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Stuff to do in Vegas
Fraz
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'll be in Vegas for five nights in March with a lady.
Apart from drinking and gambling, what are some of the things you suggest we should do out there? Recommend any shows or clubs?
I'll be staying at the Excalibur on the strip.
Apart from drinking and gambling, what are some of the things you suggest we should do out there? Recommend any shows or clubs?
I'll be staying at the Excalibur on the strip.
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You can't go wrong with almost any of the shows out there, they are all of pretty good quality.
there's also the tours of the surrounding area. the grand canyon, the hoover damn. you'll see various offers/deals available so again its worth taking some time to look at whats available to see what suits you should you want to see something further afield.
take some time to explore the hotels. this may sound strange, but some of the hotel/casinos are simply wonderful to wander around in. personally i've always found gazing up at the interior of the Luxor to be breath-taking as the balcony of each floor draws further in the centre of the building. then there's the painted sky of the Forum at Ceaser's Palace, and the cobbled streets inside the Paris. take a look around and i'm sure you'll find something that will grab your attention and leave a lasting impression. and as you'll be there with a female companion the gondola ride at the Venetian is a must.
there are also a few free shows to be seen from the strip outside various hotels, but off these the fountains outside the Bellagio is by far the best. its something that can be seen again and again, and will change depending on time of day so never assume that you've already seen it all.
i've been to Vegas twice now, and have yet to take advantage of everything on offer. in fact i dare say some(if not most) would consider both trips to have been wasted, and yet i still managed to love every second that i was there.
and of course on the mention of gambling, set a limit and stick to it. yeah its an amazing thrill when you hit a lucky streak, but its also oh so easy to get sucked in and lose more than you intended to(or can afford).
It's right next to you at New York and it's amazing.
Yep, loved it.
I've seen Love, Zumanity, and Ka...and Zumanity was by far my favorite. Although some people I know who are a little uncomfortable talking about sex didn't like it so much.
Excalibur has a really cheesy "medieval times" thing that's super cheap and kinda fun. The food kinda sucks but I'm glad I saw it once. You can also usually find a free magic show if you walk around and get coupons.
There are plenty of big names to fill the gaps, if you're willing to drop the cash to see them. I was just there around xmas right after Aria and City Center opened, be sure to check it out!
avoid Chris Angels show at all costs, it is the single worst thing to happen on a stage in the history of stages.
my personal favorite show is blue man, so I'd recomend that. Theres also the bodies exibit which is awesome and shark tanks in a few of the casinos which are fun to look at.
being with a lady, you may decided to go to a club, all I can say with that is be ready to drop $300 dollars minimum.
Whoo, that's rough. lol
You have no idea, its supposed to be a magic show, i think. but the audience has no idea when a showgirl walking onstage out of smoke is supposed to be a trick and when its just them entering from off stage. the local papers gave it negative scores in their reviews, and its become the metric for measuring bad shows.
How about touristy things off the strip?
We're both runners so we signed up for the half marathon out at the hoover dam that weekend. We'll make sure to check it out after the race!
I saw "Love" and loved it. Friends went to Zumanity at the same time, and they loved it too.
If you're going to gamble, sign up for whatever "Players Club" your favorite casino is offering. Use a throw-away e-mail address to prevent spam. You usually get free chips and/or slot credits with sign up. Depending on how much you play, you might get a free lunch or dinner too.
Make sure you walk the strip a couple times. You can also use the Monorail that starts/ends at MGM and runs most of the strip. It's fairly cheap, especially if you get the 24 hour unlimited ride pass. I'm fairly certain if you plan on taking more then 3 rides in 24 hours it's worth it.
Go with a certain amount of money in mind that you plan to lose on gambling, like a food budget or something. Then keep any winnings you get separate. Once your budget is gone and you had fun gambling, you now have all this (hopefully) extra money that you can spend on souvenirs or on stuff at home or whatever. If you keep gambling your winnings, you will eventually lose it all.
Check and see if anyone interesting is playing at the House of Blues (inside Mandalay Bay), worth checking out while you're there.
Fremont is cheap fun. Plenty of bars to check out, low dollar blackjack and drinks, old-style Vegas environment, plenty of places to become a potential stabee.
Blue Man, Penn and Teller, any Cirque show (especially Love) are all awesome to check out. You might get a good deal if you buy tickets ahead of time.
Off the strip: Hoover Dam, Red Rock, Valley of Fire are all awesome to drive through and explore.
As a sidenote, I stayed in the Tropicana last time I was there, which is opposite the Excalbur, and I believe it was the only casino on the main strip which had $5 min blackjack hands - only one table stays that way the whole night (the one which has the mandatory seat reserved for handicapped people, which we happened to be at, go fig), but if you want to stay on the strip and play some (relatively - $5 a hand is still not insignificant :P) cheap blackjack, Tropicana is a good place to drop into.
I went there when i was around 13/14 with my family and it was pretty fun. We saw a couple of shows and all I could think was this would be awesome in 8/9 years.
The main problem with it is that one of hte biggest draws to Vegas is the gambling. Well we have a massive casino right in our city and after 3/4 years of gambling while out on the town its lost its appeal.
...
the biggest draw to Vegas is being able to walk down the street in the middle of the night double fisting two yard margaritas.
while walking on a porn sidewalk
Don't lose all your money like I did haha. Although I was able to play $15 blackjack most of the time at Encore where I was staying.
Usually $10 tables around, I think it's a 6 deck shoe. It should be noted there isn't really a discernible difference in the number of decks for almost everyone who plays blackjack.
That's kind of false.... Most one deck games will only pay you 6:5 on blackjack, whereas a six deck game will pay you 3:2. But with the one deck games you lose your money slower cause they have to shuffle more
Ka' is simply amazing, one of the best performances I've ever seen. Ever
We also saw Phantom of the Opera, which is amazing in the hour and a half format. It's basically just the musical numbers, and only the good ones at that.
We caught the Amazing Johnathon, who is an excellent dirty magician/comedian, but his act hasn't changed much since his comedy central special like 10 years ago. He plays a good show, but it's about $70 even with the half price ticket lines.
Bill's Gamblin Saloon on the strip by the Flamingo is your best cheap gambling/cheap drinks place to hit up during the day. It's a little hole in the wall casino that's still on the strip for some reason. They have $1 margaritas and newcastles that are both pretty stout. They're also one of the few places that still has $3 table games during the day.
For free shows, you've got the fountains at ceaser's, the sirens at treasure bay, and there's always something going on at the clubs at MGM.
We stayed at Excalibur on $35 a night for the room and got a tower room right below the exec suites with a strip view and a high def LCD tv in the room. They can also give you a mini fridge for $20 for the duration of your visit, and not per day, like some other places. Excalibur also has a great show that's one of those medieval times kinda things where the knights fight each other and you eat whole turkey legs. It's pretty fun.
Finally (for now) if they are still doing it, you're going to run into some dudes at every single casino you walk into with your lady asking if you're married. Buy a couple of cheap rings and say yes!.
You'll fill out some spam paperwork and pay $40 bucks and they'll sign you up for a tour of some condos they're building about two miles from the strip. It's a 40 minute presentation, and they give you two tickets to three shows of your choosing, plus gambling credits and buffet credits. It's about a $300 dollar value and it's all legit, they're just going to bug the shit out of you on your phone and e-mail for a little while. It'll knock a good chunk out of your budget worries though. HOWEVER, make sure you read your receipt and your card and have the right day and time, because otherwise they won't let you talk to anyone about the condos when you get there, you'll sit and wait (like we did the first time) and they'll refund your $40 and send you packing without so much as a "sorry"
enjoy!
You really can't go wrong with any of the Cirque du Soleil shows... and there are a ton... Zumanity is my favorite because it combines the acrobats of Cirque du Soleil with the nakedness of hot women... and still manages to stay classy.
And remember, tables are for gambling, slots are for getting drunk.
I had good luck playing video poker at the bars.
I'd put in a $20, and play .25 cents a hand and get a free drink about every 20 minutes. After I got a little tipsy I'd go to $1 a hand blackjack and usually end up ahead. That's always been my gimmick for the good booze at a fast pace.
I'm so excited
when are you going?