It's BACK! Daylight Saving Time ended the first week of November, upsetting the apple cart for Las Vegas visitors embarking on tours to the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

Here's an example of a tour that went off the rails a couple days ago.

I had three reader/clients from Australia. They had a rental car and were determined to drive to Grad Canyon West.

Typically, I advise taking a tour out of Las Vegas. It's cheaper, safer and comes with a ton less stress.

(What I mean by stress is that the majority of folks who self-drive think the benefit of doing so is the stop at Hoover Dam. It's not. I've gone on record as saying don't stack the Dam on top of a trip to the Canyon. It's too much. Make Hoover a separate trip. Or, like a bus tour, pull over on the Arizona side for a photo stop. You'll thank me later on this one.).

Anyhow, these intrepid souls decide to drive and drive they did. But I get ahead of myself.

Prior to their departure, I get an "urgent" email from one of tour travel partners telling me to update the trio that the tour they booked for 3 p.m. is actually departing at 2 p.m.

What?

Yup, Daylight Saving Time reared its ugly head.

Here are the details...

Daylight Saving Time (DST) starts at 2 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday of November (sounds like we still live in the Age of Enlightenment!).

Or, put another way, once DST goes into effect, we are no longer on Standard Time. And once it ends, we are back to Standard Time.

Cut and dry, right?

Not really. See, Arizona doesn't do DST. It remains in Mountain Standard Time (MST) and doesn't change when the rest of the rational states in its zone do. In addition to AZ, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa also buck DST. That's how odd the whole thing is.

Oh, and let me add this little fact: the Navajo Nation in northeastern AZ does do DST! As many of you know, the Hualapai Tribe in AZ own Grand Canyon West, and yet they don't do DST. Might behoove them to reconsider because the majority of their guests/business comes from Las Vegas

So here we are with three Aussies en route to the Skywalk, completely oblivious about MST, DST, and Indian tribes.

Fortunately, I'm able to contact the lead dog on his "U.S. phone" (folks, if you are an international guest and you use one of these "local" number phones, set up your voice mail. Nine out ten times there's no way to reach you and leave a message). I tell him that he has to speed up his trip to the West Rim by an hour because his departure time is now an hour earlier.

"No problem, Mate," he says.

I relax. Another traveler saved. But I spoke too soon. He calls me back asking or directions to the Skywalk from Peach Springs, AZ. Ugh? Peach Springs is way south of the Skywalk. How in tarnation did he get there? I emailed him specific directions the night before and now here he was on some dusty, isolated reservation road.

Apparently, he punched in Skywalk coordinates and let the GPS do the rest of the work. Folks, forget the GPS when it comes to getting to the Skywalk. There are specific instructions on how to get there. In fact, it's quite easy and boils down to just three simple directions. And yet here we were.

In the end, it didn't matter. He was so far away. Plus the time zone issue didn't help. Fortunately, I have great relationships with my vendors and was able to get his flight changed to the next day at no charge (if you fail to update or cancel in 24 hours most vendors will NOT refund your money.).

Thus the Australians did indeed get airborne. I even got a text telling me how awesome the experience was. That pleased me because I put a lot of work into making this happen for these guys. They came all the way from Down Under and they deserved to see the canyon. Daylight Saving Time be damned!

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Travel on!

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