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Transportation
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Maps
Check out our Vegas
maps page.
Airport
& Airfare
We have a separate guide
to cheap airfares. And here's the
website of Vegas' McCarran
Airport, which offers flight
information, links to the websites of
all carriers serving Vegas, and "Flight
Watch" which provides updates on
user-selected flights every five
minutes.
Best way to
get around: WALK
Walking
is the best way to navigate the
Strip. Cabs are expensive, and you
usually have to wait in a long line at
the hotel to get one. (They can't stop
on the street.) The bus is cheaper but
it's usually not much faster than
walking, although it does get you out
of the heat when it's hot. Renting a
car is a big waste -- you have to park
so far away that you'll wind up walking
anyway. If you're able to walk, do it.
If not, I recommend the bus.
Bus
service
Strip
& Downtown -- The Strip bus is
a bronze double-decker called the
Deuce. It runs 24/7 every 5-10 minutes,
the entire length of the strip and
between the strip and downtown. $2 for
one ride, or get a day pass for $5 when
you pay your fare, good for 24 hours
from the minute you buy it.
Airport --
The #108 Paradise/Swenson bus goes
to Sahara & the Stratosphere (North
Strip) and then to to downtown. The
#109 goes to the South Strip Transfer
Terminal (SSTT). Both buses run every
20 minutes or better. On either bus,
buy a $2.50 day pass when you get on,
and then you can transfer to the Strip
bus ("the Deuce") for just 50¢
when you hit the strip.
The
bus stop at the airport isn't well
marked. There's a down escalator
between the two baggage claim areas.
Take the escalator down, go outside,
and the bus stop is the last stop on
the right, right under the little
canopy. You'll see airport employees
waiting for it.
I have a lot more
about the buses on my Getting
around Vegas page.
Shuttles
Airport shuttles will
take you to your Strip hotel for $5.50,
much cheaper than a taxi, if you don't
mind riding with other tourists who are
going to their own hotels. To find the
shuttles, go to the space between the
two big baggage claim areas and face
the direction of the escalators that
are coming down from the second floor.
Go right past the escalators, walk out
the door, and look left or right.
The more expensive hotels have
free airport/hotel shuttle
service. Check with your hotel to
see if they do. The pickup area is next
to the bus stop described above.
Taxis
Up to four people can ride
for the price of one, so if you're
splitting the cost by three or four
then cabs aren't such a bad deal
compared to the monorail or the bus.
Taxis aren't allowed to pick you up
directly on the strip so don't try to
hail one there -- go to the the taxi
area at the nearest hotel. Taxis run
$3.30 to get in plus
$2.20/mile. (2008
rates) Don't let your driver
take the tunnel from the airport,
unless you're going to Mandalay Bay or
the Luxor.
Monorail
Unless you're going to/from the
convention center, the monorail is too
far away, too expensive ($5 one-way),
and makes too few stops. The free trams
that run between certain casinos are
nice, though.
I've got much more on my page
about Getting
around Vegas.
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The
Strip
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Photos/Virtual
Tour of the Strip
Photos, movies, and
360-degree virtual tours of casinos and
the Strip from LasVegas.com.
And here are some more 360-degree
movies from LasVegas360.
Historical
Map of the Strip
This
map shows what hotels used
to be on the Strip, and what's there
now. Also check out our Vegas
Casino Timeline.
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Our
Top 10 Tips
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- Visit mid-week. Hotel
rooms often cost three to
four times as much on the
weekends as during the week! Plus,
with weekend crowds you'll wait in
line for everything. Mid-week
visitors save tons of money and have
a much better time.
- Get a player's card. Go
to the Player's Club desk at any
casino you visit and sign up for a
free player's card, even if you
don't plan to gamble there. Then the
casino will mail you offers for
discounted or even free rooms on
your next visit.
- Don't lose your shirt.
Don't bet more than you can afford
to lose. Set a budget for each
playing session and if you lose it,
stop playing.
- Don't play slot machines.
They suck your money away hand over
fist. See our crash
course on table games to have a
much better chance of winning.
- Tip the dealers $5/hr. and
the cocktail waitresses $1 every
drink or two.
- Ask for comps. When you
play either slots or table games the
casino will reward you with buffets,
show tickets, or room discounts. Ask
at the player's club booth (slot
players) or at the tables (table
players) for how to claim your
goodies. (more
on comps)
- Use the buses. The #108
goes from the airport to the
Stratosphere and then to downtown,
for only $1.25 -- or pay $2.50 for a
Day Pass and then ride the Deuce for
only 50¢. The Deuce runs the
whole strip and to & from
downtown for only $2.00, or $5.00
for 24-hour all-you-can-ride pass,
or only 50¢ if you got a day
pass from the #108 bus.
- Don't try to get taxis on the
strip. Taxis can't stop directly
on the strip; that's why they're
passing you by. Go to the taxi area
of the hotel to get one. Up to 4
people ride for the same price as 1;
if there's just 2 of you, don't be
afraid to yell out, "Anyone want to
split a cab to [some
casino]?" It doesn't just save
money, it's eco-friendly.
- Walk. The whole strip is
four miles long and you could walk
the whole thing in an hour and a
half. When there's traffic it's the
fastest way to get around.
- Get Half-Price Show
Tickets. You can get half-price
tickets for most Vegas shows at
one of the three booths on the Strip
(just S. of the Riviera, outside the
Fashion Show Mall across from the
Wynn, and in the Hawaiian
Marketplace across from the Monte
Carlo), or downtown (outside the
Four Queens).
- Bank your winnings. Set
aside half your win when you win
big, and never gamble it, so you
have a guaranteed win.
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Other
Stuff
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Shows,
Comedy, Nightclubs
Half-Price Tickets:
Tix
4 Tonite
Current shows. Destination
360.
Comedy clubs: Las
Vegas Online and Vegas.com.
Nightclubs: Vegas.com.
Dance Clubs: 10Best,
LV
Tourism
Lounge Acts: Vegas.com
and Review-Journal.
Free Stuff
in Vegas
VegasFreebies
tells you what you can get for free,
and where.
Coupons
Las Vegas Leisure Guide
offers many printable
coupons for casinos, shops, and
shows, but their selection isn't that
large.
BillHere
offers a larger selection, but his list
isn't formatted and is cumbersome to
read, you have to pay for the coupons,
and when we signed up for his
newsletter we started getting spam from
another company to the special address
we signed up with.
Social
Clubs & Organizations
See the list at the
Las
Vegas Review-Journal.
Tourism
Statistics
Here's an excerpt: 39k
yearly visitors, spending an average of
$952 each, in 133k hotel rooms with 89%
occupancy and an average rate of
$103/night. (more tourism stats from
UNLV
and LasVegas.com)
Conventions
Here's a complete
list of upcoming conventions.
Smoking
Every single casino in Las Vegas
allows smoking, though most poker rooms
are smoke-free. Sometimes some of the
table games have no-smoking signs, but
those are the exception and not the
rule. A former casino employee who got
lung cancer from secondhand smoke
started Smoke
Free Gaming to try to get casinos
to ban smoking.
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Other
Vegas Guides
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Here are other all-in-one guides
cover all aspects of Vegas for visitors
-- gambling, dining, weddings,
conventions, recreation, bookstores,
you name it.
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