Just back from Vegas ,Hubby and Grandson did the Grand Canyon with Papillon had a fab
time ,they felt no movment and were travelling at 140 miles per hr,lunch was Turkey sandwich
crisps ,choc brownies ,soft drinks and champagne,both thought it a great day out and worth
the money,
ann

Well I think the question says it all really ..... I know that loads of you on HT have done this trip from Vegas; when we book our tour of the Grand Canyon for next year are we better off on a helicopter (which my hubby says he hates) or a small plane (which I don't fancy as the last one I was in was incredibly bumpy!)
Also I want to land at the bottom and thought you couldn't do this in a plane or am I wrong?

Thanks!

Hi puddleduck

I will merge this with the existing GC topic.

We have only done this by Cessna and there is no way on this earth I would ever do it again! The whole journey was horrendous it was so bumpy and I would opt for the chopper any time.

Yes you are right, the small plane doesn't land on the canyon floor, but some of the helicopters do. Have a look through earlier posts, but Papillion and Maverick come highly recommended.

luci

Thanks Luci, yes it was Papillion I've been looking at - I fancy the sunset & picnic one.
I just have to get the hubby talked around now

Help needed

We going las vegas 1st time in sep and i want to go the grand canyon
1, is it worth the money to go via plane and land at the bottom
2, travel via coach and to walk on the strip

only doing 4 day trip but my partner is 40 and wanted to do something special on that day , or is there something better to do ?

kaz

Kaz,

In my opinion a helicopter ride is so much better. There used to be a minimum height at which the planes could fly, I think it was around 1000ft and they weren't allowed to go any lower, not sure if that's still the case but if so it does affect your view. Plus, when they 'land in the canyon', it'll be at an airstrip, it won't feel the same as a helicopter which does indeed land right inside the canyon.

Cheers,

TC

Hi All.
I am taking my partner to L.V next month and for her birthday I want to surprise her with a heli flight over the G.C, could you help me, Im thinking about the sunset tour or the day time tour, which one is the best or more breath taking.
Thanks all

Personally I would go for the day time tour, maybe sunrise, earlier will be better as will not be as hot then, we went for the breakfast picnic with http://www.papillon.com/, would highly recommend it, they were brilliant

Yes agree with the above about a daytime trip.
You may be able to get a deal that would give you a free night time flight over the strip too,

Cheers Guys.

Still not sure what to book, didn't even give the heat a second thought, what did you mean about getting a deal with a free flight over the strip .

Thanks for the help

Hi. We were in Vegas two weeks ago and did the helicopter trip with Heli USA. We were going to book before we left UK, but glad we never as we got a bigger discount by booking with Heli USA when we arrived in Vegas. The trip included a 1-2 hour stop at a Ranch on the Canyon (breakfast included). Flew over Canyon, Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, Colorado River, past the Skywalk and on the way back flew over the Strip. I would go on the trip again tomorrow if I could, it was amazing

That's the trip we did Goakid,

I would wait till your out there to book as there are several firms that do it and all offer different deals.

Only a couple fly from Vegas airport tho so its best to check otherwise its a boring bus journey to Boulder city and the flight starts from there. Not a massive deal but you wont get to to Vegas from the sky.

Yeh your right, at least the one with Heli USA leaves from the airport, so no bus journeys - just hop on the chopper and take in the fab experience !!

There was six of us and five didn't want to risk a helicopter. We hired a six seater car and stayed overnight at the South Rim. To be honest, a shorter trip than we did would be selling yourselves short. Granted, the helicopter tours do a bit of the bottom, but I personally think that you can't appreciate the bottom without seeing the top and sides. Just my opinion.

Bear in mind, the grand canyon was not my first choice for a trip. We visited Vegas nine times before we felt the need to visit the GC. We only went there because it was my mother's 70th birthday. It was a good trip, but I wouldn't be too excited about it. Having said that, I'm so glad we stayed overnight. The difference between sunset and sunrise is awesome, and you need to be there to take full advantage.

^ ^??

Yes I would agree you really do need to be there to appreciate it, the post cards really don't do it justice

In my opinion the Grand Canyon is one of the true wonders of the world - I can remember the first time I saw it and it totaly took my breath away, awesome. For me it is a 'must-see' when going to Vegas. I've been to the Canyon about 6 times now and tend to drive there every couple of years, we've now been to South, West and North rims and have done a plane and a helicopter trip over it. It's a fantastic experience.
TC

As other people have said there are so many different types of tours you can take and it depends on how much money you want to spend. We went last September for my husbands 50th birthday and I booked a trip when we got there. I booked it through the Thomas Cook rep probably could have got it cheaper but decided to take the easy option. They picked us up from the hotel in a limo took us to the airport in LV (did have to pick up at a couple of other hotels on the way)where we could help ourselves to complimentary drinks (soft) and nibbles whilst waiting for the heli. We then flew over to the Grand Canyon passing Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, Boulder City etc. We then landed in the Canyon and had a champagne lunch, stayed for an hour or so, so some good photo opportunities and then back to the airport flying right down the strip.You could help yourself to drinks again whilst waiting for the limo back to the hotel.

There are bus trips that will take you there, but they seemed to take all day and I'm sure if most of it is spent on the bus. Our trip was about 3 hours but it was probably the best 3 hours I've ever spent.

I agree with TeeCee its awesome and a "must see". It was an absolutely fantastic experience and I was so pleased we did it, my husband was over the moon.

Thanks guys for ALL your help, I will book the heli flight, think I might book the sunset one,but not sure who with ?????

Once again Thank you

We booked with Maverick tours off the internet. I liked them because you can have a conversation with christine via a link from maverick and she can answer all your questions. Their overall space capacity is the largest and very airly, so if you do not like enclosed spaces then this is for you. Very professional. They picked us up from the flamingo hotel in a maverick coach and took us a few blocks to their depot. We read a safety card, went to the loo, and then got weighed for proper spacing.

We were allocated a pilot as there were several, he showed us all around the helicopter and explained what we were going to see. He showed us everything up in the air and was very informative.

We landed in the canyon on our own, had the champagne breakfast for around half an hour/40mins, taking pictures of everything and the nice pilot (a girls gotta have a pic of a guy in uniform ), we flew down the Colorado river, lead mead, hoover dam etc, we even flew over the sky walk which i am so pleased we didnt do, as the helicopter did it more justice i thought.

After the breakfast we re fueled in the canyon which was different lol, and was able to get out to take some more pictures for 15 minutes. This is where we saw giant cactus in the canyon, weird !

We flew to another destination as we were combining our tour with the rafting down the colarado river, so we were dropped off, and my other passengers went back to the Maverick office for descent.

We went into an other office to get a briefing on rafting then drove 5 mins to the hoover dam for our river rafting experience. It was absolutely fun, and very very long, we had lunch on there as well and did several stops seeing sheep of all things and horses. The guy that took us knew everything and we found the hottest spring water that would burn your feet and did. We were on the raft on and off for 4 hours at least, maybe more going down the river, we mey kayaks, jet skis all sorts. People live down there (campers).

When we had finished we went to a shop which was a lot cheaper than vegas to wait for our coach to take us back to the hotel. The day started at 5AM and we got off the raft at 3.30pm.

We felt till refreshed as they give you loads of free water all day, nothing was too much trouble all for £400. A total of 10.5 hours. Fantastic tour group to go with and not a rip off.