you seem to know what you are talking about and i sincerely need your opinion. i cannot decide, like the other poster, about the south or the west rim. i see you love the north rim and are so fortunate to live in AZ and can go there. but we are on a 3-day trip to vegas, and only have the west or south option. for several reasons we have decided to take the bus tour not the plane or helicopter. this was after chewing over the idea of a 12-hour bus trip (two days after a plane ride, two days before our drive to LA and four days before our drive up the pacific coast hwy to san fran). so its a LOT of traveling by auto/bus in one short week. but we ruled out air travel to the canyon, for a few reasons. that said, now i am reading all these posts here and somewhere else about how the south rim is 1000 times better than the west rim and the west rim is a waste of time. there is a tour to the south rim from vegas but it takes 15 hours! we really do NOT want to take a 15 hour trip that just seems so much longer than 12 and 12 was already too long! but i hate to spend 12 hours on a bus for a boring unimpressive trip, when maybe if we can stick it out for three more hours we can get to the south rim. but is it really worth it? is it that much better? its two adults and a girl who is almost 12, i hate to put her through an additional three hours on a bus...but then again we are from new jersey and this is a once in a lifetime trip for us. please let me know what you think. advice from everyone would be terrific as i have to book this trip within the next day or two! thank you SO much...