Your vacation is rapidly approaching and you want it to be special for your entire family. You have a lot of options, but you wouldn't regret picking the stunning Grand Canyon. You will find that the most cost effective way to get there is to take a South Rim bus tour that will depart right from Las Vegas.

There is always the option of going to the canyon on a helicopter or in an airplane and you may even decide that you want to just take a rental car and drive on your own (this means is not recommended). There are good points to each of these options but when you take the coach tours, you will be saving money as well. The bus tours also include a professional driver/guide, free hotel pick-up and drop-off, all park fees and a box lunch. They even stop at Hoover Dam to let you to take photos.

South Rim bus excursions take an entire day - about 15 hours altogether. This may seem like a long time but you have to consider that it will take about five and a half hours to get there and then another five and a half hours to get you back to Las Vegas. You will see many things on your journey there and back, including Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, the Mojave Desert, and the historic Route 66. You will surely enjoy the ride more since you will be sitting in comfortable seats in a climate controlled bus.

Many people taking South Rim bus tours upgrade their tour package to include a helicopter ride from the South Rim to the North Rim and back. This flight will take you about thirty minutes to complete and it will give you the chance to see the Phantom Ranch, Dragoon Corridor, the Colorado River, and Grand Canyon Village. For many people that take advantage of the chopper flights, they think that this was the best thing they could have done during their visit to the Grand Canyon.

Some companies have begun to offer Deluxe Grand Canyon bus tours to their customers. Instead of using large buses that seat more than 40, these deluxe tours use smaller, deluxe motor coaches (or customized vans) with seating limited to around 12 passengers. You will have to pay more for these trips but the experience will be more personal than those that you will take on the other bus trips. A common term to hear from someone that takes the deluxe tours is a travel butler, which refers to the guide or driver. The trip will be made up only of the excursions that the passengers wish to take part in.

When you take the South Rim bus tours, you should expect to have roughly three hours to see what you want to see at the National Park. That's usually plenty of time. The bus route includes driving by famous canyon landmarks such as Mather Point and Yavapai Point, so you'll see them without getting off your bus. Your tour should also allow you to visit the Grand Canyon Village. This is a historic area that features several restaurants (I recommend the restaurant in Bright Angel Lodge), gift shops and museums.

You will also be able to make use of the park's shuttle system. The shuttle buses are free and run every 15 minutes, and they'll help you see areas your bus tour doesn't include. I recommend that you download a free copy of The Guide put out by the park service. The map of the park and the shuttle schedule will be very useful. You can download it on the park's official website.

Using these coach tours to see all that you can at the Grand Canyon National Park is a great way to create wonderful memories for a reasonable price. They take an entire day, but you could be back on the Vegas Strip by around nine in the evening. A trip to Vegas is not complete without taking one of these tours. Put one of these South Rim bus excursions at the top of your to-do list while you're in the Vegas area.