V-Flyer

Will be in Vegas in May for 10 days and looking to do an organised trip to Hoover dam/grand canyon, any recommendations for tour operators? Thanks y)

Oh, definitely no helicopters lol.

Hoover Dam. Self-drive and pay for the guided tour they do. If it's a hot day, you'll be glad of being down in the cool.

As for the Grand Canyon, think very carefully about a day trip and look at having a road trip there over a few days. It's about a 5-6 hour drive by car, more by coach as the driver has legally required rests. Most coaches leave Vegas around 7-7:30 after all the pick-ups and you'll be lucky to back at your hotel by 10pm.

Darren Wheeler wrote:Hoover Dam. Self-drive and pay for the guided tour they do. If it's a hot day, you'll be glad of being down in the cool.

As for the Grand Canyon, think very carefully about a day trip and look at having a road trip there over a few days. It's about a 5-6 hour drive by car, more by coach as the driver has legally required rests. Most coaches leave Vegas around 7-7:30 after all the pick-ups and you'll be lucky to back at your hotel by 10pm.

Good advice re GC. There are helicopter and light aircraft tours, combinable with bus/ boat tour when you get there. Cost more of course but we aim to do it this way next year.

Google 'Pink Jeep Tours' you have a fantastic choice and they are great, we did the Jeep from hotel plus the helicopter down to the bottom of the canyon and then the boat along the river (not far)back up by 'copter then Pink Jeep to the viewing platform (which we did not do - too scary)great lunch there and good photo op's, back to Hoover Dam to view the new bridge being built and a stop to walk across the time lines and photo's. Early start and home by 7.30ish as none in the jeep (8 of us)wanted to stop for photo's of the Joshua Trees - great day all round.
Time before that we flew out there and over the canyon but were unable to land due to snow! Next time it will be helicopter out and back so more time in the canyon

My advice would be to rent a car and go to Hoover Dam and do the tour there as said previously. Then overnight close to the canyon. That way you can make a full use of the next day at the canyon and break up the the amount of time spent behind the wheel.

The day flights from Vegas over the Canyon in either a helicopter or small plane are excellent if you don't have much time. Have a great time no matter what you choose to do.

Hi. My advice comes from personal experience.

Getting a 'tour' to the Hoover Dam is not a problem. Loads of trip choices from LV - we did a half day trip and it was very interesting.

However the Grand Canyon is a totally different trip. Firstly IMHO you must go to the 'real' grand canyon which is a very long trip from Las Vegas. If you visit the South Rim of the Grand Canyon then you will have really been there. You can arrange an overnight stop and that will help with the very long coach trip. It is poss to do it in a day but as folk have said its about 5hours each way with a very limited stop actually at the Grand Canyon.

My biggest regret was paying out a fortune for a helicopter/boat trip to the 'west rim'. The views from there were ok but we did not see the true the Grand Canyon National Park. Go onto Trip advisor and see thousands of posts about the 'real' GC and you'll understand what I mean.

You're in LV for 10days so you'll have plenty of time to do the trip of a lifetime if you want to see the 'real' Grand Canyon

After reading a load of reviews on TripAdvisor, we ended up booking our Grand Canyon trip with these guys
http://www.grand-adventures.com/

As said, drive to the Dam, it's not too far and well worth a visit.

I didn't make it to the Grand Canyon last time we went to Vegas. Next time we go, thinking of flying home via Phoenix and driving up from there as it seems less of a nightmare journey.

Just back from Vegas. I know you said no helicopters but we did the Grand Canyon with Maverick helicopters....WOW....fantastic experience. Brilliant company, very professional. Returned to the strip just as it got dark, fantastic!

The other tour we can recommend is called Red Rock Canyon, a 30 min coach to a beautiful place...check out the trip advisor reports. Not too expensive either.

Ok, done Grand Canyon a number of ways, and another one not mentioned...

We first did the coach trip to the west rim. A few hours to get there and back, early morning trip by coach and like all of the coach trips, you get stops at various places. West rim got us a stop at the hoover dam and somewhere else I can't remember. At the west rim, its about 4000 feet up, has a crappy little western town, somewhere to eat, and the skywalk, a clear circular platform out over the canyon, which I enjoyed but some people find underwhelming.

We did the bus next time to the south rim, it was much much further, I think easily 6 or 7 hours each way. We barely got a single hour actually at the canyon, we stopped a hoover damn, places like the little ghost town which claims the pixar movie Cars was based, and strangely the cinema showing trips into the canyon (a restaurant was there, so it was kind of to eat too). The canyon itself is very different, much wider and your eyes can barely take it in. There are hotels and things about there though. I'd advise people to drive to this one, and stay overnight, to get the best from that.

We did the helicopter trip to the west rim next time, and thats a completely different experience, about 3.5 hours total time trip there and back again, you land inside the canyon and thats a site to see. Expensive, but good. Also does a flight down the strip on the way back.

Another one, which was not mentioned, was a smaller trip Death Valley, it was with a total of 6 people in a kind of hummer. You get a lot of little stops on the way and back, and its closer than even the west rim. A bit more expensive, and we did it beginning of January, so it might not be what you want in middle of June though. The hummer was air conditioned though. We did things like Zabriskie Point, a couple of ghost towns, the little village in death valley, various things to see around the area. Was about $180 though, so more expensive than the GC bus trips but I'd recommend that one...

We went over to Vegas on Jersey Girl in Feb, did the Grand Canyon with Maverick who were superb. They collected us in a mini bus from our hotel at about 0630, drove us the small airport in Vegas. We then hopped in a 19 seater Beechcraft plane, upto 9000ft for a 30 min flight where you can go up one by one and speak with the pilots. Then landed and within 30 min we were in our helicopter for a 15-20 min helicopter flight into the Canyon inc landing for about 10 min and wandering around. Then back up to the top, quick bus to the glass walkway, lunch then flight back to the strip 1400, cracking day & I highly recommend it! Next day hired a car and drove 35min to Hoover Dam, again great day! Enjoy

Carty was that a flight to the south rim, down into the canyon, back up to the west and flight back? Or flight to the west rim.

I know they do both, but it seemed to me to miss scenery for a west rim flight, but need to get a plane to south rim because it was too far...

Has anoyone done a Heli/Raft day trip from Vegas? Any tour recommendations appreciated. Thanks

Smid, our trip was to the west rim!

Thanks to everyone for their replies, lots to think about and get excited about! Only 3 weeks to go!! y)