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Salt Lake City surrounded by mountains

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Salt Lake City Local time

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United States of America

Travel to Salt Lake City

Flying to Salt Lake City

Flights to Salt Lake City can be booked with many large major European carriers and most US airlines. There are no direct flights from the UK however to Salt Lake City. Carriers offering indirect services include British Airways, Bmi, KLM, Air France and Air Canada. Cheap flights to Salt Lake City are available in the spring and autumn, outside the peak summer and winter travel periods.

Flight times: 

From London - 11 hours; New York - 4 hours 30 minutes; Los Angeles - 2 hours; Toronto - 5 hours; Sydney - 16 hours 30 minutes.

Travel by road

Summary:

Driving in Salt Lake City is on the right. The legal driving age in Utah is 16 years. Speed limits are generally 55-65mph (88-104kph) on highways and 30mph (48kph) in towns but can vary and the signs should be checked. International Driving Permits are not generally necessary. A full driving licence from another country is adequate, and basic insurance is mandatory. The American Automobile Association (tel: 1 800 541 9902; www.aaa.com) provides further information.

Emergency breakdown service:

AAA tel. 1 800 222 4357 or AAA HELP.

Routes:

Not without good reason is Salt Lake City known as ‘the crossroads of the west’, lying as it does at the intersection between two of America’s major highways. These are: Interstate 15 (I-15), which runs south through Las Vegas to the outskirts of Los Angeles and north through Idaho and Montana to the Canadian border, and Interstate 80 (I-80), which runs east-west between San Francisco and New York.

Locally the I-80 connects downtown Salt Lake City with the airport, and the I-215 takes a loop through the suburbs around the western flank of the city.

Inside the city, traffic flows freely thanks to a simple grid layout. Road names are numbered with a north, south, east, or west designation, with the grid originating at the southeast corner of Temple Square.

Driving times:

From Las Vegas - 6 hours; Denver - 7 hours 30 minutes; San Francisco - 10 hours 30 minutes; Los Angeles - 10 hours; San Diego - 11 hours; Ogden - 40 minutes; Provo - 50 minutes.

Coaches:

The Utah Transit Authority (UTA) operates an extensive bus system in and around Salt Lake City extending out to the entire Wasatch Front. Bus routes are also connected to the stations along the TRAX light rail system, and during the winter, there is also a service from the city to four local ski resorts in the Wasatch Mountains.

Greyhound Buses (www.greyhound.com) can also be taken from the city’s Intermodal Transport Hub. There are several buses per day running east to Denver, west to San Francisco, north to Portland and Seattle, Washington, and south to Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

Travel by rail

Services:

Salt Lake City benefits from good rail services.


Amtrak (tel: 1 800 872 7245; www.amtrak.com) offers rail services to Salt Lake City, arriving at Salt Lake City Intermodal Hub (also known as Central Station).


Operators:

Amtrak provide one service daily in each direction on the California Zephyr Line. This 3,924km (2,438 miles) long route running from Chicago, Illinois in the east to Emeryville, California in the west, while passing through the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains, is one of the most scenic in the US.

The Utah Transit Authority Front-Runner (tel: 1 801 743 3882; www.rideuta.com) commuter rail line also runs from Salt Lake City on a 61km (38 miles) route to Pleasantville, north of Ogden, every half-hour on weekdays and every hour on Saturdays. There is also a connecting service to the airport.

Journey times:

From Reno - 13 hours; Denver - 15 hours; Chicago - 35 hours 20 minutes.

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