So you have always wanted to see the Grand Canyon? Accomplishing this is going to take some planning. The reason is that the Grand Canyon National Park is about 4.5 hours drive from the nearest major city that supports airline traffic. This means that if you are not currently living in or visiting the southwestern portion of the United States, you are going to need to fly into either Salt Lake City or Las Vegas in order to begin your trip from there. Once you are settled in a hotel room in either city, you will need to arrange for transportation to the park, the best choice being a tour company that specializes in the area. The tour companies operating out of these cities and providing tours to the Grand Canyon will provide you with not only transportation, but also with a knowledge of the area and access to the best points for exploration and sightseeing. You must beware of a bit of misleading advertising that can potentially cause you to have less of a good time than expected.
When you land in the airport in Las Vegas, you will be greeted with many billboards and signs from tour companies offering one-day tours from your hotel to the Grand Canyon, where you can experience the “Skywalk.” They will illustrate that the Grand Canyon is only a 2 hour drive from Las Vegas, and you can easily do the tour in a single day and be back in Las Vegas by dinner time. What they are failing to mention is that these tours do not actually go to the Grand Canyon National Park. Tours of this kind actually visit the Grand Canyon West Rim, which is an area of Indian controlled land on the western portion of the canyon. The local tribes opened their land up to tourism in 2007 when they built the “Skywalk,” a tourist attraction designed to lure Las Vegas tourists. The actual Grand Canyon National Park is 4.5 hours drive from Las Vegas, and comes with all of the amenities and exploration options as well as the views you have seen in books and movies. If you are traveling all the way to Las Vegas in order to see the Grand Canyon, make sure that you do not regret it and book the wrong tour. Ask if the tour you are booking visits the West Rim or the South Rim, and book the South Rim if you want to actually visit the national park you have seen in brochures.
Martin Wynn
Nguyen An Tra My
