Going to Las Vegas this Christmas holiday? When you are that close to the Grand Canyon, you don't want to miss out on taking a helicopter tour. Just don't try to wait until the last minute to book your tour. Tours on Grand Canyon helicopters are very popular and the seats fill up fast.

Don't assume things are slow in Las Vegas in December. While true at one time, thanks to marketing efforts by the city of Vegas, business in the city is better than ever and many people visit during the holidays.

There are many great reasons to go to Vegas. I mean there's shows, restaurants, shopping, attractions and, of course, the Grand Canyon.

The Canyon is just 120 miles from the City of Entertainment, making it quick to reach by helicopter. The flight by chopper takes about 45 minutes. If you go by airplane, it takes a half hour and if you go by bus it takes 2 ? hours.

Cheapest Option

You can choose from a variety of tours. The cheapest will always be the air tour, and by "air" I mean flights that don't land at the top or bottom of the National Park (more on this in minute).

These air-only tours are fantastic options when you are short on cash or time. In addition to seeing the canyon from the air, you get to fly over Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam.

If possible, you should consider a landing tour instead. I suggest you take one of these if you want more than to simply fly over the "big ditch." The most popular landing tour is probably the one that flies down to the canyon floor. The descent is very thrilling. If you want to go to the canyon floor, you should skip the first flight of the day because the sun won't be peeking into the canyon yet and it will still be chilly.

Float Trip

When you get to the canyon floor, you can take a boat trip on the river. A boat ride may seem strange in December, but you will see many amazing sights, and as long as you wait until after 10am, you will have good light and better temperatures. The float trip along the Colorado River is very tame and beautiful, no worry about rough waters in this part of the river.

Lastly, there's the Skywalk. The boat tour I just described includes tickets to it. If you don't want to do the boat ride, you can land on top of the rim instead and just do the Skywalk. This tour also allows you a couple of hours to explore other great points of interest such as Guano Point.

Prices are already creeping up in advance of the holidays. It is a good idea to get your tickets early. By all means, do everything you can not to book within 24 hours. You will pay a lot more money if you do. For some, that's a small concession to see one of the Seven Wonders of the World. If you have no choice, it is still worth the price to see the Grand Canyon, after all it is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. But for the majority of us, saving money matters.

Summary

I hope this article helped you as you consider booking your Las Vegas helicopter tour for Christmas Holiday 2013. Just know that most of the choppers do not fly on Christmas Day itself, December, 25. You can still tour the Grand Canyon by air on Christmas Day, you just have to do it by airplane instead since those run as usual.