark Sky Park, 45 minutes from your hotel lobby.
4.3 hours
From
$145 per adult
Bonneville Salt Flats Adventure
30,000 acres of blinding white salt, and the land-speed records set on it.
6 hoursMax 14
From
$149 per adult
Snowbird Summer Excursion Day Tour
Tram to 11,000 feet, a guided hike back down, day pass and lunch in the price.
6 hours
From
$155 per adult
Private tourBryce Canyon National Park 1-Day Tour from Salt Lake City
Hoodoos at Sunrise Point, a rim picnic, and Cedar Mountain on the way home.
13 hours
From
$1,199 per party of 4
Private tour1 Day Arches National Park Tour from Salt Lake City
Delicate Arch, Park Avenue and the Windows: private, all-inclusive, one long day.
13 hours
From
$1,199 per party of 4
Have limited time? We’ve got you covered.
These run four hours or less, enough to see the city properly and still keep the rest of your day free.
Which Salt Lake City day tour should you actually take?
We know there are many great tours to choose from, so our guides have shared some suggestions to help you decide.
If you have one free day and have never been to Utah: take the Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island tour. Wild bison, a hypersaline inland sea and a causeway across open water, forty-five minutes from your hotel. Nothing else on this list is as unlike anywhere else you’ve been.
If you want the photograph: the Bonneville Salt Flats. Thirty thousand acres of white salt and the fastest place on earth. It is three hours in a vehicle for ninety minutes on the ground, and everyone says it was worth it.
If you have half a day: the Salt Lake City Walking Tour at $44 or the Highlights Driving Tour at $59. Walk for depth on downtown, drive for the whole valley and the views from the Capitol.
If you’re here in winter: the Hardware Ranch Elk Refuge Adventure, a horse-drawn sleigh into a herd of several hundred wintering elk, or the Museum Tour, which is entirely indoors on a day the weather turns.
If you’re traveling with teenagers: the Snowbird Summer Excursion, which takes a tram to 11,000 feet and includes a day pass for the mountain coaster and alpine slide, or Park City and the Olympic venues.
If you only have an evening: the Antelope Island Dark Sky Experience. Four and a half hours, a certified International Dark Sky Park, and the Milky Way with your naked eye.
If you want a national park: Bryce Canyon or Arches, both private, both thirteen-hour days. Read the drive-time detail on each page before you book. They involve seven to eight hours of driving, and if you can stay overnight in southern Utah instead, you should.
The best time of year to visit Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City sits at 4,226 feet in a high desert valley between two mountain ranges, which gives it four distinct seasons and a wider daily temperature swing than most visitors pack for.
Spring (April–May) is arguably the best all-round window. Snow still on the Wasatch, green on Antelope Island, wildflowers, and the bird migration on the Great Salt Lake at full volume. Watch for biting gnats on the island in a two-to-four week band around late May.
Summer (June–August) is hot and very dry, regularly upper 90s in July, but far more bearable than the same temperature in humidity. This is the season for the mountains: Snowbird at 11,000 feet runs fifteen degrees cooler than downtown, and it’s also when the salt flats are dry and walkable.
Autumn (September–October) is the connoisseur's season and the one our guides book their own time off in. Stable weather, thin crowds, gold aspens on the Wasatch Back, and the annual bison roundup on Antelope Island in late October.
Winter (December–March) is ski season, and Salt Lake City is the only major American city with four world-class resorts within an hour. If you aren’t skiing, it’s still the season for Hardware Ranch, for snow on the hoodoos at Bryce, and for the quietest and most photogenic version of Antelope Island. Pack for cold mornings and bring boots with grip; the valley floor sits well below the resorts and the two can be twenty degrees apart on the same day.
How our tours work
Small groups. Every scheduled departure is capped at fourteen guests. That isn’t a boutique affectation. A fourteen-seat vehicle can stop when somebody spots a bighorn on a ridge, and a fifty-seat coach can’t.
Hotel pickup and drop-off from selected downtown Salt Lake City hotels is included in the fare on every vehicle tour, and the Antelope Island tour collects from Layton District hotels as well. Tell us where you’re staying when you book and we’ll confirm you’re on the list.
Prices include everything. Taxes, fees, park entry where it applies, bottled water and your guide are all in the number you see. The only tours where lunch is included are Snowbird, Bryce and Arches; the rest give you free time to buy your own, and each tour page says which.
Local guides, available in up to five languages: English, Spanish, Dutch, German and French, subject to availability. Ask when you book your tour.
Operated by Southwest Adventure Tours, based in Cedar City, Utah, running guided trips across the Colorado Plateau and the Wasatch since 2012.
Salt Lake City day tours: common questions
What is the best day trip from Salt Lake City?
For a first-time visitor, Antelope Island and the Great Salt Lake: a wild bison herd on an island in a hypersaline inland sea, forty-five minutes from downtown, for $145. If you want a landscape nobody photographs anywhere else, the Bonneville Salt Flats at $149. If you’ve only half a day, the three-hour city driving tour at $59 covers the whole valley.
How far in advance should I book a Salt Lake City day tour?
A week is comfortable in most seasons. Book earlier for summer weekends, for the Antelope Island Dark Sky Experience around a new moon, for anything in the week of the late-October bison roundup, and for Hardware Ranch in January and February. Solo travelers are welcome to book; we just can’t run a departure for a single guest, so if nobody else books your date we’ll move you to another departure or refund you.
Do your tours include hotel pickup?
Yes. Every vehicle tour includes pickup and drop-off from selected downtown Salt Lake City hotels, at no extra charge, and the Antelope Island tour also collects from Layton District hotels. The Salt Lake City Walking Tour is the exception, since it’s on foot; for that one you meet your group at the Visit Salt Lake visitor center, at whichever departure time you booked.
How big are the groups?
A maximum of fourteen guests on every scheduled departure. We can’t run one for a single guest, so if you book solo and nobody else takes that date, we’ll move you to another departure or refund you. The Bryce Canyon and Arches tours are private, so you travel with your own party and your own guide at a per-party rate.
Can I do a Utah national park as a day trip from Salt Lake City?
Bryce Canyon and Arches are both possible as private thirteen-hour days, and we run them. Both involve seven to eight hours of driving. If your schedule allows an overnight in southern Utah instead, that’s the better trip, and we’ll say so. These tours exist for visitors whose schedule doesn’t allow it, which is most of them.
How much do your Salt Lake City day tours cost?
Scheduled small-group tours run from $44 to $155 per adult, with a reduced child fare on every one. The Salt Lake City Walking Tour is $44 and the Highlights Driving Tour, which includes hotel pickup and a vehicle, is $59. The private national park days, Bryce Canyon and Arches, are $1,199 for up to four guests, all inclusive.
Are your tours suitable for children?
Most are, and every scheduled tour has a reduced child fare. Children must be accompanied by an adult. The best picks for families are Hardware Ranch, Snowbird and Park City; the hardest are the thirteen-hour private national park days. Each tour page has a straight answer for that specific tour.
Are the tours wheelchair accessible?
No. None of our current vehicles or itineraries are wheelchair accessible. If you have specific mobility requirements, contact us before booking and we’ll go through the individual stops with you. The Salt Lake City driving tour involves the least walking of anything we run.
What happens if the weather is bad?
It depends on the tour. The Antelope Island Dark Sky Experience is explicitly weather-permitting and we’ll contact you rather than drive you out to look at an overcast sky. Snowbird can be affected by lightning and canyon closures, and Hardware Ranch depends on snow. Where a departure can’t run, we rebook or refund. The Salt Lake City Museum Tour is entirely indoors and is our deliberate bad-weather option.
Do you run tours in winter?
Yes, year round. Hardware Ranch runs only in winter, roughly mid-December to early March. Snowbird is summer only. Everything else runs all year, with the itinerary times shifting through the seasons to follow sunset. The Antelope Island tours in particular move substantially.
Not sure which tour fits?
Tell us when you are in town and who is coming. We will tell you which of these is worth your day, and we will say so if the answer is none of them.