The 4 Best Grand Canyon Airplane Tours from Las Vegas

What are the best airplane tours to the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas? Your super detailed guide to the 4 very best airplane day-tours to the Grand Canyon departing from Las Vegas with my reviews and all pros and cons of each tour. Flight over Grand Canyon West: the shortest and cheapest of all Grand Canyon scenic flights from Las Vegas. Grand Canyon West airplane, heli and bus tour: one of the most exciting and adrenaline-pumping of all the air tours to the Grand Canyon. South Rim Grand Canyon airplane tour: a scenic flight plus a bus tour to the impressive South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park, the most beautiful and spectacular part of the Grand Canyon. Remote North Rim Grand Canyon airplane and 4WD/ATV tour: an adventure reserved for a few, and a destination that makes the difference, the North Rim, the least visited of all areas of the Grand Canyon. A comparison and detailed description of the 4 best tours you can book in Las Vegas to go to the Grand Canyon by airplane, with my considerations, some suggestions, all the important things you need to know before choosing and direct links to book online by credit card.

Photo Credit: Maverick Airlines

What are the Best Airplane Tours to the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas?

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The 4 Best Grand Canyon Airplane Tours from Las Vegas

Are you in Las Vegas and want to book an airplane tour to the Grand Canyon? Do you have doubts whether to choose a tour to Grand Canyon West, the South Rim at the Grand Canyon National Park or the remote and unspoiled North Rim of the Grand Canyon?

I have selected tens of airplane tours to the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas and have chosen 4 different tours. These are not the only ones you can book but in my opinion they are among the best and most complete airplane tours to the Grand Canyon available on the market and departing from Vegas.

The 4 best Grand Canyon airplane tours from Las Vegas: flight over Grand Canyon West airplane tour from Las Vegas, Grand Canyon West airplane + helicopter + Colorado River boat + bus tour from Las Vegas, South Rim Grand Canyon National Park by air from Las Vegas including airplane + Hummer tour, and finally remote North Rim Grand Canyon airplane + 4WD/ATV tour from Las Vegas.

All the tours described below include the journey from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon and back by plane instead of by bus, saving several hours on the road. The first tour is cheap and involves only flying over the Grand Canyon, without landing and immediately returning to Las Vegas. The other tours instead include – once arrived – a visit to the Grand Canyon with a shuttle bus and on foot, or by helicopter, or even by ATV or 4WD off-road vehicle.

You can book all these tours easily by credit card through Viator and Get Your Guide, for the great majority of tours you get instant confirmation, while for some, tour confirmation is subject to availability and will be given within 48 hours of your booking.

Please take into consideration that all scenic flights to the Grand Canyon do NOT depart from McCarran International Airport, Vegas’s main airport. Depending on which airline you use, you take off from two secondary airports: Henderson Executive Airport located about 11 miles South of Downtown Las Vegas or the more distant Boulder City Municipal Airport, 26 miles East of the Strip. However, all companies include complimentary transfers with their own transport to and from your Vegas hotel.

For last, if you want to visit the Grand Canyon and looking for a cheaper tour please read The 5 Best Bus and 4WD Tours to Grand Canyon from Las Vegas (with Pros and Cons), my technical reviews of the most interesting and value for money bus day tours from Vegas to both Grand Canyon West and the South Rim at Grand Canyon National Park.

Photo Credit: Christian Lendl

Flight Over Grand Canyon West Airplane Tour from Las Vegas

It is the least expensive of all Grand Canyon scenic flights from Las Vegas, not because it is the ugliest but for the very simple reason that it involves the one and pure overflight of the Grand Canyon aboard the plane, without landing anywhere but the same airport where you originally took off.

As there are no entrance tickets to the Grand Canyon to pay, no lunch, no on-site visits by bus and other optional activities, the price remains extremely low.

Your scenic flight has as its destination Grand Canyon West, the lowest (downstream) section of the Grand Canyon and the closest one to Las Vegas. During the flight you get stunning aerial views of Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and the Colorado River. The airline for this tour is Grand Canyon Airlines.

Duration of the tour: panoramic flight lasts between 60 and 70 minutes, the entire tour with departure and return to the center of Las Vegas takes about 4 hours.

Your airplane: Grand Canyon Airlines operates its tours with the De Havilland Twin Otter Vistaliner, twin-engine, 19 seats, 3 seats per row, one on the left side and two on the right side, unpressurized cabin. You have two out of three possibilities to sit directly next to the window. One very imporant thing: Vistaliner offers the largest and most generous windows of any other aircrafts actually used for Grand Canyon airplane tours.

Price includes: return airport transportation in Las Vegas + scenic flight over Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and Grand Canyon West.

Pros: the very affordable price.

Cons: there are two. The first one is that you fly over a beautiful part of the Grand Canyon but not its most grandiose section, which is located at the South Rim instead. The second is that unlike other more expensive tours you do NOT land at the Grand Canyon, so you can only see the canyon from the window of the plane.

Recommended: if you want to take the pleasure out of flying a small plane over the Grand Canyon for as little money as possible.

Price and bookings: GetYourGuide | From Las Vegas: Grand Canyon West Rim Airplane Tour

Another option: the same tour is offered by Viator of the TripAdvisor family, see Viator | Grand Canyon West Rim Airplane Air Tour, compare prices, book the tour that most inspires you.

Photo Credit: Maverick Airlines

Grand Canyon West Airplane + Helicopter + Boat + Bus Tour: The Grand Voyager Rim to River Tour from Las Vegas

It’s known as the Ultimate 4-in-1 Grand Canyon Tour. And if budget isn’t an issue then this tour has its spectacularity. Indeed it is one of the most exciting and adrenaline-pumping of all the tours presented in this short guide.

From Las Vegas with a first scenic flight by plane you reach Grand Canyon West. Upon arrival at our West Rim terminal, a helicopter will fly you down to the very bottom of the Grand Canyon, nearly a mile below the surface. Here a pontoon boat awaits to cruise up the Colorado River between the ancient stone walls of the canyon. Back at the rim, now you start the land portion of the tour. Board a shuttle bus to the two only viewpoints of this area of the Grand Canyon: Eagle Point and the most beautiful Guano Point, if time permits and there have been no delays you can walk up to the rocky spur that overlooks the edge of the Grand Canyon. With the shuttle bus you return to the Grand Canyon West Airport for your second scenic flight back to Vegas.

In Grand Canyon West if you wish you can add the infamous Skywalk option, it comes at a cost and it’s not necessarily a good idea, see below my considerations. The airline for this tour is Grand Canyon Airlines.

Duration of the tour: about 7 hours; of which 35-40 minutes each way is the flight time to reach the Grand Canyon West Airport by plane and return to Las Vegas; 5 minutes per way is the helicopter flight time to the bottom of the canyon where you spend about 15/20 minutes aboard the boat cruising the Colorado River; the rest is absorbed by the shuttle bus land tour to the viewpoints, in the (sometimes relatively long) waits before embarking and in the transfers from and to your Vegas hotel.

Your airplane: Grand Canyon Airlines generally uses Twin Otter Vistaliner with 19 passenger seats + 2 crew, configuration 1-2; for flights to Grand Canyon West sometimes Grand Canyon Airlines prefers the smaller and slower single-engined 9-seat Cessna Grand Caravan 208; the helicopters used in Grand Canyon West are usually Ecostar.

Price includes: return transfers in Vegas + scenic flights to and from Grand Canyon West Airport + helicopter flights to the bottom of Grand Canyon + boat cruise + Indian managed shuttle bus land tour to Guano Point and Eagle Point lookouts. Admission to the Skywalk are excluded, unless you select it.

Pros: you admire the Grand Canyon from three different perspectives. First from a small plane, then with the helicopter you enter the canyon and land on the bottom, lastly you see it again from the top of the two viewpoints. A complete experience.

Cons: there are three. One is the cost, certainly high and beyond the reach of many. The second aspect to consider is that at Grand Canyon West the environment is less cared for than at the South Rim inside the Grand Canyon National Park. Grand Canyon West is very commercial and super touristy. There are markets and souvenir shops, an arena for shows and Indian tents, all recreated in a so-so way, the prices are high and not a few find it a little sad. And the last one: the canyon at Grand Canyon West is certainly spectacular but it doesn’t quite reach the extraordinary beauty and grandeur of the South Rim.

The Skywalk option: if you want you can add the Skywalk option but frankly I don’t know whether to recommend it: the two plane flights from and to Vegas, and above all the helicopter descent to the bottom of the Grand Canyon reserve far more exciting views than those of the Skywalk. Other thing to consider is that the Skywalk also takes away precious time, there are often queues, time you can dedicate instead to Guano Point, the most scenic and exciting of the two Grand Canyon West overlooks. Remember that in high season and in the central hours of the day there are also lines to board the shuttle buses.

Recommended: if you can afford it, the experience of the helicopter descent with landing at the bottom of the Grand Canyon is worth the cost of the tour.

Price and bookings: Viator | Grand Canyon West Rim Flightseeing Tour with Optional Heli, Boat and Skywalk

Photo Credit: Michael Kirsh

South Rim Grand Canyon National Park by Air from Las Vegas including Airplane + Hummer Tour

A magnificent excursion from Las Vegas. Your destination is the impressive South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park, the most beautiful and spectacular part of the Grand Canyon.

From Vegas you reach the Grand Canyon with a scenic flight, with great views of Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, the Colorado River, and the Grand Canyon, saving you the necessary long hours of road travel by land. Touch down at the South Rim and meet your tour guide for a Hummer tour through the Grand Canyon National Park. Your open-air Hummer vehicle will make several stops at some of the most famous lookout points, which may include Mother Point, Yavapai Point, and Moran Point. After the Hummer tour, you’ll transfer back to the air terminal for your return flight and complimentary shuttle service to your hotel in Las Vegas. All transfers and picnic lunch are included.

At the South Rim you have the option of adding a helicopter flight but frankly, as explained below, it’s not necessarily worth it. If you book this tour between July and September I strongly suggest you leave in the morning when the weather is more stable and there are less chances of thunderstorms.

Duration of the tour: 9 to 10 hours from/to the center of Las Vegas; of these the flight time is about 1 hour for each leg and the useful time available at the South Rim is about 3 hours; the rest goes in the transfers between the hotel in Las Vegas and the airport and the waits to board at the two airports.

Your airplane: if you are headed to the South Rim you usually fly aboard one of the Grand Canyon Airlines Twin Otter Vistaliner with 19 passenger seats + 2 crew or configuration 1-2; only sometimes you flight aboard the smaller and slower Cessna Grand Caravan 208.

Price includes: airport transfers + scenic flight from Vegas to Tusayan Airport located at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park + two-hour Hummer tour of the Grand Canyon + Grand Canyon National Park entrance ticket + picnic lunch.

Pros: well, a part the exceptional beauty of the South Rim there are differen; first you save the 5 hours of travel each way of the land route required to reach the South Rim from Las Vegas; second you take a double panoramic flight both outward and return; for last, in summer if you choose the morning departure you are back to Vegas by mid-afternoon having time for a swim in the pool and calmly go out for dinner and enjoy the evening on the Strip.

Cons: this is an expensive tour; you only have 3 hours at the Grand Canyon and you need to be aware of this before booking.

The Heli option at the South Rim: there are pros and cons, the latter superior to the former in my opinion. The pros are 1) you have an extra experience and 2) with the helicopter you fly over a part of the Grand Canyon other than the one you fly over by plane, you practically cross the most central and deep section of all of the Grand Canyon. Regarding the cons: 1) the price, as the supplement requested is really huge and significantly changes the order of magnitude of how much you spend in total for the tour 2) here you are inside the national park area and the helicopter flights are strictly regulated, unlike what happens in Grand Canyon West here at the South Rim you do not fly below the edge of the canyon nor land on the bottom, it is strictly forbidden 3) take the heli means above all to drastically reduce the free time you have available at the South Rim.

Recommended: if you are in Vegas, you are tight with the times and want to see the real Grand Canyon by going effortlessly from Las Vegas with a pleasant scenic flight.

Do not forget: a fleece, even in the height of summer, it can be useful both on board the plane and on the ground at the almost 7,000 feet of altitude of the South Rim; in winter, heavy fleece and thermal/waterproof jacket required.

Price and bookings: Viator | Grand Canyon South Rim Air and Ground Tour from Las Vegas

Photo Credit: Bar 10 Ranch

Remote North Rim Grand Canyon Airplane + 4WD/ATV Tour from Las Vegas

No tourists and crowded viewpoints. No roads and no buses. No Indian junk and amusement park with commercial atmosphere. You won’t find shops here, the closest is almost 100 miles away…

This is an adventure reserved for a few, not because it’s expensive, it is not, it’s cheaper of other excursions presented here. It is the destination that makes the difference, and here is the North Rim, the least visited of all areas of the Grand Canyon.

Your destination is Bar 10 Ranch, still a real working cattle ranch with 10,000 acres of land owned, located in a remote and wild valley along the northern edge of the Grand Canyon just downstream from the Toroweap Overlook. The whole area is completely uninhabited and can only be reached by flight or with a long and sometimes treacherous 70 miles dirt road.

It takes 45 minutes of panoramic flight from Las Vegas to arrive, once you land on the ranch’s private strip you will be greeted by a real cowboy (it is not a game for tourists, here the beast is really there, among horses and cows there are hundreds of heads). Then aboard a 4WD led by the guide or driving your own ATV you leave in the direction of the nearby North Rim following a magnificent rocky and sandy path. The destination is a solitary and secluded viewpoint high above the Colorado River.

One of the very few places in the Grand Canyon that if you want you can live as a protagonist instead of a passenger. Without a doubt the most fabulous and unusual of all the tours presented here.

Duration of the tour: 7 to 8 hours, departure around 8 in the morning, sometimes earlier, return by mid-afternoon.

Your airplane: Grand Canyon Airlines flights to Bar 10 Ranch are operated with 19-seat twin-engine De Havilland Twin Otter Vistaliner or 9-seat single-engine Cessna Caravan.

Price includes: both airport transfers in Vegas + panoramic flight to Bar 10 Ranch private strip + approximately 4 hours in total on site for the excursion to the edge of the North Rim followed by lunch at Bar 10 Ranch; the latter consists of a tasty BBQ beef sandwich prepared with meat from the cattle of the ranch and accompanied by potatoes, fresh salad and homemade chocolate-chip cookies; not including tips, it will be really hard for you to spend any more money, no shops here!

Pros: you go to a remote place, a place out of this world, far from any tourist route, completely unknown to the millions of visitors to the South Rim and Grand Canyon West. Americans included. No more than twenty external visitors are allowed to access it daily.

Cons: none, not even the price, there is no other tour to the Grand Canyon that gives the opportunity to admire the spectacle of the Colorado gorge in silence, up close and in the most solemn way.

Good to know: if you want to drive the ATV yourself, at least 16 years old plus a compulsory driving license.

Recommended: if you have already seen the South Rim or Grand Canyon West and now you are looking for the most authentic Grand Canyon; if you want to experience the atmosphere of places where nature is extreme; if you want to have in front of your eyes the same Grand Canyon that appeared to the first explorers, away from buses and other tourists.

Price and bookings: Viator | Grand Canyon North Rim Air and Ground Tour with Optional ATV Ride

Video: Bar 10 Ranch and the North Rim Grand Canyon tour taking off from Boulder Municipal Airport aboard the Twin Otter Vistaliner of Grand Canyon Airlines in these images by Kevin Williamson; the passage on the Hoover Dam is at minute 1’03”, the private strip of Bar 10 Ranch appears at minute 2’12”, at minute 2’44” the ATV excursion begins on the dusty dirt road that leads to the North Rim and at 3’50” you reach the panoramic point; the film ends with images of the ranch; keep in mind that the video also features very close-up images of the much farther South Rim and even a short shot of Angels Landing in Zion, two places that you clearly do not see during this tour:

Important Things to Know About Grand Canyon Airplane Tours from Las Vegas

Grand Canyon airplane tours from Las Vegas depart every day, all year round, weather permitting. At the time of booking you can choose between different time slots. The tour to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is only operating from April to mid-November.
For some tours, the first departure very early in the morning (Early Bird) has a lower cost than the departures of the rest of the day, if you travel alone it changes little but if you are with the family the difference is immediately noticeable.

Pilots and guides speak English, individual headsets with audio guide and narration in multiple languages are available on board planes and helicopters.
It is necessary to indicate the weight of each participant at the time of booking, do not cheat. The day of the tour a photo ID identification or passport is mandatory, if you forget it, no tour and no refund.
Before booking read the full description of the Grand Canyon airplane tour you like in the official page of Viator and GetYourGuide carefully, please check what is included and what is not, meeting points, times of departure and cancellation policies. After booking, if you have any queries or doubts, immediately contact Viator or GetYourGuide Customer Service in order to receive assistance.

The day before the tour, please reconfirm the pick-up time with the local supplier. You receive phone and email of local supplier of the tour immediately after your booking. Maybe your hotel can help.

Always read the reviews of the tours. If the majority of the reviews are positive that’s a good thing. And always check all the info you read here in the official page of each tour, things change and the official site provides the latest updates.

Last Update: November 11th 2023

Front cover photo credit: Toroweap Lookout, North Rim, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, courtesy of John Fowler