No matter how many times we go, I really love Vegas! I know, I know… it’s over-the-top, it’s expensive, it’s loud and noisy and crazy, and full of people… and I love it! It truly isn’t for everyone, those things that I love about Vegas can truly be why people don’t like it. The first time we went to Las Vegas, Melanie was a year, Alicia was 4, and my Mom and Dad babysat. We stayed at the old Aladdin hotel. At the airport on the way down, there was a rather boisterous group of people, and I leaned over to Greg and commented that I hoped they were on a different flight than we were, or at least away from us on the plane…. little did I know they would be on our flight, right beside us, AND were staying at our hotel. We ended up together on the shuttle going to our hotel and got talking with them. They were great! Two of them were pretty close to our age, and we discovered that they were related to people we knew! We ended up spending a ton of time with them and her parents, and really enjoyed them. Goes to show that first impressions aren’t always what they seem! I’ve since learned not to prejudge! Anyway, we didn’t go back down to Vegas for probably close to 10 years, and then we started going at least once or twice a year….or more! Because of my surgery, I hadn’t been in over 2 years, so I was quite excited to go back. These are some tips and tricks that we’ve learned over the years that have helped us enjoy Vegas more. Maybe they’ll help others too.

1. Sign up for the loyalty/membership cards at the casinos. Many of the casinos are affiliated, so if you stay or gamble in one you get points towards meals, shopping, gambling etc in other casinos/hotels. For example: the Total Rewards Card works at Caesars, Bally’s Planet Hollywood, Flamingo, The Linq and quite a few others. The M-Life card works at New York, Excalibur, MGM, Monte Carlo, Mirage, Aria, Luxor Bellagio, Mandalay Bay and again, quite a few more. The points add up every time you put it into a slot machine and gamble. You’ll also collect points if you show it to the dealer at the tables. The points collected add up towards all kinds of free or discounted things. We have stayed in Vegas at so many of the hotels for free. YES …FREE! All because we use the cards when we gamble. It doesn’t take much gambling before the casinos start sending you email offers to come stay with their hotels for discounted rates…or for free. This last time we decided to live it up a little bit by staying at 2 different hotels. M-Life card offered us 3 nights free, with NO resort fee. We stayed at Mandalay Bay Hotel for absolutely FREE. Nothing…Nada, Zip! We were also offered 3 free nights with the Total Rewards Card, so decided to use it too, so we then moved to Caesars Palace for 3 nights. We did pay the 30$/night resort fee there, but for 100$ or so, we spent 6 nights in Vegas. Meals, shopping, gambling, and transportation are pretty much all we spent. Sign up for the cards- they help save $$$$!
2. Bring really really really good shoes! Fashion is important, I get it, but if you are like us, we walk almost everywhere, and you NEED good shoes! Blisters and sore feet suck! Because we walk almost every where, we’ve learned that there are some great, free, little trams that will take you from Mandalay Bay, all the way to the Excalibur, from there we cross the walkway over Tropicana Ave, through the New York, and out onto the strip. We walk from the New York to the Monte Carlo, which is right beside it, and in the back of the Monte Carlo there are more trams that will take you to the Bellagio. Believe me, when you look down the strip from Mandalay towards Caesars, it doesn’t look far, but when you start walking, it really, really is far! The sidewalks weave in and out, and you put on MILES before you realize how sore your feet are! On the other side of the road, from MGM all the way to the Stratosphere, there is a Monorail system. It makes stops at different hotels along the way. The cost is $5 for a single trip or $12 all day. They also have other passes available for longer. When we aren’t walking, we mainly use the bus system, which truly is convenient and a great way to get from one end of the strip to the other. It moves pretty fast, but can also be quite busy. If you hop on what they call the “Deuce” ( a double-decker bus), you can ride for 24 hours for $8, or $20 for a three-day pass. The Deuce will take you all the way from the South Premium Outlet Mall near the airport to the north Premium Outlet Mall, as well as downtown Vegas, known as Fremont Street. There is an express version of the Deuce as well. It is a single-decker that stops at about half of the same stops and takes you from one end of the strip to downtown. Really, the only time we use a taxi is if we are coming from or going to the airport, or if I have shopped too much and need to get back to the hotel with too many bags! If the bus isn’t too busy, we try to go up top in the double-decker and sit near the front. You get a great view of Vegas.
3. If you get a chance, go off the strip to some of the hotels. It’s quite a bit quieter, they have some great restaurants and often the machines are set so they win more often and with bigger payouts. Our favorite off strip locations are Fremont Street and the Rio. Whether you decide to go to, or to stay at the Rio, there is a shuttle bus that takes you from the Rio to Harrah’s on the strip every half hour. The Rio has one of the best seafood buffets in Vegas. It’s about 35$, but is fantastic and worth the money. The Rio has only suites instead of regular hotel rooms, so is great if you have a few people as pull out beds are available too. It has a Mardi Gras theme to the casino, and is so much fun. We’ve been with Greg’s brother and his friend and they loved the little train that rides overhead all through the casino. It provides quite the entertainment! ( Remember, this IS Vegas, so I’m sure you can guess why the three gentlemen I was with were entertained.) Fremont Street provides a whole different look at old Vegas. This is where Vegas got its start. Some of the original casinos and hotels are down here. It is a much slower, quieter atmosphere during the day. At night they have a musical laser light show at the top of every hour that is really worth seeing, and anything goes in downtown Vegas at night. If you think the strip is interesting, come downtown and really check out the street entertainment. There are bands at either end of Fremont, they have a zip-line that takes you the nearly the entire way over Fremont Street. Alicia and I did it one time when we were down there, and it was really cool. And the people are so “fascinating”. I’m not quite sure how else to describe an overweight, bearded fellow who is wearing nothing but a Borat outfit, or a guy who is wearing nothing but a Marilyn Monroe dress and beard. Or a Santa Claus in a g-string…. ya gotta see it to believe it!! Book a show downtown and go spend an evening on Fremont Street. This time while we were downtown, we started our day with a brunch buffet at Main Street Station. This hotel is just off Fremont about a block, and has the top rated buffet in all of Vegas. It’s about $10 for breakfast or lunch, and not much more for the supper buffet, and what I like about this one is the food is tasty and hot! I hate going to buffets when the food is mediocre and luke-warm or cold. The hotel and casino are gorgeous too. They are made from old polished wood, with gorgeous stain glass windows. It’s one of the only casinos that actually have windows in it. I love it here, but have never had the chance to stay in the hotel. That’s on my list! After we had lunch, we headed over to the Mob Museum which is just up the road about a block from Main Street Station. I had never been before, but it was an extremely informative, interesting museum. I found it fascinating to get the history of the mob bosses and those who investigated them over time throughout the USA. They even have the original wall from the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre where 7 members of the North Side Irish Gang where murdered on Feb 14, 1929, during the time of Prohibition. It was so interesting to see everything. It’s pretty graphic and there is tons of reading, so allow yourself lots of time to get through the museum. We found it incredibly fascinating.
4. The Shows. Oh the shows! I absolutely love going to the shows. We’ve seen everything from Country impersonators, to Ka and Elvis Cirque du Soleil, to hypnotists, to burlesque. The thing with shows, is if they are general admission seating, we’ve found that if you pay the lowest amount for the tickets, then tip the maitre d, almost always you will be seated right at the front. The only time this backfired for us was when Greg tipped to get good seats at what we thought was a normal burlesque show…. except it was “X Burlesque”. We got great seats! We were front row centre. That would have been absolutely marvelous, except we were with our 21-year-old daughter Alicia, her boyfriend at the time, his sister and boyfriend, their friends, and her boyfriends’ Dad. Yep, right up front at a strip burlesque show. Talk about being red in the face! I’m not sure who was more embarrassed, me, Greg, Claude or Alicia and her boyfriend! It was an “interesting” experience to say the least. But the point of this was…tip… it’s worth the few $$ to get great seats without having to pay top dollar for the tickets. This time when we were downtown we saw “Defending the Caveman”. It was hilarious. I highly recommend it if you are looking for a good laugh. It’s about the differences between men and women.So funny because it’s so true! We also saw Terry Fator at the Mirage Hotel and Casino. Oh MY GOD is he ever good. He’s a ventriloquist who won first place on America’s Got Talent 10 years ago, and he’s been performing in Vegas ever since. He is amazing. He does over 150 different voices, sings incredibly, and is funny too. He was awesome. I loved it! We buy our tickets from a couple different places. Most of the time we buy them from Tix4Tonight which has numerous locations all along the strip. They offer shows at discounted prices, usually from about 40% to 75% off. Sometimes though, if you grab a discount coupon book from the cab when you go from the airport to your hotel, there are great coupons in there that you can buy tickets right from the hotel box offices and get pretty good deals. There are nights when the shows don’t play (yes, even these guys get days off), so check to make sure the show you want to see is playing the night you want it. I can’t think of a show we’ve seen that we didn’t like. For me, the shows are really what makes my time in Vegas even better.
5. Shopping, Shopping Shopping…. I can always shop. I don’t HAVE to buy things, but I can always look. The Premium Outlet Malls are great places to get Brand name products at discounted prices. The 2 malls have some of the same stores, but quite a few different ones. The North one ( close to downtown and Fremont Street) have stores like White House, Black Market, Michael Kors and Coach. The one at the south end of the strip has things like Dress Barn, Jockey and Tommy Hilfiger. This one has lots of parking, so if you’re driving, it’s great. The north one doesn’t have nearly as much parking available, so the best way to get to that one is bus, taxi or Uber. There are also the Fashion Show Mall beside Treasure Island, Towne Square south of Mandalay Bay, and The Mile Shoppes at Planet Hollywood. We have also gone completely off the strip to a little local shopping mall called Boulevard Mall. This has, among others, a JC Penny, a Dillards, and a great suit store that Greg often buys new suits at. It is a definite taxi ride to here, but is only about 10$ from Caesars on the strip, so it’s not too bad. There’s also a little shoe store that is across the street from here and if you are into high heels, can get some pretty good deals here. Casey, Alicia and I bought about 14 pairs of shoes each, and we only paid about 150$ each for all of them., including some really cute boots. As you can see, the theme of this is…I’m cheap…. though I like to say frugal!
6. Food Food Food. There are thousands of restaurants to choose from depending on what you crave at the moment and where you are. On the strip, there is everything from the delicious $3.99 breakfast at La Salsa Cantina in Planet Hollywood, to Wolfgang Puck or Guy Fieri, to Gordon Ramsey’s Burger to whatever you want at whatever price you are willing to pay. Some of our favourites have been the little Italian place in the New York hotel called Il Fornaio, or Margaritaville by the Flamingo. There are hundreds of buffets to choose from, and thousands of food courts. There is no excuse not to have a good meal while in Vegas, and at any time of the day or night. One of the things we’ve found is that I like to stay at certain hotels because I can get a cup of coffee and a muffin for breakfast with out it costing me 15$ for just that. Vegas used to be a cheap cheap place to get food, but it really isn’t now. It’s the same as everywhere. But, I find that the hotels like Monte Carlo, MGM, New York, Flamingo, Tropicana, or even Bally’s or Paris have little coffee shops or food courts or restaurants that don’t cost a fortune. Especially for breakfast, I don’t need a huge meal. A coffee and a muffin or something like that is enough to last me until lunch time. I find at some of the hotels, it’s 10-15$ just for a coffee and a muffin.Call me cheap, but I think that’s crazy! Anyway, there truly is everything and anything you want to eat at every price point.
7. Tipping and Gambling… if you are into gambling, there are some tips ( not necessarily to win better because I sure don’t do that often!), but to play longer on your money. If you are playing the slots, check to see what the max bet is on the machine. If the machine says that in order to win the grand prize, you have to bet the max amount, sometimes those bets can cost quite a lot. I like the machines that the Max bet is only 1.50 or $2, or $2.25. Sometimes the machines are $3, 5, or more for the max, so again, I’m cheap, and like to get the biggest bang for my buck! There are also plenty of machines that you don’t have to bet the highest amount, and can in fact bet the lowest, but still win the grand prize. You just have to read each of the machines you play. Also, in Vegas, while you are gambling, drinks are free. Tip the wait staff well ( even $1/ drink)and they come back faster. We also use the bell service in the hotels so we don’t have to drag our suitcases around, especially when we are checking in. We tip the taxi driver, and the bell person downstairs, and then again when the bags are delivered to our room. A few dollars to each of them is so worth it to me to not have the hassle of dragging my bags through the casino! We find that by tipping, especially when we are checking in, we are almost always upgraded to better rooms. These people have the means to make your stay in Vegas even better. If a few dollars makes that happen, well I’m willing to do that!

Vegas for me is a great, quick getaway. It’s 3 hours by plane, and we collect AirMiles, so for us, even the flights are reasonable. I feel like I’ve been away, even if it is only for 3 or 4 days. I just enjoy watching the people. I love all the excitement, the lights, the sounds, almost everything about Vegas. There are really only 2 things that I do not like- the cigarette smoke in the casinos, and the flicking of the cards on the streets that tell you where to buy girls. I forget what it’s like to be around all the cigarette smoke because really the only place I’m ever around it now is if I go into the RiverCree Casino in Enoch. Because it’s on the Reservation, they allow smoking, but I am never around it anymore, so am really not used to it. And I know that there are “girls” in Vegas, but I hate that they flick those cards right in across me. It’s just rude! Other than that, I really do enjoy Vegas. It’snot my very favourite favourite favourite place to go, but it is right up there! It’s fun and exciting and I get some great exercise by walking ( this time it was the equivalent of 2 marathons we walked!)

These are not great pictures, as they were taken through windows. The top one is our view from Caesars across to the Paris, the Bottom is looking up at the Caesars entryway, and the middle one was the view from the tram at the Aria across to the Rio. Everything is big, everything about Vegas is over the top… and I love it!!!