- Las Vegas
- (44)
-
United States
If you love Broadway shows like I do, Las Vegas is the place to visit. Most hotels on the Vegas strip have shows and concerts - everything from Le Reve or Cirque Du Soleil 'O' to famous magicians like Penn and Teller - the list goes on.
Show tickets, on the other hand, can cost you between $40-$200 per ticket, but don't despair, there are ways to get discount or half price tickets. Here are some tips:
I got a killer deal on my Vegas trip last month. I was given this email with a promocode 'TripResSun' and it saved me US$50 when I spent US$400 or more. I guess it's good for most of their destinations but I just tried Las Vegas. Hadn't heard of them before but it worked.
Monte Carlo is also right on the Strip, 4.5-star, and relatively cheap. Good luck!
Here is what I have
www.tripres.com/destinations/displayHotels.aspx?cityID=181&dest=Las+Vegas&referrer=17549&ovchn=INH&ovcpn=408&ovcrn=0024408&ovtac=ad&promotioncode=tripressun
Planning on hiring a car in Las Vegas and travelling across the States? Hire car companies charge high drop-off fees if you rent a car in one place and leave it in another - and the further the distance between the two places, the more they charge.
We flew in to Las Vegas and flew out of Houston. Instead of hiring a car in Las Vegas and dropping it off in Texas, we did a one week rental from Las Vegas dropping it off in Albuquerque, then another one week rental from Albuquerque to Houston. It worked out a lot cheaper and it was a novelty changing cars halfway.
Book online in advance and pick up from the car hire centre at Las Vegas airport. Do the same at the car hire centre in Albuquerque airport.
This is something useful before travelling to Las Vegas, especially if you are going to play the roulette. Check out the first link for Las Vegas hotel rates and the second one for a free roulette test (it's a European roulette with single zero).
My daughter and I stayed at the Bellagio Hotel in September 2006. At the time Oceans’ 13 was being filmed with Brad Pitt and George Clooney - what a lovely surprise.
The Hotel is magnificent and we had a beautiful lakeside room overlooking the fountains - so we not only saw them all the time, we could also put the TV on and listen to the music while enjoying a glass of wine. The staff were also very friendly and helpful. Will be staying there again
Bellagio
3600 S. Las Vegas Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89109
www.bellagio.com
Gun shop and shooting range where you can fire a huge range of pistols AND fully automatic weapons - for just $80 you get to fire two 20 rounds machine gun mags and about 50 rounds of pistol ammo.
They are very safety minded and have an instructor with you at all times. For an experience you can't get anywhere else in the US (fully automatic weapons are not legal in other states) let alone the UK it is great. The staff are all very friendly and will answer questions about guns and their use and will let you pose for photos with any of their huge range of retail items.
We booked the hotel on the hotel's webpage, far cheaper than going via an agent. Look for the special rates, we got a room for US$129 Mon-Thurs, and US$159 for the Sunday. I mentioned that it was a wedding anniversary and got a room upgrade to a fountain view, and free gifts for both of us. The room was fabulous. The resturants are over priced, and the coffee shop where the chocolate fountain is was grossly over priced and very weak.
It's not on the menu, but if you ask for the steak special in the restaurant at the Ellis Island (one block off the strip behind Ballys) you get a choice of soup or salad followed by a 10oz steak cooked to perfection with a choice of fries, baked potato, mashed potato and gravy or rice for $4.95. It's far and away the best value meal in town!
Best location on the strip. Directly across the road from the Mirage and the Bellagio and next to the Flamingo. It is excellent value for money.
Five-star accommodation and facilities at affordable prices. Two hours north of Las Vegas. Fabulous spa services, hiking in the red rock canyons, fitness classes ranging from yoga, pilates and spinning. Truly outstanding gourmet healthy food, low calorie but tastes extravagant. All inclusive packages and spa services are extra. I have been to many spas in the USA and around the world, and this one beats them all to de-stress, lose a few pounds, and enjoy some of the most magnificent scenery in the USA. You can also end your trip with gambling and hard partying in Vegas! It can't be beat!
Red Mountain Spa
Ivins, Utah
www.redmountainspa.com
Book your hotel room directly with your casino as far ahead as possible.
Check their cancellation policy and you will find that most of the hotels give a full refund on cancellations.
By doing this you will be able to pick and choose a different hotel closer to your arrival time to see if you can get a better deal.
If you are not able to get a better deal, you already have your previous booking made many months before you travel.
I have used this tip and I have, on a number of occasions got better deals.
Go directly to the casino websites to make your booking.
I've been there twice and would love to return!
Very interesting to walk up and down the Strip to look at all the hotels and their themes.
For the adrenaline junkies, try the rollercoasters at New York-New York and on top of the Stratosphere Tower.
The food is great - especially the all-you-can-eat buffets.
I can thoroughly recommend the poker room at the rather hideous Excalibur Hotel. Great dealers, friendly atmosphere but admittedly the poker isn’t of the highest standard. Perfect for the intermediate player or those looking for a more social game.
Excalibur Hotel and Casino
3850 Las Vegas Boulevard South
P.O. Box 96778
Las Vegas, Nevada, 89109-6778
www.excalibur.com
Fremont Street is located in what the locals class as the 'Old Las Vegas'. It houses such famous hotels as the Golden Nugget and is certainly an eye opener at night.
The light show happens from dusk to midnight daily and there is a Neon Museum which opens 24 hours. The light show is free and will amaze you.
The canopy which runs the length of Fremont Street uses a 550,000 watt sound system and has 12.5 million synchronized LED lights and 180 strobes. All of the displays are amazing from planes flying across the canopy to dancers and wonderful light displays.
There are plenty of souvenir shops dotted around the canopy for you to visit and plenty of places to eat and drink.
Fremont Street is in the old part of Las Vegas and I would recommend taking a taxi or the bus which runs on the strip regularly.
My husband and I got married in Las Vegas in 2002 after falling in love with the city. We opted for a wedding at Treasure Island and found the whole experience wonderful.
The wedding staff pretty much take care of everything, all you have to do is turn up. I was a bit worried about how things would turn out like flowers and food, but should not have been worried as they were truly out of this world.
We invited family over to witness the big day which made the whole thing much more special. For the bride there is a range of treatments available to you in the spa, such as your hair and makeup for the big day.
They even video the ceremony and have it available in UK format for when you return home.
Most hotels offer a wedding package and the rates are really quite reasonable. We could not fault the service we had from the wedding staff and it was nice to get there and have everything waiting.
As I mentioned, most of the big hotels offer a wedding package, but we opted for Treasure Island which is located at 3300 S. Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas, NV 89109.
Just in front of the spectacular Bellagio hotel on the heart of the strip is the most wonderful fountain show which takes place throughout the day. The fountains jump and dance to music which is played out onto the street.
The best time to see this show is at night as the fountains are lit up and make the show even more amazing. I believe the show runs every hour or so and it's totally free to watch. This goes for all of the entertainment outside the major hotels on the strip.
Bellagio Hotel
3600 S. Las Vegas Boulevard
Las Vegas, NV 89109
To call the Forum shops at Caesar’s a “Shopping Mall” is a bit of an understatement – indeed the same could also be said of Desert Passage at Aladdin and the Canal Shoppes at the Venetian.
As well as approximately 150 shops and restaurants there are also street entertainers, fountains and the “Lost City of Atlantis” animatronics presentation, making it as much an attraction as a mall.
As for the shops, well for fashion devotees there is Gucci, Versace, Armani and Christian Dior (as well as Banana Republic and Gap for the slightly less well-heeled shopper) for children and the child within us there is FAO Schwartz. For foodies, stop at the Cheesecake Factory or Planet Hollywood. And for those who simply like to window-shop and people-watch, well, the Forum is a great place to do both.
3500 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Next to The Mirage and Ceasar's Palace
If your legs are aching with walking in, out and through casinos, you’ve got time to spare and you wouldn’t mind a cheap sightseeing tour of The Strip then I’d suggest hopping on the Las Vegas Strip Trolley.
A replica of an old-style trolley bus the Strip Trolley runs up and down the Strip from the Mandalay Bay in the south to the Stratosphere in the north stopping at various hotels/attractions in between. There is a set fare (exact fare only, no change is given) or extra for for an all day pass. Depending on traffic the Trolleys run every 15 to 20 minutes, weaving in and out of hotel driveways and, if you are lucky enough, with drivers who will give you a running commentary – not about the hotels but rather their feelings about the other drivers on the road.
It’s not the fastest way to travel the Strip but it’s cheap, convenient and, if not too busy, rather pleasant.
Up and down the Strip
Glass flowers in the lobby of the Bellagio lead to real flowers in the Conservatory; a glass domed botanical garden that contains a butterfly cage, trees and floral displays, which are changed seasonally.
When we visited there were a number of flower sculptures in the shape of snails and ladybirds.
It is free to visit, a good place to re-charge your batteries before heading back to the casino or Strip and even if you are no gardener (like me) you’ll still appreciate the colour, variety and beauty of the plants.
Bellagio Hotel, 3600 S. Las Vegas Blvd.
www.bellagio.com
Accordion music, fountains and a cheery greeting of “Bonjour” from the hotel staff and you have to be in Paris. Or do you?! Well, you could also be in the Paris Hotel Las Vegas and, of course, you can’t have Paris without the Eiffel Tower.
The Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas is not quite as tall as the original, in fact it is exactly half the size, however it has been reproduced with a superb eye for detail. An elevator whisks you to the observation deck, 460 feet above the Strip. The lift attendant was extremely friendly and informative. I can’t remember exactly how much he told us it cost to build the tower but it was in the millions of dollars range. However he also told us that they had recouped all the building costs in about six months of opening.
The views across Las Vegas are fantastic, taking in a 360 degree panorama that includes the Strip, the city and the mountains in the distance. In the evening it also allows wonderful views across to the Bellagio fountain display.
The observation deck is quite small (holding about 30 to 40 people at a time) so you may have to queue to get in and, needless to say, it is not for those at all nervous of heights.
Paris, Las Vegas, 3655 S. Las Vegas Blvd
www.paris-lv.com
Send your feedback or queries to been.there@guardian.co.uk
Search Been there
Your tips about Las Vegas