Friday, July 11, 2014

Grand Canyon Helicopters - Do A Tour By Papillon Airways!

By Francis Sarmenta


When you plan your tour of the Grand Canyon National Park, you'll see many different tour options to choose from, but one of the best tour operators in the region is Papillon. Papillon, which operates out of Tusayan, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada, is the largest of all the Grand Canyon tour companies.

The tours that depart from Tusayan go to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and the ones that leave from Las Vegas go to the West Rim. The South Rim is too far from Las Vegas at 277 miles away, for choppers to make the flight, also the choppers do not fly from the West Rim to the South Rim. If you're going to be in Vegas and really want to take a chopper tour of the South Rim, you can, but you have to fly to the South Rim by plane first. As an added bonus, you get to see some amazing scenery during the airplane flight.

West Rim Helicopter Tours: Tours on Vegas-based Grand Canyon helicopters come in two flavors: landing tours and air-only flights. Both types of tours follow the same flight path so you see Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, Grand Cliffs Wash, Colorado River, and the Grand Canyon from the air. Air-only flights then head back, but landing tours set down at the Rim. The only place choppers can land at the Grand Canyon is the West Rim, so if you want a landing tour, you'll have to depart from Las Vegas.

You can pick a tour that lands at the top and lets you experience the West Rim's famous Glass Bridge (the Grand Canyon Skywalk), or you can land on the canyon floor and enjoy a picnic or a float trip down the Colorado River. The Skywalk is an amazing structure that is made from glass. It allows you to walk out to about 70 feet past the rim's edge, about 4,000 feet above the mighty Colorado. It's an experience you don't want to miss if you go to the Grand Canyon.

Helicopter Tours That Depart From The Las Vegas Strip: The Papillon tours have two departure sites in the Vegas metro area, one is from Boulder City and the other is from the Strip. All the tours come with complimentary shuttle service, but the tours that leave from the Strip treat you to a limo ride, while the ones that take off from Boulder City provide transportation on a shuttle bus. The tours that take off from the Strip are certainly more convenient and they also provide you with an aerial view of the Strip. They do cost more than the tours that leave from Boulder City , but that's because they offer better perks. If your budget allows it, choose a flight that takes off from the Strip.

Chopper Flights Of The South Rim: The South Rim Papillon tours are thirty or fifty minutes in length. The shorter tour gives you a fantastic aerial view of the scenery between the South and North rims. The long tour covers the South Rim, North Rim, and eastern border of the National Park. On the 50-minute flight, you will see many beautiful scenic views because the tour covers about 3/4 of the entire National Park.

Wrapping Up: Whether you go to the South Rim or the West Rim, you can find a tour with Papillon, the largest tour provider for the Grand Canyon National Park. If you choose a Las Vegas tour, you can fly over the canyon and return, or you can land at the canyon on top of the rim or at the bottom near the river. All South Rim flights are air-only. The South Rim tours begin at the airport in Tusayan, Arizona just outside the Park's main gates and they last thirty or fifty minutes. With Papillon, you're sure to have a great time no matter which tour you decide to take!




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