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Submitted by: Rhegie Taylor
The Memorial Day Holiday Week is coming up quick and one of the best things you can do during that time is to take a Grand Canyon South Rim helicopter tour. Trips will be running on a regular schedule but make sure you RSVP in advance so you get the best seats at the cheapest price.
Getting There
The South Rim is located in northern Arizona, about 3.5 hours from Phoenix, 2 hours from Sedona, 1 hour from Flagstaff and 5.5 hours from Las Vegas. To be even more exact, the airport is located in the town of Tusayan, which is just outside the front gates of the National Park.
I strongly recommend you RSVP at least a week ahead of time. I do not recommend booking your 24 hours prior to your desired date of departure. In nearly all cases, last-minute bookings result in higher prices (much higher!) and sold out flights. This situation can be avoided simply by planning ahead and booking online.
There are no landing tours at the South Rim. Only no-landing aerial tours. If you want landing tours that land on the bottom or land on the top or both you have to take a tour from Las Vegas. Unfortunately, there are no flights between the South Rim and Las Vegas so you’ll have to self-drive to Vegas.
Types of Tours
From South Rim, you can do a 30-minute or 50-minute no-landing tour. Both go through the Dragoon Corridor, the widest, deepest section of the Canyon. And, in the case of the 30-minute flight, you start from the South Rim and go straight to the North Rim and back to the airport.
The 50-minute tour does everything the 30-minute tour does plus it includes everything up to the East Rim. There’s more than 1-million acres of wilderness at the Park and if you take the 50-flight you’ll see up to 75 percent of it. That’s incredible when you consider you’ll do that in under and hour!
Basic or Deluxe?
South Rim flights come in basic and deluxe versions. The big difference is the helicopter. Deluxe packages use the superior EcoStar 130 while basic packages use the older A-Star and Bell Ranger. I recommend going deluxe, especially because of the EcoStar, which comes with a 180-degree wraparound window and stadium-style seats.
Finally, there are South Rim tours that combine a 30-minute flight with a 2-hour Jeep tour. The flight goes South Rim to North Rim and back. Then you transfer to a Jeep and do 2 hours of sightseeing in the Park. I really like this package because on the Jeep you have a guide who will take you to the best spots and lookouts and give you an overview of what you are experiencing.
Conclusion
I hope this article about South Rim Grand Canyon Helicopter tours for the Memorial Day Holiday proved helpful. Please remember that helicopter tours are super popular so you’ve got to book them in advance. And by booking ahead of time, you’ll also get a lower price and guaranteed seats. Personally, I love all these packages, but my favorite is the 50-minute tour, because once you’ve done it you’ve see as much of the Park as you humanly can in under one hour.
About the Author: The author is a Grand Canyon expert and recommends going here for the best
South Rim helicopter
tours and here for ones that depart from Las Vegas:
grandcanyonhelicopters.org/las-vegas/
Source:
isnare.com
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