Vegas to Phoenix

Like in Australia - driving long-haul solo is kind of dull - bus is better.

On the American road, or Oz for that matter, Vegas to Phoenix isn't exactly a "long Haul"

It is if you're on the wrong side!

OP, yep, you'll find all those things in PHX. But dear god, you'll have a hard time finding an Arizona resident outside of Phoenix who would be happy that you're considering PHX a key part of your "Arizona experience". Granted, many phoenix residents find things to love about it, like any major city. As a visitor in August, you may have a hard time fathoming what those things might be. Except for the beer and pool thing, that is. I guess if your needs are simple enough, and you expectations low enough...

Loving the heat gets a lot harder when it tops 112 degrees F. As for meeting people on the Greyhound, you're likely to meet a damned mixed bag at best, and I'm speaking based on a few remarkable personal experiences. "Let's go down to the Greyhound station and hook up with some cool people" is a phrase that is seldom heard.
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Having driven on the "wrong side" as a Canadian in New Zealand, with the added impediments of suicidal future road kill, narrow, winding roads constipated by camper vans, and those bloody roundabouts, I'd say that you could easily deal with desert driving in a rental. Otherwise, follow the advice to go by public transport to Flagstaff, book tours out of there, and return to Vegas rather than see the barely-living twice-baked death that is the Valley of Way Too Much Sun in August!

If I get nothing else, at least I get a barrel of laughs. thanks guys!
3 hours on a bus in a desert where I've never been I think I can bear. Expectations and needs......very low and so simple.

Does anyone know of a sensational place to stay in San Diego? hostels/hotels anything? And do you recommend a day trip to Tijuana?

When you go to Phoenix (if you like architecture / design) you could visit Frank Lloyd Wright's <a target=new class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.highereducation.org/crosstalk/ct0101/images/frankloyd_frontpicture.jpg">Taliesin West</a>. I agree - a few hours in an unfamiliar desert will still be interesting.