A few Las Vegas questions

[dreamadream]

Hi there. In very early stages of planning a child free trip this November.

How many nights are ideal for a first trip? 4, 5, 6?
I have only had a brief look about trips but would like to do a trip to the Grand canyon and hover dam.

Whereabouts on the strip is good for evening strolling?

Any hotel recommendations? I had a quick look at booking options and liked the look of new York new York (our fav city so rather apt!) is this good?

Is public transport enough to avoid hiring a car?

Anything else I need to be thinking about?

[Mrs H]

Interested too, we have flights booked, going out on 10th November but not booked hotel yet. Flying home from San Diego so lots of planning still to do!

[Beth_Disney]

Car - hiring a car is a polarising subject - some people don’t and others wouldn’t visit Vegas without one. We didn’t hire on for our first few visits as we spent most of our time on the strip and went on organised excursions and were picked up from the hotel. Hiring a car does mean you can get to Walmart, the outlets and other places, such as Red Rock Canyon or Hoover Dam easily.

Nights - I’d suggest going for as many as you can! Grand Canyon is a full day and there is lots to see in Vegas. I like to go for a walk in the morning, relax by the pool in the afternoon and go back out in the evening.

Hotel - New York New York is a good hotel and a good location. There are lots of hotels to choose from and NYNY gets positive reviews. You’re pretty central strip there so I’d alternate walking up the strip with down the strip.

Other - resort fees and parking fees. These can bump up the overall price so I’d suggest researching these before booking and factoring into the overall cost. They can come as a shock if you’re not expecting them, I’d imagine the resort fee at NYNY is around $50 a night now.

[Dr.JumbaJookiba]

I've just booked The Palazzo with 29% off on their own website. Offer ends tomorrow but I got a strip view for $300 night with all taxes and resort fees included. You can save about $70 a night by choosing standard views.

[KarenG]

If you have flexibility in your dates, avoid weekends and definitely any big events or massive conferences. It makes a massive difference to hotel prices!

My best bargain ever was $80/night Venetian through Hotwire.

[danisleigh]

We are going in August for 4 nights as part of a road trip. We are not collection our car until afterwards as the hotels charge high parking rates and we have an organised trip to the Grand Canyon so figured we can use Uber if needed. We originally booked New York New York but then got a great deal on Caesars palace so changed as we thought it looked just a little more central and DS18 wanted to stay there as it’s on the hangover movies!

[400ixl]

When you say Grand Canyon, what do you mean as there is more than one section.

South Rim is the one that you will have seen on the movies. It is not reachable by the helicopter trips, but can be flown to or driven to with a 4-5 hour drive each way. South Rim is massive and has hop on hop off buses doing several routes and would take you 5+ hours to go around. To do it in a day would be extremely long and its much better to do an overnight stay, either in the park lodges or the nearby town. This allows you to do sunrise and sunset as well.

West Rim is reachable by helicopter trips or a 3 hour drive each way. Its about 1/8th of the size of the South Rim. Still spectacular if you haven't seen the South Rim. This is doable in a day.

Driving to either of these goes past the Hoover Dam, and the helicopters to the West rim also fly over the Dam.

Personally we would always have a car as there is so much more to do off the Strip in Vegas. You could easily spend half a day at the Clark County Museum, or go and see many of the companies that have TV shows on the likes of Discovery Channel.

[cheekydeeky]

I’m excited for you. We got married in 2016 in Vegas and went back last year. Hoping to get back either this year or next year too - love it!

We have stayed at the MGM both times but I love the feel of NYNY. The reason we stay at MGM is because of the lazy river . I adore floating around with a cocktail .

The Linq is a good area at night to have a wander as there’s lots going on. I’d highly recommend Big Elvis at Harrahs and Carnival Court (an outside bar just outside Harrahs).

Fremont st is a must and can be easily reached by bus or Lyft/Uber.

We did the West Rim helicopter trip the year of our wedding and it was spectacular. We were collected at the hotel by limo, did the trip to the canyon and flew back at sunset then over the strip.

I’m sure you’ll have a ball!

[dippiedawnie]

We did the Gand canyon by hummer - it was fab but not cheap. We had a private guide who took us to a dinner for breakfast on the way. We then stopped at the Hoover damn to look around and then onto the canyon. He stayed with us all day other than when we did the helicopter tour down into the canyon. On way back we did some off roading through a Joshua tree "forest". Been to the canyon 3 times and this was the best trip of them all.

[smithlane]

If time allows I would highly recommend staying for a night in the Grand Canyon South Rim. We went last February, nearly got stuck there due to a snow storm but still one of the most magnificent places I’ve ever been!

In Vegas we spent the first 4 nights in the Signature Suites which are mid strip but further back, only a 10 min walk away. The rooms there are huge and as it’s not a gaming hotel you get a sense of calm walking in after the madness that is Las Vegas.

The Signature Suites I believe had free parking so we had the car for the entire week we were there as we drove to Death Valley for the day (amazing) as well as visiting both outlets North and South ends of the strip

I did a trip report that can be found in my signature that might help with your planning