US trip help needed

John259

hotlatte wrote: »

Hi staying at GC is not a plan we were thinking of doing a day long round trip.

Wow, that's a lot of driving and not much time in the park. Yes, I think you need to at least research the helicopter option. As well as Google, try searching on here especially that huge Las Vegas thread.

John259

OP, have you booked the flights? If not, then I'd agree with what the other people have said and urge you to reconsider accordingly.

On the other hand if you're committed then obviously you'll have to work with what you've got, which boils down to selecting those things that you most want to see and do and keeping that list as short as possible. Don't be tempted to try and do everything, IMHO it will totally ruin the holiday. You can always go back again on other trip and do some more. We went every year for over twenty years and were still finding new places every time (as well as revisiting plenty of old favourites).

Sorry, that sounds very dictatorial, I really ought to reword it in gentler terms but unfortunately I'm out of time now.

Janemartin

I did the half day helicopter tour from Las Vegas which was fab but expensive. In LA you can do the tour of the celebrity homes around Beverly Hills which was fun. We did this on a coach but you can buy a map and drive it yourself. The shopping, if you like bargains I recommend to go to MACYS which are in most city's. If you show you passport of photo if they give you 10 percent discount which can even be used off already discounted stuff.

ferf1223

hotlatte wrote: »

Is it worth doing the GC trip via helicopter flight. Taking a look at the mileage it seems a lot. Has anyone done that and how much its likely to cost roughly?

for a trip like yours it might be, but helicopter trips to the GC from Vegas go to the west rim rather than the south rim and the west rim isn't as 'grand'.

I personally would not spend one of only 3 days in Vegas travelling to and from the GC but it depends on someone's priorities -for some that would be the hightlight of the trip and worth it.

I'm with those who say revise your itinerary to avoid needing a holiday from your holiday and feeling like you didn't do everything you wanted to do.

John259

ferf1223 wrote: »

for a trip like yours it might be, but helicopter trips to the GC from Vegas go to the west rim rather than the south rim

Sorry to be the annoying pedant but do you mean Grand Canyon West (where the Skywalk is, in the indian reservation)? The west rim is in the national park, where the Hermit's Rest shuttle bus goes.

hotlatte

Thanks a lot will go through all the comments / suggestions

ferf1223

John259 wrote: »

Sorry to be the annoying pedant but do you mean Grand Canyon West (where the Skywalk is, in the indian reservation)? The west rim is in the national park, where the Hermit's Rest shuttle bus goes.

Sorry but I don't really understand the question. I've always heard the West Rim referred to as such and yes that's where the SkyWalk is. Helicopter trips from Vegas only go to the West Rim as far as I know (small planes go to the South as well). A quick check of the usual suspects in terms of helicopter tour companies seem to reference the West Rim and Grand Canyon West interchangeably.

jackieblack

ferf1223 wrote: »

I've always heard the West Rim referred to as such and yes that's where the SkyWalk is. Helicopter trips from Vegas only go to the West Rim as far as I know (small planes go to the South as well). A quick check of the usual suspects in terms of helicopter tour companies seem to reference the West Rim and Grand Canyon West interchangeably.

I agree.
While Hermit's Rest is at the western end of the area covered by the South Rim shuttle buses, nowhere on any of my maps (or on NPS website) can I see it referred to as the West Rim.
In fact the only place I can see a reference to West Rim is on a map of the Hualapai Reservation, where the Skywalk is.

John259

I did some research on the naming of these areas and discovered that you folks are far more up to date than me, and what you describe is indeed correct current usage: the term "west rim" is now commonly used for the Grand Canyon West area (indian reservation, Skywalk) and no longer used for the Hermits Rest road in the national park. My information was old, out of date, and therefore no longer correct. I apologise.

Another thing I discovered: by road it's 250 miles from the Grand Canyon Village in the national park (south rim) to Grand Canyon West. http://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/skywalk.htm

GedlingRed

The most important thing when going to the US is to complete an ESTA, this is the direct link to complete it https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/ and it costs approx. $14. If you haven't completed it yet make sure you use this site and not any others as they are just agents and sometimes scammers who charge you extortionate amounts of money to complete the form on your behalf.