first time vegas

Hi there I'm Richard nice to meet you all.
This will be my first time in Vegas I'm going with two of my mates , staying at the Monte Carlo. Just wonted some advice good things to do also how much spending money really need for food , drinks , and gambling .was thinking of 1 thousand dollars for 4 nights , does this seem enough for a good time . Thanks if u can help

 

Welcome to the board Richard! Budget depends on what you plan to do....many go with that amount but don't gamble much or eat at pricey restaurants. For 5 nites, hubby & I have about $4000 but we use comps to pay for our meals....we just need our gambling $ and incidentals...
You mentioned your "mates" so are we to assume you have a group of young men going on the trip? If so, that is a very low budget for that age group for even a couple of days. If you provide more details....you will get a good range of suggestions....

 

Welcome to the board.

What are you looking to do while in Vegas? It's a different animal with a higher cost. What are the dates for your trip?

IMHO the budget is low if you plan on gambling. If you are going to stick to that budget definitely get a cooler and put alcohol in your rooms for pre gaming. May even want to get snacks to keep in the room. I've used vons.com and had them deliver it to me. First delivery is free.

Drinks are expensive unless you are gambling. What's your game preference? Slots, poker, black jack? $250/night budget for everything will not get you much time unless you hit it big. Vegas is able to keep the lights on 24 hours a day because most don't hit it big. Or you stay to a minimum budget on the meals.

There is so much to do in Vegas. A little more info and this board will definitely help you on getting a plan together.

 

For some perspective from a fellow low-roller. I went to Vegas for a week last year and I brought $2,000.00 for gambling only and my girlfriend brought $1,000.00 for whatever she wanted to do since I pay for any meals, rooms, shows, drinks. My friend brought $500.00 and he ended up hitting the ATM 4 times on our trip each for about $300.00. In order to save money I used myvegas comps for 75% of the meals and both shows using mine and my girlfriends accounts. We had one really nice steakhouse dinner and a couple of low and mid priced meals. We bought a lot of alcohol for pre-gaming in the room to cut costs. First time in Vegas will probably go really fast and you tend to do a lot of walking around and seeing. Set a gambling budget and stick to it. If you're a poker guy, buying into a tournament can be cost effective and fun. Like others have said though, it's a really expensive place and you will splurge so definitely try to up your budget a bit. For a low roller budget for 4 days, think $60 a day for food (cheap food), $50 for drinks (cheap drinks), $25 for tips and $300 for gambling. That's how I budget and anything not used that day just gets rolled into the next day.

 

$1000 probably would do you just for food, drinks, add gambling and you probably will need more. You could gamble on $1000 and then take another $1000 for spending money and I think you would be fine. At the minimum I would take a total of $2000.

Some other advice, is purchase your snacks, water, beer ahead of time like at Von's as others have said. This will save you money in the long run as snacks, beer etc. is very expensive at the shops in the Hotel/Casino. You are staying at Monte Carlo (which is my home casino/hotel), you have McDonald's and other places at the food court which are your less expensive options for food. You can find cheap tables for gambling; early in the morning they will open up $5 blackjack and craps. If you take the craps lessons they give you at 11:00 a.m. each morning, they will allow you to play for $5 min. after the lesson is over.

Good luck and welcome to the board.

 

Thanks guys for your help , yes there is 3 of us coming from England we are 24 years old like a bit of drinking average food , like to have a gamble tho not to bothered about shows but we are going to book a meal a Andres for one good meal . But rest of meals don't mindwe have already spend thosand pound to get here so we won't to have a great time but were we could save we will if there any tips . Also we were going bring are suits but do u need to wear smart clothes to get in casino all the time ?? thanks again

 

A thousand dollars for four nights... for some people thats more than enough, for others its nowhere near what they need for the first night.

Some random thoughts:

- There are cheap fast food places everywhere (at Monte Carlo they have a food court with Subway, McDonalds and Sbarro's among other things). But if you don't go for fast food and want all your breakfasts, lunches and dinners to be at restaurants even at the casino coffee shop you can expect all meals to be $10-20 each, more if its a nice place

- If you go drinking at a casino bar expect to pay $5-10 for a beer, about $8-15 for a mix drink. If you go to a club you can double or triple those prices. You can get free drinks on the casino floor while gambling but its rarely going to be at a fast pace.

- If you play table games then in the mornings you can find a few $5-10 table games, but at night $10 is the minimum, usually $15.

- You don't have to think of your budget as a straight up evenly divided amount over your stay. You could look at it like "I got $1000 for 4 nights... therefore I have $250 per night" but instead if you will probably get more out of your budget if you break it down by what you plan to do on certain days.
IE: if your first day is an arrival at 4PM and you are going to get to your hotel, go hit the food court for a cheap meal, hit the CVS store to buy water and stuff for the room and then maybe do some cheap gambling in the casino you might only need $100 allocated for that first night. Then if your second day is going to be sitting around the pool and having a few drinks and then doing some sightseeing with minimal gambling you might only need $150 for the second day. Then the third day you might figure that to be the day you are going to be out drinking it up and gambling all night so you might put $500 to that and then the last night is gambling and drinking and a nice dinner so that one is $250.
By breaking it up like that you can make sure that on days when you shouldn't need more money you don't end up "wasting" money just because you have it in your wallet and can save it so that at least one night you get a really good day out of it

- If you want snacks or drinks or beers for the hotel room there is a CVS out front of Monte Carlo and an ABC store across the street. For almost everything you buy the prices there will be about half of what you would pay at the casino gift shop

- If you smoke you might have heard about how cheap cigarettes are in the USA... thats true, except on The Strip. The prices you pay in the touristy parts of Las Vegas are going to be somewhat comparable to what you would back home unless you go a little ways off The Strip.

- If you want to bring back souvenirs for people if you go to the casino gift shop the logo merchandise (IE: stuff that says "Monte Carlo") will cost about 3-6 times what the generic "Las Vegas" stuff costs. Where Monte Carlo is situated there are a lot of souvenir/gift shops across the street (also that ABC store again, has some decent prices on stuff)

- There is a bus system in Las Vegas and that might seem like a way to save money (there is a big gold double decker bus going up and down The Strip) but with three of you it's better to just take a taxi. The bus might be cheaper but you won't save much and the bus takes a lot longer time.

 

It's a good budget for a non-gambler who has been a few times and knows how to do it cheap. As a first timer I'd suggest nearer 500 a day would be more realistic.

 

Not for most casinos if not all, no. Good restaurants and clubs have different guidelines for dress but with most i can't see a suit being required. Nice slacks, shoes, collared shirt should be good enough.

My budget for 7 days (the 8th is Grand Canyon) is less than $1000 for food, gambling etc but i am a no roller (may throw 20 in here or there) and i do not eat at many restaurants because i have severe stomach issues so paying $50 a meal is not even close to worth it for what i can actually eat. I do subway, chicken tenders, etc and never pay more than $15 a meal so it is quite doable for me.

It really depends on what you like & what you want to do. Sit down meals will not be worth my time so food courts it will be but we do have a groupon for a sit down dinner for one night.

As others said, with gambling, 1k isn't much at all, especially if you add a club night or nice dinner as you said.

 

Thanks guys great help , mite try and save some more cash before June lol . Does any one no about opinion s on room deposit payment, (credit card , debit card , cash ) and how much roughly would it be . Is there anywhere cheaper to drink with music and smaller minimum table games , as I have read downtown has better prices or is this wrong or are these place UN safe . Thanks again as a tourist I would rather get things rite so we do not annoy other people .