utah – MLE Travel Diary https://mletraveldiary.com A travel blog by Marissa Ellsworth. Thu, 17 Jul 2025 17:49:30 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 https://i0.wp.com/mletraveldiary.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/cropped-IMG_0759.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 utah – MLE Travel Diary https://mletraveldiary.com 32 32 214466929 How To Spend 24 Hours in Salt Lake City https://mletraveldiary.com/destinations/how-i-spent-24-hours-in-salt-lake-city/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-i-spent-24-hours-in-salt-lake-city Thu, 16 Feb 2023 15:00:00 +0000 https://mletraveldiary.com/?p=2486 In January 2022, my sister and I booked a spontaneous 24 hour trip to Salt Lake City, Utah. When I say spontaneous, I literally mean on Tuesday...

<p>The post How To Spend 24 Hours in Salt Lake City first appeared on MLE Travel Diary.</p>

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In January 2022, my sister and I booked a spontaneous 24 hour trip to Salt Lake City, Utah. When I say spontaneous, I literally mean on Tuesday (4 days before leaving) I found roundtrip flights for $150, an Airbnb for $70, and a rental car for $30. And obviously couldn’t pass up the opportunity. It was SO fun. I highly recommend going if you have never been, and in general booking a last minute weekend getaway. 

Keep reading to see how we maximized our time there!

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Morning

As soon as we landed at 8am, we hopped in our rental car and drove downtown to grab some breakfast at Bruges Belgian Bistro. Can I even call it “breakfast” haha! As you can clearly see from the photo, we got a S’mores waffle. I promise the waffle is hidden under all the marshmallows and chocolate syrup. WOW. This is a MUST – these waffles were to die for, and the sugar high was the perfect start to our day.


After the mini food coma from our waffles, we headed into the city center. The downtown area is really cute – there are a lot of outdoor shops, as well as a mall. We walked around, did a bit of shopping and checked out the sights!  We saw Temple Square, the Utah State Capitol building, and City Creek Center.

Afternoon

Then, we drove about an hour to get to the Ice Castles!! I had seen these on instagram and have been wanting to go for so long. I was so excited to finally make it happen. These are seriously so cool, and if you haven’t had them on your bucket list already, definitely add them. They also have locations in New York, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin!

We spent about 1.5 hours here, walking around, checking out the different caves, and just admiring all the icicles. We also went down the ice slide hehe and took a ton of cool photos!! There were a lot of people when we went in the afternoon, so I would recommend getting an early reservation to be one of the first in the castles. You can also go at nighttime, when the ice is all lit up in bright colors.

We then drove North to check out Olympic Park and Park City, UT!

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I must admit, I messed up and originally routed us to a PLAYGROUND also called Olympic Park. Hahaha we were crying laughing at the mishap! However was a good reminder to always double check your location and directions.

At the (real) Olympic Park, you can see where they hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics. They have a really nice donation-based museum that we walked through, which gave us the entire history of the Park and the Olympics. In the summer, they also have a zip line which would be super cool if you visit at that time of year.

Evening

Finally, we drove into Park City, Utah and WOW. It was just so stunning to see at sunset. I would definitely love to come back here for longer, and actually spend a full day skiing and get a hotel overnight. We got here around 5pm, and the bars and restaurants were packed with skiers & snowboarders just coming off the slopes and hanging out. It was so fun!

At this point we were pretty hungry, so were looking for a place to eat but a lot of the restaurants and bars were actually so packed. Luckily, we were able to find a spot to sit at the Spur Bar & Grill, where we grabbed some dinner, before the crowds moved over for the live music!

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We hung out here for a bit and enjoyed these delicious pretzel bites as an appetizer! We people watched, made some friends, and then headed back to our Airbnb in Salt Lake City. Such a fun-filled, adventure packed day! Can’t wait to come back someday.

💙mariss

<p>The post How To Spend 24 Hours in Salt Lake City first appeared on MLE Travel Diary.</p>

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