I'm heading to Vegas for St. Patties day weekend. Any suggestions on great deals or places to go? This is my first time going to Vegas. Will rep for any recommendations. Thanks folks.
My brother has been to Vegas twice and the 1st time he spent a ton of money. 2nd time he went he got on ebay and purchased a book full of coupons for buy 1 get 1 dinners... free limo rides, drink specials etc. He got it for around 50 bucks and it prob saved him anywhere from $500-$1000. Just type into ebay vegas coupon book or something along the lines of that and you will be golden.
Join the players club at whatever casino you think you'll be gambling at the most. If you are staying at a property that has multiple properties, try to stick to gambling at those places and make sure to use your card (even if you play blackjack...make sure they monitor your play so you'll get rewarded something for those points). There's also quite a bit of free stuff to do. MGM lion habitat, Bellagio fountains, Miracle Mile shopping in Planet Hollywood, Fashion Show Mall (on The Strip), Bellagio Garden (seasonal themed, in the lobby area), Bellagio chocolate fountains (small, but sorta cool...right behind the garden), Town Square shopping area (South Strip area), Fremont Street Experience (downtown, evenings). If you are there during the week and you've got a car, avoid driving during morning and afternoon rush hour. Friday and Saturday evenings on The Strip are also quite busy. Good luck.
As far as clubs at night, you cant beat XS at Encore or Marquee at The Cosmopolitan. Those are probably a couple of the hottest clubs in the world right now. As far as hotel, depends on what youre looking for and what youre willing to pay. Im a big fan of Encore/Wynn and Cosmopolitan...you may be able to get a better deal at Cosmo though. All the major hotels have top of the line dining, so if you let us know what kind of food you'd want (steak, french, italian, sushi, etc...) then I think it'd be easier to give some advice for restaurants.
As far as food, I'm looking to eat healthy while avoiding eating at places that serve mainly junk food. I recently lost 121 lbs and I'm trying to avoid eating at places where they don't offer much selection of grilled food. I'm looking for a nice place for Sunday night or Monday night for my GF and I. The first two nights I will be with some of my guys friends. I know March Madness is going down during this time.
Do not get baited into going to some timeshare presentation. Everywhere you go they'll ask if you want to see a show for cheap/free... just say NO! Otherwise you'll just end up wasting your day.
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I'll be going to Vegas in 2.5 weeks so anything that can be offered will be great! I'm gonna try out the eBay thing. Anybody here ever do the Stratosphere rides? I really want to but a friend of mine said the line was long when he went, he waited over an hour and still didn't get to ride before leaving. He also told me don't limit myself to just the strip because there is a lot of stuff outside the strip to see as well.
If you plan on renting a car, check out Red Rock Canyon (about thirty minutes west of The Strip). Also look into Valley Of Fire (about 90 minutes northeast of Vegas). Lake Mead is also a pretty neat place if you want to hit the water or Death Valley is a two/three hour drive away.
Take a cab downtown and spend the day on Freemont. The casinos are less crowded, the waitresses are more liberal with the free drinks and come around quicker than you can chug them, and the dealers are friendlier. The locals will tell you downtown is the real Las Vegas. It's a nice alternative to the Strip.
Since most hotels have great restaurants, it would be much more convenient to eat at your hotel or hotels that are nearby. In that case, its probably best to hold off on food choices until you know where you plan on staying.
This is absolutely true. I go to Las Vegas several times a year and despite my initial reservations I have become very fond of the area. I spend little if any time on the strip so my recommendations will be of little interest to the OP but I have lots of ideas for anyone who wants to branch out some. One of the best things about Las Vegas is the food, and I do not mean the celebrity chef joints on the strip. There is an awesome stretch of Asian restaurants along Spring Mountain Rd that is very similar to Houston's Bellaire Blvd. You'll find lots of the same Chinese and Vietnamese you'd know from Houston but much more Filipino (lots of Filipinos out there) and, crucially, several awesome Japanese restaurants. I am crazy about Ichiza, an izakaya that stays open until the wee hours. I also like Raku, a bit farther down, which is nicer and more formal but not at all stuffy. There are three or four good ramen places that I've visited. There are probably more that I don't know of. One of the best Thai restaurants in the US is on the other side of the strip along Sahara. It's Lotus of Siam. It's in a weird strip center where you can find among much else a Korean grocery store, Vietnamese pool halls, Mexican ostionerias, a swinger's club and a transsexual bar. You could really make quite an evening of it. I always like a drive out to Lake Mead. If you haven't seen the Hoover Dam, do. If you wanted to spend a day you could definitely drive to the Grand Canyon. Now that I think about it on the way out be sure and get a window seat on the right side of the plane (facing forward, seat F in coach) and you will have half an hour to gawk at the canyon as you approach Las Vegas. As someone mentioned Red Rock is cool, and I like to go up to Mount Charleston, especially in the summer. It's no more than 45 minutes from the strip. I also second the idea of going downtown. Fremont Street is worth seeing and downtown just has such a different vibe than the strip that it's fun to hang out there and check out some of the older casinos. There's a minor league baseball team there, too. They're AAA, I think they're now affiliated with the Blue Jays. I love minor league baseball (now more than ever, sadly) and I've always enjoyed going to games in Las Vegas.
Agree with everything here. I was lucky enough to stay at Encore and I loved it. Marquee was my favorite club, by far, and XS was second. My advice: Don't die :grin:
