Grand Canyon Tour - Advise

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upearly

Cathlete
Happy New Year All !!

My family of 5 is planning a trip to Las Vegas ! This will be our first trip to Vegas !! We want to do Hoover dam and the Grand Canyon. There is so much on the internet about trips, I was wondering if anyone here had any advise. Some of the trips are pretty pricy, and with there being 5 of us... I am not sure of the plane rides... I am don't think I will do well on a small plane flying through the canyon. Thought about the train, maybe the hiking tour... Any advise would be great !!
Thanks
Annette
 
I would hike. My friend took the plane tour from Vegas and was very disappointed. She wished she had done a ground tour instead. I live in AZ and enjoy going up there in the off season. You can hike the rim trails (level) and get wonderful views, or go more adventurous and go down the South Kaibab or Bright Angel a ways and come back up. There are trails on both the north and south rims. The train from Williams would be good during high season because you would get right in the park without a long wait at the entrance station.
Beth
 
We went during the high season and were very disapointed with the crowds. Wish we had gone to the North Rim.

I hear to get on the mule rides you need to book long in advance as with the river rafting.

We did a small hikes. I think the full is extremely strenous. The kids were 12 and 9 at the time. We enjoyed that a lot. Sedona is a very eclectic place but if you go slide rock is a blast! We spent a full day there. Also Mesa Verde is great!
 
I went a great tour one day tour of the Canyon when I visit Vegas. They picked us up at our hotel and drove to the canyon (with a short stop at the hoover dam) and let us wander around for a 4-5 hours and then back to Vegas. It was around $100.00 but I saw them for LOTS more.

It was great and only took one day out of out Vegas vacation. I do want to return to the Canyon for some actual hiking into the canyon

KIM
 
Kim,
This sounds like something we could do ! We are in Vegas for a week, the kids are ages 9,11,17. Do you remember the name of the tour guide. There seems to be 100's of them. Has anybody ever done a flat bottom river raft ?? Those look pretty neat !!
Thanks for all the imput !! This is very helpful !!
Happy New Year !!
Annette
 
Question for Beth: When is the "off season"? Or when do you recommend is the best time to go?

Thanks!
 
The really off season is Dec to Feb, becuase that is when they open the whole rim road to cars. The rest of the year you can only drive a short portion and must take a shuttle to see the rest. But November isn't too crowded and its a little warmer then. Here is a website that gives a lot of info:
http://www.nps.gov/grca/grandcanyon/
Also the Desert View (east) entrance and road is less crowded and open all the time. That's where they went on the Amazing Race this season (except for the family that got lost and went to the main entrance!)
Beth
 
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