Grand Canyon West Skywalk Tour Review

Grand Canyon West Sky Walk Is A Total Tourist Trap!

I went on vacation to Las Vegas. My husband and I rented an SUV and drove the 2 hours to take a tour of the Grand Canyon West and the Skywalk.

After a horrible ride for 40 minutes on a dirt trail we got to "Checkpoint Charlie". Security guards force you to park your car 8 miles from the edge of the Grand Canyon.

You can either go back to Vegas, or pay money to go further. The big hype is the glass-floored Sky Walk, and they hit you for $75 per person! That includes a bus ride and food on a paper plate.

Then you get loaded onto a bus and driven to "Checkpoint Delta". A heavily-muscled security guard keeps tourists at least 30 feet from the rim of the Grand Canyon...just far enough away that you can't take a photo of the bottom. They herd you into a building and will not let you go further unless you rent a locker for $1 and put all your belongings into it.

Note: ALL of your belongings. Photography is BANNED at Grand Canyon West Skywalk.

Why no cameras or cellphones? A sign mentions to protect the sanctity of the Canyon...

Note: there is no cell phone reception at Grand Canyon West Skywalk.

They then run you through a metal detector with two more security guards. Just in case a camera phone slipped through. Then they put paper booties on your shoes. And you walk out onto a glass horse shoe.

The view is quite stunning. Quite like what it was like 2 years ago when you could simply drive out on your own and hike the trails along the edge of the Grand Canyon which had been there for 90 years.

Walking the glass Skywalk takes about a minute, 2 minutes if you clutch the railing and act nervous. 4 security guards are on the Sky walk to answer questions, and to WORK THE CAMERA! That's right. Security guards take away your camera, but charge you $20 for a picture that they take!

What was amazing was how polite and pleasant all the staff were at Grand Canyon West Skywalk. I guess when they are gouging you from every direction they have to be. With a hotel being built attached to the Sky Walk, and a new airplane landing strip, I guess they need the money.

They have porta-potties set up, and there is mess every where from the construction. The place looks like a garbage dump.

I'll never set foot at the Sky Walk again. It's one of the biggest tourist traps I've ever seen. You will be so pissed off if you take the Grand Canyon West Skywalk tour, you'll want to tell all your friends to skip it too!