Walk Signature to Ellis Island in August?

We are staying at the Signature at MGM in August and I was looking at the map and it doesn't appear that the Ellis Island is too far from the Entrance to the Signature. I know how map distances can be a little deceiving, so I want to know is walking to Ellis Island from the Signature a fairly quick trip or is going to be a long walk in the hot sun?

How safe is the walk back to the strip or the Signature after dark?

-Max

 

Ellis Island is directly behind Bally's. When you stay at the Signature, everything is a long walk away. I'd walk from Sig to Ellis Island during the day if the temp was less than 110°F. At night, I might walk to Bally's to Paris to PH to Miracle Mile to Signature Tower 3.

Overall though, it's a long walk in the hot sun.

 

If you exit Bally's by the sports book, it really is a short walkt to Ellis Island. Much too short to even think about taking a cab.

 

IT's a 12 minute walk. East on Harmon to Koval and 10 minutes from there. Not that far at all. Bring water

 

It looks like this is easily enough done in the heat of the August sun. I always carry and drink a lot of water in that kind of heat. We have walked a lot more than that in past trips.

-Max

 

Sonya is right, getting a taxi can be a nightmare. We have had our best luck just walking to the convenient store on the corner and catching a cabbie there.

 

It's half a mile. I'd walk it any time other than July/August daytime.

https://goo.gl/maps/3lSq4

If it's too hot for a walk go to MGM entrance and pick up a cab there.

 

I think the Ellis has a deal about free play for the taxi cost. Walking during the morning would probably be ok. Depending on your condition?

 

As long as you exit from Tower 3 and don't suffer too much from the heat you will be fine. It's not that far and well worth it, maybe 10/15 minutes. Not so sure I would do it alone but it's a main road and I've never had any problems walking that route to EI or from behind Ballys.

 

Yup, I had to do the same thing when staying at the Super 8, the desk called a cab and I was waiting 10 minutes then saw a taxi at the 7-11 and ran over and grabbed it.

 

Not sure where Signature is located but I walk back from MGM to the quad at all different times. Its about 20-30min walk. Ellis would be about the same as the quad, just make a quick right at ballys.

its pretty safe. You see plenty of other tourist walking. You are in a very busy sidewalk at all times. The one thing I have picked up is that the drunk tourist are much more louder along this path and you do pass a busstop on the side of ballys, which would put some out of their comfort zone if they let it.

I take the walk to ellis 2 or 3 times a trip for their 24/7 prime rib.

 

Ellis Island is a favorite of mine and I go there a few times every trip. A couple of times I've stayed at the Bally's north tower specifically to be close to EI. (I walk fast--it was about 8 minutes from door to door.)

We were at Aria last week and walked it a couple times, cabbed it a couple times. In the daytime, in the summer, CAB IT. It cost me $7 + tip and was well worth it. None of the walking routes there is pleasant. I love the place but it's a loud, hot, fairly unpleasant walk to get there.

And we had no trouble getting a cab back. We asked at the EI players club, they called one, we went out the door across from Super 8 and within a few minutes there was a cab.

 

This is one of those situations where having a monorail pass might do some good. Where the signature connects to the MGM mall area is very close to the monorail station. If you take the monorail to Bally's you will already be on the backside of Bally's and you can exit out the back/side doors near the food court. This will put you only one block from Koval. You can just walk down Flamingo, cross Koval and then just go up Koval a few hundred feet and you are at Ellis Island. The End result may not be a LOT faster or shorter (should be a little though) but I think you will spend a minimal amount of it in the hot sun or walking in front of the sketchy apartments on Koval.

 

I don't know if the Signature has its own taxi stand, but if it does, I'd take a cab. Unless you have a monorail pass, it's $5 per ride. The cab should only be about that much (plus tip). (Like I said, it cost me $7 + tip from Aria.) With a cab you'll be there in minutes; with a monorail if you were unlucky it'd be much longer than that.

EI really is worth a small cab fare. Even if you're a generous tipper, you'll make it back with the good gaming conditions and cheap tasty food.

Edit: sorry, I didn't notice that you said monorail PASS. Even then, to save half an hour or so of Vegas time I'd personally pay an extra $10 for the cab.

 

You are right about being worth taking a cab if you don't have any other reason to have a monorail pass. Although you are seriously overestimating the time it would take using the monorail. I'm not sure how you can be "unlucky" on the monorail in such a way that would make it take longer. The monorail doesn't suffer from any of the traffic, stops, or crowd issues that a cab or bus might. It's going to take however long its going to take and be about the same every time. It really is pretty quick and the longest time would be how long it takes you to walk from Bally's to EI which isn't that bad.

You are

 

Well, if you walk to the monorail stop at MGM, just miss a train, wait for the next train, take the train, walk from the Bally's stop to the exit by the Bally's sportsbook, then walk from there to EI, it would take several times longer than a cab ride. Don't get me wrong--I like the monorail!

 

Thanks for the excellent suggestion on the route. I am going to give this a shot.

-Max

 

Oops, sorry I see I miss-phrased to imply that I meant "longer than a cab ride". For sure the monorail would indeed be longer than a cab ride. I just meant there isn't normally anything that makes one monorail trip longer than any other aside from maybe waiting 6 minute if you just missed one leaving the station. I'm betting 30 minutes trip at most to EI depending on how long it takes to get from signature to the monorail station. I've never stayed at the signature but I know the moving walkway from there connects not too far from the monorail station. Probably depends on which tower you are in also.

Funny aside though, I got a LOT of snide remarks and groans from cab drivers last month when I was only taking a short trip. One in particular really pissed me off and in hindsight I wished I'd not tipped him at all and told him why. I took a cab from the Westin (on Flamingo and Koval) to the Bally's. I know its a short trip but we were changing hotels and had a LOT of luggage since we were in Vegas for 16 days. When we told him where we were going he mumbled "Jesus Christ" under his breath but I said to him "I know, its a short trip but its not like I could have walked it with all this luggage". I fully intended on giving him a decent tip for his troubles. But then as we were pulling into Bally's he said something like "lets make this quick" and I said in a very irritated tone "Excuse me?" Where the hell do these cab drives get off thinking that they can only take long fares and bitch about all the short ones? It's freaking 107 outside, that seriously limits how far I'm walking. I know its an entirely different thread but Vegas cabbies need a serious attitude adjustment and reality check.

 

I sort of expected to get that on the rides between Aria and Ellis, but they were all friendly. In particular, the guys who picked me up at Ellis were really curious about what we were doing there. (Maybe they don't make the run between Aria and Ellis all that much?) Most of the cabbies eat there all the time so they're pretty familiar with it. We must have just lucked out this trip; 90% of the cabbies we had were very friendly.