We're a family of four with two teenagers and it was the perfect tour for us. Dustin was our tour guide and couldn't have been more pleasant, knowledgeable and interesting...we will be back again, and we will be requesting Dustin!
When you call Canyon Dave Tours, make sure to tell them exactly what your needs and expectations are as a group (but, also be open to their suggestions). It's a very long day and it's a ton of driving...so be ready for that (car sickness, irritability, etc). However, there's plenty of places for frequent restroom breaks. The tour was perfect for us, because we were able to cover all the things we like to do as a family...we had several scenic view pullouts to see the amazing views, we drove about an hour to Cameron Trading Post for a great lunch and souvenir shopping, we hit a couple scenic viewpoints on the way back through the park and that was it. I read several reviews that people complained about driving an hour out of the park to eat at the Trading Post...but, it's not a dumpy little tourist trap. It's an interestingly historic set of beautifully built buildings, the food was great, the souvenir trinkets were mostly junky but the woman who does the traditional navajo rug weaving is set up there most days and watching her work should also be considered part of the experience! There's also art in an adjacent building with many amazing pieces of historical indigenous artwork. Plus, the very long ride out of the park to Cameron Trading Post was a perfect amount of time for everyone to just relax and unwind...most people took a quick nap on the way (much needed by that time of day). We stopped by Marie's little souvenir stand on the way back into the Canyon. It was just "okay" and mostly just more souvenir trinkets, the buffalo jerky was no big deal and overpriced (for some reason they made a point to talk about the jerky), but the juniper seed jewelry was pretty cool now that we knew the significance of the Juniper seeds (Dustin can tell you about them when you meet him). We saw other tour companies (like the pink jeep tours and a couple others), but those folks looked jam packed into those vehicles and did not seem to be having the more fun and personalized experience that we were having. I think the unique differentiator for Canyon Dave Tour's in comparison to all the other tour companies is their geographical/geological/botanical/ecological understanding and explanation of the Canyon and not just some memorized historical facts about the Canyon. I would love to see Canyon Dave Tours do a night "Star Gazing" tour...I would come back simply for that alone!