View from the top

Aerial Tours

words by > Catherine Arnold

Fly like an Eagle

While walking and bus tours might get you up close to some of a city’s most famous locations, there’s no better way to enjoy a metropolis in its entirety than from above. An aerial tour is the prime opportunity to look down on a few places—Miami’s South Beach mansions, the Sears Tower, Golden Gate Bridge, the Seattle area’s San Juan Islands or the sprawling city of Los Angeles. If peering down your nose at the Hollywood sign sounds tempting, read on.

CHICAGO

Wave at people on the observation decks of the John Hancock building and Sears Tower; skim along Lake Michigan’s aquamarine shores; weave between skyscrapers. Starting at the airfield in Kenosha, Wisconsin, 50 miles north of Chicago, Magic Carpet Helicopters flies to downtown Chicago, Wrigley Field and (White Sox home) Cellular One Park—when games are not being played, Grant and Lincoln parks near the lakefront, the expansive North Shore estates and wherever else passengers choose for a fly-over. Lower Wisconsin destinations, such as the resort area Lake Geneva, are also available.

Like other Chicago aerial tours, Magic Carpet’s flights have started from outside the city center since 2003, when the downtown airstrip Meigs Field was closed. The views of the city are well worth the trip north, though. “Cruising down the lake shore at sunset is really romantic,” says co-owner Jayna Ashbacher. “You can see the city skyline all a-sparkle.”

People sometimes have reasons beyond simple sightseeing for their helicopter flights. One passenger, for instance, asked the pilot to fly him and his girlfriend over a cornfield in southern Wisconsin where he had spelled out, “Will you marry me?”

Magic Carpet Helicopters

Contact: 847-336-1001, www.magiccarpethelicopters.com Price: $435 for one hour, three-person helicopter rental; one and a half hours, $600.

LOS ANGELES

Want to take your significant other on a truly unique date?

Los Angeles Helicopters’ most popular tour is at sunset, and you’ll want to book it early, because other people have similarly romantic ideas. Watching day descend into the Pacific Ocean from a craft hovering over the beach never fails to impress, says manager Wendy Prendergast.

The hour-long grand city tour includes the following sights: downtown, Dodger Stadium, the Coliseum, movie studios, the Griffith Park Observatory, Sunset Boulevard, Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills and, of course, the Hollywood sign.

Possible stops on your romantic flight include being dropped off for an upscale Thai dinner on the Santa Monica Pier, at a casino east of San Diego or at the Thornton Winery for a meal and live music—often piano or jazz.

Los Angeles Helicopters

Contact: www.lahelicopters.com Price: $262 each for one hour, minimum of two people.

SAN FRANCISCO

From sea lions in the bay to the famous silhouette of the downtown skyline, a helicopter tour of the San Francisco Bay area provides a memorable experience. Starting at San Carlos Airport on the peninsula, San Francisco Helicopter Tours flies north past a horse racetrack and the Giants’ stadium Pac Bell Park, then over the Bay Bridge to the city.

Next are the Marina District, Coit Tower, Pier 34 and the city skyline. After skimming across the bay, past Alcatraz and the Marin headlands, then south past Ocean Beach and its surfers, the helicopter hits the Nature Channel chapter of its tour. Experience Montera Beach, where whales often rub barnacles from their bellies against rocks, and a nearby natural marine reserve that’s a good bet for flying low to spot coral and anemones. Even further south, passengers will see massive sea caves, beaches and seals by the hundreds.

San Francisco Helicopter Tours

Contact: 800-400-2404, www.sfhelicoptertours.com Price: $500 per hour, up to three people.

MIAMI

Miami Flight Seeing’s most comprehensive tour, The Grand Miami, covers nearly 74 miles of beach in 60 minutes by airplane. The flight circles downtown Miami, crosses Fisher Island (where Oprah Winfrey reportedly has a house), Key Biscayne and Stiltsville—a group of houses built on stilts in Biscayne Bay in the 1930s, which were often featured on the television show “Miami Vice.” From the air, it’s “thrilling to see houses perched on stilts in the middle of the bay,” notes Don Bueneman, the pilot/owner.

Along with views of the vast estates of Miami Beach, passengers can see pretty much everything in the water contrast with the shallow bottom of Biscayne Bay: manatees, dolphins and schools of fish. Some fishermen even go up in order to spot schools, set their GPS, then head for those areas later, says Bueneman.

Miami Flight Seeing

Contact: info@miamiflightseeing.com; www.miamiflightseeing.com Price: $135 per person for an hour.

SEATTLE

See how the richest man on the planet lives with a fly-by of Bill Gates’s palatial estate. It’s part of Classic Helicopter Corp.’s most popular tour, which also includes flying over Lake Washington and the Microsoft campus. Another favorite is the tour over downtown, the Safeco and Qwest sports fields, the waterfront at Pier 57, the Seattle Center and Space Needle. Or, go north to Lake Union’s houseboats (as seen in the movie Sleepless in Seattle), the University of Washington and Shilshole Bay and its marina.

On Shilshole Bay, the ’copter will hover over the H.M. Chittenden Locks, which allow boats to pass between Lake Union’s fresh water and the bay’s salt water. “The view of the locks is neat,” says pilot Ichio Seshima. “There are two locks, where five to eight boats go while one lock side is closed. We watch as the water is made level on both sides.” Then the tour returns to downtown Seattle, with views of the bay, Puget Sound and Lake Washington.

Classic Helicopter Corp.

Contact: www.classichelicoptercorp.com Price: Up to four people, $600 for an hour. For the Mount

Rainier scenic tour, $802 for up to three people.

NEW YORK

With its towering skyscrapers and famous landmarks, New York City is a spectacle from the air. Stare Lady Liberty in the eye as you fly past the 150-foot statue, and wave to the tourists at the top of the Empire State Building while zooming uptown for a peek of Central Park. Liberty Helicopters tours include views of all the most iconic vistas—the Woolworth building (called “the building dimes built”), Ellis Island, the George Washington Bridge (between the Upper West Side and New Jersey), the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier, the United Nations and much more.

Open every day of the year from 9am to 9pm, Liberty Helicopters makes touring easy for busy sightseers with three heliports—in downtown, midtown and Jersey City.

Liberty Helicopters

Contact: www.libertyhelicopters.com Price: From $30 per person for two minutes, to $849 for a private 15-minute tour, up to four people.