My teenager is graduation high school this year and we’re celebrating by going to Las Vegas for 6 nights!
It was their idea, I’ve been to Vegas about 8 times, and my wife has gone twice. But we haven’t been back since 2011.
We’re staying at “The Mirage”, my wife and I have stayed there before and we like the location.
Because it’s been a while, I would like some suggestions:
1). Can anyone recommend a decent Vegas buffet that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg? Looking for something in the $40-$50US range.
2). What sites would be good to take my teen to? Pretty sure we’re going to the Shark Aquarium at Mandalay Bay. Any other suggestions?
3). We’re thinking of taking a bus tour to the Grand Canyon. We know it’s a long day (like 14 hours), is it worth it? None of us have seen the Grand Canyon, and I’m the only one who has seen the Hoover Dam (the tour bus drives over it).
4). My wife and I love playing roulette. Any suggestions on where we can play with $0.50 chips? We’re okay with a $5 minimum, but playing with $1 chips limit’s our fun. We love “real” table, but are okay with video roulette.
5). Should we bother signing-up for a loyalty card? If so any recommendations on which one(s)? Probably only going to gamble $500-700. Is it worth it?
6). We used to LOVE going to the Barbary Coast (it’s long gone I know), cheap roulette and tons of free drinks (just tip well and they kept flowing). Can someone recommend a “new” Barbary Coast?
Do the ziplines! There are a couple to choose from. I did the one over the Linq because the others were too busy. The Neon Musem a.k.a the Neon Boneyard is an interesting bit of history. It’s where the old signs from defunct hotels are now stored. They have a walking tour and the signs are illuminated at night.
The roller coaster at NY/NY is surprisingly fun, but is only 15 minutes including waiting in line.
Luxor and Excalibur have reasonable priced buffets for lunch/brunch, I can’t vouch for their quality.
Check out Omega Mart to see if it’s up your alley.
How much time to you get on the ground in the Grand Canyon? That’s a big investment in time for something that really should be experienced by walking down into the canyon. Will you get 2-3 hours for a hike while there? I would rather rent a car for the day and drive to Valley of Fire State Park or Red Rock Canyon. Save GCNP for when you have more time.
The Mirage is starting to undergo a transformation into the (new) Hard Rock Hotel/Casino.
Pretty much every buffet that isn’t expensive (Bacchanal, Wicked Spoon, that sort of thing) closed during COVID-19 and never reopened, and most don’t plan to reopen. The only three “cheap” ones remaining on the Strip that I can think of are at Excalibur, Luxor, and MGM Grand.
The big new thing is “Food Halls” - like Food Courts, but with more upscale (and more expensive) food; one opened at Aria in place of its closed buffet. Eataly at NYNY comes to mind, but there are others.
It’s downtown, but I strongly recommend the Mob Museum.
There might be $3 video roulette at Paris, Horseshoe (what used to be Bally’s), and Park MGM; the list I have may be dated (it shows Park MGM as “Monte Carlo”). Other than that, $5 is the expected minimum on the Strip.
If you’re willing to go downtown, El Cortez might have $2 live roulette.
Speaking of roulette: STAY AWAY from wheels with three green spaces - usually 0, 00, and a symbol, although some have 000.
Given that casino loyalty cards are free, I’d say that they’re worth it. Most of them have reasonably generous sign-up bonuses as well. Keep in mind that you’re not going to earn very many comps on the Strip, especially on table games. A lot of them also give you a discount on the listed prices at their restaurants; take that into account.
Are you planning to see any shows? Cirque du Soleil has some fantastic shows. I’ve been to Vegas over a dozen times, but the shows are the only reason I would consider going back again. I would HIGHLY recommend Ka. It is literally the most amazing show of any type I’ve seen in my life. The LA Times called it “the most lavish production in the history of Western theater”.
Here is a recent thread with ~400 posts that offers a lot of opinions on Vegas both pro- and con-. The folks who like(d) it have some advice you might find useful.
#1 - No. As stated, most buffets closed and never reopened. The ones that are left are pricey. The best bang for the buck is probably Wicked Spoon at Cosmopolitan.
#2 - Omega Mart, ziplines, Pinball Hall of Fame. Shark Reef is cool. Ride the Sky Wheel. Several places let you move dirt with big, noisy machines. Rent a machine gun and blow through $100 worth of ammo in 3 seconds. Go see Popovich’s Pet Circus at Planet Hollywood.
#3 - I don’t think so, but then again I live out here and have seen the canyon and the dam many, many times. YMMV. Does anybody know if they’ve restarted the helicopter Canyon tours? Those were the best way to see it.
#4 - Not on the Strip. If you want lower limits, head Downtown or off-Strip to places like Sam’s Town or Red Rock.
#5 - Some of the loyalty cards will give you a shot at immediate rewards. Investigate. If they don’t and you aren’t planning on returning any time soon, don’t bother.
#6 - The days of Barbary Coast are long gone. Corporate has replaced quirky everywhere. Again, Downtown is going to be your best bet for something like that. Walk across the street and check out Casino Royale. Low limits and they used to be the single largest buyer of Michelob in the country. Haven’t been in Harrah’s in ages, but that casino also used to have lower limits than some others.
Mirage just got sold, so Hard Rock is starting to make some changes to the place. No demo started yet, but they will likely be messing with restaurants, shops and the like.
Of the buffets on that list, I would eat at Palms. Everyplace else is either horrible or playing roulette with dysentery or worse. The Circus Circus buffet brings to mind the one in Vegas Vacation.
We just saw it last month, it was fantastic. I would also recommend the CdS Beatles LOVE show, which is at the Mirage so would be easy for you to get to. Penn and Teller have a great show, but they aren’t always in house.
Nowadays the highway has a bridge that bypasses the dam. Whether a particular tour bus drives over it or not is a separate question. But the default way to drive from Vegas to Flagstaff & the Canyon area is over the bridge, not over the dam crest.
Years ago I was briefly a pilot flying Grand Canyon air tours. You’d fly in a smallish plane from McCarran (now Harry Reid, but it’ll always be McCarran to me) or one of the smaller Las Vegas area airports above and also down inside the western part of the Canyon then land at the Grand Canyon airport. From there it’s a ~15 minute bus ride to the rim. Where you can spend a couple of hours, get a meal, hike a bit, etc. Then take the tour bus back to the airport & fly the same smallish plane back to Vegas. LOTs less wasted time enroute.
My long since bankrupt employer figured 6-1/2 hours from when you arrived at our Vegas terminal until you were back. 2-1/4 were in the air, and the other 4-1/4 were on the ground at or near the Rim.
If you’ve got the budget, you can even double-up and fly as I described to get to/from the Canyon area quickly with some aerial sightseeing along the way, then hop a helicopter tour of the eastern canyon which leaves from the same airport. That would be the total CanyonMax experience. The only way to do it more completely would be to spend a night there and also do the mule train to the bottom and back.
However you go to the Canyon, understand it’s high elevation ~7,000 feet. So cool in summer daytime and cold in winter or during summer evening / night. More like Denver than Vegas. Shorts and a flimsy top might make for an uncomfortable visit even in July depending on how heat / cold tolerant anyone in your party is.
A few years back I took one of those small plane “tours” of the Grand Canyon. Single seats on both sides of the plane (if I recall correctly) which meant that everyone had a window. We spend some time flying over parts of the Canyon, before landing on the south side. Lots of time to roam around, and lunch was included. But take note of the temperature variations - in late March it was a warm spring day in Vegas, but snow on the ground when we landed on the south side (and a lot warmer for those people we could see a mile down at the bottom of the Canyon). I thought it was worth it, but in addition the weather was clear the whole time.
It looks like We will be spending a week in Las Vegas in mid August. Mom’s never been to the Grand Canyon, so we will be taking her there. Does Piff still do a Vegas show?
Vegas, or strip, because while as people say, a lot closed, I don’t know, but the one at Main Street Station downtown is $24/27/33 for brunch weekday/weekend/dinner.
O, Mystere, Ka (Love, Michael Jackson, depending if you like the music), all cirque shows. There was Dolphins at the Mirage, but it’s the last days of that hotel, so I think they are now gone. There were lions at the MGM lounging about too, not sure if still there.
The Grand Canyon. There are two of them, kind of. And multiple ways depending on cost and convenience
a. “Grand Canyon West” is not really Grand Canyon, but a 3 hour bus ride each way, about 4000 feet up, vertical falls, and an outcrop called the Skywalk where you can walk out over on clear perspex.
b. Grand Canyon South. This is really the one that people mean. However, it is sufficiently far that the bus trip we took, leaving at 6am, got to the actual side about 3pm (there was multiple stops and imax experience to delay), at wintertime there was 1 hour before sunset. Back on the bus an hour later and we got back to hotel at midnight. So a loooooong day.
c. People tend to do the South one as a rent a car, drive to flagstaff/williams, spend the night, see the canyon, drive back, or some sort of split day before or after.
d. You can get a helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon west, over the rim, and down into it. Its a different view, and nice. 45-60 minutes total.
e. The stops (in daylight) on the bus trips are actually really cool too. With nice little stops on the way. You could of course do these by car too.
f. You can get a plane to Grand Canyon South with less viewing opportunities due to height, windows and speed. Not tried that.
No idea.
Not done one on eight trips. I don’t gamble though, so not a lot of value to me.
Visit, maybe even stay a few nights, in Downtown. I’d recommend the BBQ at Binions, There’s Prime Rib around lots of places for about $15. Alcohol is cheap, free cover bands every night. Gambling is cheaper there, so I’ve been told.
For comparison, I only know of one cheap place for Prime Rib near the strip, and that’s Ellis Island, which we do visit if on the strip.
Much, much better dining options Downtown than Binion’s. The entire area has been undergoing a renaissance the last few years. Lots of good places to eat and drink both there and in the Arts District. If you want BBQ, try Soul Belly.
I’ll point out that the restaurant at the Ellis Island has all the ambiance of a Denny’s in Toledo Ohio. I enjoy the cheap steak & eggs breakfast there, but that place, like so much of old-style Vegas can only be inexpensive by being rather shopworn working-class scruffy.
Cheap + Glitz, much less Cheap + Actual Luxo, died 30 years ago.
You can do expensive economical rather easily. i.e. Spend $200 on a nice dinner for two that’d be $300 in another big city. Or $800 for a spectacular dinner for two that’d be $1,800 in another big city. But Cheap + Nice is mostly gone.
I guess we are looking for different things. In the UK, Prime Rib is not a thing, so has to be done for me, and its nice not to pay $70 for it like lot of big city places. Plus we go and hang at the bar afterwards, and the $3 microbrewed beer helps (was a dollar not that long ago).
There is also a BBQ place and a pub in there too, nowadays, so there is more than one place in there than the main restaurant.
I’ve never felt the need to go to a $200/$300 dinner in Vegas personally. Low roller/locals all the way for me. Stage door, Casino Royale, Downtown.