Downtown Life Is Beautiful Weekend - Expectations?

So Lady Friend & I were booking our late September trip last month, and we are not flexible about our dates (9/20 - 26). Wow, what a surprise when we saw the prices for downtown hotels - everything on the weekend was over $200/night, and the Thurs & Sunday prices were wacked out as well (see photo below - $900 for Main Street Station on Thursday). Turns out it is Life Is Beautiful weekend, and I'm a bit worried about crowds and transportation. We are not attending the festival itself, but downtown is our usual home area.

Neither one of us had any comp offers, the best I could do is a 2-4-1 weeknight at The D, and their Thursday night price is $76 + resort fee. Still, we like downtown enough that we are doing Wed & Thurs there. Fri - Mon we ended up booked in a suite at Arizona Charlies Boulder for $360 for 4 nights including the resort fees. Even so, we still may want to head downtown over the weekend, either in the rental car or by bus.

So has anyone experienced the LIB weekend recently? What should we expect as far as: access to El Cortez parking, California & The D valet, etc? Crowd levels on Fremont? Will Ogden be open for pedestrians from El Co to MSS?

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

-



-

 

The only advice I can give is rethink Arizona Charlies, we spent one night in a suite it's an extra bedroom attached to the crustyest room we ever stayed in. I would rather stay home, then spend four nights there.

 

try to switch to Arizona Charlies on Decatur-----as stated above their Boulder property not very nice,motel type rooms not connected to the casino with outside entrance,attracting down and outers----or------try a small local casino on the boulder highway that just added a small hotel to their property,the Skyline in Henderson on boulder highway,rooms are brand new------since you mentioned a rental car you should be able to get to downtown via the interstate with an exit nearby or take the boulder highway-----just checked their prices for your dates,wow,up to $119 a nite

 

LIB is a load of twenty somethings running around staring at their phones.......I made the mistake of staying downtown last year while this was going on. When I checked into the hotel, the man at the desk apologized for what he saw as a pain in the ass weekend. There are always crazies in Las Vegas. LIB weekend is crazies + downtown.

Hey, you're in Las Vegas. Have a good time.

Good luck.

 

Wondering the same thing - are the casinos downtown are going to be packed? I also ran into the same problem with unmoveable dates. I'm flying in Friday morning and *gulp* staying at the Four Points Friday and Saturday --- still hoping to spend Saturday and Sunday watching football and playing video poker downtown, but maybe I should look at some off-strip gambling instead.

 

Stay inside the casino, west of Las Vegas Blvd. and you should be fine.
Good luck.

 

Since you'll have a rental car, have you considered a few nights in Laughlin?

You can get a room at Aquarius for Friday, Saturday and Sunday of your dates for $63 a night. And no resort fee.

 

would second the recommendation of giving Laughlin consideration-----about 11/2 hr ride to 2 hr ride from downtown all on 4 lane highways----all casinos there will be at very reasonable prices with no resort or parking fees----as to rooms in Laughlin, would consider aquarius and harrahs at the top ,some basic rooms could be had at a very reasonable price at the edgewater and colorada belle----

 

We were there last year (stayed at MSS). I was worried about the crowds, but it really didn't seem overly crowded or crazy. Most of the action is down toward the El Cortez.

 

Jasonargo,
Life is Beautiful is actually a great festival for downtown Las Vegas and the crowds aren't as crazy or hectic as other events like New Years Eve or EDC weekend. The Plaza will actually be the officially after party with packages available on our website. We will be having some bands from the festival like TOKIMONSTA and MGMT! It is usually a great time to be staying downtown, even if you don't plan on attending the event. I think you guy will be fine enjoying downtown without having to travel all the way to Laughlin.

 

@jasonargo, awe to bad I won't be there till the end of October. Looks like I'll miss you guys this time. Have a great trip!