Oct – Nov
The best window
Still air, mild days and the canyon walls at their reddest in low autumn sun. Thermals have gone, the summer crowds have gone, and the light lasts. If you can choose your dates, choose these.
The canyon
Grand Canyon helicopter tour from Las Vegas: all 8 compared
Eight helicopter trips leave Las Vegas for the Grand Canyon every day, from $329 to $695. They all fly to the same place, and the listings almost never say which place that is. Here is where they actually go, which ones land at the bottom, and what the hours really look like.
Quick answer
A Grand Canyon helicopter tour from Las Vegas costs between $329 and $695, and every one of them flies to Grand Canyon West — on Hualapai tribal land in Arizona, about 200 kilometres from the Strip. It is a genuine part of the canyon, roughly 1,100 metres deep, and it is the only stretch where a sightseeing helicopter is allowed to land on the floor. It is not Grand Canyon National Park: the South Rim in the postcards is more than twice as far and cannot be done from Las Vegas in an afternoon. The best-evidenced flight here is the champagne landing tour at $470 with 1,164 reviews at 4.9.
The Grand Canyon from Las Vegas, at a glance
- Where the flights go
- Grand Canyon WestHualapai land in Arizona, ~200 km from the Strip
- Not the national park
- South Rim is 440 kma different trip, and a long one
- Canyon depth here
- About 1,100 mand the landing flights put you on the floor
- Cheapest canyon trip
- $3297 hours door to door, options at checkout
- Best evidenced
- $4701,164 reviews at 4.9, lands at the bottom
- Fastest
- $6012.5 hours, the Skywalk express
- Most ground time
- $6954.5 hours, two landings
- Air time
- 25–45 minthe rest of the trip is transfer and ground time
- Hotel pickup
- Most flightscheck the listing; it is not universal
- Free cancellation
- All eightup to 24 hours before
Every trip, current fare
Every Las Vegas helicopter tour, cheapest first
Twelve flights, including all eight that go to the canyon, with the columns that decide it: how long you are actually in the air, where the helicopter goes, and what a minute costs. The four cheapest are Strip flights and belong to a different kind of evening entirely.
| Flight | Air time | Price | Where it goes | Cost per minute | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Las Vegas: Night Helicopter Flight over Las Vegas StripThe cheapest way into the air over Las Vegas | 12 min | $93 | The Strip | $7.75 | 4.6 · 2,061 |
| Las Vegas: Helicopter Night Flight over the StripEleven minutes, the classic night run | 11 min | $93 | The Strip | $8.45 | 4.7 · 1,938 |
| Las Vegas: Helicopter Tour of the Strip with Window SeatsA window seat written into the booking | 15 min | $98 | The Strip | $6.53 | 4.7 · 452 |
| Las Vegas: Nighttime Helicopter Flight over the StripThe night Strip run with hotel transfers | 11 min | $103 | The Strip | $9.36 | 4.6 · 217 |
| Las Vegas: Daytime Hoover Dam & Las Vegas Strip Heli FlightHoover Dam, Lake Mead and the Strip by day | 35 min | $207 | Hoover Dam | $5.91 | 4.5 · 27 |
| Las Vegas: Grand Canyon Helicopter West Rim Flight & OptionsThe West Rim day, with options at checkout | 7 h trip | $329 | Grand Canyon West | $7.31 | 4.5 · 134 |
| Vegas: Grand Canyon Helicopter Landing Tour and ChampagneLands on the canyon floor, champagne included | 25 min | $470 | Canyon floor | $18.80 | 4.9 · 1,164 |
| From Las Vegas: Grand Canyon West Rim Helicopter TourThe West Rim in three hours from the Strip | 25 min | $470 | Canyon floor | $18.80 | 4.7 · 377 |
| Las Vegas: Grand Canyon West Helicopter TourThe full West Rim day, with time on the ground | 30 min | $517 | Grand Canyon West | $17.23 | 4.8 · 80 |
| From Las Vegas: Grand Canyon Skywalk Express Helicopter TourThe Skywalk at Eagle Point, queue skipped | 25 min | $601 | Skywalk, Eagle Point | $24.04 | 4.8 · 567 |
| Las Vegas: Grand Canyon Helicopter Dual Landings TourTwo landings, the floor and a rim plateau | 40 min | $695 | Two landings | $17.38 | 4.8 · 46 |
| Las Vegas Night Strip Helicopter Wedding Ceremony PackageA wedding ceremony in the air over the Strip | 15 min | $1,271 | The Strip | $84.73 | 5.0 · 2 |
Which canyon you are buying
Grand Canyon West is not Grand Canyon National Park
A real canyon, a different canyon, and the only one you can land inside.
This is the single most useful thing on this page, and the listings almost never say it plainly.
Every helicopter that leaves Las Vegas for the Grand Canyon flies to Grand Canyon West. That is a stretch of the canyon on Hualapai tribal land in Arizona, roughly two hundred kilometres from the Strip and about forty-five minutes in the air. It is a real part of the Grand Canyon, around eleven hundred metres deep, and it has two things nowhere else has: the Skywalk at Eagle Point, and permission for tourist helicopters to land on the canyon floor.
Grand Canyon National Park is a different place. The South Rim — Mather Point, Yavapai, the overlooks in every photograph of the canyon you have ever seen — is more than four hundred kilometres from Las Vegas. It is deeper, wider and, most travellers agree, more spectacular. It is also a full day each way by road and no helicopter tour from Las Vegas goes there.
Is the West Rim worth going to? Yes, and for a specific reason: it is the only part of the Grand Canyon you can stand at the bottom of on the same afternoon you left the Strip. That trade — a slightly less dramatic rim in exchange for the floor, the river and the walls going up on both sides — is what these flights are actually selling. Understand that and almost nobody is disappointed. Miss it and some people are.
The eight canyon flights
What each one adds, in order of price
They fly roughly the same route. What separates them is what happens after the flying.
- The West Rim day with options, $329
Seven hours door to door and the extras chosen at checkout — the Skywalk, a boat on the Colorado, or neither. The cheapest way to reach the canyon by air, and the longest day.
- The landing tour with champagne, $470
Lands on the floor beside the Colorado River with twenty to thirty minutes on the ground and a glass of champagne. 1,164 reviews at 4.9 — the best-evidenced flight on this page and the one we would book.
- The West Rim in three hours, $470
The same landing in a shorter package. 377 reviews at 4.7, and the quickest way to stand inside the canyon and be back for dinner.
- The full West Rim day, $517
Four and a half hours with real time on the ground at the rim as well as the flight. For people who want the canyon rather than a photograph of it.
- The Skywalk express, $601
Two and a half hours to Eagle Point with the Skywalk queue skipped, which on a busy day is most of what you are paying for. 567 reviews at 4.8.
- Two landings, $695
The floor beside the river and a plateau up on the rim. Four and a half hours, and the most ground time of any flight here.
What the day looks like
Seven hours, of which forty-five minutes is flying
The flying is the short part. The ground time is the product.
Hotel pickup, usually early. Most canyon listings include a shuttle from your hotel on the Strip. Departures are early because the air is calmest in the morning and because the day is long.
About forty-five minutes to the terminal, then check-in and the weigh-in. Photo ID, the scale, the briefing, headsets. Everybody is weighed and the pilot seats the cabin by weight so the aircraft balances.
Twenty-five to forty-five minutes in the air, each way. Out over Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam, then forty minutes of flat brown Mojave with nothing much in it — and then the ground stops. The edge arrives without warning and it is the moment everybody describes afterwards.
The ground time, which is what you are really paying for. Twenty minutes on the floor with champagne on the landing tours; two or three hours at the rim on the full-day listings; the Skywalk and Eagle Point on the express. This is where the price differences on this page actually live.
And the flight home over the Strip. Timed late enough and it is a second flight for free: the neon coming on underneath you on the way back into Las Vegas.
When to go
The best months for a Grand Canyon helicopter tour
Flights run all year. What the month decides is how hard the desert air shakes the aircraft and how red the walls look when you get there.
Mar – May
Nearly as good
Clear and mild before the heat arrives. March is the windiest of the three and moves more flights; May is close to perfect.
Dec – Feb
Cold, clear, quiet
The sharpest visibility of the year and the easiest availability. Snow on the rim is possible and makes photographs almost nobody else has. Dress for standing on an open pad at seven in the morning.
Jun – Sep
Hot and bumpy
Desert thermals build through the middle of the day and make afternoon flights noticeably rougher. July and August bring monsoon storms that cancel slots at short notice. Book the first departure of the morning.
Not sure the West Rim is the canyon you want? Here is the honest comparison with the national park.
West Rim or South Rim→Common questions
The canyon flight, answered
How much is a Grand Canyon helicopter tour from Las Vegas?
Between $329 and $695 a person. The best-evidenced flight is the champagne landing tour at $470 with 1,164 reviews at 4.9.
Do the helicopters go to the real Grand Canyon?
They go to Grand Canyon West, which is a genuine part of the canyon on Hualapai tribal land in Arizona, about 1,100 metres deep. It is not Grand Canyon National Park, whose South Rim is more than four hundred kilometres from Las Vegas.
How long does the trip take?
Two and a half to seven hours door to door depending on the listing, of which twenty-five to forty-five minutes is flying. The rest is the transfer, the check-in and the time on the ground.
Which flights land in the canyon?
Several. The champagne landing tour at $470 puts you on the floor beside the Colorado River; the dual-landings tour at $695 adds a second landing on a rim plateau. Landing inside the national park is not permitted for tourist flights.
Is hotel pickup included?
On most of the canyon listings, yes. Check the specific flight before you compare prices, because a trip without transfers adds an hour and a taxi at each end.
Can you do the South Rim from Las Vegas?
Not by helicopter. The South Rim is a long day each way by road or a flight to a regional airport. Every helicopter tour sold in Las Vegas goes to Grand Canyon West.
What is the best time of day to fly to the canyon?
Early morning in summer, because desert thermals build through the day and make afternoon flights bumpier. In autumn and winter the late departures are worth taking for the light on the walls and the Strip lit up on the way home.
Go deeper
More on flying from Las Vegas
Which rim
West 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.
LandingLanding in the canyon
The flights that put you 1,100 metres down, beside the river.
