Seeing the grand canyon in person for the first time is just breathtaking, awesome experience, however the trip there and back is long and made even more unenjoyable by tour driver Stan who treats adults like children and is condescending.
First of all the grand canyon is the most amazing sight I have ever seen and the 3 hours we spent there were fantastic and would recommend anyone who is in Vegas to go and see the South rim. However, the tour company were not so great. It is a long day and is billed as much but it took us over 9 hours to get there. It started with a long trip to get around the hotels and convene in a car park to drop off some passengers and pick up others. This was fine, except it must have taken over 45 minutes of waiting as there was an issue with the coach luggage compartment not closing properly. Again, this can't be helped but communication was really poor and it delayed our set off.
On route we were given the generic spiel about Vegas and a few land marks on the way and we then stopped briefly at the Hoover Dam. It is an impressive sight but in my opinion where we stopped was not worth it and we should have gone over the flyover bridge instead, as from there you can get a much better view of the dam.
We were on our way to the canyon and were told it was a 5 hour journey at that point with stops on the way. Bear in mind at this point we'd already been in the coach for nearly 2 hours. We were then half way on our journey when the tour guide came over the tannoy to say that we needed to make a stop to get another coach, as this one was losing power and she wasn't sure why. Admittedly, losing my patience at this point, we stayed calm and went with it. We stopped at a gas station and there was no mention on how long it would take, so I when I went to ask- with no apology the tour guide told me over an hour. We waited and waited and as it happened we were lucky that the gas station had a repair garage there, so she got a mechanic to have a look. There was little communication and finally the man had repaired it and we were good to go. We were at the gas station a good 1 hour 20 minutes and even after this we still made another stop. Although this was on route 66, it felt as though we could have bypassed it to get to our destination quicker. We finally arrived at the south rim at 3pm and spent 3 hours at the canyon which was spectacular and the memory of the long journey soon passed. We left at 6pm and were back at the hotel by 11pm. EXHAUSTING!
I would highly recommend seeing the canyon but I think it's worth paying extra to either go privately or by helicopter, as travelling in comfort and by means of quicker mode of transportation would make the whole experience so much more enjoyable. Do not use this company though, poor communication during the tour itself, at times a little rude and what appeared pretty disorganised!