Questions about Vegas

I will be heading to Vegas in a couple months. This will be my first time. I am planning on purchasing a coupon book or two before I go. I count as a hobbie and am generally a low roller. I will be staying downtown.

Q1 I know most coupon books have a positive EV but I don't want to spend my whole trip driving casino to casino. Are the coupon books worth my time? If so, which one's do you suggest?

Q2 I will be with a couple other individuals in Vegas. Do you suggest I rent a vehicle or take cabs. I would guess that by the time I take a cab to a few places I will have paid for a rent-a-car. However, if parking is horrible, I'd rather just take a cab. Suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

We just came back and travelled from the Strip to Downtown by bus. It goes by every 5 minutes, and costs $2. The bus is not too much slower than a cab too.

However, if you are hopping on with 3 or 4 other people, it may make sense to take a cab.

I agree with 21-4fun. I often stay in a hotel on the strip with my fellow gamblers and head (via the bus) downtown to gamble [while they play the expensive tables on the strip].

It depends on what you want to do. If you are there to gamble, I don't see the need for a car. If you want to be a tourist then a rental might be in order. I can't ever remember having a problem finding a parking space in Las Vegas.

I got some decent offers from both Rio and Hilton (both are off-strip). Since I do not intend to rent a car and probably will play mainly in strip. I like to know how difficult is the commune bw Hilton/Rio and Strip. Is monorail available now? And what is the bus schedule?

Thanks!

There's a free shuttlebus that runs between the Rio and Harrah's about every 15 minutes.

Monorail wasn't open last I heard.

You can /walk/ from the Hilton to the strip, but it's a bit of a trip and not something you want to do with a lot of cash.

This is from www.a2zlasvegas.com

From the Stratosphere Hotel to the
Luxor Hotel, with stops at the front
door of each major hotel including
the Las Vegas Hilton.
9:30am to 2:00am daily.
(Trolley runs approx. every 20 mins.)
$1.50 (exact change

The bus info is on this site too

If you want to make use of the coupon books (LVA and CasinoPerks) you will need a car. The old CasinoPerks book was useful without a car but now you will need one for sure. If you have never driven in Las Vegas it sucks about as much as any largish city. I printed mapquest maps to all the casinos I was visiting with coupons before I went down. I was glad I did, I did all of the casinos to the north on one road trip and all of the casinos to the southwest on another. Plus, I had to find the LVA offices before the coupon orgy began. In my opinion you could not effectively use the coupons via taxi or bus. I actually enjoyed seeing alot of local joints for the first time. I actually still have some of the maps e-mail me and I will send them to you (assuming I can find them).

Hip Hop

I appreciate all the input. Anything else on the coupons would be great. Feel free to email me.

You never have to pay for parking at casinos.

Okie, the various advantages and disadvantages of driving a rental or taking public transportation has gone on here for years. Ultimately it's a personal preference based on the travel patterns you have around the city. As a player who always stays downtown with occasional strip trips I have always found the bus and cabs the most convenient for me. I have found in the past frustration with driving in the crush of traffic in Vegas (& I'm from Chicago!) and even more so with the time and distance going from the parking space to the casino itself. The nice thing about the bus and cab is that somebody else deals with the frustration of the traffic, and the driver drops you off right at the door. It seems to me that the amount of time saved is a whole lot of hands dealt you otherwise miss parking a rental. Just my opinion. The debate goes on. Enjoy the trip, in any case.

You can get the list of coupons from www.lasvegasadvisor.com and casinoplayer.com. I agree if you want to use coupons get a car, I would anyway. But I will say if it's your first time getting around in a car there it will be frustrating, but so is mass transit. Don't forget to sign up for slot card at Casino Royale, great first timer
coupons, best deal in town IMHO.

At one time express buses ran this route also. Do they still. If so, what is the route number and the nearest stop to Freemont St. Thanks

Las Vegas had #302 express buses which were much better than 301. They only stopped about 7 0r 8 times from Downtown to south strip which still made all the important stops and were much faster than 301's which stopped like 25 times on same route(including several between downtown and Strat. For some reason thay canceled those 302's a few weeks ago and only have the 301's.(Just got back from LV). I asked driver why and he said budget cuts and they were not not filling 302's which was bull and he smiled as if he knew it.
In short, we are stuck with slow-moving 301's but there better than any alternative between DT and Strip for $2!