Going to Vegas next week - where to eat? What to see? Cohiba, you out there?

[inactive]

So my work takes me to Vegas next Monday and Tuesday. I have practically an entire day on Monday (arrive 8ish AM, meeting not until Tuesday), and then an evening on Tuesday to kill.

I not a gambler, so I'm out trolling for things to do. I'm pretty outdoorsy, though any time off a paved road or in the back country would be limited. I'll be an a Camry or something of the sort.

I presume I should go check out the Hoover Dam. Anything else close worth seeing? I know they have mountains some 45 minutes away - too early for skiing but any trails out there that would be short and sweet (think: some of the 3 mile hikes in the Wichitas). Any decent drives around there that anyone knows about?

And also, what to eat? I'm more a cheap dive guy but I'll give a nice meal a shot if it's interesting. I tend much more towards ethnic food (Mexican, Latin, Thai, Vietnamese, Szechuan, Indian, Ethiopian, Middle Eastern...) than American. But greasy spoon American diner fare is great as well. Just don't recommend In N Out or Ruth's Chris

 

[Cohiba]

Oh Man, where do I start.

1st. Do you have your own transportation...a car? How many days are you staying? ....and where...on the strip or off?
2nd. Have you been to Vegas before? If so, narrow down what you've already seen and what you want to see.

Food likes and dislikes....there is a China Town in West Vegas. You'll need a car or a taxi from the Vegas strip.
There are some good chinese food in a few casinos.....where are you staying?


Answer me this and I'll know what you need to see and eat.

PLEASE...check out this website...heck, join and ask questions...if not scroll through the different sections...it is a great resource!!!
http://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/

 

[Cohiba]

Okay Brother, I gotta leave the house by 7:30. Its drink night and the bars are calling.....heck, every night is drink night...M-Sun!!!!

Okay here we go:

Hoover Dam...if you drive, I suggest you get there EARLY...find out what time they start the tours or even if you just want to walk on top of the dam....did I say EARLY. Traffic can be a bit^h and it might not be tourist season, people still flock to it like moths to a flame. I do not recommend a tour bus...your at the mercy of the bus driver..I llike to come and go at my own pace.

The Strip: Just soak in the casino atmosphere. Bellagio....fountains outside, Chuly glass, arboretum inside....buffet is very nice. Paris...go up the Eiffel Tower. Mandalay Bay...go see the shark reef and buy an extra ticket and do the behind the sceen tour.
NYNY...just the outside features. Caesars...Caesars forum...a half a day of looking and shopping..they even have a Casa Feuente cigar shop in there. Venetian...ride a gondola...shops will take half a day. Wynn...hmmm, sit out by the lake and have a drink(if the weather is good)..cool light show at night...or use to . Mirage...Volcano in front...NOT Sigfried and Roys garden..if its still open. Skip the Riveria and stay the HELL away from Circus Circus!!!!!

TI(Treasure Island) the pirate fight or dance/songs in front. The Stratosphere...a little father down...up at the top part....ride the rides up there. From there, at the Strat, if you stay on LV Blvd(Strip) going downtown you'll pass the PAWN SHOP...you know Rick, Chumley, the Old Man, and Big Hoss.

Downtown: Freetmont street experience...light show. Walk through the casinos.


Food: Todai..all you can eat Japanes food...really good...sushi to crab legs.
China Town...head West from thr strip on the street betweenTreasure Island and the Fashon Show Mall..I think Spring Mountain Road...drive..you'll see it....cusine from all across Asia...authentic..Capitol Seafood(Cantonese) Dong Ting Spring(Hunan) Honey Pig(Korean) and a bunch of others.

Steak: Golden Steer Steak house!!! 308 West Sahara Road. THE Steak house in Circus Circus...I HATE it that its in CC, but its good.


***Look up casinos and see what restaurants they have...most are expensive....find the name of the restaurant and look up reviews on it and cost.

Hope that helped, have fun!! I'll look at this thread and add to it if necessary.


Cohiba

 

[beast1989]

john mull's road kill grill
grimaldi's pizzeria
Stripburger
the burger bar
Slice of Vegas Pizza
The Steakhouse
Palm (steak)
Metro's Ocean's Club (steak and seafood)
Tacos El Gordo
Tequila Bar
Hussong's Cantina (mexican)
Hash House A Go Go (a favorite but see if you can make reservations or plan to wait)

 

[inactive]

Oh Man, where do I start.

1st. Do you have your own transportation...a car? How many days are you staying? ....and where...on the strip or off?
2nd. Have you been to Vegas before? If so, narrow down what you've already seen and what you want to see.

Food likes and dislikes....there is a China Town in West Vegas. You'll need a car or a taxi from the Vegas strip.
There are some good chinese food in a few casinos.....where are you staying?


Answer me this and I'll know what you need to see and eat.

PLEASE...check out this website...heck, join and ask questions...if not scroll through the different sections...it is a great resource!!!
http://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/

Never been aside from an layover at the airport. Just walked around the strip a bit then.

Staying at the Southpoint, which is on the strip about 2 miles south of the airport. I will be there 2 days, two nights essentially. Arriving Monday around 8:30, leaving Wednesday early 7-ish. On Tuesday afternoon I have about a 4 hour meeting to attend.

 

[rawhide]

Stage deli in the MGM. Zombie apocalypse store north of Rio I think on Spring Mountain.

 

[XD-9Guy]

Peppermill Grill - it's not "fine dining", it's a diner style place. It's good stuff.

 

[Danny Tanner]

These are my general Vegas tips I try to give everyone, so use what might be beneficial to you and ignore the rest.

If you're a cheap eater and you're strolling around on the strip, then, for the most part, stay away from the restaurants inside the hotels, including the fast food joints, as they're usually more expensive ($17 for 2 chili cheese dogs, chili cheese fries, and a drink at Nathan's inside MGM). There's a food court by the M&M store that has a Del Taco, DQ I think, and some other typical shopping mall food court restaurants that's affordable.

However, you can still find $.99 shrimp cocktails downtown as well as the $2.99 steak and eggs on the strip, but for the latter, there are specific restrictions. Like the price is only valid between 2-4 AM.

If you're going to spend a lot of the time on the strip and you want to eat a little bit of everything, buy the "Buffet of Buffets" 24-hour pass. Basically, you get free reign on all of the buffets in the Harrah's owned resorts. This includes Planet Hollywood, Rio, Caesar's, Paris, Imperial Palace, Flamingo, and of course, Harrah's. It's $50 for a pass, which is a bargain considering one dinner buffet at Planet Hollywood is like $25~/pp + drinks + tip. If you decide to do this, sign up for a free player's card at any of these casinos and you get $5 off the price ($45). The clock starts ticking as soon as you purchase it (bought at the buffet cashier), so I'd recommend dinner around 6:30 PM (though you can decide your own time, obviously, but I'm trying to allow time for your food to settle) at Planet Hollywood (my favorite buffet), then breakfast at Paris (best breakfast buffet by far), lunch at any of the others (they're all mediocre, so just pick whichever is closest), and then dinner the next night at Rio (for extra $$, you can do the seafood buffet. With or without the seafood option, this is a pretty good buffet). For $45 for 4 meals that will leave you loosening your belt, you can't go wrong. While the food here doesn't redefine culinary standards, it's much better than anything you'd find at Golden Corral or even most other casinos around the country.

For more upscale options on the strip, check out The Eiffel Tower restaurant or Top of the World restaurant atop the Stratosphere (900+ feet up). While the food is [only] slightly better at The Eiffel Tower, the view from the Stratosphere more than makes up for it. Included with your reservations, you get free access to the two observation decks. The restaurant rotates, so if you're bringing a significant other and want a romantic setting, make your reservations for about 45 minutes prior to sunset. That way you get to see a 360 degree view of the strip and the mountains in the sunlight, at dusk, and at night.

A Hoover Dam tour is a given. I've done two of these. The first was a typical touristy style trip aboard a big bus with a tour guide up front on a microphone giving us info and keeping us entertained the entire way there and back. On our way, we stopped by the Ethel M chocolate factory, which was amazing. I'm not a big sweets person, so my word might not be worth much, but this was by far the best chocolate I've ever had. We are also shown a few celebrity homes. Once at the Hoover Dam, we were escorted into a video presentation about the construction and general specs of the dam, and then escorted through the dam much in the same fashion as National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation, and finally left free to roam around the top for pictures, lunch, souvenirs, etc. On the way back we made an unexpected pit stop to get up close and photograph some native mountain goats, which was a nice touch.

The other tour was a Pink Jeep tour. This was more intimate in the sense that it was a Dodge Ram outfitted with a 8-10 seat shuttle bus shell, but it was just the 4 or 5 of us on this tour. The driver did talk to us, gave us general Hoover Dam info, but once we got the dam, it was basically a "here we are, see you in a couple of hours!". Our tickets did include a dam tour, so it's not like we were nickel and dimed for tour tickets.

The pros for the bus tour: Everything was taken care for us, we just walked in a line and didn't have to worry about where to go (typical of guided tours). The "touristy" aspect of it. Sometimes, in a place like Vegas, part of the charm of being there is allowing yourself to be a typical tourist.

The pros for the Pink Jeep tour: Less $ than the bus tour. Having free reign to do as you please. Since we had already been, we just wanted to do our own thing.

Of course, if you want to go balls out, there are helicopter tours (of the strip, too), but bring your $$$. Taking the Camry out there will be your most affordable option, though, probably.

If you decide to go downtown (which I recommend), there's the lighted canopy shows every hour (possibly every half hour) and they're great. If you're curious, check out some videos of this on YouTube. There's also a zip line down there that's $15/pp during the day and $20/pp at night.

Make sure to check out all of the free shows/displays outside of the Bellagio, Mirage, and Treasure Island hotels. In my ranking of least favorite to favorite:

1. TI's Siren Pirate show: A bunch of male and female pirates fighting and dancing and jumping in the water. The ships are pretty cool and it's not a bad show. My biggest complaint with this is the small viewing areas and especially the people within these viewing areas. Much like on Oklahoma roads where Yield signs mean "stop" and Stop signs mean "yield" to people, "No Strollers Please" means "park your ugly ass screaming kids right here to watch a show that's probably too loud for their developing ear drums any way". Not only that, but despite how tall you are, somebody taller than you will stand right in front of you, so close you can smell their shampoo. It NEVER fails.

2. Mirage's [whatever it's called] Volcano show. Pretty awesome fire show. Nothing to complain about here, it's just not my favorite.

3. Bellagio's Water Fountain show: The least manly of the 3 considering it's just dancing water squirting up in the air to Celine Dion songs, but still by far my favorite. Can't really say why, it just is.

There are also a couple rain showers inside the Miracle Mile Shop (surrounds the Planet Hollywood casino) and inside the Venetian (I believe). Both pretty cool. Thunder, rain, lightning indoors. Nothing that's in-your-face extreme by any means, but pretty relaxing to watch while taking a break from walking.

You say you've been before, but only on a layover. If you're going to spend an extended amount of time walking the strip, make sure to bring comfortable shoes. I'd even recommend some quality cushioned inserts. As you probably saw, every walking surface outside and inside Las Vegas is concrete, cement, granite, marble, and casino carpet, which is basically fuzzy cement. There's nothing soft at all to walk on, so your legs and calves will hurt.

 

[Danny Tanner]

I had to split this up since it was too long, but here's part 2:


You say you're not a gambler, but if you're a drinker you might want to consider pretending to be one [a gambler]. What I mean by this is drinks at any bar are expensive, including your run of the mill American ales and lagers. Instead, pop a $20 into a penny slot machine and either make $.01 spins or pull up the rules to make it seem like you're only studying that specific machine and flag down a cocktail waitress, as drinks are free for gamblers only. Order whatever beer or cocktail you'd like and within a few minutes she'll bring it to you free of charge. Of course, tipping is everything in Vegas, so tip her $1 and be on your way. Or, if you'd like, tip her $1 and ask her for another round. She'll bring it back to you when you're finishing up your first drink. Rinse and repeat until you can't stand up or you're ready for a change of scenery. Even if you do make a few legitimate spins on the slot machine, you're probably still ahead money-wise versus ordering those same drinks at a bar. Granted, the mixed drinks are smaller, but tipping $1 ten times for ten "free" bloody marys will still grant you more bloody mary than buying a $10 (+ tip) bloody mary at the bar. Tipping $1 four times for "free" 12 oz bottles of Coors obviously gives you 4x the amount of Coors versus paying $4 (or more, +tip) for a single Coors at the bar. And hey, if you win at the machine, then it's a win-win for you! Obviously, you can spend more money gambling and tipping for free drinks than you can just sitting at a bar, so this might not work out for you. For us, though, it works out great. We spend the same amount or less drinking in front of a slot machine than we do sitting at a bar, but at least the slots give us some form of entertainment and the potential for winning our money back, possibly even more. Generally speaking, the free drinks downtown are stronger than the free drinks on the strip, especially at The Bayou, my favorite downtown casino.

If you're on a mission to just get obliterated drunk, then skip the fun [or hassle] of the free drinks game and hunt down a Fat Tuesday frozen drink stand (MGM Grand, Miracle Mile Shop, etc, they're every where) and spend $14 on a "yard" of 190 Octane (their strongest drink) + extra liquor shot. Be careful, though, these are sleeper drinks. My brothers and I are drinkers, not to say we couldn't be outdone by some of you here, and we had 2 of these (refills are a few bucks less when using the same yard cup) and this resulted in our very own version of The Hangover.

I've never heard of The Southpoint, so it's either new or just less popular than the typical casinos in Vegas. I looked it up on FrontDeskTip.com and see it's got a 50% success rating, but with only 2 submissions, so YMMV definitely applies here. But, there's what's called the "$20 Sandwich Trick". When checking into your hotel, the clerk will ask for a credit card and photo id. What you do is sandwich a $20 bill inbetween the two, making the $20 bill obviously visible to the clerk, but without waving it around in the air, and ask, "are there any complimentary upgrades available?". If so, they will keep your $20 "tip" and give you an upgrade, anywhere from a better view, to a full blown room upgrade, the latter not requiring you to pay the difference in price. We have great success with this at our usual spot (Planet Hollywood). For example, my brother was upgraded from his assigned room in the back of the hotel (facing nothing) to a bigger room with a view of the Bellagio fountains. People have reported being upgraded from their standard rooms at Planet Hollywood, which go for $100-$150~ per night, depending on the day of the week, to a Panoramic Suite, which is a 2-bedroom, 1,500 (or 1,700) sq foot suite with a view of the complete strip, a room we paid several hundred dollars for per night, still at the rate for their standard room. It's one of the best tips I've ever received for Vegas. Not all hotels and clerks partake, so if they don't, they simply hand your $20 back and you're "stuck" in whichever room you originally signed up for. Either way, in my experience, they're very polite and professional about rejecting your offer.

2012 has been the first year in several that we haven't gone at least once, and that makes me very sad. However, a trip in the spring time is being discussed amongst us at the moment, and I can't wait. I've been to many places, including outside of the US and as of this summer, a cruise, but Vegas is by far my favorite vacation spot and despite what many people say, you can have a ton of fun without spending a ton of money. So, I'm totally jealous, even if you are there on business.

 

[AKguy1985]

I dare you to go into ceasars palace and ask if ceasar really lived there. Then ask if the hotel is pager friendly.