Monday, July 14, 2014

Grand Canyon Helicopters - Do A Tour By Papillon Airways!

By Francis Sarmenta


You can choose from several ways to see and experience Grand Canyon National Park, but in my opinion one of the best ways to do it is by taking a tour on one of the Papillon helicopters. Papillon is actually the largest Grand Canyon tour company and it offers tours from Las Vegas and Tusayan.

All Las Vegas helicopters head to the West Rim while all the choppers that leave from Tusayan go to the South Rim. The South Rim is too far from Las Vegas at 277 miles away, for choppers to make the flight, also the choppers do not fly from the West Rim to the South Rim. If you're going to be in Vegas and really want to take a chopper tour of the South Rim, you can, but you have to fly to the South Rim by plane first. As an added bonus, you get to see some amazing scenery during the airplane flight.

Las Vegas Helicopter Tours To The West Rim: When you take a helicopter tour out of Vegas, you have to decide if you want to take an air-only tour or one that lands at the canyon. Both follow the same route to the Park, flying over Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, the Colorado River, Grand Cliffs Wash and the canyon itself. The landing tours drop you off at the canyon, while the air-only tours stay in the air and circle back to Vegas. Landing tours are only allowed at the West Rim, so the only place you can get one is at Vegas.

The landing tours can drop you off on the canyon floor where you can enjoy a picnic and raft ride, or they can land on top of the rim so you can visit the Grand Canyon Skywalk or Glass Bridge. The Skywalk is an amazing structure that is made from glass. You can walk across the glass floor for 70 feet past the edge of the canyon and be standing 4000 feet above the floor of the canyon and the Colorado River. It's an experience you don't want to miss if you go to the Grand Canyon.

Helicopter Tours That Depart From The Las Vegas Strip: The Papillon tours have two departure sites in the Vegas metro area, one is from Boulder City and the other is from the Strip. All the tours come with complimentary shuttle service, but the tours that leave from the Strip treat you to a limo ride, while the ones that take off from Boulder City provide transportation on a shuttle bus. The tours that take off from the Strip are certainly more convenient and they also provide you with an aerial view of the Strip. They do cost more than the tours that leave from Boulder City , but that's because they offer better perks. If your budget allows it, choose a flight that takes off from the Strip.

South Rim Helicopter Tours: South Rim tours on Papillon helicopters also come in two versions: one gives you 30 minutes of airtime, and the other gives you 50 minutes in the air. The shorter tour goes from the South Rim over to the North Rim and back again. The longer tour covers that same ground, but also goes over to the eastern edge of the Grand Canyon National Park. The 50-minute flight is very comprehensive since it covers about 75 percent of the entire Park, so you have the chance to see many wonderful sights.

Wrapping Up: Flying to the South and the West Rim, Papillon is the largest provider of Grand Canyon helicopter tours. If you choose a Las Vegas tour, you can fly over the canyon and return, or you can land at the canyon on top of the rim or at the bottom near the river. There are no landing tours at the South Rim. They take off from Tusayan, AZ (just outside the South Rim's main gates) and last either 30 or 50 minutes. Papillon has many tours on offer, and they are all fantastic, so no matter which tour you choose, you will see beautiful scenery and have a lot of fun.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment