Question of the Day - 31 July 2021

Your wife’s trepidation may be nothing compared to that of your wallet.

For instance, Sun Buggy's tour of the Vegas Dunes, near Nellis Air Force Base, for a half-hour of trail riding will set you back $399. An hour costs $499. If you like to free-roam, you can got to Amargosa Big Dune (where the first season of "The Rat Patrol" was filmed) for $1,108.89; it's 75 minutes or so northwest of Vegas but not, we understand, for the fein of heart. 

Sun Buggy will also rent you two-person ATVs or UTVs for a tour of Valley of Fire State Park. That'll run you $886.89 once park fee ($23.97) and fuel fee ($63.92) are factored into the equation. However, it might be the best investment of the three, given the superior scenic aspects of Valley of Fire.

Adrenaline ATV Tours charges $325 an hour for a Yamaha or XYZ1000R two-seater. They, too, take you to Valley of Fire. 

For value, Las Vegas Elite Off-Road is a better deal, enabling you to cruise the Vegas Dunes for two full hours for $449 per couple. “You’re the one to set the pace,” a nice salesman assured us, putting our fears for your wife's diffidence to rest. The company also provides a free shuttle to the off-roading site, an amenity you should make sure whatever tour group you join provides before you book. (Most of the base camps for off-roading appear to be in the vicinity of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.)

Awesome Adventures offers single and two-person guided tours. You're shuttled for free from your hotel and Awesome even throws in a complimentary lunch. You start from Eldorado Canyon, near Lake Mead, and motor to Techatticup Mine, a popular filming location and tourist attraction. The ride will set you back $372 for a two-person Polaris Ranger.

Las Vegas ATV/UTV Tours, up near Nellis AFB, comes highly recommended to us, particularly as the exclusive off-roading partner to the local military establishments. However, several attempts to contact them proved fruitless. Tours, of unspecified length, will cost you $329 a vehicle.

And definitely keep an eye out for Spyder Tours. You can ride nifty single-person ATVs to Red Rock Canyon, Valley of Fire, Hoover Dam, Mount Charleston and other sites. But the company is presently dark, having suspended touring due to the pandemic and low customer demand. They promise to return when tourism does. We hope so. (They’re the highest-rated tour service on Google.)

An ATV expert consulted by LVA says closed-course tours are the safest. “Can you get off these courses? Yes. Should you? Nah.” Fortunately, the courses are in sufficiently remote areas that you won’t have problems with traffic. Guided tours are the best, we are also told. After all, if you're new to this, you want to know where you’re going, right?