When it comes to the history of the US as we know it, few landmarks are known quite as well as Mount Rushmore. Literally carved straight into the granite cliffs of South Dakota’s Black Hills, the immense faces of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln have become a must-see for travelers chasing the story of the United States.
However, if you really want to maximize your experience beyond selfies, a guided tour is the perfect choice. I’ve gone ahead and detailed the 5 top Mount Rushmore tours currently out there, that are well worth your time and money in this state’s wild beauty. Let’s get started!
Best Tours of Mount Rushmore
| Premiere Private Black Hills Tour: Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse & Custer State Park | Private Tour of Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Custer State Park | Day Trip of the Black Hills: Mount Rushmore to Custer State Park! | |
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| Departure: | Hotel pickup and drop-off included | Hotel pickup and drop-off included | 3 Pick-up locations available |
| Start: | 8:00 AM | 9:00 AM | 7:30 AM |
| Duration: | 9 hours | 8 to 9 hours | 10 hours |
| Includes: | Air-conditioned vehicle transport, restroom on board, entry fees to Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park, and Crazy Horse, snacks and drinks | Snacks, bottled water, guided tour by a local, transportation, entry fees to Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park, and Crazy Horse | Small group tour, all fees and taxes, bottled water, light snacks, local tour guide, transportation |
Quick Answer: The 5 Best Rated Mount Rushmore Tours For 2025
- Premiere Private Black Hills Tour: Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse & Custer State Park
- Private Tour of Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Custer State Park
- Day Trip of the Black Hills: Mount Rushmore to Custer State Park!
- Just You & Your Group: Rushmore, Custer State Park & Crazy Horse
- Private Half Day Mt Rushmore & Black Hills Tour
Mount Rushmore Tour Reviews
1. Premiere Private Black Hills Tour: Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse & Custer State Park
- Duration: 9 hours
- Departure: Hotel pickup and drop-off included
- Departure Time: 8:00 AM
- Includes: Air-conditioned vehicle transport, restroom on board, entry fees to Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park, and Crazy Horse, snacks and drinks
Let’s start things off with the Premiere Private Black Hills Tour: Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse & Custer State Park. This tour streamlines your itinerary for a hassle-free, immersive adventure, leaving behind crowds and logistics so you can focus on just having a good time.
If you’re already in the area, don’t just see Mount Rushmore – do yourself a favor and explore the entire area’s most interesting sights with a professional guide! You will start out out being picked up at your hotel or AirBNB in a spacious, air-conditioned coach and set off for Mount Rushmore.
Arrive in the morning at the massive monument, when crowds are thinner and you get to see it with the morning sun highlighting every angle. Our guides shared all kinds of interesting stories surrounding the monument, before letting us free for an hour to explore at our convenience.
We then boarded our bus and enjoyed the lovely views of the Iron Mountain Road before getting lunch at Custer State Park Resort! Learn about Calvin Coolidge’s vacation house/Game Lodge while enjoying Buffalo Stew, before continuing on to the Needles Highway for Sylvan Lake!
We rested and sipped on fresh coffee while soaking in the glasslike masterpiece before continuing on to the iconic Crazy Horse Memorial – one of the most important in the country.
More Information & Tour Booking
100% refund for cancellations within 24 hours of tour experience
2. Private Tour of Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Custer State Park
- Duration: 8 to 9 hours
- Departure: Hotel pickup and drop-off included
- Departure Time: 9:00 AM
- Includes: Snacks, bottled water, guided tour by a local, transportation, entry fees
You will be experiencing the Black Hills YOUR way on this private, customizable full-day excursion out to the legendary area, without worrying about traffic, crowds, and standing in lines all day. With expert local guides leading the way, flexible pacing, and breathtaking scenery, you’re in for a real treat with the Private Tour of Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Custer State Park!
If you aren’t a fan of competing for your guide’s attention or feeling like just another head in the crowd, do give this one a look! You’ll start things off on the right foot with a convenient hotel pickup, so you don’t have to worry about getting to a certain meetup point on time or booking an Uber.
Instead, your guide will drive right up to your hotel lobby to pick you up and set off for Mount Rushmore. They do a great job of accommodating just about any group size, whether it’s just a couple of people or your entire family and friend group!
This isn’t just any custom Black Hills private tour, though – you’ll have around 90 minutes to enjoy Mount Rushmore in all its glory and peaceful surroundings. It starts out with a little “tour” and some storytime from your guide, but then you have the rest of the time to go about as you see fit.
The Crazy Horse Memorial is about 25 minutes away, and you’ll also have another 90 minutes (I personally was blown away by this memorial, and it’s not even technically finished)! After that, we went on a leisurely drive through the enormous Custer State Park, where we got to select exactly which sites we stopped (with the help of our guide).
We took a couple small hikes, went to a cool lodge, and even spotted some critters along the way. This is an amazing way to see the area with a guide catering to your specific interests, going at your pace, and answering all of your questions!
More Information & Tour Booking
100% refund for cancellations within 24 hours of tour experience
3. Day Trip of the Black Hills: Mount Rushmore to Custer State Park!
- Duration: 10 hours
- Departure: 3 Pick-up locations available
- Departure Time: 7:30 AM
- Includes: Small group tour, all fees and taxes, bottled water, light snacks, local tour guide, transportation
Next up, is one of the most comprehensive tours of its kind: the Day Trip of the Black Hills: Mount Rushmore to Custer State Park! Starting off at 7:30 am, you’ll make the most of daylight while avoiding crowds in the early morning with your guide and the rest of your group.
If you’d like professional guidance and a streamlined itinerary within this immense, 1.25-million-acre forest, look no further than this adventure. There are a few different meet-up locations available for your convenience, and it turned out that one of them was a hotel right next to ours, making for added convenience.
After going through a nice briefing with our guide, we boarded our comfy, air-conditioned coach and set off for Mount Rushmore! Whether it’s just adults or you’re bringing kids along for the ride, I highly recommend this Black Hills tour for any age group.
This is definitely a trip for the history buffs out there, as I can say this was the tour I learned the most during, particularly regarding Custer’s expedition to the Black Hills back in the 1800s! We of course stopped to see Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse memorials, which are each intriguing and important in their own ways, offering insight into different perspectives of our country’s origins.
Then, we took a well-deserved break at a charming little restaurant in the town of Custer – we got to choose an older eatery with some great bison burgers! Speaking of which, we saw plenty of them when we arrived at the Custer State Park, next, which spans over 72,000 acres!
We learned more than I anticipated at the Visitor Center before rolling onto Iron Mountain Road, which I was grateful I didn’t have to navigate myself! Expect to see plenty of wildlife, breathtaking mountain views, and much more.
More Information & Tour Booking
100% refund for cancellations within 24 hours of tour experience
4. Just You & Your Group: Rushmore, Custer State Park & Crazy Horse
- Duration: 8 to 9 hours
- Departure: Hotel pickup and drop-off included
- Departure Time: 8:30 AM
- Includes: Bottled water, soft drinks, snacks, private transportation, air-conditioned vehicle, guide
If you’re in the mood for a tour that’s flexible, with personal anecdotes, history, wildlife, and amazing views, this next tour should be one of your top choices. The Just You & Your Group: Rushmore, Custer State Park & Crazy Horse excursion is perfect for families, small groups, or even solo travelers wanting to experience South Dakota’s Black Hills on their own terms.
No dealing with traffic, huge crowds, or itineraries you aren’t particularly drawn to – it’s all up to you and your group. You’ll get picked up right from your hotel lobby around 8:30 am, so you don’t have to worry about getting to a meet-up point on time or booking extra transportation.
If you need to adjust that time a bit, our guide was really flexible with accommodating us. While there’s nothing wrong with a regular coach, I loved that our transportation for the day was a Yukon XL, which was great when going around those tight mountain road curves.
Our group was literally just the two of us with our guide, so we had plenty of time to chat – both about the surrounding nature and Native American history, as well as plenty of personal stories. It was a great way to get a better perspective on what it’s like to grow up in the region, for sure!
Then, we arrived at the Presidential Trail at Mount Rushmore, and our guide took us to some lookout spots I hadn’t seen before, which made for some wonderful photos. Crazy Horse Memorial was a must-stop, followed by Custer State Park, where we stayed for a few hours to explore some new landscapes and wildlife!
We not only saw a ton of bison, but caught sight of some pronghorn, too! We got to see plenty of things I hadn’t on any other tour, like the Big Thunder Gold Mine, which really made me realize how different life was just some decades ago!
More Information & Tour Booking
100% refund for cancellations within 24 hours of tour experience
5. Private Half Day Mt Rushmore & Black Hills Tour
- Duration: 4 hours
- Departure: Hotel pickup and drop-off included
- Departure Time: 8:30 AM, 1:00 PM
- Includes: Snacks, Air-conditioned vehicle, Private transportation, All Fees and Taxes, Bottled water, Expert local guide
Last but certainly not least, is the Private Half Day Mt. Rushmore & Black Hills Tour! I understand that not everyone has an entire day available to dedicate to a tour, so whether you’re short on time or just don’t want to commit to an all-day thing, you’re in luck.
This tour is the only half-tour of its kind that I believe to be well worth the time and money, complete with a seamless itinerary to make the most of your experience. Speaking of saving time, your guide makes things that much more convenient by picking you up right from your hotel in a private, air-conditioned vehicle.
The exact vehicle type will depend on how large your group is, but usually, it’ll be a secure SUV ideal for trekking through the rugged wilderness. There are a few different start times available so you can more easily fit it into your busy schedule, too!
Your exact itinerary may vary a bit from mine, depending on what you and your private group are specifically interested in, but typically, it’ll go somewhat similar to this. Your first stop will be the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, where you’ll learn from an expert guide what makes it so special, how it came to be, and why these specific presidents were selected.
We had the chance to pick up some souvenirs at different gift shops and museums, and even explore some trails! Iron Mountain Road is a must, and I loved getting to see the different tunnels and bridges here on our way to the incredible Peter Norbeck Overlook for incomparable views.
Sylvan Lake is truly stunning as well, and we had time for photo ops before hopping onto Needles Hwy’s scenic drive in the center of the immense mountain range. It’s an experience you really have to see to believe, starting right from the beginning!
More Information & Tour Booking
100% refund for cancellations within 24 hours of tour experience
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The Premiere Private Black Hills Tour: Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse & Custer State Park is our Editors Choice for the best Mount Rushmore tour
