Oct – Apr
The comfortable months
Cool evenings, early darkness and an apron you can stand on without sweating. Sunset comes early enough in winter that a night flight is an early evening rather than a late one.
After dark
Night helicopter tour Las Vegas: the Strip lit, from $93
Three of the four Strip flights on this page are sold as night flights, and the review numbers explain why: 4,216 ratings between them against 452 for the daytime version. Las Vegas is a city built to be seen after dark, and eleven minutes above it is the cheapest genuinely memorable thing you can do here.
Quick answer
A night helicopter tour over Las Vegas costs from $93 for eleven to twelve minutes over the lit Strip. The cheapest is also the most-rated flight on this page, with 2,061 reviews at 4.6. The version with hotel pickup and drop-off is $103, which for ten dollars removes a taxi at each end and about an hour of your evening. The whole outing takes about ninety minutes.
Flying Las Vegas after dark, at a glance
- Cheapest night flight
- $9312 minutes, 2,061 reviews at 4.6
- The classic
- $9311 minutes, 1,938 reviews at 4.7
- With hotel transfers
- $10311 minutes, pickup and drop-off included
- Reviews across night flights
- 4,216against 452 for the daytime version
- Length of the Strip
- 6.8 kmflown twice in eleven minutes
- Whole evening
- About 90 minor two hours with transfers
- Best months
- Oct – Aprcooler air on the pad, and the same neon
- Cost per minute
- $7.75the cheapest minute on this page
- What you will not see
- The Grand Canyonthat is a daytime trip and a different flight
- Free cancellation
- All threeup to 24 hours before
What changes after dark
Why the night flight is the one almost everybody books
One ribbon of light with black desert on both sides of it.
The Strip becomes a single object. By day it is a row of large buildings beside a road. At night it is one continuous ribbon of light, six and a half kilometres long, with black desert on both sides and mountains behind. The contrast is what makes the photograph, and it is why the night listings have nine times the reviews of the daytime one.
The individual properties read better, not worse. The fountains, the beam going straight up from the pyramid at the south end, the towers with their own lighting schemes — at eight hundred feet these are close and legible in a way they are not from the pavement.
The desert is the surprise. The thing people mention afterwards is not a hotel. It is how abruptly the light stops: a hard edge, and then nothing at all for a hundred kilometres. You do not get that from the ground, and it is the clearest possible statement of what Las Vegas actually is.
Photography is harder. Through glass, at night, from a moving aircraft, with no tripod. A phone will produce smeared light. A camera that holds a fast shutter at high ISO will produce images nobody else on the flight has. Decide which you are before you board.
Booking a night flight
Five things to get right
The flight is short and the evening around it is not, which is where most of the mistakes happen.
- Check whether transfers are included
The two cheapest night flights do not include them. Ten dollars more buys a shuttle from your hotel and back, which is an hour of your evening and two taxis.
- Book earlier in the evening than you think
The first slots after dark are the busiest and the most reliable. Late slots run late more often, and the visit is ninety minutes whatever time you fly.
- Dress for the pad, not the cabin
You stand outside before boarding. In January that is genuinely cold; in July the apron still holds the day’s heat at ten at night.
- Nothing loose comes with you
Hats, bags and loose phones go into a locker. The rotor wash on an open apron is stronger than the photographs suggest.
- Do not book dinner tightly behind it
Ninety minutes from check-in, and evening slots slip more often than morning ones.
When to fly at night
What the month changes about a night flight
The neon is the same all year. What changes is the temperature on the pad and how early you can fly.
May
Still fine
Warm but not yet brutal, and the desert is at its clearest before the summer haze.
Sep
Cooling down
The heat breaks through the month and the evenings become pleasant again.
Jun – Aug
Hot, even at night
The pad holds the day’s heat long after dark and the cabin takes a few minutes to cool. Monsoon storms in July and August cancel slots at short notice. The flight itself is unaffected once you are in the air.
Daylight shows you something different, and one daytime listing guarantees a window seat.
All four Strip flights→Common questions
Night flights, answered
How much is a night helicopter tour in Las Vegas?
From $93 for twelve minutes over the lit Strip. With hotel pickup and drop-off included it is $103.
Is the night flight better than the day flight?
For most people, clearly. At night the Strip is one continuous ribbon of light with black desert on both sides; by day it is a row of buildings beside a road. The night listings carry 4,216 reviews against 452 for the daytime one.
What time do night flights leave?
After dark, which in Las Vegas means from about half past four in December to about half past eight in June. The earliest slots after sunset are the most reliable.
Can you see the Grand Canyon at night?
No. The canyon flights are daytime trips of two and a half to seven hours. The night flights are eleven to twelve minutes over the Strip and nothing else.
Is it cold?
On the pad in winter, yes. The cabin is heated and comfortable. In summer the reverse: the apron holds the day’s heat well into the night.
Will my phone photographs come out?
Usually not well. Through glass, at night, from a moving aircraft, a phone tends to produce smeared light. A camera that will hold a fast shutter at high ISO does much better.
Go deeper
More on flying from Las Vegas
The canyon
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.
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.
