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Las Vegas → Fort Lauderdale

LAS–FLL · Harry Reid International Airport to Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport

Best bet

Left side

Good betA real difference, not a rounding error.

Grand Canyon leads it, with 4 more on the same side.

Flight paths move around. Treat this as the better bet, not a promise.

What you might see

In flight order, with distance measured from the representative route.

LAS to FLL: where each landmark sits relative to the routeA diagram of the representative route running left to right, with the departure airport at the left and the arrival airport at the right. Landmarks on the left side of the aircraft are plotted above the route line and landmarks on the right side below it, each at its distance from the route. The numbered list below this diagram carries the same information as text.LASFLLLEFT SIDERIGHT SIDE12345678
Distance from the route is to scale (up to 40 miles); the shaded ends are the 40-mile zones around each airport where the runway in use decides the view. Numbers match the list below. Hollow markers didn't count toward the recommendation.

  1. Lake Mead

    LeftEarly18 mi off the route

    Lake Mead is about 18 miles off the left, early in the flight.

    Good possibility

  2. Grand Canyon

    LeftEarly29 mi off the route

    Early in the flight, Grand Canyon sits roughly 29 miles to the left.

    Good possibility

  3. San Francisco Peaks

    RightEarly18 mi off the route

    Look right early in the flight for San Francisco Peaks, about 18 miles out.

    Good possibility

  4. Painted Desert

    LeftEarly10 mi off the route

    Painted Desert is about 10 miles off the left, early in the flight.

    Good possibility

  5. Petrified Forest

    RightEarly15 mi off the route

    Early in the flight, Petrified Forest sits roughly 15 miles to the right.

    Distant possibility

  6. Sandia Mountains

    LeftQuarter in35 mi off the route

    Look left about a quarter of the way in for Sandia Mountains, about 35 miles out.

    Distant possibility

  7. Lake Okeechobee

    LeftNear the end36 mi off the route

    Lake Okeechobee is about 36 miles off the left, late in the flight.

    Distant possibility

  8. the Everglades

    RightNear the end20 mi off the route

    Whether the Everglades appears comes down to how you come into FLL, which is not something we can know in advance.

    Runway dependent

The sun

Flying soon? Add your date and departure time and we'll work out where the sun should be, and which side gets less of it.

Airport codes or city names. SEA, Seattle, and Seattle-Tacoma all work.

Skip the date and you still get the landmark answer. Add it and we work out where the sun will be, using the departure airport's local time.

The route we used

2,170 mi
Great-circle distance
99°
Course out of LAS
117°
Course into FLL
7
Landmarks that counted

That is the shortest path between the two airports, used as a representative corridor rather than a flight plan. The first and last 40 miles are treated as uncertain, because that part of the flight is shaped by the runway in use and the published departure or arrival procedure. Anything in those zones is listed and marked, never counted toward the recommendation.

Left and right, from where?

Left and right are from your perspective sitting in the cabin, facing the front of the aircraft. Seat letters are not a reliable guide to which side you are on, because aircraft are configured differently.

Why this isn't guaranteed

Flights don't follow the same path every day. Runway configuration, weather deviations, traffic, and air traffic control all move the track around, and none of it is knowable in advance. We also have nothing to say about cloud cover, which is the other thing standing between you and Mount Rainier. The full method.

Flying the other way?

Fort Lauderdale → Las VegasRight side

Calculated from scratch, not by flipping this one. The landmarks arrive in the opposite order, the sun is somewhere else entirely, and the answer changes with them.

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