EmilyCC

My partner and I are planning to visit the Grand Canyon on a day trip at the end of October. After searching through the forums, there appears to be little consensus on the best rim to visit as it is all spectacular!

We have a whole day set aside but understand most tours would be half day (we do not have the flexibility in our itinerary to stay one night in GC). Essentially, I was wondering whether South rim is still the best place to visit and if there were any decent companies which provided a helicopter tour for this? Ideally, we would enjoy limousine transfers from our hotel in Vegas too (23 year old couple who are very excited about their first trip to America!). We understand this may be up to $400 each (looking at this as a maximum)-but in the end, we are travelling from Australia so this is the experience of a lifetime!

Has anyone had a great experience with a helicopter tour company which they could recommend? Also, any additional advice on which rim to visit (is the skywalk all it is hyped up to be!?) would be greatly appreciated

Thank you so much for your help!

utahtea

By mid October the facilities at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon will be closed for the season. The East Rim is on an Indian Reservation and is not officially in the Grand Canyon National Park.

Sorry I have no information on helicopter flights

Utahtea

emalloy

We did do a small plane trip to the south rim several years ago. They picked us up quite early near the hotel, drove to the North Vegas airport, flew to the airport near the south rim then took us on a bus to the viewpoints at Bright Angel and out to Hermits Rest. They then flew us back and limoed us to the hotel before supper time.

I don't remember the company, but it was advertized in a magazine in the hotel.

J62

You cannot take a helicopter tour of any part of the Grand Canyon National Park - it's a no-fly zone regardless of north or south rim. The actual Grand Canyon does extend many miles to the West and is also Indian reservation territory. While not as spectacular as the part of the GC protected by the national park it is still amazing scenery. I believe helicopter are allowed in the part outside the national park.

MikePinTucson

Any helicopter trip would be to the so-called "West Rim", which is NOT part of the Grand Canyon National Park and which will not have the kind of views you see in all the pictures. So, since this is to be an experience of a lifetime, you really owe it to yourselves to visit the south rim.

If hiring a car and driving is out of the question, due to your age, I would say a bus trip to the south rim would be best, or an airplane tour, as described by emalloy, if it is within your budget.

october_fun

Emily google Las Vegas tourism sites. There are quite a few and they will list heaps of companies that do tours to the canyon. We had the time to stay overnight so we hired a car and drove. Check out the sites though, as it will give you all the options. Then check out the tours on TripAdviser for the reviews. That will give you some idea of what might be best for you. It really is spectacular and when you travel all that way to get to the US you want to fit in as much as you can. You don't want to get back home and think.... wish I had done that while I was there.

EmilyCC

Thank you very much for the responses. Will take that all on board and do a lot more research today!

Thanks