Any Tips For First Timer Visit To Las Vegas?

While a lot of these hotels look kinda nice but also like office
buildings and shopping malls and amusement themes. The Bellagio is quiet different...


Walking thru Mandalay Bay 2017


 
A must read
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Resident here.
Lived full time 7 years.
Gone 15 years.
Bought a winter home there 3 years ago.
Things have changed but one thing that got more intense is the amount of ANYTHING you like to do.

It is the entertainment capital of the world!
Everyone knows Vegas. Everyone wants to go there, at least once.

Gambling is there, prostitution is illegal (you need to “hump to Parump” for that). They legalized pot now so game on.

Nature stuff. Shows both free and $$$. Shops to no end. Fancy casinos that are fun just to walk around in, and they are massive, you can explore in a casino for half a day! Motor sports, water sports. Rent a sports car or Machine gun or probably anything else (except hookers).

The big casinos on the strip are more than you can explore in a week. They are full of entertaining things.

I would avoid the 5 star restaurants. They aren’t all that. Buffets are stunning. Smaller restaurants can be wonderful. Neighborhood pubs can have great food.

The Fremont experience is OK. Serious gambling is done down there. As in, people that know how and do it. The strip will cater to noob better. ONLY play slot machines where people can see you win. Outside buffets, in entrance points, anywhere very visible. Those are the machines that pay so people see you win and want to try too.

All the employees everywhere are friendly and will give good advice. Slip them a few bucks. Tip everyone that serves you.

Dress nice or they will peg you as a tourist downtown and bug you with advertising. If that happens, just say “I’m local” and they will leave you be.

Act rich and important, remain calm and cool. They’ll think you’re someone and treat you good.
Don’t be an ass, just be Joe Cool.

Get lots of sleep at home and go for it there and sleep on the way home. There is more fun there than you can get to and you don’t need to go broke doing it.
 
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Stop briefly just outside (north or south edge, depending on your overall direction of travel) to gas up, then head straight through, do pass "go", and thus Vegas (and Chicago's Outfit re: its "taste") does NOT collect from you USD 200 (or more). This is what I've been doing for years on my Chicago-Los Angeles & LA-Chicago jaunts. Then again, landing @ LA ain't always a pleasure either. Landing @ Chicago is always a joy. But I might be a bit biased.
 
A must read
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Indeed it is, and the film adaptation ain't bad either. Might be the best thing Johnny Depp have ever done. It's a side-splitter and food-for-thought all @ once. The writer's soliloquy re: the watermark cresting mark on the hillsides gets me every time, whether in print or as narrated (by Depp as Raoul Duke) in the film.

Of course Thompson's work describes a teenaged Vegas, for in the early Seventies the situation had been up and running but, what, since the mid/late 1930s, thus a mere 40 years? Today The Strip has been in coninuous operation for ~ 80 years and there has been much change @ this maturation, much it for the better, some (e.g. mass murder shootings on 2017) for the worse. Whatever one thinks of the place, it is unique among "casino" communities, including the much-heralded EU gambling spots @ Monaco and Montreux. Vegas has SO MUCH MORE NRG than these dour old European "hot spots".

Steeped in the lore of American organized crime, first New York via Bugsy Siegal, later the target of "the skim" by the Chicago outfit, and situated just a few (15-20) minutes southwest of Nellis AFB (which everyone travelling through the area ought to visit), it's a helluva place to visit. It is also fairly spectacular to see from afar and up close in the dead of night, forvever aglow with the lighting of the casinos, hotels, and people.
 
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There was an auto museum near the "High Roller" Ferris wheel at one time.
Pretty interesting. Tons of cars.
 
We stayed at "Golden Nugget" downtown twice now. Mostly for cheap food and a nice environment. We took a bus to farther out on the strip.
We felt safe no matter where we went. Just stay with the crowds and hide your wallet. I use a chest pouch and never had an issue.
 
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