Grand Canyon Air Tours - The Perfect Adventure for the Holidays

The Grand Canyon is a spectacular place to visit any time of the year. However, winter is especially dramatic because the visibility is so much better due to the climate conditions.

Air tours are by far your best option to capturing the Park's essence during this season. You can choose to tour by plane or chopper and depart from Vegas or Tusayan in Arizona.

The two types of tours are similar but they do have some differences. First, helicopter tours are more expensive. This is because they hold only 6 people and are more exclusive.

Plane Or Helicopter

Next, helicopters fly at a lower altitude than airplanes. This is more important at the West Rim (more on rims in a minute) where helis can fly below the edge and land at the bottom. At South Rim, it's less important because helicopters are banned from flying inside the gorge.

Seat availability is another thing to consider. Keep in mind, the helicopters only have room for six. Airplanes can carry as many as 19 people. This difference often results in heli tours selling out faster than airplane tours. Plus, if you will be touring with a very large group then you will probably prefer an airplane tour so you can all stay together.

The window seats offer fantastic views and they are available in both types of aircraft. It will cost you more though. Further, window seats are not guaranteed and are only given at time of check-in to those passengers who requested them during the online booking process. However, most people don't even know you can request a window seat, you it doesn't hurt to go ahead and ask for one.

Window Seats Explained

The weight of all the passengers has to be evenly distributed in a helicopter and that is why there is no guarantee you will get a window seat until everyone checks in on the day of the tour. Since weight distribution is usually not an issue on the plane tours, you have a better chance of securing a window seat on them. Right now, window seats on helicopter tours cost $50 extra and those on airplane tours cost $10 extra.

There are aerial tours to both rims of the Grand Canyon. This refers to the West Rim and the South Rim, which are the two primary destination points for the tours. The West Rim is near Las Vegas. It will take you about 45 minutes to fly there in a helicopter and about 30 minutes to fly there in an airplane. You can't actually take a chopper from Vegas to the South Rim because it is too far away. Instead, you can go by airplane and get there in about an hour. South Rim airplane tours take off from Grand Canyon Airport and only fly over the southern region.

When you take an air tour out of Vegas, you can choose the landing variety or an aerial tour. The air-only tours cost less. Landing tours, though they cost more, are the better value in my opinion because you get to experience more of the canyon on a first-hand basis. One tour that I'm fond of is the West Rim airplane flight with optional Grand Canyon Skywalk. At the South Rim, you can only choose an aerial tour and you receive a lot of value for your money.

Conclusion

Winter is simply a wonderful time to schedule an air tour of the Grand Canyon. There are several types of tours to choose from and you can depart from Las Vegas or Tusayan, Arizona. It is definitely worth looking into, especially if you will be in Vegas or Arizona anyway. It'll be the trip of lifetime.

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