Grand Canyon South is comprised of more than 1.2 million acres of wilderness. That\’s a lot of ground to cover. However it\’s not impossible. Especially if you take a helicopter tour.

The South Rim is located in northern Arizona near the Utah border. It\’s the place to visit if you are starting out from Phoenix, Flagstaff, Williams or Sedona.

Air Only

South Rim helicopters are not allowed to fly below the rim and land on the bottom. It\’s banned by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Park Service.

If you want to fly to the bottom, you\’ll need to depart from Las Vegas, NV, and flights from there only go to the West Rim of the Canyon; there are no connecting flights between South and West.

South Rim flight tours are either 30 minutes or 50 minutes in length. The 30-minute one is your basic tour. It goes through the Dragoon Corridor, the widest, deepest section of the Canyon, before reaching the North Rim and turning back.

The Views!

The 50-minute flight does all this as well except it includes flying to the Park\’s east boundary before going to the North Rim and then the South Rim. Sights to be seen include Desert Watchtower, the Colorado River, Imperial Point and much more.

Personally, I prefer the 50-minute flight. I say this because once you\’ve completed this tour, you\’ll have seen nearly 75 percent of the entire National Park. That\’s quite an accomplishment considering the size of the Park.

The South Rim also has a number of great combo tours. The best is the helicopter and Jeep combo. It combines a 30-minute flight with a 3-hour Jeep tour. The Jeep segment is awesome and visits nearly all the key landmarks on the ground.

RSVP

Of course, these tours are extremely popular, even as we head into the fall travel season. I mention this because it\’s quite common for trips to be sold out. The way around this is to always book your flight at least a week or two in advance.

Further, do your best to purchase your tickets online. In addition to it being really easy and simple, it\’s also where the best prices are. And by \”best\” I mean savings upwards of 35 percent depending on the flight.

I also recommend that you try to get the deluxe versions of these flights. This is because they use only the EcoStar 130, which is a vastly superior aircraft compared to the ones used on the basic tours. The EcoStar, for example, has a cabin that\’s 20 percent larger, and its seats are configured stadium-style so every seat is a good one.

Conclusion

I hope this article about the Canyon\’s South Rim helicopter tours proved useful as you review your options. I personally am a huge fan of the 50-minute flight. Not only because it uses an EcoStar 130 helicopter, but also because you get to see up to 75 percent of the National Park. And on a final note: Do not wait until the last minute to book your flight. Do it at least 14 days in advance. That way you\’ll get the flight you want at the time you want.

Grand Canyon travel pro Luke Plunket is an expert on Vegas helicopter tours to the Canyon as well as these top trips over the South Rim: http://www.grandcanyonhelicopters.org/south-rim/

Grand Canyon travel pro Luke Plunket is an expert on these Vegas helicopter tours to the Canyon http://www.grandcanyonhelicopters.org/las-vegas/ as well as these top trips over the South Rim: http://www.grandcanyonhelicopters.org/south-rim/

Author Bio: Grand Canyon travel pro Luke Plunket is an expert on Vegas helicopter tours to the Canyon as well as these top trips over the South Rim: http://www.grandcanyonhelicopters.org/south-rim/

Category: Travel
Keywords: grand canyon helicopters, las vegas helicopters, grand canyon tours, grand canyon flights, south rim