You’ve probably seen their helicopter circling the city on the weekends. Upstate Helicopter Tours takes off from the Greenville Downtown Airport and flies scheduled and custom tours. On some saturdays, they also offer a $25 per person short walk-up tour that takes you around downtown Greenville and back to the airport. Scheduled tours range from $155 to $550 and the helicopter can accomodate up to 3 passengers, in addition to the pilot.
Our pilot was really nice, and made us feel welcomed and safe – explaining what he was doing, and what to expect every step of the way. We flew the shortest tour – up and over Paris Mountain, and around Furman University and back through the Downtown Area. The flight was smooth, and the views were absolutely stunning.
We’d say it’s a must do, even if you’ve lived in Greenville your entire life, this is a perspective of the city you’ve likely never seen before, and make sure you bring your camera.
$155 for a 20 minute ride? That seems crazy, right? Well, Helicopters ain’t cheap, especially when you’re flying tours – the pilot told us he pays about $14,000/year for Insurance and he’ll soon have to put a new set of blades on the helicopter. The cost? $65,000. Not to mention the Robinson R-44 they fly cost about $477,000 to purchase, so the operational costs are higher than a fixed-wing aircraft. For the experience of having that sort of birds eye view of the city, and being the only people that high up above everything looking down, we felt it was well worth it.
