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Travel options between Las Vegas and Grand Canyon South Rim

Travel options between Las Vegas and Grand Canyon South Rim

Old Feb 22nd, 2017, 12:08 AM
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Travel options between Las Vegas and Grand Canyon South Rim

Hi,

I'm planning a trip for my parents (retired) to the Grand Canyon in late August this year. They will arrive in Las Vegas, and wish to visit both the south and the west rim of Grand Canyon. In particular, they have identified a tour that starts from the vicinity of the Grand Canyon National Park Airport near South Rim that they would like to do.

I know that renting a car and driving would probably be easiest, but my father has never driven a left-hand-steer car or on the right-hand side of the road, so he is very reluctant to drive. (I won't be on the trip with them, otherwise I would have driven them.) Does anyone know of shuttles/buses/anything else that travel frequently or on demand between Las Vegas and South Rim?

I've had no luck in this regard with the tour company so far. They were friendly but could not help - they operate only from their base near Grand Canyon Airport. The only other option I found was to buy a South Rim bus tour from Gray Line to get them there, but as my parents would need to stay overnight to do the tour they want to do, Gray Line requires them to buy a round-trip ticket twice, which seems very excessive to me.

This will be a very big trip for my parents, so I don't want to add unnecessary stress for them, and right now the idea of driving is doing just that. I think my father is a good enough driver that he will be okay driving, but it is causing him a lot of stress right now. Could anyone recommend any non-driving travel options between Las Vegas and South Rim, or is driving the only viable option? I don't suppose an Uber-like service operates in that area? (I would be a huge Uber trip, I realise, just trying to come up with ideas!)

Thanks in advance for your help!
Elm
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Old Feb 22nd, 2017, 03:27 AM
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Fly to Albuquerque instead of Las Vegas. The Amtrak Southwest Chief leaves ABQ in the afternoon and arrives in Williams Junction about 9:30PM. Transfer to the Grand Canyon Railroad Hotel and take the GCRR train north to the South Rim in the morning. https://www.thetrain.com/popularpackages/
It is not cheap any way you do it compared with just driving.
The South Rim is the best views IMO. Don't bother with the so called "West Rim".
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Old Feb 23rd, 2017, 05:21 AM
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Thanks tomfuller! I am not familiar with the US rail system so I haven't considered that as an option so far. I'll definitely look into it. Thanks for the link - it's a great starting point.
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Old Feb 23rd, 2017, 02:40 PM
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There is a shuttle that runs from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon South Rim. (3 trips daily). http://www.arizonashuttle.com/schedu...-grand-canyon/
You can stay in Flagstaff if you don't want to stay in Williams and ride the tourist railroad.
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Old Feb 23rd, 2017, 09:39 PM
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Tomfuller is right
Another option: Google: Las Vegas to Grand Canyon South Rim
This is one example
https://www.canyontours.com/grand-ca...-rim-bus-tour/

Some thoughts
I have driven in Australia, Japan and UK.
It takes about two days to be very comfortable with that change.

The major problem are cities.
Las Vegas to Grand Canyon is basically a straight line.
LV to Kingman. Then Kingman to Grand Canyon. All wide highway with minimal traffic once out of LV

Vaga
PS: The absolute worst place to drive is central Rome, Italy.
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