Every year I go to Vegas, and fall into the sucker’s trap of taking the long way taxi ride to the Venetian. I know that the locals know a short cut. I’m going there tomorrow. Can anyone help me on how to direct the cab driver to take short way?
No tunnel. Or just take the Venetian shuttle.
I usually pay about $11 to get from my hotel to the airport in a cab (and vice versa); then again, I’m always in Vegas and call them out on it if I see them taking the long way.
Just call the hotel and arrange their shuttle. It’s $6.
Always take the shuttle, I would think.
And don’t take the airport shuttle, which will take you from hotel to hotel via every damn pothole in the city.
What is"the airport shuttle"? They have just one? Why in God’s name would anyone take such a thing when literally every hotel (or at least, a few hotels owned by the same company) has it’s own?
Thanks guys
I live here and to be honest, if I were picking you up from the airport, I would take the tunnel. It might be a mile or two longer, but a hell of a lot faster than going surface streets, especially if there were a convention in town.
The tunnel would be freeway all the way to Spring Mountain before you might hit the first stop light - so theoretically, you might only have to stop once or twice on the trip to the Venetian. Going surface streets, much slower, more lights and depending on traffic, a lot longer.
This only works when you are staying way north on the Strip (from about Venetian up to Stratosphere and further…). If you are staying anywhere south of that (Caesars or Bellagio or Paris, etc.) then the tunnel is not such a wise move.
So - I wouldn’t stress out if you wind up going through the tunnel. In your specific case, I can’t imagine it would be a difference of more than a couple bucks.
BTW, I do have a website on Las Vegas that I haven’t been pushing lately because I haven’t been able to update it in months (computer problems, have to update/re-install my Dreamweaver, etc.) - but in case you want to take a look, see my sig below.
Thanks for the info DMark. I checked out your website. It is quite informative, although somewhat dated (as you mentioned)
Geez, a lot cities have a really long, expensive trip from the airport to downtown. Las Vegas is a dream, compared to them.
DMark, your site is great! Thanks.
Thanks for the compliments on the website - something I created years ago from all of the postings I made here, and then continued to add info as I thought of it - just my humble opinion and not meant to be an end-all of Vegas info, but stuff I tell friends and family when they come to visit.
I hope to have my software fully installed and updated on this new computer in the next couple of weeks so I can finally update the site.
Vegas seems to be doing well regarding tourism - over Memorial Day weekend, news reports said that hotel occupancy was at 96%!
Have a great trip, Jackknifed Juggernaut, and come back and let us know how it went! I always like to hear back from people who came here to visit so I can update my site with comments or questions or new things you may have found that I didn’t mention.
That’s good to know. Recent articles predicting LasVegas turing into the next Detroit had me worried. That must just apply to the residential areas.
Oh yeah, we have the dubious honor of having the most home foreclosures of anywhere in the US. Lots of reasons - but some do have to do with the gaming industry. Many locals work at those casinos and when the customer base dries up, so do the jobs.
One thing that is taking longer to improve - gaming winnings. Yes, rooms are booked at high levels but people are playing less. Whereas in years past Joe and Mary would drop $100/per day in the slots during their Vegas trip, today Joe and Mary are dropping about $50/day in slots. The taxes off gaming winnings pays for lots of things in Nevada - education being one of the biggest to take the hit. Lots of lay-offs in teaching and schools, some departments being closed at universities.
So while the casual tourist will not see a difference and stand in long lines at the buffets, and pay hefty ticket prices to see Celine Dion, or be amazed at the sheer numbers of people everywhere, it is going to take awhile for all those jobs to come back and kick start the local economy.
Luckily, new businesses continue to come to Nevada (no state taxes here), so that is a sign of gradual improvement - but the locals are still feeling the hit badly.
But again - as a tourist, most likely you will see nothing but huge crowds out to have fun! That is a good thing.
The trip was excellent, especially considering how it started:
Thursday:
Departed on Delta Thursday afternoon to Cincinnati, with about an hour of layover time. Due to high winds, the Newark to Cincy flight was delayed causing my friend and I to miss the connector to Vegas. Got a hotel room in Cincy, along with a new friend we made who missed the same flight. While Cin-cinnati is not anything close to Sin City, we found a pretty decent casino and made the most of it. I won about $300 bucks on craps, so not the end of the world. We didn’t get any sleep, but that was expected anyway (although in the wrong city).
Friday day:
Finally took the first flight form Cincy to LV. We took the $12 round trip shuttle, which made sense because Venetian is the first stop. We had a suite at the Venetian for the 4 of us. We quickly met our other 2 friends who were already there, ate lunch and headed straight for the main pool at Venetian. It wasn’t that hot (maybe 90 or so), so it was quite comfy. Had an awesome time, got drunk on mojitos, made some friends. We took a quick shower and headed for the craps table. Lost about $1,000 and decided to take a break. After about a 30 minute nap, we ate an awesome steak at “Carnevino”.
Friday night:
Got ready and made bottle service reservations at Tryst, the club at the Wynn. We decided to skip Tao this year, since we went there the past 3 years. Tryst, while still beautiful, was a disappointment. Not as many beautiful people as the past 2 years, and relatively dead. I think the new Marquee at The Cosmopolitan is drawing alot of crowd away from some of the mediocre clubs like Tryst.
Saturday day:
Woke up too late to get a decent spot at the Venetian pool, so headed for the Palazzo pool. Waited for about 30 minutes before getting a good spot. Drank some fiery Bloody Marys and just vegged out. It was probably around 95 that day, so perfect pool weather. Eventually ate lunch at a decent Chinese place at the Venetian (I forgot the name).
Went back to the craps table and won back about $1,200. At this point, I was up about $500 on craps for the whole trip, so pretty happy.
Tried to make table reservations at The Marquee, but felt that $14,000 was a bit too high for our tastes. I don’t have that kind of money but one of my friends is an oncologist and another is a jewelry store owner, so they actually considered it. Used our contact to make table / bottle service reservations for XS, the club at the Encore. $4,000 for 6 people seemed like a bargain.
Saturday evening/night:
Ate dinner at Lavo in the Venetian, which is quite good. Took too long getting ready and showed up too late to XS (~11:30) and lost our table. It was 6 people because the oncologist’s friend (from LA, who I’ve known from prior trips) came with his brother (a very successful plastic surgeon in SoCal). The regular entry line was too long, so we felt that we might just hit a bar somewhere. But the plastic surgeon called his contact who gave us a manager’s name, slipped him $500, and he walked us to the front of the line and in. That was easy.
XS is by far the most incredible club I’ve ever been to in my life. I mean there’s just no way to describe it properly. I’m 41, so I don’t really do the club thing very much, but being in NY, you can’t really avoid them. I have no idea how the Marquee is but XS is just at another level from anywhere else I’ve been. The cool thing is that the contact who helped us get in actually found this great table by the pool that someone else had evacuated and gave it to us.
We drank a bit, took turns scoping the place out and discovering its nooks and crannies, chatted up with others, and just watched the action. By around 1:30, decided to head to the dance floor. I made eye contact with this gorgeous 23-year old girl, who came over to me. We talked for a while and really started getting along. She is a nurse, who happens to live in the same town in Canada as my ex-wife and kids (which I found out later). She basically stayed on my hip until around 3:00. I left with her to the craps tables at the Encore. She was new to craps, but was great luck. I won about $2,000 and left for the room. I offered to give her some of my winnings for being good luck, but she refused. That was the best thing about the whole trip for me. A hot, and I mean really hot (dudes were trying all night to intercept her from me) who was so unselfish and just wanted to spend time with me. It was about 5:30am when I went back to my room with her. My friends were already in the room and sleeping. But they were out cold, so I was able to enjoy my time with her for about 2 hours. Let’s just say that my gambling winnings paid for my whole trip, but she was the real win.
Sunday morning:
My friend and I had an 11:30 flight, so I let the girl sleep and got ready. The shuttle was scheduled to pick us up at 8:30. The girl was really tired so I left her in the room. I tried to wake her but she kept on trying to get me back in the bed. I told her I had to leave and asked for her leave with me. I was going to put her in a cab back to her hotel. But she didn’t want to get up. My other two friends weren’t leaving until the evening, so I told one of them to let her sleep, and let her out later upon waking. They are both decent dudes, so she was completely safe there. In case you were wondering, I did have her put her clothes back on to spare here any embarrassment.
Slept a bit on the plane back to Cincy. And luckily there were no major delays to Newark. Got home by 10pm, unpacked, passed out, woke up and made it to work by 9am. Right on time.
The girl texted me this morning. She was definitely confused upon waking yesterday, but said that my friends were very gentlemanly with her.
So, all in all, it was probably my best Vegas trip ever.
Funny that you’re willing to lose a thousand bucks at the craps table and spend thousands more at clubs, but you started this thread to try to save $3 on cab fare.
Not $3 bucks, but at least $10. The point was not the money, but just not wanting to let a cabby take advantage of me.
I didn’t “spend thousands” anywhere. My max gambling loss would potentially have been $1,000. I left my house with $1,500 bucks in my pocket for the trip. The max that the entire trip could possibly have cost me was $3,000, including everything. Luckily it was alot better than that.
Thank you so much for your update!
Wow, you certainly travel in circles I never go, but great to get that perspective. I teach at a college and many of my students work at some of those pools/clubs, and even if they don’t work in the industry, as locals they can often get in free - so I have heard about the prices and amazing amenities.
That is the beauty of Las Vegas - some come and hit the clubs and the pool areas (not like the old days of just a beer and a towel - these are “day nightclubs”, for those who have never been to one).
Others sleep while you are out partying and get up at the crack of dawn to hit the breakfast buffets and play the slots/tables when it is quiet and slow.
Some play very little and hit the shows, better restaurants and maybe take a day trip hiking or driving nearby.
Still - it was really interesting to hear your story - and coming with a budget of $1500 for a weekend (with some extra if absolutely necessary) is fairly normal for a lot of people who come here, especially if you want to hit the clubs and like to play some table games.
All in all, it sounds like you had the perfect weekend in Vegas - my guess is we will be seeing you here again sometime soon?!
Oh, without a doubt (barring anything unforeseen). This was the 4th straight year on the weekend after Memorial Day weekend with this group. The friend who has the jewelry business attends the annual jewelry convention at the time, so the rest of us basically tag along. He actually works during the day, while the rest of party at the pools.
I’ve been there 5 times prior and experienced Vegas from different perspectives as well (including staying at a Days Inn with my mother and sister). But it helps when 4 of the 6 people you’re with are wealthy and generous with their friends. This is the only group of friends, among the ones I have, that would be willing to drop $000’s for table service or grease a palm with $500 or more to get into a club.