Review of Papillon's Las Vegas Helicopter Tours to Grand Canyon

Papillon Helicopters is renowned for it's Grand Canyon South Rim tours. I was in charge of the family's canyon trip this holiday season. Obviously, I booked with Papillon. Here's a quick review of my trip:

There were six of us. We stayed at El Tovar in Grand Canyon Village, which is located in the boundaries of the National Park. I strongly recommend this hotel. It can be expensive, but it's worth every penny as you are seconds from the rim's edge.

I believe you can make arrangements with Papillon Helicopters to be picked up. If not, you are able to set up a pick up at the transportation desk within the Bright Angel Lodge. I leased a Chevy Tahoe for the trip. I loaded the gang inside and made the 10-minute trip to Grand Canyon Airport.

The airport is located just outside Tusayan. It's hard to miss it. There's a lot of activity. Helicopters and planes arrive and depart from it often. The Papillon air terminal is the largest. I parked the SUV and got us checked in (incidentally, the coffee there is delicious!).

The atmosphere is quite friendly. I met lots of people from Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The main receiving area is comfortable. We had been up late last night so I slipped in a power nap. I awoke to my sister tugging on my coat and telling me it was time to fly.

Helis hold up to six people (if you weigh more than 275 pounds you could be asked to buy what they call a "comfort seat."). As this was family, I upgraded all of us to the EcoStar 130, which comes with 25% more cabin room, theater-style seating, and a 180-degree wraparound windshield for better views.

I also reserved us on the longer flight. Papillon Helicopter's standard South Rim helicopter flight is 30 minutes. That's plenty for most people. I estimate that what you see in half an hour would take a few days on the ground. But I wanted more (it's not every day someone flies the Grand Canyon), so I went with a tour that gave us between 45-50 minutes of airtime.

Take off was phenomenal. Our helicopter, nose forward, blasted off the runway making a low-altitude flight over Kaibab National Forest, which hosts the biggest stand of Ponderosa Pine in the world. In ten minutes, we said good-bye to the edge and found ourselves front and center in the Dragoon Corridor, the widest ,deepest section of the canyon.

It was an incredible sight. The Colorado River was below us. So was the Temple of Ra. The buttes and spires were unreal. There were no clouds on the horizon. Our pilot explained that our visibility was about 140 miles compared to 30 for people on the ground! The helicopter powered towards the stately North Rim. Here we turned back, enjoying Hopi Point and Grand Canyon Village while we made our descent.

Papillon Helicopters documents all flights using video cameras on the exterior and interior of the chopper. Make sure you purchase a copy of your trip on DVD. I did. The quality was great. I made duplicates for all of us. They loved it. Definitely a great memento of our heli tour.

Papillon Helicopters Grand Canyon National Park tour gets two thumbs up from us. It was a tour of the South Rim. I'm glad we did the prolonged flight. The extra airtime was worth every penny. Our pilot was fantastic and amused us with facts and anecdotes of the area. He made the canyon come alive for us. This was definitely a trip highlight for my family and me. We'll undoubtedly do this air tour again.

Mr. Kravitz is a travel writer who reviews Grand Canyon tours. Go here for his latest review of Papillon Helicopters and his Top 3 air tour operators.