Strip Highlights Night Flight

The Strip Highlights Night Flight is a short evening helicopter tour run by Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters, the valley's largest and longest-running operator. It lifts off from Papillon's private terminal just east of the Strip and loops over the lit-up Las Vegas skyline after dark.

You fly over the Bellagio fountains, the Paris Eiffel Tower replica, the Luxor pyramid and its light beam, the MSG Sphere, Allegiant Stadium, New York-New York and the neon of Downtown, aboard an Airbus ECO-Star EC-130 with wrap-around glass and theater-style seating. Included round-trip hotel transfers and a champagne toast at the terminal give it a VIP feel, and the pilot narrates the flight.

Go in knowing the ratio: actual air time is only about 10-15 minutes, and the rest of the roughly two-hour window is transfers, check-in and the safety briefing, so it is a lot of ground time for a brief flight. No meal is served, seat position is luck of the draw unless you pay for the front, and summer haze or wind can soften the view or cancel the flight. For couples, first-timers and anyone after a bucket-list photo of the neon from above, though, it delivers a genuinely memorable few minutes.