PicturedKauai Eco Adventure Helicopter Tourfrom $449
Twelve minutes changes a city. Forty-five changes the trip.
Which Grand Canyon flight actually puts down on the floor. What the Vegas Strip costs once it is properly dark. Whether a glacier landing beats a doors-off run when you only get one lift. Reviews of the helicopter flights you can book today.
Four flights that show what the money actually buys.
A lit Strip after dark, a canyon floor you can stand on, skids down on glacier snow, and an open doorway above a wall of waterfalls. What each costs, and what the people in the back said afterwards.
01The night oneLas Vegas Helicopter Night Strip Flight Tour with Optional DinnerTen to fifteen minutes over the neon, and the only version worth paying for leaves after full dark.
02The one that landsGrand Canyon Deluxe Helicopter Tour with Landing from Las VegasVegas to the canyon floor, on the ground beside the Colorado, then back up the wall.
03Skids on snowFranz Josef Glacier: Helicopter Flight & Alpine LandingFranz Josef from the air, then a set-down on hard ice above the icefall while the engine winds off.
04Doors offHughes 500 4-Passenger Doors-Off HelicoptersFour seats, no glass, and the Na Pali cliffs close enough to hear the water. Photographers pay for this one.
America sells three helicopter flights, and they are nothing alike.
Same airframe, same half hour, three completely different reasons to buy a seat. One is a light show, one is a landing, one is a skyline at window height.
Six countries where a helicopter earns the fare.
Neon and red canyon country, glaciers a short drive from a beach town, reef and desert rock, a waterfall that only makes sense from above, two oceans meeting under a flat-topped mountain, and the Himalaya before the valley clouds in.
The four helicopter flights worth choosing between.
The scenic loop is the default and the cheapest. A landing turns a flight into a morning. Doors off is louder, colder and the only honest way to photograph any of it. A charter buys the route and the seat next to the pilot.
- 1Hughes 500 4-Passenger Doors-Off Helicoptersfrom $369
- 2Kauai Private Doors-Off Helicopter: Ultimate Waterfalls & Canyonsfrom $415
- 3Helicopter Scenic Flight over Victoria Falls 12-13 minutes Flightfrom $135
The helicopter flights travellers book most.
Every flight review →These fill first, and for different reasons: a price nobody expects, a departure slot that only exists once a day, or a view nothing else gets near.
1
Manhattan Helicopter Tour
See Manhattan from the air on a 12 to 30 minute helicopter tour covering Lady Liberty, Central Park, Broadway, and more.
From · $299
Read our review →
2
Manhattan Sightseeing Helicopter Tour
from $299
3
Las Vegas Helicopter Night Strip Flight Tour with Optional Dinner
from $89
4
Sightseeing Helicopter Ride from The Palm
from $195
5
Helicopter Tour & Hummer Tour Options
from $289
6
Grand Canyon Deluxe Helicopter Tour with Landing from Las Vegas
from $598
7
12-Min Helicopter Adventure Above The Palm
from $193
8
Kauai Eco Adventure Helicopter Tour
from $449
A helicopter is the only lift onto the top of a glacier.
Franz Josef and Fox on the New Zealand West Coast, the Tasman above Mount Cook, an icefield an hour out of Anchorage. The flight lasts twenty minutes. Standing on the névé afterwards is the part people still describe years later.
What a helicopter flight really costs, from twelve minutes up.
Every priced flight sorted by the number that decides it. Short city loops start lower than most people guess. Landings, heli-hikes and charters are where it climbs.
Ten to twenty minutes over a city, a harbour or a set of falls.
The half-hour flights: reef runs, canyon rim loops, most sunset departures.
- 1Manhattan Helicopter Tourfrom $299
- 2Manhattan Sightseeing Helicopter Tourfrom $299
- 3Sightseeing Helicopter Ride from The Palmfrom $195
Landings, heli-hikes, doors-off charters and the Everest morning.
Three things a helicopter does that nothing on the ground can.
Any hill sells a viewpoint. A glacier with no route onto it, an open doorway at two thousand feet and breakfast within sight of Everest are not viewpoints.
The Alpine Landing
Two glaciers on the New Zealand West Coast run almost down into rainforest, and neither has a walking route onto the ice any more. The aircraft sets down on hard snow above the icefall, the engine winds off, and for ten minutes the loudest thing is meltwater somewhere under your boots. Departures wait on the cloud base, which on that coast can mean three attempts across two days.
- 1Franz Josef Glacier: Helicopter Flight & Alpine Landing★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 619 reviews
- 2Franz Josef Glacier Heli-Hike★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 618 reviews
- 3Heli Hike Fox Glacier★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 563 reviews
Doors Off
The doors come off a four-seat Hughes 500 and stay off. It runs about ten degrees colder than the ground, everything in your lap is tethered, hats are banned outright, and there is no glass between a lens and the Na Pali wall. Pilots fly these lighter and lower than the closed-cabin loops, which is exactly what the premium buys.
- 1Hughes 500 4-Passenger Doors-Off Helicopters★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,951 reviews
- 2Kauai Private Doors-Off Helicopter: Ultimate Waterfalls & Canyons★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,510 reviews
- 3Magnum PI Hughes 500 4-Passenger Doors-Off Helicopters★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,372 reviews
Everest Before Nine
A Kathmandu departure lifts at first light because the Khumbu builds cloud by mid-morning and the valley shuts. The run follows the Dudh Koshi up, sets down at Kala Patthar or the terrace at Hotel Everest View, and has you back for lunch. Passengers are weighed, and weight gets redistributed at Lukla or Pheriche, which is why the manifest changes on the day.
- 1Everest Base Camp Helicopter Tour landing at Hotel Everest View★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 218 reviews
- 2Everest Base Camp Trek with Helicopter Return from Gorakshep to Lukla★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 161 reviews
- 3Everest Base Camp helicopter tour with landing★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 61 reviews
Four things that cancel a helicopter flight, and what to do about each.
Weight is declared per passenger and the front seat is assigned on it, not on who booked first. Minimums matter: most scenic runs need two paying seats, so a solo traveller waits or pays for both. Cloud base cancels snow landings far more often than city loops, and operators rebook rather than refund. Doors-off flights add an age floor and a nothing-loose rule that includes your hat.
Four helicopter flights that will not wait for you.
Most seats can be bought the night before. These four run on one weather window a day, a permit cap, or an aircraft that carries four people at a time.
- 01Everest Base Camp Helicopter Tour landing at Hotel Everest ViewOne window a day, at dawn, and four seats in the machine. A day lost to cloud is not rescheduled, it is re-queued behind everyone else.
- 02Franz Josef Glacier: Helicopter Flight & Alpine LandingThe set-down only happens when the cloud base sits above the icefall. Leave a spare day on the coast and book the earliest slot of it.
- 03Hughes 500 4-Passenger Doors-Off HelicoptersFour seats, and the two window positions are the ones everybody wants. In summer they go weeks ahead.
- 04Night Helicopter Flight over Las Vegas StripThe after-dark departures are the ones worth having, and Friday and Saturday sell out first.
By country
By kind of flight, and by the view
Twelve minutes to a whole morning: the helicopter time ladder.
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