{"id":100,"date":"2013-07-03T06:51:22","date_gmt":"2013-07-03T06:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/the-grand-canyon-from-great-heights\/"},"modified":"2022-04-20T22:35:57","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T22:35:57","slug":"the-grand-canyon-from-great-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/the-grand-canyon-from-great-heights\/","title":{"rendered":"The Grand Canyon from Great Heights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One minute I\u2019m among the glitz and glam of the neon flashing Las Vegas strip and the next I\u2019m soaring high above it all, on a helicopter flight out to the mighty Grand Canyon.<\/p>\n<p>The silence and awe of the Grand Canyon is only half an hour from Las Vegas but it\u2019s a world away from the city\u2019s 39 million visitors a year, all pounding the pavement and playing the tables.<\/p>\n<p>Visiting the UNESCO World Heritage Listed site is one most popular day trips for Expedia&#8217;s kiwi travellers when they&#8217;re in town. The\u00a0<a title=\"Expedia Air and Ground Grand Canyon Exploration Tour\" href=\"http:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/pubspec\/scripts\/eap.asp?GOTO=TSHOPSDETAIL&amp;LocationID=178276&amp;OfferingID=11888?brandcid=blog.article.grandcanyonheli.july_03072013\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Air and Ground Grand Canyon Exploration Tour<\/a>\u00a0is a bestseller but there\u2019s plenty of experiences to choose from.<\/p>\n<p>By air is definitely breathtaking, but be warned: there\u2019s a weighing scale at the helicopter check in counter before you board your flight. They\u2019ll make you stand on it with any items you\u2019re planning to take with you. I blamed my heavy handbag but beware the buffets!<\/p>\n<p>Once in the chopper with our seatbelts and headsets on, we lift slowly from the tarmac and turn our nose to face the mountains, then up and away we soar.<\/p>\n<p>The beauty of helicoptering to the Grand Canyon is the time saving. Within 10 minutes we\u2019re circling the engineering wonder that is the Hoover Dam. The Dam holds back the silty brown Colorado River from its source in the Rocky Mountains before it enters Lake Mead and continues south to the Gulf of California. It\u2019s a fascinating day trip from Las Vegas so if you\u2019re not up for the added two and half hour drive to the Canyon, hop on a\u00a0<a title=\"Expedia Hoover Dam Tour\" href=\"http:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/pubspec\/scripts\/eap.asp?GOTO=TSHOPSDETAIL&amp;LocationID=178276&amp;OfferingID=17108?brandcid=blog.article.grandcanyonheli.july_03072013\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hoover Dam Tour<\/a>\u00a0or drive the 45 minutes for a spot of fishing or water sports.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One minute I\u2019m among the glitz and glam of the neon flashing Las Vegas strip and the next I\u2019m soaring high above it all, on a helicopter flight out to the mighty Grand Canyon. The silence and awe of the Grand Canyon is only half an hour from Las Vegas but it\u2019s a world away&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/the-grand-canyon-from-great-heights\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Grand Canyon from Great Heights<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,2,4,15],"tags":[198,199,19],"authors":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure","category-destination","category-experiences","category-explore","category-usa-canada","tag-grand-canyon","tag-helicopter","tag-seoadventure","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Grand Canyon from Great Heights | Expedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/the-grand-canyon-from-great-heights\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Grand Canyon from Great Heights | Expedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One minute I\u2019m among the glitz and glam of the neon flashing Las Vegas strip and the next I\u2019m soaring high above it all, on a helicopter flight out to the mighty Grand Canyon. The silence and awe of the Grand Canyon is only half an hour from Las Vegas but it\u2019s a world away&hellip; Continue reading The Grand Canyon from Great Heights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/the-grand-canyon-from-great-heights\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Expedia NZ Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-03T06:51:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-20T22:35:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/2206_25_SS_134639528_1280x960.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Skeet Skaalen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta 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