Las Vegas Airplane Tour Gets You to Grand Canyon South Rim in 45 Minutes

If you can be at Grand Canyon South Rim from Las Vegas in 45 minutes, why would you be satisfied with 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.

Too many times I've read posts on popular travel forums like Trip Advisor and Virtual Tourist wherein visitors drop the South Rim because they don't want to endure the bus trip. Don't. Take the airplane tour and do the 270-mile trek in under and hour. It's the trip of a lifetime that lets you experience all the Canyon has to offer while returning you to Vegas in the 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.

The bus will then return to the Airport, where you'll board for your return flight to Las Vegas. Or, if you've upgraded your package, you'll step inside a helicopter and take off over the South Rim, where you'll see sheer cliffs, red spires, soaring condors, secret canyons, and the North Rim. This aerial tour is guaranteed to give your South Rim "ground time" extra significance.

Taking an airplane trip like Papillon's Grand Canyon Deluxe to the South Rim is the quickest way to enjoy the most famous part of the Canyon. 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 really "see" the South Rim, book a Grand Canyon airplane tour" by Papillon.