Las Vegas Adventures: Finding the Best Grand Canyon Chopper, Airplane Tours

Travel & LeisureTravel Tips

  • Author Susan Bissonnette
  • Published December 9, 2015
  • Word count 734

Have you been thinking about touring the Grand Canyon? If you have, then it would help to know that Las Vegas flights are some of the best air tours available. You can choose from an airplane or helicopter tour, and then you get to add on fun extras. All you need to do is find the one that fits you.

Helicopter Tours From Vegas

One of the reasons starting your air tour in Vegas is the best bet is because those are the only tours that can land inside of the Grand Canyon. One of the tours that many people love is the chopper tour that descends into the canyon and lands on the canyon floor where a champagne picnic awaits. Your picnic is near the Colorado River, and since you'll be so close, you can even add on a float tour, and if that's not exciting enough, you could land on top of the rim instead and walk out on the famous Skywalk.

The West Rim of the Grand Canyon is only 100 miles from Las Vegas, so all of the tour choppers that depart from Vegas go to the West Rim. The flight to the West Rim takes about an hour and you'll get to see a lot of beautiful scenery from the air, but it still doesn't beat the thrill you'll get when you stand over the canyon on the glass Skywalk bridge. The steel and glass platform is 4000 feet above the bottom of the canyon, and you will get the sensation that you're floating out above it.

Even if you can't take a landing air tour, the flyover tours are still something to remember. They are also less expensive than landing tours. Plus, you'll even get to see Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam from the air since they are along the flight path between the canyon and Vegas.

Choosing A Basic Tour Or A Deluxe Tour

You have to decide if you want to book a basic or deluxe tour. Basic trips leave from Boulder City, which is 35 minutes out from the Las Vegas strip. There's a shuttle bus ride included with basic tickets. In addition, the basic tours utilize Bell Rangers and AStar helicopters. You'll still have a great flight, but there aren't the best aircraft for sightseeing.

If you want something better, then be sure to book a deluxe tour. The deluxe tours depart conveniently from the Vegas Strip and they come with complimentary limousine transportation to and from your hotel. These tours are flow on modern EcoStar 130 choppers. There's a huge windshield which wraps around the whole front of the cockpit. This allows for an unrivaled sightseeing experience. The seats are bigger than in other tour helicopters, and they're laid out in a way that everyone has an unobstructed view. You'll love taking a deluxe tour, so you should upgrade if you can.

Grand Canyon Airplane Tours

Airplane tours are more affordable than helicopter tours and they fly along the same route. The trade off is that the planes fly higher than choppers, so that can affect your view, plus the airplanes can't descend into the canyon.

However, saving a significant amount of money makes the airplane tours appealing. The airplanes can take 19 passengers on each trip, so a plane tour is a better choice if you are traveling with a group you don't want to split apart. The tours utilize planes designed for sightseeing, so they are made with big windows and the wings don't get in way of the view. So, it isn't the same as a helicopter tour, but it's the next best thing.

Airplanes that depart from Las Vegas provide West Rim and South Rim tours, so that is beneficial if you want to tour the South Rim, North Rim, and eastern edge of the National Park.

You'll Never Forget Your Tour Of American's Wonder

With all these options, you can now see that an air tour of the Grand Canyon has a lot of potential for fun and adventure. Taking a tour out of Vegas is your best bet since you can take a bottom landing tour complete with a picnic, walk on the Skywalk, or even take an economy flight to either rim. Once you've decided on the tour you want to take, go ahead and book it in advance because Grand Canyon tours are so popular they fill up fast.

This author is an expert on Grand Canyon travels and suggests these airplane tours as well as these heli tours: [http://grandcanyoncheap.com/helicopter-deals.html](http://grandcanyoncheap.com/helicopter-deals.html)

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