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Salt Lake City is the capital of Utah, the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and a great base for outdoor recreation. Although we only spent a day downtown, we spent five days in the Salt Lake City area and used it as a base for several short day trips.
Driving in Salt Lake City
We got into Salt Lake City by car. Driving in the city is easy as it’s organized on a grid system, and we easily found parking, but rush hour traffic was pretty bad. We spent more time on the roads than we were hoping. We didn’t use the public transportation so I can’t say anything about it.
Getting There
Salt Lake City International Airport is a hub for Delta Airlines. If flying, you can connect to the city via bus or light rail. There’s also an Amtrak service stopping in Salt Lake City on the route between San Francisco and Chicago and a Greyhound bus service.
Airbnb in West Jordan
We stayed in the suburb of West Jordan in an Airbnb and beat any hotel we could have chosen. Our host was from Colombia and had an entire finished basement with three bedrooms, a huge living room, and kitchen available for our use. There was a private entrance through the back. Several stores and restaurants were nearby, but we took advantage of the kitchen and cooked all of our breakfasts and dinners there, and packed our lunches for the day trips. West Jordan is a short drive from downtown Salt Lake City.
Sports
If you’re a sports lover, Salt Lake City has a couple of professional teams. The Utah Jazz play NBA basketball at the Vivint Smart Home Arena and Real Salt Lake plays MLS soccer at Rio Tinto Stadium in the suburb of Sandy. For college sports, the Utah Utes play several different men’s and women’s sports in the Pac 12 Conference. The main venues are Rice-Eccles Stadium for football and the Jon M. Huntsman Center for basketball. The campus is in the eastern part of the city.
Shopping
For shopping, there’s City Creek Center. It’s across the street from Temple Square and has several different shops and restaurants to choose from. The mall is closed on Sundays.
