Hoover Dam Tour

My wife and I are taking our adult children to Vegas for their first time in February and one wants to see the Hoover Dam. I've been to Vegas 2-4 times per year for 16 years and have never done this although I have always wanted to.

Any recommendations?

It will be one of the best and most memorable things you'll ever do.

We just signed up with one of the advertised tour companies, which involved being picked up at the hotel, driven to this huge bus terminal where everybody taking any kind of tour was directed to the appropriate booth to pay for your tour and be directed to your bus for whatever tour you were taking. We rode the first bus for a while, which made a stop somewhere I don't recall (Boulder??)where there was a lookout point and of course a gift shop. Then onto another bus which took us to the drop off point at Hoover Dam. Folks using their own transportation don't have to go through all this and probably get there in a shorter amound of time, but it wasn't unpleasant. For newbys like us it was good not having to figure things out on our own as the bus drivers were great to point things out and tell us what to do.

Before 9/11 they had what they called the Hard Hat Tour. After the 'orientation' and viewing of a short movie about the history of the building of Hoover Dam, they gave us cute blue plastic hard hats which I think were mainly of souvenir quality and probably for effect. Supposedly on the Hard Hat Tour we were taken farther down into areas that the 'regular' (cheaper?) tours did not include, but again, not sure of the truth of that.

Do view the movie Vegas Vacation (Chevy Chase) before you go. There is a major Hoover Dam scene in that movie, very funny, and you will get more out of the movie the next time you watch it after you take the tour, plus get a little more out of the tour if you have seen the movie beforehand.

Enjoy the tour!

Where's the dam bait! If you go on your own, make sure you go to the bridge that overlooks the dam it is also awesome, I have been to the dam 7 times and i love it. The tour is a little lame now because of 9-11, just walking across and the bridge are the awesome parts, if you drive there the bridge is free to park and the dam you pay for parking. $5-$10 well worth it.

I went in 2009, when I turned 50, and we drove out to the tour on our own and it wasn't hard to get there. We saw a movie first then on the tour we went down underground and saw the turbines running etc. . .I had done it once before 9/11, but I thought we still saw quite a bit. it is very entertaining and informational. Pictures and time at the new bridge are a must. We got some cool construction pictures, as they were building it when we were there.
Shannon

I have been to the hoover dam 3 or 4 times. Its a real easy 40/50 minute drive from Fremont street. The first trip there, we parked on the far side of the dam and found you had many opportunities to take pictures outside. I am not sure about parking close to the entrance going into the dam for those of you that need close parking. The dam tour as explained above was cool and worth the money.
The second time we went to the Hoover Dam, we stopped at the Hacienda casino just down the road from the dam because my wife saw a helicopter tour of the dam for $29. We later found out that $29 got you a ride straight up for about 1 minute so you could see the dam and I wasn't about to stand in line for that. For $59 each you actually got 5 minutes in the helicopter and flew by the dam and over lake Meade. The helicopter hovers nears the dam and the spins around for a minute so "everyone" can get good pictures This is a highly recommended tour even for you scardy cats as the whole tour only lasts 5 minutes and you really don't have too much time to get air sick or super nervous (IMHO anyway). I actually went into the Hacienda and bet $25 on the don't side of a craps table and won, took the whole $50 and put it on black (roulette) and won, and then put the whole $75 in profit on one hand at a blackjack table and won.......so basically I won the helicopter tour for the wife and I (hey, your in Vegas right!). The Hacienda has been sold and renamed recently so I am not sure if any of this story is still viable.
The third and probably the last time I went there was to see the new bridge. It was worth the trip for a new chance to take pictures of the dam, but we did not take a second tour of the dam. There is a nice pedestrian walk way on the bridge and nice spots to take pictures.

weggie

I didn't realize they had discontinued the long tour of the the dam. It was a lot of fun being able to look out the "window" on the face of the dam. I agree that walking on the new overpass bridge is a must. We were there on a very windy day and thought we would blow off. It is amazing how small the dam looks from up there.

We did the complete long tour last year. I don't think it's discontinued.

Roy the old tour, you went everywhere, even to the bottom and outside at the bottom.

Drive to the AZ side to park .Its free and not a far walk