Mrs. Mercotan and I will be flying into Vegas later this year, arriving about 11:30 PM. We’ll be driving out early the next AM for our destination (Palm Springs, it’s tons cheaper & more convenient for us to fly into Vegas than PS), and don’t plan to spend any time in Vegas at the front end of this trip.
So, what’s a good hotel/motel there strictly for crashing purposes? Not too seedy, but we sure don’t need the frills or features of places on the strip. We’ll have time for all that at the tail-end before we fly home!
Just use priceline. Or orbitz. Take the cheapest available hotel. In fact — try to find a hotel close to the airport rather than something near the Strip.
Excalibur (very close to the airport). Decent rooms just to crash
Tropicana (kitty-corner from Excalibur).
Sahara (a ways from the airport) cheap, old rooms. But okay to sleep (just don’t eat there
Since you’re heading out anyway, if you’re going I-15 you might be able to get cheap rooms at the places at the border: Whiskey Pete’s, Buffalo Bills, or Prime Valley (although I think they just changed owners). It’s not more than a 20 minute drive from the airport.
If you’re going 95 (?), then you can probably get some cheap rooms at the places in Laughlin. I don’t recall the name, but I stopped in on a weeknight - no reservation or anything - and got a $29/night room (and the guy apologized that all the $19 rooms were sold out !). It’s a bit further drive - maybe 30 to 40 minutes. But it will certainly be cheaper than Vegas.
You’re still looking at a pretty long drive, through the desert to get to PS. Have you looked into flying into Ontario ? Southwest flies into there, and it would only be about an hour drive to PS from there. Just a thought.
The Wild Wild West motel is just off the strip across I15, maybe 10 minutes from the airport. It’s a simple but decent enough motel with rooms for about $50 a night, sometimes less. The breakfast is reasonable as well.
We stayed at the Motel 6 when we eloped. It was adequate for crashing.
When we went last October, there was a big gap between arriving back from the Grand Canyon and when our plane left. We rented a room at a “No Tell Motel” at the airport end of the strip. $60 and all the free porn you can stand. It was an…experience.
Check out www.kayak.com. It’s a pretty good resource and it’s very customizable. I just threw in a date of October 6th, and it gave me the following (customized to within 10 miles of McCarran airport):
Golden Gate Hotel (downtown): $31
Vegas Club Hotel (downtown): $32
Plaza Hotel (downtown): $33
Motel 6 (downtown): $34
Aruba Hotel (the strip): $35
Arizona Charlie’s (off-strip): $36
I checked and just found out that my favorite cheap Vegas lodgings closed, the Westward Ho. It was a giant two story motel next to the Circus Circus. Cheap, clean and right in the middle of things. Nothing stays the same especially in Las Vegas.
Nope. That idea died when Harrah’s was sold to a new group of investors. If anything, the whole block - Harrah’s, IP, Flamingo, Bill’s, O’Shea’s, etc. will be demolished to put up another “mega-mega resort” like the ones going in across the street. But I doubt it. By the time they get the plans and funding done, the rules will have changed again and they will try something else.
Which I think is a good thing, because we kinda like the IP.
For a combination of low price and convenience, I’d recommend the Excalibur. Sure, it’s a hokey themed hotel but it is very close to the airport and is clean enough to crash in.
Like you, all I wanted was a bed and a shower so I booked a room at the TravelLodge on the south end of the strip. There’s also another one just about smack dab in the middle of the strip at slightly higher rates. Cost less than $50 a night with my old fart (AARP) discount. You can book online.
And GOOD LUCK in the casinos!
I live near Elko, NV on the other end of the state. That’s about as close to Las Vegas as I ever want to get again.
However, IF someone were to hold a gun* on me, and force me to fly** into the land of perpetual road construction and permanent traffic gridlock, there’s a nice little motel just a little bit outta town that I could actually pretend was far enough away from that evil place to allow me a good night’s rest before moving even further away.
Lucy
He who shall never return (to Las Vegass***).****
*It’s gonna need to be an automatic weapon. And a large caliber, say, ohh, about 60mm. Actually, a howitzer might be a better bet. 'Course, I would kinda count on the folks at Homeland Insecurity to save me from that unimaginably horrible fate.
**No one has ever dreamed up (let alone actually invented) a weapon that would be a big enough threat to get me to drive into that place.
***That’s not a typo.
****Am I getting my point across yet? Still, at least you’re ultimate destination shows that you haven’t gone completely loco. I’m finding it difficult to imagine so many people who would actually recommend going to that place. If you’re looking for a gambling and entertainment value, Reno = much nicer; all the same stuff and none of the detractions.
