Best Grand Canyon South Rim Itinerary for First-Time Visitors
The Grand Canyon South Rim is a bucket list travel destination whether it’s a quick visit or a longer stay. But one day is enough to see it properly if you plan it well. This complete Grand Canyon South Rim travel guide covers the itinerary we’d recommend, where to stay and eat, the best viewpoints, the ones you can skip, and the two optional experiences we absolutely loved. If you have time, we highly recommend doing it all.
| Grand Canyon South Rim: One Day At a Glance | |
| Morning Option A | Drive Desert View Drive east to west. Stop at Watchtower and Lipan Point as your first canyon viewpoints. This works great if you’re coming in from Bryce Canyon or Monument Valley. |
| Morning Option B | Grand Canyon helicopter tour from Tusayan (Plan 3 hours total including the drive, check-in, and 45-minute tour). |
| Lunch | Cameron Trading Post (if doing Desert View Drive from Bryce or Monument). Split the Navajo taco on fry bread. It’s large.Drigo’s in Tusayan after the helicopter tour for a great Southwestern brunch. |
| Afternoon | Wander the rim trail near Bright Angel. Take the Red Loop shuttle (80 min round trip, 10-min stops or hike between). |
| Best Shuttle Stops | Pima Point (most expansive view). The Abyss is also worth it for the straight-down perspective. |
| Sunset | Hopi Point or anywhere on the rim trail. No need to fight for a designated spot. |
| Skip | Hermit’s Rest (the final shuttle stop). Worth it only if you need water, a restroom, or a snack. |
| Dinner | Arizona Steakhouse or El Tovar Dining Room |
We’ll give you all the details on these spots below and what makes them the perfect Grand Canyon experience.
Option A: Drive Desert View Drive From the East Entrance
If you’re coming from Page, Monument Valley, or Bryce Canyon, Desert View Drive is best route into the park for scenery and less traffic. It’s about a 25-mile drive along the rim from the East Entrance to Grand Canyon Village, with a series of overlooks that give you your first views of the canyon on the way in. Budget two to three hours for the full drive with stops.
Cameron Trading Post: Lunch Before You Enter
About 50 miles before the East Entrance on Highway 89, Cameron Trading Post is the best lunch stop before heading into the park. Yes, it’s touristy, but there’s not a lot out there and it’s a fun stop. The Navajo taco served on fry bread is the thing to order. It’s a large portion so split one and add a prickly pear iced tea. The gift shop is expansive and worth browsing for Southwestern souvenirs. It’s a good way to break up the drive and you’ll be glad to have eaten before heading to the canyon.
Desert View Watchtower
The Watchtower is the first major stop on Desert View Drive and the most dramatic. The 70-foot stone tower was built in 1932 by Mary Colter and perches right at the canyon rim with the Colorado River visible far below. The views from the base are excellent for photos. You can climb up the tower itself for the perspective, but it’s tight inside. This stop is more crowded than the overlooks further along the drive, but it’s definitely worth it.
Pro Tip: The views from the Watchtower area reach all the way down to the Colorado River on a clear day. It’s one of the best river views you’ll get from the rim, and the tower makes for nice photography.
Lipan Point
Lipan Point is a few miles west of the Watchtower and considerably less crowded. The view here is expansive, with a long stretch of the canyon and river visible. We found it more rewarding than the Watchtower for just standing and taking it in without the crowds. Budget 20 to 30 minutes.
Additional Overlooks
Several more pullouts line Desert View Drive on the way into Grand Canyon Village. Each gives you a slightly different angle on the canyon. You don’t need to stop at all of them, but a couple of quick stops add almost no time and give you a good sense of how the landscape shifts over the 25-mile stretch.
Option B: Grand Canyon Helicopter Tour From Tusayan
The helicopter tour is an entirely different way to spend a morning at the South Rim. If you’re traveling into the South Rim entrance of the park from a different direction than Desert View Drive, make this your first morning stop in Tusayan. And if you can do this in addition to Desert View Drive, even better. We stayed overnight and actually did this the next morning. We’ve traveled all over the world and it’s one of the highlights of all our adventures.
The Maverick Helicopters terminal is in Tusayan, about 15 minutes from Grand Canyon Village. Budget 2.5-3 hours total: the drive out, check-in 40 minutes in advance, the 45-minute flight, and the return. The flight departs the helipad and crosses flat pine forest before the canyon opens up directly below. The Colorado River, the canyon walls, and the scale of the whole formation look completely different from the air than from any point on the rim.
Pro Tip: See our full Maverick Helicopters Grand Canyon Tour review for details on the views, check-in process, seat assignment, what to bring, and whether the price is justified.
Easiest Hike: Walk the South Rim Trail Near Bright Angel Trailhead
The paved rim trail runs along the canyon edge and is wide and paved along the hotel stretch near Bright Angel Lodge and Trailhead. It’s an easy and rewarding walk with jaw-dropping canyon views and no need for a shuttle.
Benches are available at intervals, and in mid-May we found stretches of it to be quiet, particularly around sunset, which is fantastic from any point on the trail.
Pro Tip: The rim trail near Bright Angel Trailhead is where you’ll find the most variety in a short walk: the lodge, the Kolb Studio, canyon views in both directions, and the Red Loop shuttle stop are all nearby.
The Red Loop Shuttle: What to Expect and Which Stops to Prioritize
The Red Loop (Hermit’s Rest Route) is the shuttle line that runs westward from Grand Canyon Village along the rim to Hermit’s Rest, with eight stops. Private vehicles aren’t permitted on this road, so the shuttle is the only way to reach these viewpoints without hiking the full rim trail.
The full round trip takes about 80 minutes not including time at stops. You can approach it two ways: ride to a stop, spend 10 minutes taking in the view, and catch the next shuttle onward, or hike between stops on the rim trail and shuttle back. The rim trail between stops is rocky and gravelly in sections. If that’s not comfortable, walking on the paved shuttle road is allowed and perfectly reasonable.
Hopi Point to Mojave Point: The Hike Worth Doing
The 0.7-mile walk from Hopi Point to Mojave Point is the stretch we’d recommend if you want to hike any section of the rim. It’s relatively easy but the path is still gravelly and uneven with dramatic drops into the canyon, so watch your footing. The views from this section are continuous and change as you move along the rim.
Hopi Point itself is also the best sunset viewpoint on the Red Loop, but you’ll get fantastic views from all around.
The Abyss
The Abyss is worth a stop for one specific reason: you can look straight down into a near-vertical 3,000-foot drop into the canyon interior. It’s a different visual experience than the wide panoramic views at other stops. Give it 10 minutes and move on to Pima Point.
Pima Point: The Best View on the Red Loop
If you only have time for one stop, we highly recommend you make it Pima Point. Despite being the last of seemingly a thousand viewpoints we checked out, this was the most expansive and grand-feeling view of the entire trip.
Hermit’s Rest: Skip It Unless You Need a Break
Hermit’s Rest is the final stop on the Red Loop and the only one with a snack shop and restrooms. The view is not better than Pima Point, which is right before it. We stopped, used the facilities, and got back on the shuttle. If you don’t need the amenities, skip it altogether.
Best: Pima Point | Worth It: The Abyss, Hopi to Mojave hike | Skip: Hermit’s Rest unless you need a restroom or water
Sunset at Grand Canyon South Rim: Where to Go
Hopi Point is the most recommended sunset viewpoint on the South Rim, and it’s definitely worth it. But the whole rim trail is beautiful at dusk and you’ll get a great sunset from anywhere. Don’t stress about being at a specific spot at a specific time. Find any bench on the rim trail near Bright Angel, and you’ll still get a great experience.
Where to Stay at Grand Canyon South Rim
For in-park lodging, the two most discussed options are Bright Angel Lodge and El Tovar Hotel, but there are several others to explore:
- Kachina Lodge and Thunderbird Lodge are located between the two on the rim with rates starting around $285 to $289 per night.
- Maswik Lodge is set back from the rim among the trees with larger rooms starting around $229.
- Yavapai Lodge is the largest in-park option with 350-plus rooms from around $246.
All in-park lodging books out months ahead in peak season.
We stayed two nights in a Bright Angel Lodge cabin for $345 per night and found the location unbeatable right at the Bright Angel Trailhead on the rim trail, and a short walk from El Tovar.
- The cabins are rustic with vaulted wood ceilings, comfortable queen beds, and compact but clean bathrooms.
- There’s no air conditioning, which was fine in mid-May with screened windows open at night.
- Room types range from shared-bath hostel-style rooms from $118 up to premium rim-view cabins with fireplaces.
El Tovar Hotel’s standard rooms start above $498 and don’t include canyon views unless your booking an even pricier premium room, which makes the value of Bright Angel Lodge much more appealing for most travelers.
👉 For the full lodging breakdown, see our Bright Angel Lodge vs. El Tovar review.
If you’d rather stay outside the park, Tusayan has a cluster of chain hotels and independent properties a few minutes from the south entrance, including:
- Best Western Premier Grand Canyon Squire Inn
- Holiday Inn Express Grand Canyon
- Red Feather Lodge.
Rates are lower in Tusayan than the in-park options and availability is easier to find closer to your travel date. You’ll lose the ability to walk right to the rim from your room, but the drive in is short.
Where to Eat Dinner at Grand Canyon South Rim
Dining inside the park is convenient but limited, and the in-park options aren’t always the best quality. The two restaurants that hold up are Arizona Steakhouse at Bright Angel Lodge and El Tovar Dining Room, and both are expensive by any standard outside a national park.
Arizona Steakhouse had the slight edge for us with a lighter and more contemporary dining room, canyon views through wide windows, excellent service, and a fantastic menu. The barramundi on coconut black rice and the short ribs on garlic mash were our favorites. We’d skip the tenderloin next time, which was heavily over-salted for our entire table.
El Tovar Dining Room has a dramatic setting in a dark log dining room with white tablecloths and canyon views, and the food was very good. We loved the shrimp main, the elk, and the beet salad. Service was a challenge on our visit, but that could’ve just been a bad night. Neither restaurant requires you to be a hotel guest, but you should make reservations well in advance.
Grand Canyon South Rim: Practical Information
Getting There
The South Rim is the most visited section of Grand Canyon National Park and is open year-round. From Las Vegas it’s about four and a half hours. From Phoenix, about three and a half hours. Tusayan, the nearest town, is just outside the south entrance and has hotels, restaurants, and the Maverick Helicopters terminal.
Park Entrance and Shuttles
The park entrance fee covers a seven-day pass. America the Beautiful annual passes are accepted here, too. The free shuttle system covers the South Rim’s main routes including the Red Loop. Shuttles run frequently during peak hours, and no reservations are needed.
What to Wear and Bring
- Sun protection is absolutely essential. Bring a hat, sunscreen, sunglasses.
- The rim is exposed and the high desert elevation means the sun is strong even when temperatures feel mild.
- Carry more water than you think you need.
- The rim trail near Bright Angel has no shade in most sections.
- Comfortable walking shoes are fine for the rim trail. Proper hiking footwear is essential if you plan to descend any distance on Bright Angel or South Kaibab Trail into the canyon.
A Note on Descending Into the Canyon
The Bright Angel Trail descends steeply from the trailhead near Bright Angel Lodge. Descending is easy. Ascending in the heat is a completely different experience. The park service’s own signage advises day hikers not to hike to the river and back in one day. If you plan to descend, turn around well before you think you need to.
Grand Canyon South Rim: Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best thing to do at Grand Canyon South Rim in one day?
Desert View Drive on the way in covers the eastern rim with minimal crowds. The rim trail near Bright Angel Lodge is worth exploring on foot for an easy hike. The Red Loop shuttle with stops at Pima Point and the Abyss covers the rim westward from the Village Route Transfer Station. If budget and time allows, the helicopter tour from Tusayan adds an amazing aerial perspective.
What is the best viewpoint at Grand Canyon South Rim?
From the rim, Pima Point on the Red Loop offers the most expansive view. Lipan Point on Desert View Drive is excellent and usually less crowded than the Watchtower. From the air, the view from a South Rim helicopter tour is a once-in-a-life-time experience.
Is one day enough for Grand Canyon South Rim?
Yes, if you prioritize. We recommend Desert View Drive or the helicopter tour in the morning – depending on where you’re arriving from – the rim trail and Red Loop in the afternoon, and sunset from Hopi Point or anywhere on the rim. Two nights gives you more flexibility and the option to add a sunrise moment.
How long does the Red Loop shuttle take?
The full round trip is about 80 minutes without stopping at any viewpoints. With a stop at Pima Point and the Abyss, budget two to two and a half hours. The Hopi to Mojave hike adds another 30 to 45 minutes on top of that. Shuttles come every 10 minutes, so you can stop, have a look, and hop on the next bus if you don’t want to hike.
Is Desert View Drive worth it at Grand Canyon?
Yes, if you’re arriving from the east. The drive is included with your park entry, adds minimal time to the drive into Grand Canyon Village, and gives you your first canyon views at a series of overlooks that are less crowded than the main visitor area. The Watchtower and Lipan Point are your favorite stops.
Have you visited the Grand Canyon South Rim? Let us know in the comments.
Explore More of Our American Southwest Travel Guides
- Las Vegas to Grand Canyon Road Trip: Best National Park Loop
- Bright Angel Lodge Review: Is It Worth It Over El Tovar?
- Grand Canyon Helicopter Tour: Is It Worth It? (Our Maverick Review)
- Monument Valley Travel Guide: How to Plan the Perfect Visit
- Lodge at Bryce Canyon Review: Is It Worth Staying Inside the Park?
- 1 Day in Bryce Canyon National Park: Best Itinerary for First-Time Visitors
- Best Hotels at Zion National Park: Top Picks in Springdale and Inside the Park
- 1 Day in Zion National Park: Easy Hikes for All Travelers
Even More Travel Guides!
