Landing
Grand Canyon helicopter landing tour: 1,100 metres down, from $470
Most helicopter tours show you the canyon from above and turn for home. A handful land on the floor, beside the Colorado River, with the walls going up on both sides of you. People who have done both say it is not a longer version of the same thing — it is the part they still talk about. Here is how it works and which flights do it.
Quick answer
A Grand Canyon helicopter landing tour from Las Vegas costs from $470 and puts you about 1,100 metres down on the canyon floor for twenty to thirty minutes, usually with champagne. It is only possible at Grand Canyon West, on Hualapai tribal land: tourist helicopter landings inside Grand Canyon National Park are not permitted. The best-evidenced listing is the champagne landing tour at $470 with 1,164 reviews at 4.9 — the highest rating on this page.
Landing in the canyon, at a glance
- Depth at the landing site
- About 1,100 mbelow the West Rim
- Where it is allowed
- Grand Canyon West onlyHualapai tribal land in Arizona
- Not allowed
- The national parkno tourist helicopter landings at the South Rim
- Cheapest landing tour
- $4701,164 reviews at 4.9, champagne included
- Shortest trip with a landing
- $4703 hours door to door
- Two landings
- $695the floor and a rim plateau, 4.5 hours
- Time on the ground
- 20–30 minat the bottom, on the standard landing tours
- Air time
- 25 mineach way, roughly
- What is at the bottom
- The Colorado Riverand the walls, and nothing else
- Free cancellation
- Yesup to 24 hours before
What it is actually like
The descent, the floor and the twenty minutes at the bottom
Down between the walls, twenty minutes beside the river, and back up.
The descent is the part nobody describes properly. The helicopter reaches the rim and then goes down, into the canyon, with the walls rising past the windows on both sides. It takes a couple of minutes and it reverses your sense of scale completely: a moment ago you were looking down at a feature in the desert, and now you are inside it looking up.
The floor is quiet. The rotors wind down and what is left is the river, the wind and eleven hundred metres of rock on both sides. Several people a year describe this as the only time they have understood how old the place is. The Colorado is right there — the thing that cut all of this — and it is smaller and faster than you expect.
Twenty to thirty minutes, and champagne. Enough to walk a little, take photographs, and stand still for a bit. Not enough to hike anywhere, which is fine, because there is nowhere to hike to.
Then the climb out, which is the descent in reverse and just as good, and the flight home over the Mojave. Timed late enough, the Strip is lighting up as you come back in.
The flights that land
Three listings, three different days
They all reach the same floor. What differs is how much of your day it takes and what else is attached.
- The champagne landing tour, $470
Two to two and a half hours door to door, twenty to thirty minutes at the bottom, champagne, and home over the Strip. 1,164 reviews at 4.9 — the best-evidenced and best-rated flight on this page, and the one we would book.
- The West Rim in three hours, $470
The same landing in a slightly longer package with 377 reviews at 4.7. A good alternative if the timing suits you better.
- Two landings, $695
The canyon floor and then a second landing on a plateau up on the rim, with four and a half hours in total. The most ground time of any flight here, and the choice if you want the canyon from both positions.
Is it worth the money
The honest arithmetic on a landing tour
A hundred and forty dollars for the difference between a view and a place.
A landing tour costs roughly $470. A flight that only overflies the canyon can be had for $329. The gap is about a hundred and forty dollars and twenty minutes on the ground, and the question is whether that is worth it.
It is, for one reason. Every aerial view of the Grand Canyon, including the one you get from the helicopter, is a view of a landscape. Standing on the floor is not a view; it is a place. The reviews reflect that gap more sharply than almost any other comparison on this site: the landing tour carries 1,164 ratings at 4.9, which is the highest score and the second-highest count of the twelve listings here.
When to skip it. If you are short on time, the Skywalk express at $601 is an hour shorter. If money is the constraint, a Strip flight at $93 is a genuinely good evening for a fifth of the price. And if you are going to the South Rim later in the trip anyway, you will get the canyon properly there and can treat the West Rim as optional.
The landing is only possible at Grand Canyon West. Here is what that means and how it differs from the national park.
West Rim or South Rim→Common questions
Landing tours, answered
Can helicopters land in the Grand Canyon?
At Grand Canyon West, on Hualapai tribal land, yes — and only there. Tourist helicopter landings inside Grand Canyon National Park are not permitted.
How much is a Grand Canyon helicopter landing tour?
From $470 from Las Vegas, which includes twenty to thirty minutes on the canyon floor and champagne. The dual-landings version is $695.
How deep is the canyon where you land?
About 1,100 metres below the West Rim. The South Rim is deeper, at roughly 1,600 metres, but you cannot land there.
How long do you get at the bottom?
Twenty to thirty minutes on the standard landing tours. Enough to walk a little and take photographs; not enough to hike, and there is nowhere to hike to.
Is the landing tour worth the extra money?
For most people yes. It is about a hundred and forty dollars more than a flight that only passes overhead, and the reviews show the difference clearly: 1,164 ratings at 4.9, the highest score on this page.
What is actually at the bottom?
The Colorado River, the walls, and nothing else. That is the point.
Go deeper
More on flying from Las Vegas
The Grand Canyon flight
Three hours from the Strip to the canyon floor, from $470.
Which rimWest Rim or South Rim
Where the Vegas helicopters actually go, and what you give up.
CostWhat it costs
From $93 to $1,271, and what a minute in the air is worth.
The StripFlying the Strip
Eleven to fifteen minutes over the neon, from $93.
After darkFlying at night
Why almost every Strip flight sells the night version.
SkywalkThe Skywalk by air
Eagle Point, the glass bridge, and whether it is worth it.
