We stayed in Rapid City the night before taking this tour and again the evening after taking the tour. There is so much to do with Rapid City as a base thas this turned out to be a great idea.
The full day tour started at 9 Am but they begon serving breakfast at 7:30 AM - all you can eat pancakes, plus they had sausage, biscuits, juice, coffe as I recall. It was ok - the best part was actually ther older gentleman who played live tunes on the player piano - that really was so nice! We had already had a bite of breakfast at our hotel to be honest, so we were not all that hungry.
When you artive in the AM, go and sign in and confirm your tickets because they will have you board your bus based on the order you sign in. And they had 3 buses leaving on a tour the morning we went - although I am not certain if all wefre taking the same tour.
They told us to be ready to board the bus earlier than 9 am asnd sure enough we started boarded a little after 8:30 AM and actually left to begin the tour early at 8:45 AM because everyone was onboard. That was good because it is cooler earlier.
The bus itself was new in 20124 and still had that "new car" kind of small - very, very clean. The tour guide driver we had was Matt P snd I highly re ommend him. He used a headset microphone and was easily heard. He knew the area well and was also entertaining and educational without getting corny. SInce we got on the road a little early, he took the time to drive past many of the attractions I Rapid City and gave a little info and history on them - like the reptils gardcens - snd oh! at Beasr City as we passed he pointed out the baby bear cubs who were still up in the tree that morning.
Even though we were on a road trip and had oour car available, it was well worth it to have someone else drive on the winding roads and through the various tunnels and pigtail bridges.. He also gave good tips on how to best use our time to get the most out of our visit to site - especially Mount Rushmore. Much appreciated.
Excellent value and we saw much more in this one day tour, and without stress, than if we had tried to see all those sites independently in a day. Plus, the price of the tour gave us admission to Mount Rushmore etc - which makes the value of the tour even better. For example we had a nice lunch stop at the historic State Game Lodge, the presidential summer White House for former president Calvin Coolidge - great buffet or you could order a la carte.
After the tour we browsed a bit in Fort Hays, although there is not that much there. Here is a tip - they purchased the movie set of the movie "Dances With Wolvers" and have it there - so maybe look at that movie ahead of time and plan some snapshots!
Then we stayed for the separate Chuckwagon Dinner & Cowboy Music SHow that evening - which started at 6:30 PM. I hsvr e reviewed that seperately