#1 Way From Las Vegas To Grand Canyon South Is By Airplane

If you can be at Grand Canyon South Rim from Las Vegas in 45 minutes, why would you settle for a 5.5 hour tour bus ride?

The flight is offered daily by Papillon and costs less than $200 a person. If you purchase on the company's website, you get up to 40 percent off the retail price. This trip includes hotel pick up and drop off, lunch, and a short bus trip to Grand Canyon Village.

How is it possible to make this superb air package even better? The answer is YES. How? Add a thrilling helicopter ride and you just locked down an adventure that travelers are calling the Canyon's "super-trip." The helicopter is a 30-minute ride that soars across the pine-covered South Rim and into the Canyon's famous Dragoon Corridor, which is the widest, deepest part of the Canyon.

I've read a lot of posts on forums like Trip Advisor and Virtual Tourist in which travelers put the South Rim on their "to-do" list, only to scratch it off because the bus ride is too time-consuming. Papillon's airplane tour changes that by completing the 270-mile trip in under an hour! In other words, get ready to enjoy all the South Rim has to offer and be back on The Strip by late afternoon.

This company uses a private fleet of Vistaliner fixed-wing aircraft for these trips. Built for sightseeing and comfort, each aircraft features over-sized windows (great for taking pictures and shooting video), climate-controlled cabins, and lounge-style seating. Taped narrations in multiple languages are available via personal headset. The flight is quiet, too, as turbine engines instead of rotor ones power these planes.

The pilots who fly Papillon's airplanes and helicopters are first-rate. Before they make one take-off, they must pass the company's rigorous entrance exam and take additional annual re-certification exams. Lastly, each plane is flown by two pilots, a Captain and a first officer, both of whom know every nook and cranny of the Grand Canyon's airspace.

The plane lands in Tusayan, AZ, at the Grand Canyon Airport, which is several miles away from the main entrance to the National Park. You'll board a bus and drive to the South Rim's key viewing points before coming to Bright Angle Lodge for souvenirs and snacks.

Back at the airport, you will board your plane back to Las Vegas or transfer to a helicopter for your flight over the South Rim. This heli tour is spectacular giving you incredible views of the Rim's unique landscape and the Canyon itself with its sheer cliffs, red spires, and the North Rim. Most people say the helicopter tour gives their ground tour extra significance.

The Grand Canyon airplane tour, specifically Papillon's Grand Canyon Deluxe, is the fastest way to get to the South Rim, the most famous part of the National Park. The beauty of the airplane from Las Vegas is it takes 45 minutes to arrive versus 5.5 hours by bus, making this trip perfect for travelers with limited time and want to do the South Rim comfortably in a day. This tour allows a helicopter flight upgrade, which gives you a bird's eye view of the Canyon that you've explored by foot. If you want to cover the Grand Canyon from the ground up and do it in a way that gets you back to Vegas by day's end, take an airplane tour. It's the only way to go to the South Rim.