Top Tips For A Vegas Virgin.

If you really want to stay off-strip, I recommend Sam's Town, a real slice of Americana, Vegas-style. They have a FREE bus which runs between Sam's Town and the strip from/to (Harrahs, which is close the Venetian, The Linq, and the Mirage). It runs about every hour and a half until about 9pm. There is also a second bus which goes to downtown Vegas. The ride takes about 1/2 hour at most. Tip the driver $1 or $2 They also have a coin laundry that you can use if you are a hotel guest.

A tip: Don't wear open-toed sandals on the strip, unless you want your feet to get dirty. I wear my Nikes.

- bcc

 

OK..play this little game with your transportation -
1. Uber to SLS from Palace Station. From there, us the monorail to go south...Harrah's station puts you center strip, so "fountains" & all that. Get back on and exit the MGM station... on the south side of MGM (on Tropicana) is a bus stop for the WAX bus (Westcliff Airport Express). $2 & you're downtown at 4th & Carson... right next to 'theD' and the Walgreens. Take Uber back to Palace Station when you're done downtown.

2. Palace Station has a free shuttle for hotel guests, both to/from the airport and to/from the strip. See below for images of the schedule:

 

A lot of this is generic duh stuff to any travel experience: Good (not new) shoes, hydration, situational awareness. But Vegas comes with its own special brand of circumstances and, more importantly, anticipations. You are going to be blown away!!

 

Thank you! I'll keep that in mind for my next trip.

Good tip plus no one needs to see my feet! They are like a hobbits feet.

I'll be using the shuttle a lot! Already got a print out of it in my documents folder lol. I've been looking into Uber and the bus, I plan on using both as and when needed.

Thank you!

Yeah, I can believe that. I'm not an experienced traveller. Only left the UK once to Cuba and all that was organised for me so I didn't have to worry about anything. This is all being organised by me this time.

 

Not having read anything else others said:

PACE YOURSELF. If you're there for 3-4 nights...don't lose all your money in the first 6 hours. Don't drink 25 drinks the first night so the next day is ruined

Plan a couple of things you want to do as highlights of your trip - eat at restaurant X, see show Y, play video poker with actual coins, etc. Have general ideas of when you might want to do these things. Preferably stagger them time wise among the days in ways that make sense (downtown one day, etc.)

Give yourself time to sleep in and relax a bit. It is a vacation.

Walk around and see the sights. It's a cool place with some great attractions and people watching.

Don't go up to casino bars and buy alcohol. It's super expensive. Find cheaper shops like ABC stores and Walgreens/CVS or get it while gambling.

 

Thank you,

Some great and useful tips there.

Do you have any idea of the kind of price range in the ABC/Walgreens/CVS stores? Never been to the US so I have no idea. I'm guessing it would be like $20 for a couple of beers, $7 for a packet of chips and so on.

 

I can't recall exact pricing but under $20 for a 12 pack of beer.

 

You won't be paying anywhere near that if you are buying your beer at the drug store or ABC's. A dozen cans of beer $10-12 and a bag of chips (300g or so) should be between $2 and $3. Put that bank in to pound sterling, it will be quite a deal for you!

Hotel bars will charge +- $8 per beer.

 

Awesome!

Thank you so much for the information. I can find information on most things but the pricing in those stores is a bit harder to find. Party in my hotel room! Haha.

 

Happy hours let you eat and drink on the skinny, plus you are public. As a first timer, a visit to the Stratosphere 107 lounge is a must. Happy hour is 2 for 1 drinks, and reduced appetizers and for some bizarre reason, they pour both at the same time. But you can ask them to add ice at a later time so as to not dilute the cocktail. Enjoy!

 

Tidy!

Cheers for the information. Can't go wrong with a 2 for 1 drink!

 

Just remember, if you dont use it, you lose it.

 

If I remember from one of your other posts, you'll be there a while, so as far as sightseeing, you'll have plenty of time. One thing we recently did after many trips was take a Big Bus tour (1/2 price tickets @ the Tix 4 Tonight booths) - that is a good way to see a lot or a little in one go including downtown (and the outlets should that be your thing).

 

+1 on the happy hours! Great way to eat and drink well without breaking the bank.

You also might want to try to familiarize yourself with our tipping culture. I know it's a bizarre thing to most folks who don't live here. But a lot a people in the service industry do depend on tips to earn a living.

Of course, in Vegas, everyone will have his hand out, it seems and you don't want to waste money tipping folks who don't need to be tipped. There have been several threads on VMB about who to tip and how much.

 

Whenever I'm tipsy and don't want to pay full price for a drink,
I go to a busy craps table and wait for the waitress to come around for drink orders.
When I see her I start yelling and clapping my hands
COME ON 6, COME ON 8 (I'm actually not playing)
She takes my drink order... YES!
When she returns I tip her a couple dollars.
I'm not cheap, just frugal and a bit daring.
I'm 9 for 9 on my last 9 tries!

 

LOL good luck with that.
My first time in Vegas I didn't sleep for 42 hours once I got there.
I must have looked like Hell because a BJ dealer looked at me and said "can't sleep huh" with a smile on his face.

 

Yeah, I'm there for 15 nights.

I've seen pictures and video of that bus tour but not really looked into it. I'll check it out, could be a good way to see things, like you said. Thank you.

Oh yes! I'm going to take full advantage of happy hours.

I know about tipping but one thing I am unsure about is the amount, isn't it around the 15% mark? Or for the bar staff $1-$2 per drink.

Hahaha! That's an interesting tip, get many drinks that way?

I don't know, it's a very long flight, I'm going to be shattered for the first day.

 

Agree on the big bus tour, I've been to Vegas over dozen times the last few years and we still do the big bus tour once in awhile (got it planned this next trip Groupon plus % back with Ebates). Touristy fun, I love it!!!!!

 

15 days is an eternity in LV. As others have said - pace yourself. Two weeks is definitely enough time to see and do most, if not all, of the things you want to.

For the last five years I have stayed at the GN downtown. The way I would visit the strip is to wake up, have a nice breakfast downtown, and make my way to the strip around lunchtime and hit the strip until after the sun went down, taking advantage of good photo ops with the neon. Then I would make my way back to downtown and get my drink on close to my hotel. This might work well for you on your trips to downtown and the strip. I always like to be relatively close to "home" as the evening dwindles.

As Breeze mentioned, keep your wallet in your front pocket. Also, get in the habit of reaching for your pockets to make sure you still have your phone and wallet immediately after someone bumps into you. Not trying to scare you but good awareness will also give you some peace of mind.

Read as many threads here on VMB as you can about restaurants, bars, shows, day trips etc. etc. etc. There is oodles of incredible info here on VMB that has greatly enhanced my trips to Vegas in recent years. The Trip Reports thread is a great resource - lots of good tidbits that might slip through the cracks of dedicated threads.

Have a great trip!!!

 

Thank you! I'll certainly check it out.

Aye, I sometimes think 15 is too many nights but for £900 I really couldn't say no.

Yeah, I'll enjoy a few drinks on the strip and downtown but I'll be sensible there, when I get back to my hotel or near my hotel I can be a bit more "free".

To be fair, I travel to London every few months for meetings and I've got into that habit there but yes, better to be safe than sorry!

I've been loving the threads on here, really informative and interesting.

Also thank you!