AFTER ARRIVING
If you rent a car and are hungry when you drive toward the Strip or Downtown, the first casino you'll drive by is the Hard Rock at 4455 Paradise Road at Harmon, close to the airport. Their Mr. Lucky's 24/7 coffee shop will get your LV dining off to a good start. Good food and reasonable prices, and it's a good rule of thumb with LV coffee shops to check out the specials, and ask if there are any specials that aren't on the menu. The Hard Rock's Steak & Shrimp was excellent when I was last there. Also, be sure to check out their display case of Beatles related merchandise from the '60s.
If you are headed toward Henderson to check out Sunset Station, Fiesta Henderson, Sunset Park, or shop at the Sunset Galleria, a good place to stop for a snack or meal is Barley's, located in Town Center at 4500 E. Sunset. They have a brew pub, a nice restaurant, and a fast food area with really great New York style slice pizza, which is only a buck a slice during happy hour, 4-7 PM. They have slots and a sportsbook, and are one of the best spots in town for Monday Night Football. If you make it all the way to Sunset Station or Fiesta Henderson, both have a good reputation for their restaurants and buffets. Take a good look at the Gaudi Bar at Sunset Station to see the LV homage to Barcelona's great architect. Fiesta Henderson, formerly The Reserve, is one freeway exit past Sunset Station (take the Lake Mead Drive exit) has a reputation for good video poker, and a nice buffet.
HOTELS
LV's downtown still has the same low rent gaming that made the town famous generations ago. It's two miles North of the strip, and it can be as much fun as the mega-resorts to the South. If you're staying downtown and have a car, the El Cortez has nice rooms on the hotel's East end, great prices, and good room availability when rooms are hard to find. It also has good dining options for both price and quality. However it's a couple blocks too far from the main downtown casino area to walk, considering the neighborhood. If you're staying downtown without a car you might want to call a number of places to check on prices and availability. After giving them your dates it's always a good idea to ask what specials they are running. Another thing to ask about is the room. Since the whole town is in a continual state of renovation, ask if your room will be in the new tower, or has been recently renovated. The Plaza at the end of the Fremont Street strip has good rooms at good prices, with the South tower most convienient if you'll have a car. Some other places downtown you might want to check out are, Main Street Station, Fremont, Las Vegas Club and Golden Nugget. If you are gambling downtown in the evening be sure to step outside on the hour (Remember I told you to bring a watch.) to see the Fremont Street Experience, an animated overhead sign with a musical soundtrack. The music and sound system are outstanding. It's cute, it's fun, it's free, and there are at least five different hourly shows, each lasting around 5 minutes. For late night dining downtown I'd suggest the Las Vegas Club. And for a Shrimp Coctail the 99 cent offering at the Golden Gate is the best. If you are a Texas Hold-em poker player, Binion's Horseshoe, where they used to host the World Series Of Poker, offers a lot of tournaments for small buy-ins, and plenty of lively cash games too. At least once an hour they hold a one table tournament where 10 players put up 65 bucks and the winner gets $550. The west wall of their poker roon has photos of the WSOP winners. Across the street at the Golden Nugget they have a nice assortment of cash games and various daily tornaments. Also downtown, the Plaza holds frequent poker tournaments with small buy-ins and spreads a variety of cash games. On Thursday nights, the Mirage on the strip has a $200 tournament. The Bellagio has daily mid-priced tournaments, with satellites at 9 AM. If you stop by the Nugget or Horseshoe poker rooms you'll find some cool poker magazines for free, including Card Player, always a good read for poker enthusiasts.
If you'll be on the strip without a car, you should shoot for the middle of the strip. This leaves you with way too many reasonable choices, so let's make it simple. Upscale, try Caesar's Palace. Downscale, cross the street to Imperial Palace. (whose auto collection is a freebie worth taking advantage of) The strip is about 3 miles long, so being in the middle makes it easy to tour the strip on foot. If you're in town for anything at the Convention Center, the closest hotel is the LV Hilton, followed by the Riviera across the street. Both are good hotels with reasonable prices. That general area is toward the North end of the strip. The Riviera is on the strip, the Convention Center and Hilton are on Paradise Road, one block East. The cheapest accomodations in that part of the strip would be Westward Ho. Part of the slots area at the LV Hilton is sci-fi themed in connection with their Star Trek ride. It's a must-see, that shows a lot of thought went into every detail, including the best restrooms in LV! In May of '98 the Hilton was actually fined several hundred thousand dollars by the Nevada Gaming Commission because of children playing the machines in the SpaceQuest area adjacent to the Star Trek ride. It's a shame, because some of the machines are activated by placing your hand through a set of sensors, and parents were letting the kids activate the machines without actually touching them, but the NGC took a dim view. The Hilton has sinced added security in the area, and added signs. Please don't let your kids play the machines at the Hilton, or anywhere else. If you're looking for lodging at the South end of the strip, the choices are less than ideal, as those hotels tend to be too big, or too noisy, or even too far South. The Tropicana, or Luxor, or even the boring, generic looking Monte Carlo might be worth a try, although I think I'd opt for avoiding a stay at that end of the strip. Excalibur would be an acceptable choice if you're bringing kids. Interestingly, all the casinos on the west side of the strip from Treasure Island to Mandalay Bay are owned by MGM, except for Caesar's Palace
BUFFETS
Las Vegas is famous for their buffets, and there are many fine locals casinos around the perimeter of LV which are the equal of what you'll find on the strip. You'll need a car to visit them, though you might get to some by checking on schedules for their free shuttle buses from the Strip. You'll find signs all over the strip offering various free shuttles. Texas Station on Rancho Blvd. is excellent, offering 8 different kinds of chilli, and they're terrific. Downtown isn't a strong area for buffets, but Main Street Station is one of the best. Try them for dinner on Tuesday for T-bone steak night, or Thursday for Fillet Mignon, and you won't be disappointed. If you're at the South end of the strip check out the Aladdin, which has an outstanding buffet, and a huge shopping mall. The center strip has some more fine buffets at Ballys and Bellagio, and at Paris if you want French cuisine. The Bellagio is 10 bucks more for dinner than it is for lunch! Dinner at Ballys across the street is excellent, less expensive, and has shorter lines. One LV food bargain that rivals any buffet is the Steak & Eggs special at the Arizona Charlie's coffee shops, for less than 3 bucks. Terrible's also has some good coffeee shop specials. Ellis Island on Koval, across from Bally's is hugely popular for their bargain meals including a steak dinner. They offer blackjack matchplay coupons for slot club members. A very generous offer that could have you eating there for just tip money. Ellis Island has a Metro Pizza location inside, but gourmet pizza that's been sitting under heat lamps is not the way to go. Do go to Metro Pizza, though. It's the best pizza in Las Vegas, and easily among the best anywhere.
SHOPPING
Check out the Forum Shops in Caesar's for by far the best shopping in town. While you're there, you should check out at least one of Caesar's two animatronic fountains. The newer and more spectacular of the two is the Atlantis Fountain, adjacent to Caesar's "Race For Atlantis" 3-D ride. Both fountains perform on the hour from 10 AM until 11 PM. If you are going on the "Race For Atlantis" be sure to view the fountain performance! The "Race For Atlantis" ride is just a few minutes long, and is a virtual rollercoaster which packs quite a kick for a ride that doesn't really go anywhere. It's a good ride, but a poor value.
Record Stores
Las Vegas' two cool indie/underground record stores are in the UNLV neighborhood, as you might guess. Balcony Lights is at 4800 S. Maryland Parkway. Big B's is across the street at 4761 S. Maryland. These are good indie stores that are well worth a visit.
SIGHTS
At the North end of the strip is the Stratosphere, which is that 1,000 foot tower that you can spot from anywhere in town. You might want to take the elevator to the observation deck, which costs 8 bucks, and has a spectacular view. The view of Las Vegas at night from 1,000 feet is amazing, and if you miss it you're making a big mistake! (Although if you have a fear of heights, going up there would be a big mistake.) The top level has four rides, the Big Shot, which is fun costs another 6 bucks, and a bad "rollercoaster". The newest rides at the Stratosphere are Project XScream, which dangles you out over the edge of the tower, and Insanity, which opened in March of 2005. Insanity is an amusement park type ride, the twist being a mechanism that extends the riders about 60 feet away from the structure before spinning them around very fast!
At the South end of the strip at Tropicana Ave, my favorite sight is the exterior of New York, New York. An excellent vantage point is provided by the bridge which runs between Excalibur and the Tropicana. NY, NY is a truly inspired piece of architecture even by LV standards. The Luxor just South of the big intersection is the pyramid shaped building, and although it's quite impressive both inside and out, it's now dwarfed by it's gigantic neighbor, Mandalay Bay.
In the mid-strip area check out Bellagio, next to Caesar's. Their fountain puts on an awesome show on the lake (Yes, a lake!) in front of the property every 30 minutes, every 15 minutes at night until midnight. It shoots water 200 feet high, with musical accompaniment. I've seen it many times from many vantage points, and haven't gotten tired of it yet. At Paris across the street there is a half scale version of the Eiffel Tower, whose observation deck provides an excellent view of Bellagio's fountain, but not much else. An elevator ride to the top costs $8, but with the wait for tickets and the wait for the elevators going up and down, the whole thing could consume 2 hours of your vacation. The observation deck is cramped, and the view is obstructed by fencing - AVOID. Further North on the strip, a volcano in front of The Mirage erupts every 15 minutes at night. Their next door neighbor Treasure Island has a live pirate outdoor battle every couple hours in the evening, weather permitting. It used to be great, then they changed to to "The Sirens Of TI". It's still hugely popular, but I was disappointed, and how much you like it may depend on how much you can tolerate bad generic corporate disco music. Across the street from Mirage is The Venetian, a spectacular must-see multi-billion dollar property that along with Belagio challenged Caesar's decades long run as the most impressive property on the strip. The multi-billion dollar Wynn Las Vegas, where the Desert Inn used to be, is one spectacular property. Its elegance and high comfort level put it way ahead of the other mega-resorts. Its poker room has a good following, and their official casino host is Daniel Negreanu. Their large sports and race book is first rate. Plenty of high end shopping too. A must-see!
ENTERTAINMENT
Luxor has a 3-D Imax movie theater which normally shows one 3-D movie, and one or two non 3-D movies. If you've never seen a 3-D Imax film you will be amazed by the technology!
The MGM has a Lion Habitat, with several lions enclosed in a habitat behind glass. They have both adult lions and cubs.
North of the MGM is a Gameworks, a huge arcade including an 80 foot high climbing rock. On the left of Gameworks is a Coca-Cola store which has an astonishing assortment of pricey Coca-Cola logo merchandise. They also have a "World of Coca-Cola" tour which used to cost 2 bucks, but is now up to $3.50. On the right of Gameworks there is a chocolate store, and in the back of the store is an entrance to M & M's World, another store with all the logo items you'll need to live the M & M's lifestyle. $3 used to get you a ticket to M & M's Academy, the highlight of which is a 9 minute 3-D movie. It's very cute and entertaining, great for the whole family, and it's FREE!! This gets my vote for the #1 bargain in the city. Get there by 6 PM because it doesn't show later during the week, and you don't want to miss it.
Skydiving provides a much more intense brand of entertainment. It's available about 20 miles outside of town, at the Boulder City Airport. A company called Skydive Las Vegas offers tandem jumps there for around 200 bucks. They are reputable and haven't lost a customer yet, so if it's something you've always wanted to do, now's your chance.
The "Manhattan Express" at NYNY certainly has a unique setting for a nearly 200 foot tall steel rollercoaster. It's the best ride in town, although they seem to frequently raise the price. If you want a coaster with a view, this is it. Warning - long lines. (Check out the long lines advice at the end of the section on slot clubs.)
Another thrill ride on the Strip is "Speed - the Ride" at the Sahara. It's a coaster of sorts which starts inside the casino and uses a linear induction motor to shoot you outside the building, and then 150 feet straight up at 60 MPH. It's short and fast; but certainly no match for the Manhattan Express. The casino which also houses NASCAR simulators lets you know what acceleration is all about. It's 8 bucks. Across the street, Circus Circus has an indoor amusement park called Adventuredome with rides that may be a good place to take the kids.
LOW ROLLING
Got too damn many pennys in a jar somewhere? I always do, so I pack 'em up and take them to Gold Spike downtown, and play an hour or so of Joker Poker in their penny slot area. After that I take whatever's left to the change booth and get real money. What a deal!
On my latest trip I was surprised how often I was able to find full pay nickel video poker. The Plaza downtown has it, and so do the Gold Coast, Palms and Stardust, so look around in the multiplay machines. You can CLICK HERE for a list of full pay video poker games at each casino. The 4 Queens downtown has penny 6/5 Jacks or Better. I won 17 cents and can't wait to go back.
SPORTS BOOKS
LV is a treasure trove of sports books with more than enough action for anyone. Simulcast horse races and major league team sports are among the things you can bet on, but there's also Golf, Tennis, Auto Racing, Boxing etc. The LV books are generally quite nice, and surprisingly different. There is a lot to weigh in terms of options, and I won't attempt it since I'm not sufficiently familiar with all their policies. Las Vegas Hilton is the biggest, and in some ways the best. They offer odds that are competitive with the offshores, including low vig on NFL at certain times, like 105 on Wednesday nights, and future odds that unlike most LV books might give the bettor a chance. Other good ones include the Plaza downtown, Sam's Town on Boulder Highway, Stardust, Bally's, and MGM. Binion's downtown, and Imperial Palace on the strip have large race books. Mandalay Bay and Gold Coast are also nice spots for playing the ponies, and if you get hungry they have 75 cent hot dogs in the sportsbook at the Coast properties. I play NFL games, and it can involve a lot of walking to try to find a better money line, or an extra half point on a game. It helps to know that books with common ownership have identical lines. If you are walking around shopping for odds, the route I'd recommend would be to check out Imperial Palace, then Harrah's next door, and finally across the street to Caesar's Palace. Which is the best place to watch a game or race? Bally's is a really nice setup, certainly the best I've seen! The MGM Grand has a Stage Deli adjacent to it's sportsbook, a definite plus.
GAMING
I hate to spoil your fun, but don't play the game unless you know the basic strategy. If you violate that rule, you may think you are gambling, but you're really just giving your money away. If you're willing to do that, find a panhandler somewhere. The difference between a 99% return and a 97% return is that with the latter you will lose your money 3 times as fast! The best machine, and most popular game with locals is video poker, of which there are many varieties. The simplest to learn the basic strategy for is Jacks Or Better. In fact the strategy is so easy to learn that the casinos don't like to offer "full pay" 9/6 JB machines. If you get a hand with a pair of Jacks or better you get back one unit for each unit played, in other words you break even. If you get an additional pair of anything you get back two units - MAKE SURE THAT PAYS 2 UNITS. The majority of these slots (called a variety of names, Jacks Or Better, Draw Poker, etc.) are 8/5, meaning they pay 8 for a full house, and 5 for a flush. Frankly, that's a poor bet, and there are machines with even lower pay tables. The trick is to look around for a machine with a 9/6 pay schedule ("full pay"). If you can't find full pay Jacks or better, look for full pay Double Bonus. The pay table will show 10 for the full house and 7 for the flush, and using the same simple strategy that works on Jacks or better will produce good results with Double Bonus. Remember that video poker machines don't get hot or cold; it's the pay table that determines the payback. IMPORTANT ADVICE - Whatever video poker game you play, learn what pay table constitutes "full pay", and don't play any VP machine that isn't full pay!!! If you do, you are being ripped off and sending the casinos the message that players are suckers who don't know the difference when they're being short changed. Also remember that the term "full pay" does not mean 100% payback. Even a machine that has an actual 100% payback needs to factor in that ever elusive Royal Flush to get there. Currently the most common machines are "Double Double Bonus", "Joker Poker" and "Deuces Wild". Before you play the slots you should consider getting a slot club card to insert into the machine during play. You should also show your slot club card to the dealer when you play table games. I'd advise against joining a slot club unless you are actually going to play there. That's because casinos sometimes have special offers for new members, that you can't take advantage of if you are already a member. Being a slot club member can sometimes get you perks like line passes for restaurants or shows at some places (ask if you want to avoid waiting in line), or room discounts, etc. Blackjack has an even lower edge for the house than video poker. All the places have different blackjack rules, but the best games are where the dealer stands on soft 17, which makes a big difference. The SUCKER bet in Blackjack is games that don't pay the full 3-2 odds on Blackjack - they try to trick people by offering single deck or whatever, but you might as well paint the word sucker on your forehead, because that's what they are thinking. Accepting 6-5 on a Blackjack instead of 3-2 will cost the average player about $200 in a 4 hour session. Anytime that you've been playing table games or slots for 3 or 4 hours and it's documented by you using your slot club card, don't get up and leave without asking for a comp for something, coffee shop, buffet, etc., you've earned it.
LITERATURE
The Gambler's Book Club offers a tremendous selection of literature on all manner of gaming and sports betting. It includes a section of used books where you may find rare and out of print treasures on your favorite subject. It's located downtown at 630 S. 11th St near E. Charleston.
The Gamblers General Store is another unique resource, with a wide selection of books on gaming, as well as gaming products like chips, slot machines, dice, cards, table layouts, roulette wheels, etc. It's located downtown at 800 South Main St.
For LV entertainment listings try the Neon section in Friday's Review-Journal. Sunday's Review-Journal is good bet to find casino coupons and ads for the latest promotions.
LAS VEGAS TRAVEL BOOKS
Go to a chain bookstore these days and you'll find a surprising number of Las Vegas travel books. Here are some capsule descriptions of some good ones:
There is also a "Portable" edition for $9.95 which is quite small, with maps that leave a lot to be desired. It's way too short on size and content to be useful. The layout doesn't really work as a portable either.
ABOUT THIS PAGE
Thanks for the great response to this site, but I had to remove the E-mail link because I was getting more questions than I had time to answer. Mel
Updated 8/25/05