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| - I booked the South Rim Grand Canyon Tour with Sweetours and was really satisfied with everything. While it wasn't so much a tour as more of a bus ride with conveniences, it gave us a great experience to / from and at the Grand Canyon at a reasonable price.
Here's the full run down of our tour:
We were picked up from our hotel, albeit 5 minutes late, in a brand spanking new tour bus. The bus had reclining seats that were comfy and roomy. Compared to some of the other tours I saw, Sweetours by far had the nicest, newest, cleanest looking buses. After our bus completed all its pick ups, we stopped in the parking lot of a shopping complex to wait for other buses to arrive. This part felt a little odd as most tours I've been on they usually pick you up then head straight off to your destination. Once all the other buses arrived, they shuffled us around depending on which tour we were taking. After we were settled on our actual bus, they gave a bagged breakfast that had a pastry, granola bar, banana and choice of apple juice or water. (TIP: If you're looking for coffee, like my mom and I were, you're out of luck so it's best to get some before the trip).
After they hand out breakfast (which you eat on the bus), it's off to your tour destination. Considering how early the pick up was (ours was 6:30AM), I appreciated that the driver kept it quiet for most of the drive up to Hoover Dam, allowing us all to sleep. He did give some spiel about limiting the use of the bathroom on board the bus but it made total sense. Do you really want all 60+ passengers to use that thing and have the stench linger?! Plus, the bus makes more than enough pit stops that the bus bathroom is hardly needed.
Our first stop was Hoover Dam, where you have 15 minutes to take pics, use the port-o-potties and check out the gift shop. After that, it's the long trek up to Grand Canyon. On the way, make an additional 15 minute stop at a bar / gift shop for another snack / bathroom break then one last stop along Route 66 to pick up our bag lunches. The bagged lunches (which you again eat on the bus) include your pre-selected sandwich, chips and cookies.
When you finally arrive at the Canyon, they give you about 2 1/2 hours to explore, which I found was ample time to take in the Canyon, hike and stop at the nearby gift shops.
After the Canyon, you head back to Vegas with one last pit stop at a Subway / gas station. This is the only pit stop before Vegas so make sure you pick up some food if you're hungry because by the time you arrive back in Vegas it'll be a pretty late dinner. On the road back, the driver did play two movies to pass the time.
Right before we got into Vegas, the driver does mention that tips are "always accepted" but it almost sounded like he said "expected", which I found a little tacky. Our driver was overall a good guy though that seemed to like his job and made the drive pleasant. When we finally got to Vegas they had some of us off board onto another shuttle for drop off. Again, this was a little odd but it made for a lot less stops.
Major plus for having cold, bottled water available to us throughout the whole day. Saves you a ton of money from having to constantly keep buying water.
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