Airfare to LV & Travelling Around LV

Hi all,

This will be my first time in Las Vegas.

1) If I use Priceline, I might be able to get a round-trip ticket out of St. Louis or Kansas City for about $250. Does anyone know of other airlines that offer cheaper flights. For some reason, I thought I could get a $99 deal or so to Vegas. I also thought of catching a ride with a trucker.

2) As you might be able to tell, I am on a really tight budget. It looks as thought the airport is only about 1 mile away from the Motel 6. Any free shuttles I can get on, perhaps, that will drop me near the Motel 6?

3) Motel 6's website says they offer $26 per night internet special. This sounds too good to be true. Any feedback? Any even cheaper options?

4) I'd like to avoid renting a car if at all possible. If I stay at this Motel 6, which I think is about a couple of miles from the Strip, can one walk to and fro the Motel 6 and also in and around the Strip (or perhaps rent a bike or scooter)? I am in reasonably good shape and a black belt in 17 different martial arts (just kidding about that part).

5) Where are good places for poor people like me to get a good buffet for a reasonable price?

If you are on a very limited budget, then I would recommend Vegas Club (near the Greyhound station) over Motel 6. While the rooms are not very expensive at Motel 6, you will find that it is much cheaper downtown to eat and drink (and possibly see a show). Allegiant Air is usually your best bet for a cheap airfare, but they fly only out of small airports like Owensboro Kentucky and Peoria Illinois which are probably near you. As the Greyhound is 34 hours from St Louis, you will find Allegiant comparable in overall cost.

You can take a public bus for $2 from the airport to the hotel.

Drinks are cheaper, the buffet at Main Street Casino or Fremont is the cheapest in the city (especially for lunch), and you can make bets for much smaller amounts of money, I think you will have a better time than at the Motel 6. You can buy a 24 hour pass to take the bus to the strip and see all of the casinos.

It is generally best to stay at a casino rather than any sort of budget motel. A casino might comp you for your room as you check out in return for your 'action' at the tables, but a motel never will. Also just about any casino offers far more in the way of diversions and freebies and cheap buffets, than a motel which at the most will offer a very skimpy breakfast.

Renting a car in Vegas seems strange to me, unless you have a particular need for one based upon some specific destination in or around Vegas. Most rental cars spend most of their time parked at casinos. Sometimes parking is a nuisance or requires validation and often tips to valet parkers. If you are going downtown, you don't need a car at all as you will be walking just about everywhere although at night some streets in downtown might be a bit dicey.

If you are going to the Strip area, the walks can get a bit long, but driving is often foolish considering traffic jams and mandated walks from parking garages to casinos. Utilize the various free shuttles in the Strip. As a tourist you probably will be looking around rather than paying attention to traffic as you drive and in Vegas you have to be attentive to your driving.

Its well away from the Strip, but a (mainly) locals casino such as SouthPoint offers its "non-view" rooms at 29.00 over the internet and often holds sales on its other rooms. Rooms there are generally large and clean, the casino is bright and businesslike, but if you go to SouthPoint you are pretty much going to stay there because there is not much else to do in the area and no way to go someplace without a rental car.

Places along the Boulder Strip such as SamsTown will be cheap but you will have only a few casinos and will have to take a shuttle or some other transportation to get to The Strip. SamsTown offers good bargains and would be particularly attractive for its unusual side bets at craps and its 10x odds.

Frontier Airlines ONE WAY Kansas City to Las Vegas May 23rd is 82.00 seven day advance purchase.
This was just a random result of a recent search.
You can also search for airline and hotel packages, but that means the hotel will not comp your room at all.

Quote: StevenBlack

4) I'd like to avoid renting a car if at all possible. If I stay at this Motel 6, which I think is about a couple of miles from the Strip, can one walk to and fro the Motel 6 and also in and around the Strip (or perhaps rent a bike or scooter)? I am in reasonably good shape.

Vegas has a fairly decent bus system, and plenty of cabs, so car rental is easily avoided.

I don't know about bike or scooter rental, but walking? You gotta remember: As much of a paradise as Vegas is, it's still in the middle of the desert.

I recommend Terrible's. They have a free shuttle from the airport, rooms run $20-$30 a night on weekdays, and it is nicer than a Motel 6. You can also go to the casino there if you want to, and they have cheap eats.

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Go -

You live there. You're used to it.

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Quote: DJTeddyBear

You live there. You're used to it.

I wonder.

I've been to vegas in may only. It was warm, but not unbearably hot. I can assure you it gets a lot mroe unplesant in Mex City in the spring, and don't get me started on Reynosa, Tamaulipas, in August.

Anyway, in Vegas I can manage fairly long walks, like from IP to the Venetian, without more than a little perspiration. try the same in mex City in April and you're dripping buckets.

You can guess what follows, yes? It's not the heat, it's the humidity. Seriously. Low humidity means air that is better able to draw in moisture. That makes sweat evaporate much faster, better cooling you in the process. Vegas is as dry as the desert (imagine that), while place like Mex City and Reynosa are wetter than a greenhouse.

Anyway, if you get a bus pass for 3 days, that gives you unlimited rides on all buses. As far as I know there are buses running on every major street that intersects the Strip. That said, there are also some fair deals Downtown. Add $15 or so for a round trip airport shuttle and you can manage the rest just walking if you are content to stay Downtown. Lots to do there and cheaper than on the Strip.

Quote: gofaster87

Low 90s anywhere isn't too hot. I guess if your coming from the Midwest or East coast winter it might be.

East coast winter here is usually mild. But low 90's with our humidity is stifling. 120 with 2% humidity in Phoenix is easier to take than 82 with 70% humidity here.

It's a DRYYYY heat as they once told me in Hatch, Utah.

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I'll repeat what others have said:
Downtown casinos can have rooms that are priced like a Motel 6 but are better and closer to the action.
The Vegas bus system is an excellent way to get around.
Downtown is also a place for cheap eats.
The Station casinos have really cheap buffets these days.

As far as airfare, check for flying on different days of the week. Midweek will be the lowest rates while weekends are more expensive. You can also sometimes find better deals by shopping during the week or other odd hours.

I'm a cheapskate, too, so I'm always looking for cheap ways to get to Vegas.

Airfare seems a little higher than usual right now, but on AllegiantAir.com, I'm seeing roundtrip packages, Wichita to Vegas, June 29-July 2, with a room at Riviera, Fitzgeralds, El Cortez, Circus Circus, or Imperial Palace for under $320-$360 (I'd go with El Cortez). Reject all of their add-ons.

A 72-hour bus pass is $15 (going up to $20 in September). and that will get you between downtown and the strip and the airport.

Ignore the people making suggestions about getting comped rooms. If you're like me, you'll never play at a level that will generate a room discount for your current trip. You may get offers after you return home, though.

For buffets, "splurge" and get the $44.99 "Buffet of Buffets" pass from Harrahs. It's good for 24 hours. Get it in the late evening one night, and have a late dinner. Have breakfast the next day, and lunch, and an early dinner. Spend your other 8 meals at fast food joints. At $8 apiece, figure $64.

All casinos will give you free drinks when you're playing the slots, so find a penny slot, play one line at one cent, and tip the cocktail waitress $1 when she brings your drink. Assume $25 over the course of the trip.

Total trip cost (excluding gambling losses): about $500 for Wednesday night through Saturday morning in Vegas. Booyah!

Quote: travisl

Cost (excluding gambling losses): about $500 for Wednesday night through Saturday morning in Vegas. Booyah!

For $8 you can eat a buffet at the downtown casinos for lunch. It's also much easier to milk the slots for drinks.

But, I fail to see why you would shell out the travel costs to come to Vegas, if you have no interest in the place. Why not just drive to Ceasars Kansas City.

Quote: travisl

Ignore the people making suggestions about getting comped rooms. If you're like me, you'll never play at a level that will generate a room discount for your current trip. You may get offers after you return home, though.

A total room comp for the current trip is not as rare as you might think.
Even in Biloxi on a trip on which I did not do particularly well or put much money at risk I still got one of my three nights comped on my first and only trip to that casino.

It is true however that most casinos try to defer their generosity until your next trip. When you get back home and their computer has mulled things over a bit you may receive generous offers. I used never to go to hosts and ask for anything but now I tend to do it simply because it works.

There are indeed alot of low-priced tie-ins on airfares and hotel rooms and if the deal is attractive enough then by all means: go for it.

I don't know about everyone else, but I never minded spending a few extra bucks when I am in town. It's not like I don't look for good deals or use comps or whatever, but I would rather spend, oh, $80 a night at Mirage than $28 a night at some place that's not on a part of the strip I like. Every couple of trips I'll pony up for Wynn or Venetian or Bellagio just to treat ourselves. Also, we'll usually splurge on one super-duper meal for about $400 and maybe good seats for a show and/or a table at a club. And, I always rent a car.

But because I travel a moderate amount, I pretty much get my flights and car for free, which helps. And obviously, any comps accumulated will go to the meal or show or club or whatever. I just always like my Vegas trips to be vacations, which to me means a little luxury and splurging.