Some places only make sense from a thousand feet up.
What a seat over the Strip costs after dark. Which Grand Canyon flights land on the floor and which stay above the rim. Whether a doors-off camera flight is worth the extra. Reviews of the helicopter flights you can actually book.
Manhattan, the Strip after dark, the canyon floor, a Kauai waterfall.
Four flights that carry more passengers than anything else on the site. What each one costs, how long you are actually in the air, and what the people in the back seat said afterwards.
01The city loopManhattan Helicopter TourUp the Hudson, round the Statue, back down over Midtown. Fifteen minutes and the whole island fits in one window.
02The night flightLas Vegas Helicopter Night Strip Flight Tour with Optional DinnerThe Strip lights up from directly above. The cheapest real helicopter ride in this catalogue, and the one nobody regrets.
03The canyon dayGrand Canyon Village: Helicopter Tour & Hummer Tour OptionsFlight over the South Rim paired with a ground run in a Hummer. Half a day, and you see the canyon from both sides of the rim.
04The island flightKauai Eco Adventure Helicopter TourWaterfalls, the Na Pali cliffs and the crater wall behind Lihue. Most of Kauai has no road to it, which is the whole point.
The flights with the longest queue behind them.
Every flight we have reviewed →More passengers take these than anything else in the catalogue. What each one costs, how long you are airborne, and what earns it the slot.
1
Manhattan Helicopter Tour
Take off from Pier 6 at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport for a narrated helicopter flight over New York. Choose a 12 to 15, 18 to 20, or 30 minute route, with views of Lady Liberty, Central Park, the Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge, Broadway, and more. Flights use prerecorded commentary in several languages, subject to availability.
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
Grand Canyon Village: 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
Six skylines, canyons and coastlines worth the seat.
A neon grid at night, a mile-deep canyon, an island with more waterfalls than roads, a glacier field you can stand on and a harbour built for the approach. Each one flies differently, and each has a flight worth building the day around.
More helicopters fly sightseeing over America than anywhere else.
Every flight in the USA →
Three American flights carry more passengers than the rest of this catalogue put together: the Manhattan loop, the Strip after dark and the run out to the Grand Canyon. They price differently, they land differently, and only one of them puts you on the canyon floor.
Twelve minutes over the Strip
The cheapest real helicopter ride you will find, and the one the Strip was built for. Departures run from Henderson and from the heliports south of Mandalay Bay; the later slots are darker and worth the wait.
Above the rim, or down to the floor
Only the West Rim sits on tribal land where helicopters may put down near the river. South Rim flights are cheaper, shorter and stay above the canyon the whole way. Decide which rim before you pay.
The Statue, Midtown, back in fifteen
Departures leave from the Downtown Manhattan Heliport and follow the Hudson north. The advertised price rarely includes the per-passenger heliport fee, so read the checkout line before you compare two operators.
Short hop, scenic route, or a landing somewhere with no road.
Three broad kinds of helicopter day, what it costs to get into each one, and what you get for the extra money.
The landing is the tour. The flight just gets you there.
A snow landing puts you out on a glacier nobody walks to, usually for ten or fifteen minutes with the rotor still turning. Franz Josef, Fox, the Tasman above Mount Cook, the icefields behind Juneau and Whistler. It is also the first thing weather takes away, so the pilot decides on the morning, not you.
A mile deep, and the only way to see the floor in an afternoon.
The canyon is 277 miles long and the rim road shows you a fraction of it. From the air the Colorado reappears, the side canyons open up and the scale finally lands. West Rim flights descend to the riverbed and serve lunch down there; South Rim flights stay high, run shorter and cost half as much.
Every canyon flight →
New Zealand treats a helicopter the way other countries treat a bus.
Two islands, no road to most of the good bits. Franz Josef and Fox put you on the ice, Mount Cook flies the Tasman Glacier, Queenstown runs alpine landings between the Remarkables, and Te Anau is the way into Fiordland when the Milford road is shut. Nowhere else has this density of scenic operators.
- 1Franz Josef Glacier: Helicopter Flight & Alpine Landingfrom $230
- 2Franz Josef Glacier Heli-Hikefrom $506
- 3Heli Hike Fox Glacierfrom $477
Three flights that exist nowhere else on earth.
A city skyline looks broadly the same from any helicopter. A breakfast table at the foot of Everest, the spray column over a mile-wide waterfall and an open doorway over the Na Pali cliffs do not.
Breakfast Below Everest
The flights leave Kathmandu before six because the Khumbu valley clouds over by mid-morning. They stage through Lukla, land at Kala Patthar or Syangboche for twenty minutes of thin air, and serve breakfast on a terrace at Everest View with Ama Dablam filling the window. Passengers are weighed at check-in and the aircraft flies light, which is why seats are sold by weight rather than by group.
- 1Everest Base Camp Helicopter Tour landing at Everest View Hotel★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 668 reviews
- 2Everest Base Camp Helicopter Tour landing at Hotel Everest View★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 218 reviews
- 3Everest Base Camp Trek with Helicopter Return from Gorakshep to Lukla★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 161 reviews
The Flight of Angels
The Zambezi drops into a mile-wide basalt crack and the spray column climbs high enough to be seen from thirty miles away. Flights run twelve or twenty-five minutes and circle the gorge in both directions so every seat gets the view. In full flood between March and May the falls disappear inside their own mist, which is either the best or the worst month depending on what you came for.
- 1Helicopter Scenic Flight over Victoria Falls 12-13 minutes Flight★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,391 reviews
- 2Victoria Falls: Helicopter Tour with Hotel Pickup★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 371 reviews
- 3Helicopter Scenic Flight over Victoria Falls 25-27 Minutes Game★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 286 reviews
Doors Off Over Kauai
Taking the doors off removes the reflection and about ten degrees of cabin temperature, which is why the camera flights over the Na Pali coast and Waimea Canyon fly that way. Everything loose gets left behind, seats are allocated by weight for balance, and the harness stays on from the pad to the pad. The wind is loud and the photographs are worth it.
- 1Kauai: Hughes 500 4-Passenger Doors-Off Helicopters★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,951 reviews
- 2Kauai Private Doors-Off Helicopter: Ultimate Waterfalls & Canyons★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,510 reviews
- 3Oahu: Magnum PI Hughes 500 4-Passenger Doors-Off Helicopters★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,372 reviews
What you actually pay to get off the ground.
Every flight on the site, grouped by the per-person price. A short city hop and a glacier landing are the same activity and nowhere near the same money.
City hops and short scenic runs: ten to fifteen minutes over a skyline, harbour or coastline.
The standard sightseeing flight: twenty to forty-five minutes, a real route, sometimes a landing.
- 1Manhattan Helicopter Tourfrom $299
- 2Manhattan Sightseeing Helicopter Tourfrom $299
- 3Sightseeing Helicopter Ride from The Palmfrom $195
Glacier landings, canyon-floor descents, doors-off camera flights and private charters.
Weather, weight and a minimum of two passengers.
Three things stop a helicopter leaving the pad. Cloud below the route, which the pilot calls on the morning. A weight sheet that will not balance, which is why every operator asks and why doors-off flights ask twice. And a booking that never reached its minimum, usually two people, on a quiet weekday. Book the first departure of the day, in the first half of your trip, and you get a second attempt for free.
Four flights that will not wait for you.
Most sightseeing seats can be bought the night before. These four run on weather windows, weight sheets and a seat count that does not flex, and every one of them sells out first.
- 01Everest Base Camp Helicopter Tour landing at Everest View HotelDepartures go at first light because the Khumbu valley clouds in by mid-morning. Keep a spare day in the plan or you simply do not go.
- 02Kauai: Hughes 500 4-Passenger Doors-Off HelicoptersSeats are assigned by weight for balance and the operator does that on the day. Book early, then give an honest number at check-in.
- 03Alaska Helicopter Tour with Glacier Landing – 60 mins – ANCHORAGE AREAThe landing is cancelled far more often than the flight. Take the first slot of the morning and keep a second morning free.
- 04Grand Canyon West Rim Luxury Helicopter Tour from Las VegasOnly the West Rim sits where helicopters may descend to the river, and those departures are capped. The rim-only flights are the ones with late availability.
Six pads where the rotors barely stop turning.
Las Vegas
Grand Canyon
New York City
Queenstown
Kathmandu
DubaiBy place — the busiest pads
By kind of flight — short hop, landing or doors off
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