Having Fun in Vegas Without Spending a Ton

Iroh

The thread title is pretty self-explanatory, but I will have about 3-4 days to myself during a trip in two weeks. I already have done a little research on how to feed myself without emptying my savings account, but I don't have a clue about cheap entertainment.

Hopefully some of you more well-traveled forumers can help me out here. Thanks in advance.

downer

Vegas (The Strip and Freemont Street in particular) is entertainment in itself. You could easily spend a day or two just roaming the strip, and checking out all of the resorts.

ainuvas

My wife and I honeymooned in Vegas and did an entire week on a budget ... There's so much free and cheap things to do around that you should have lots to see/do.

The strip offers lots of things, such as:

~ The "Volcano" at Mirage (Free)
~ Fountains at Bellagio (Free)
~ "The Sirens of Treasure Island" (Free)
~ The Secret Garden of Seigfried and Roy at the Mirage (10-15$/ea I think. Lions, Tigers, Dolphins, and a Panther)
~ Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay (Around $15.00/ea)
~ Eifel Tower at Paris (Around $15.00/ea)
~ "Freemont Experience" in Downtown Vegas (Free)
~ The Flamingo has a flamingo/nature garden which is free
~ The largest private car sale/museum is in the Imperial Palace, around $10.00/each
~ The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace has some neat displays (moving statues, etc.)
~ Inside the mall at Planet Hollywood it starts raining (the lights dim, starts thundering, and rains in the middle ... very impressive) - Free
~ The Venetian Casino has indoor and outdoor gondola rides. The indoor rides are actually on the second floor of the casino/mall, which makes it that much more interesting.
~ New York/New York has a Rollercoaster, we didn't bother doing this but it looked neat.
~ The Wynn apparantly has a mountain/waterfall inside it, which we missed.

There's also a few places on the strip (one behind the gigantic coke bottle that I know of) that offer deep discounted last-minute tickets for shows in Vegas, if you're into seeing shows. We saw "Ka" at the MGM Grand and loved it.

One of the biggest things we spent our time doing was going from casino to casino checking out the sights. They're all trying to outdo each other, so they become more and more extravagant.

I also reccomend getting a day pass on "The Deuce", a double decker bus that tours the strip to downtown, it's $5.00 and lasts 24 hours. You can do a *lot* of walking, so it's nice to hop on the bus once in a while. If you're heading to/from Excalabur -> Mandalay Bay, there's a free monorail/tram that connects Excalabur, Luxor, and Mandalay Bay. Getting a cab can/will be *very* expensive due to the massive amounts of traffic, so avoid it if you can. We used a cab to get to the Rio, but that's pretty much the only time we needed it.

If you haven't picked a hotel yet, the Imperial Palace is the cheapest in the middle of the strip apparently. It's very plain (think standard cheap motel room), but puts you right in the middle of the action.

The way we discovered all of the free/cheap things to do was with one of these, which can be found in magazine racks/newspaper boxes on the street. It's free and full of ideas.

Thanatos

Near Fremont streer is Main Street Station, which has a brewpub inside it with fantastically cheap, high-quality booze.

unilateral

We stayed at the Tuscany, which is on Flamingo Road, and almost every morning, we ate at Ellis Island, which is on Kova Lane, right behind the Platinum. We went there for their 3.99 Steak and Egg special (it's not really a special since it's every day and it goes from 5 AM until 1 PM). For $3.99 you get 1 steak, choice of eggs, buttered toast and thick sliced round fried potatoes (home fries?). Like I said, we loved it so much, we ate there every morning. All in all, its a good cheap breakfast option, if breakfast is your type of thing.