Hoover Dam bus tour?

[mrem3200]

On my next trip we are going to go to the Hoover Dam. We won't have a car so I was planning on doing one of the bus tours. As of now I am thinking of using the Hoover Dam Tour Company. $65 pp 9am-3pm or so. Not interested in a Lake Mead cruise. Does anyone have any thoughts/recommendations?

Thanks

 

[Travel Fanatic]

Maybe not the opinion you are looking for, mrem, but I suggest renting the car. Renting a car will cost less than two tickets with the tour company and then you have flexibility. All my friends that have taken these bus tours to the dam regretted it afterward. The tour companies were fine. They just lamented giving up half their day and being stuck on a bus with a bunch of strangers and being on the company's schedule rather than their own

 

[mrem3200]

Thanks UK, appreciate the insight. I will check with my friend and see if he has a preference, the more I think about it though, the more I like the idea of renting a car for the day.

 

[dmr]

Maybe not the opinion you are looking for, mrem, but I suggest renting the car. Renting a car will cost less than two tickets with the tour company and then you have flexibility. All my friends that have taken these bus tours to the dam regretted it afterward. The tour companies were fine. They just lamented giving up half their day and being stuck on a bus with a bunch of strangers and being on the company's schedule rather than their own

Years (decades) ago my ex and I took one of these tours which included as a "bonus" a side trip to visit Ethel M and her Chocolate Factory.

The stop at the Chocolate Factory seemed endless! Yes, the Cactus Garden is worth doing, but it doesn't take that long. The factory was not operating that day and all you could do other than the Cactus Garden was stare at idle machinery, munch on a singular sample piece, walk around in the hot air, or sit on the shuttle bus. We actually started to inquire if there was a city bus line nearby when they FINALLY got the return trip going!

YMMV but this was not a pleasant experience.

 

[deansrobinson]

Years (decades) ago my ex and I took one of these tours which included as a "bonus" a side trip to visit Ethel M and her Chocolate Factory....YMMV but this was not a pleasant experience.

We (me and the Mrs., and the in-laws) did that same tour...stop at the chocolate factory (which was operating). We thought it was great. Mainly because we were not time sensitive. It's basically a drive through the desert, tour the dam, drive through the desert back to our resort. Although a car might be less expensive, I ain't driving on vacation. Especially in walk-everywhere-Vegas. We enjoy bus tours, because someone else has to do the driving. We've done bus tours all over Europe, so we're comfortable with this mode of vacay travel.

 

[mrem3200]

I just got back from my trip and we ended up renting a car to go to the dam. I am glad we did, I think it worked out better than taking the tour. We ended up spending more time at the dam than we would have had we done the tour. Thanks everyone for the recommendations.

 

[vegasvic]

While renting a car for just one day can be a little bit of a hassle it's worth it. The Dam has 2 tours. With the tour buses you get the shorter tour (which is great). The more extensive tour tickets can only be bought in person at the dam so the tour bus operators can't offer that. So rent a car and go on the better tour. And while you have a car for the day there are a ton of places you can explore around Vegas.

 

[mrem3200]

While renting a car for just one day can be a little bit of a hassle it's worth it. The Dam has 2 tours. With the tour buses you get the shorter tour (which is great). The more extensive tour tickets can only be bought in person at the dam so the tour bus operators can't offer that. So rent a car and go on the better tour. And while you have a car for the day there are a ton of places you can explore around Vegas.

We stayed a the Cromwell and rented from the Enterprise at the Westin so it was pretty easy. I had requested a compact or economy car but they upgraded us to a convertible Mustang for the same price, so that was nice. They were doing maintenance on the elevators when we were there so you couldn't do the tour that goes inside the dam...I assume that is what you mean by the longer tour? But it was still worth it. On the way back we stopped that the Welcome to Vegas sign since my friend had never seen it.