Helicopter Tours: Flying High (Literally!) Above the Las Vegas Strip

The Las Vegas Strip is an awesome, if crowded, sight from street level. Teeming with gamblers and tourists simply looking for a getaway, The Strip can often be a hectic scene of bustling bodies passing by the city's multiple casinos. One way to get a different perspective, and avoid the crowds, is to take to the sky above via a helicopter tour.

There are a number of companies offering tours of Las Vegas at various prices, types and scenery. Choppering along The Strip during the day gives visitors a great view of the many hotels clustered below. Many guests prefer seeing the neon glow of the casinos by taking a night flight aboard their helicopter, perhaps after some champagne, which many operators offer before take-off. And then there are the couples who forgo a traditional church wedding and take their vows to a new level some thousands of feet above Vegas.

At about a 10-minute flight, Papillon Tours offers their guests views of Vegas through the windows of their EC-130 jet helicopter. Tourists can look down at the various casinos and hotels including New York, New York and the Eiffel Tower that towers over the Paris Hotel and Casino.

In addition to flying over The Strip, many tour companies offer packages that include not only Vegas, but surrounding attractions. Paradise Found Tours takes you on a 30-minute nighttime tour of nearby Hoover Dam and Lake Mead and then back for a flyover of The Strip including passing by the 1,149-foot-high Stratosphere Tower.

After a champagne toast, passengers climb aboard a six-seat jet helicopter operated by All Las Vegas Tours for a night view of Las Vegas, including a glimpse of the 1.5 million lights that illuminate downtown's Freemont Street, the area where Sin City basically began.

For those who are in the mood to tie the knot, the Hilton Hotel offers a helicopter wedding package that takes the two of you, plus the minister and three guests (four guests if you do not want to include the minister, which might not bode well for the marriage) on a 22-mile flight over The Strip and Vegas area.

Many companies, including Maverick Tours and Heli USA, not only offer Vegas flights, but will zip their guests over to the nearby Grand Canyon for spectacular views of that natural wonder. Prices for all the companies' tours vary according to the package desired.