Las Vegas!!

[jd_1984]

My partner suprised me with a trip to Vegas for April 2014! She gave it to me for my birthday this week but wants the extra time to save up so we dont have to do it on a budget.
I am a total Vegas novice, but have always wanted to go. Any tips for maximising the experience, things to see, places to avoid, transport when yoyu are there, worthwhile trips, how not to look like a total beginner in the Casino's...... all would be useful!!

Thanks
JD

[jd_1984]

The website (as they tend to) make the place look fairly good. The shopping, ammenities, the "Aventuredome", the rooms, food... all looks pretty exciting. We will hop on the bus daily and explore, but I do realise we are out of the way slightly in a hotel rated 96 of 300 Vegas hotels on Trip Advisor. If we get what we paid for, I will be content, I dont tend to expect 5 stars without paying a 5 star price. We have paid a 3 star price with the intention of spending a bit whilst we are there and maximise the stay

[jd_1984]

Thanks Mazie, she did really well keeping it a secret, I was genuinely shocked but thrilled!

[mazie]

I bet you were.... I'd have fainted if my old man did that for me. His best present to date has been a dehumidifier!!

[friedgreentomato]

Oh absolutley and that is part of the joy of vegas going to the different hotels, the piano bar in the Bellagio is great for people watching, and you can spot the high class hookers with their 'Johns' too.

I have to be honest i last went into Circus circus a year ago and it was awful but if it has just been done up! Another one to think of which is cheap and chearful and only slightly out the way but on the bus route is the Stratosphere.

[mazie]

Here's a link to the hotel

http://www.circuscircus.com/las_vegas_hotel/room-types.aspx

[puzzled54]

I stayed at the Luxor, but you can walk into any of the hotels to have a look around. Circus Circus is at the other end of the strip from the Luxor, the strip itself seemed less crowded at the Circus end. I think the Circus is popular with families as they have free circus acts going on throughout the day and a funfair.
What I did in the casino was to stand and watch other people playing before I took the plunge! There are various rules - minimum bets etc, but I found that wandering around watching was fine and nobody minded.
Our room at the Luxor was probably the cheapest sort, but was really good. 2 big beds, huge tv, huge bathroom - I don't know what an upgraded room would be like!
You must walk down to the 'welcome to Las Vegas' sign - it's further down from the Luxor (going out of LV) as it was put up to welcome people driving in from LA. You will also pass the Little Church of the West on the way.

[swinman]

Sorry to butt in, but I'd just like to say what a wonderful thread of comments this is! My wife and I are hoping to go to Las Vegas too, next year hopefully, for our 30th anniversary, so this all really interesting stuff. Ideally I'd like to see the Grand Canyon, but when they say it's next door to Las Vegas it's really like flying to Spain from England!! Money permitting, we'd go on to Hawaii, but I'll probably lose my Hawaiian shirt in my first casino!!

Thanks for all the good info. friends.

[belrec]

I do not have fgt's vast experience :-)

Personally I would stay at Circus Circus if it really is that bad then you can use it as a base and just stay out all day.

As for gambling set a daily budget and stick to it whether its $20 or $200 once its gone its gone then you know what you can spend. We had a limit then once we'd won it back put it away again and just spent any winnings so we ended up not spending too much.

We really liked the slots especailly in big places like Caesers as there is no pressure to know what you are doing :-) like at the tables.

Most of the big casinos have tutorial sessions every day usually at quiet times like mornings so if you really want to have a go at the tables you can pick up some tips there and not look a complete novice.

Would DEFIFNITELY recommend the Grand Canyon trip in any form it is one of the few places that is really much better in real life than in a picture, you just cannot get a sense of the enormous scale of the place :-).

It can get really hot we wnet at the end of March and is was baking, but all the casisnos are air conditioned so if you get hot just go indoors.

The Venetian is awesome go on a gonodala ride.

Almost all of the casisno have shopping of some sort with everything from tacky souvenirs to up market clothes so you can take a break.

Hoover Dam is also a good trip and when we went you could still go inside which was brilliant but i think since 9/11 they have stopped that but even so it is a worth while trip.

Can't think of anything else at the moment. Hope this helps

xxx

[belrec]

crikey that was long sorry hope you dont get bnored reading it :-)

[Cathyhuns]

We did something similar to this white water rafting trip at the Grand Canyon.

http://www.viator.com/tours/Las-Vegas/Grand-Canyon-White-Water-Rafting-Trip-from-Las-Vegas/d684-5167WWR

Expensive and a long day but fantastic fun. You need to book from UK and go prepared - if you look at the negative comments it's almost always because people didn't think about what the water temperature would be or what they needed for such a trip.

[jd_1984]

Thanks for all this info folks.

[rockyracoon]

LMAO