Compared
Skywalk or helicopter? If you can only do one at Grand Canyon West
They are sold together, they cost roughly the same, and they are almost opposites. One is twenty-one metres of glass and about ten minutes of your life. The other is forty-five minutes in the air and, on some listings, twenty minutes standing on the canyon floor. If the budget only stretches to one, here is the honest answer.
Quick answer
If you can only do one, take the helicopter — and specifically a landing tour. The Skywalk is a genuinely odd sensation for about thirty seconds and then it is a good view of a canyon, which you can also get by standing at the rim ten metres away, without the queue and without leaving your camera in a locker. The helicopter landing tour at $470 puts you on the canyon floor beside the Colorado River and carries 1,164 reviews at 4.9 — the highest score of the twelve listings here. Take the Skywalk if time, rather than money, is your binding constraint.
The two, side by side
- Skywalk, what it is
- A glass walkwayprojecting ~21 m past the rim at Eagle Point
- Helicopter, what it is
- A flight45 minutes each way, with or without a landing
- Skywalk with a flight
- $6012.5 hours door to door, queue skipped
- Helicopter with a landing
- $4702-2.5 hours, 20-30 min on the canyon floor
- Time on the Skywalk
- About 10 minand no photographs of your own
- Time on the canyon floor
- 20–30 minwith champagne, on the landing tours
- Cameras on the Skywalk
- Not permittedphones and cameras go into a locker
- Reviews, Skywalk express
- 567 at 4.8a strong listing
- Reviews, landing tour
- 1,164 at 4.9the best-rated flight on this page
- Both are at
- Grand Canyon Westnot the national park
What each one is actually like
Thirty strange seconds against twenty minutes at the bottom
A sensation, or a place. Both are real; one of them stays with people.
The Skywalk. You put on shoe covers, leave your camera in a locker, and walk out onto glass with several hundred metres of air under it. The first half-minute is a real physical sensation — most people describe a jolt when they look down. Then it settles, and you are looking at a canyon from a glass platform instead of from the rock beside it. The queue can be an hour on a busy afternoon.
The helicopter landing. Forty-five minutes over the Mojave, the moment the ground falls away at the rim, and then the descent between the walls into the canyon itself. On the floor the rotors wind down and there is the river, the wind and eleven hundred metres of rock on both sides. Twenty to thirty minutes, usually with champagne.
The difference in the reviews is not subtle. The Skywalk express carries 567 ratings at 4.8, which is a good listing. The landing tour carries 1,164 at 4.9, which is the best-evidenced and best-rated flight on this page.
When to pick each
Four situations
It comes down to which constraint is actually binding.
- Money is the constraint
Neither, yet — take a Strip flight at $93 and save the canyon for a trip where you can do it properly. It is a genuinely good evening for a fifth of the cost.
- Time is the constraint
The Skywalk express at $601, two and a half hours door to door. It is the fastest way to stand at the Grand Canyon at all from Las Vegas.
- You want the thing you will describe for years
The landing tour at $470. Standing at the bottom is not a better view; it is a different category of experience.
- You are travelling with someone who is nervous of heights
The helicopter, oddly. A glass floor over a drop is a much more direct confrontation than an enclosed cabin, and several people who enjoyed the flight could not step onto the Skywalk.
Both are at Grand Canyon West. Here is what that is, and how it differs from the national park.
West Rim or South Rim→Common questions
Skywalk or helicopter, answered
Is the Skywalk or a helicopter tour better?
The helicopter, for most people, and especially a landing tour: the reviews bear it out at 1,164 ratings and 4.9 against 567 and 4.8. The Skywalk is the better choice only if time rather than money is your binding constraint.
Can you do both?
Yes — several West Rim listings include the Skywalk as an option at checkout, and the Skywalk express at $601 combines the flight with priority access.
Why can you not photograph the Skywalk yourself?
Phones and cameras go into a locker before you step onto the glass, partly to protect the surface and partly because the operator sells the photographs.
Is the Skywalk scary?
For about thirty seconds, for most people. It is glass over several hundred metres of air, and that is the point of it.
Which one has better reviews?
The helicopter landing tour, at 4.9 from 1,164 reviews — the highest score of the twelve listings on this site. The Skywalk express sits at 4.8 from 567.
Are both at the same place?
Yes, both are at Grand Canyon West on Hualapai tribal land in Arizona, about 200 kilometres from Las Vegas.
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.
