Include Grand Canyon Skywalk During A Trip To Vegas?

The Grand Canyon glass walkway is amongst the canyon's most well-known tourist attractions. Located at the edge of the West Rim, the walkway enables you to walk past the edge and directly into the abyss. The moment is utterly gravity defying. Do this once and you can scratch piloting the space shuttle off your bucket list.

Tours to the glass bridge leave daily from Las Vegas. Transportation includes chopper, aeroplane, and motorcoach. Trips are all-inclusive and come with hotel pick up and drop off, lunch, and a expert guide. Excursions vary from half a day to a full day with rates starting at $120 per person.

The bridge is the centerpiece of the Grand Canyon Sky Walk complex, which on completion will boast a movie theater, gift shop, several dining establishments, and a VIP lounge. The complex itself sits amid a 9,000-acre area called Grand Canyon West. The Hualapai Indians own this land and when it's developed will feature hotels, restaurants, a golf course, and a cable car to the bottom!

The glass walkway runs 70 feet beyond the lip of the rim. It's a exhilarating experience knowing that the one thing standing between you and the base 4,000 feet below is a panel of glass. Breath deeply before looking down. I recommend holding the glass railing if you are prone to vertigo.

The Sky Walk is a technical miracle. The $30 million Skywalk is consists of 46 panels of Saint-Gobain Diamant low iron glass and Dupont SentryGlas. The railings are made from the same hybrid substance but use fewer layers so it can be bent to follow the bridge's u-shaped curvature. The deck panels are reported to have cost $250,000 each.

Engineers have developed the walkway to resist the harshest physical conditions, including Magnitude 8 earthquakes and winds over 100 mph. It can hold up to 71 jumbo jets at the same time. Put in a different way, it can accommodate 800 people at one time (maximum occupancy is 120).

There are lots of Grand Canyon glass walkway tours from Las Vegas. A lot of them allow you to add side-trips. The most popular are:

1. Helicopter ride to the bottom

It's a 4,000-foot descent through surreal buttes, spires, and ravines. Land on the bottom. Enjoy a Champagne picnic lunch. Check out the base.

2. Heli to the base with boat

This trip extends the helicopter trip to include a smooth-water float trip down the Colorado River.

The West Rim is the only area in the canyon where one can ride a chopper to the floor and land. There aren't any air tours between the West Rim and the National Park. If you want a South Rim heli trip, you have to take a 45-minute airplane trip from Las Vegas then transfer to a heli at Grand Canyon Airport.

More than 200,000 people go to Skywalk each year. Purchase your Skywalk tour as far ahead of time as you possibly can. Never ever pay full retail price. To get the best deal, shop the web. I've come across prices cut by as much as 35 percent. Avoid finishing your web booking over the telephone. Commissioned sales people are on the other end of the line and it's their job to sell you a tour at the highest price possible.

The Grand Canyon glass walkway is a world-class destination. No trip to Vegas is finished without having seeing it. There are many ways to get there, including helicopter, plane, and coach. Reduce costs by selecting tours online. People do self-drive to the Skywalk. I don't recommend it. The final 10 miles is unpaved dirt road and needs an SUV. Getting to the glass bridge is worth the effort. As I say, "Don't see the Grand Canyon, Skywalk it!"