Originally posted by Cos
[B]Alright just got back and what an amazing place. Now I wanted to put some of my thoughts down before the all fade and hopefully help some other people out. All of this is open to interpretation and I am sure that people will disagree but I just wanted to point it out:
Booze
Booze is not cheap. At least not in the casino's. Yes you do get free booze if you are sitting at any machine and gambling but on average it took 25 minutes for her to come around. At that point most people just went and bought drinks.
Yes you can drink anywhere (street, other casino, etc) and even with glass bottles. Only thing you cant do is steal the restaurant or casino's glasses. On the second day we drove down to the gas station and bought 12 beer and a tank of gas for $40.00. Lasted us the night and no one questioned us at all. Only rule we heard was that you cannot drink booze within 1000 ft of the place you purchased it.
Smoking
Maybe it is just us but we were really surprised about how you can smoke almost everywhere. We were sitting at blackjack tables and we were the only ones not smoking. Typically there are non-smoking tables but they are also the lower handicapped ones as well. Not a huge deal just found it strange.
Rental Car
For me personally I would get a rental car again. From the airport it was a 10 minute bus ride to the car, 5 minutes to check in, and 10 minutes to the strip. Valet at most hotels is free. We drove to all three outlet malls, Hoover dam, Echo Bay (in Lake Mead National Park), and all around Vegas. We went to this really cool area called The District and wandered around. (
http://www.thedistrictatgvr.com/) lots of things you couldnt do without a car. We drove just over 300 miles and total cost was $105USD including gas.
. When you are leaving your room you call the Valet with your number and they get your car up. Super easy.
Shows
We wanted to go and see a cirque show but werent coordinated enough. We were staying in The Mirage which had the Beatles cirque show. When we went and checked it was $405 for the two of us to go. We thought that was crazy and bought some VIP tickets to Sin City Comedy in Planet Hollywood for $80. It sucked. Venue sucked and never had a waitress even though we were VIP section. Entertainers were funny enough. Should have paid the $400 for the show. In essence you really do get what you pay for there.
Shopping
Shopping is like any outlet mall in the US. Some deals are good but most suck. We actually had the best luck at a place called Town Square. I love a certain kind of shirt that is $150 here and they had them on for $80 custom tailored. Some sick deals to be had.
There is a north and south outlet mall. South is more ghetto but bigger. North is like all the premium outlets I have been to in the US. Town Square was like a cookie cutter kensington. I quite liked it. Add to that the mile mall in PH and all the shops in Caesars, Bellagio, Crystals, Aria, and all the others.
Hotels
Most of the Hotels are good. Everything in the middle was nice. PH, Mirage, TI, Venitian, Paris, Bellagio, Caesars, etc are all in the middle. MGM, Luxor, etc are at the southern end and Encore and Wynn are at the north end. They arent all that bad. Some hotels (MGM Resorts I think) charge $20.00 a day for Wifi and who knows what else.... water maybe). I saw a sign at PH (I think) that said they dont have the resort fee. If you have a $20.00 difference between the two keep that in mind.
Of all the hotels we liked The Mirage, PH, and Bellagio the best. Aria was amazing to look at from the outside.
Gambling
Most tables are easy on newbies just make sure you ask. We were playing blackjack and you get some jackass sitting down who doesnt know what to do and hits and fucks up the rest of the deck.
guys were good to talk you through. Lower tables were $5.00 until about 3 on the weekdays, then when to $10. On weekends they go $10 to $15. Lots of slots and poker.
No you wont get your room comped by playing. We were playing with a guy who was playing $300 - $500 a hand and all he got was free smokes. Dealer was saying it was $1500+ a hand territory to get comped rooms at The Mirage. High Limit rooms are $500 - $2000 min hands so dont even bother.
Food
Food is really really good but VERY expensive. Breakfast at Caesars was always $60+ (two coffees and eggs benny). Dinner was never under $150 (mainly pubs nothing overly fancy). There is a reason McD's is packed all the time.
Money
Budget your money before you go (hard to do on your first time). Our whole trip cost about $4500. We were there for 4 days. We had $1500 in cash taken out and it was gone in by dinner the second night. CC is taken everywhere so dont worry. We charged a lot to our room and hit the CC with 1 charge at the end. A lot of the hotels are 1 company so you can be in MGM and charge dinner to your room at The Mirage. Cover to most clubs or rippers is $60+ unless you arrange something else.
Other Excursions
We didnt do much else but there is pretty much anything in the world you can think of. Rent super cars, walk around, skydive, helicopter tours, yada yada.
Final Tips
Make sure to walk around. We walked the whole strip (Wynn to MGM and back to our hotel and we both died. Took almost 4.5 hours).
Make sure you know where you are going. There is only Wifi at your hotel you can access unless you are going to pay $35.00 for cross resort fees.
There is no recycling bins at all. We carried our bottles for 20 minutes before we figured that out.
Dont freak out when you realize you cant cross some intersections. There are a lot of convoluted walkways that take you through casino's and on walkways that go over the strip so you dont stop traffic and you walking around.
Make sure you see the watershow at the Bellagio. I wasnt too interested but the wife wanted to see it and it is pretty amazing actually.
Not sure if I forgot anything. Was a great trip. I cant wait to go again!
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treasures n eerything.
