Las Vegas Travel

VisitLasVegas.com , the official Web site of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, is loaded with information about travel to Vegas. Use the “Stay” section to get suggestions on where to stay, when to travel to Vegas, and how to get around the city. Take a look at “Vegas Basics” to find tips for travelers with kids, visitors with special needs, dos and don’ts of Vegas, and more.

VEGAS.com is a travel site dedicated to the city. Although you should be aware that this site (like most travel sites) is trying to sell you travel packages, event tickets, and the like, its “Guide to Las Vegas” has valuable tips for all types of visitors about where to go and what to do in Vegas. So whether you’re an Elvis fan, going to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, looking for family vacation tips, getting hitched in Vegas, or any number of other things, you’ll find a few pointers here.

Going to Vegas certainly won’t win any awards for site design but the travel tips are helpful. Get advice on how to stay safe in the city, tipping etiquette, attractions you shouldn’t miss, and transportation information.

Fodor’s Web site offers a taste of content from its travel guide books. In the Las Vegas section you’ll find the usual collection of when to go and what to do, as well as a list of free attractions and some Las Vegas Lingo to get you speaking like a Vegas veteran.

TripAdvisor is one of the most well organized user-review travel sites. Take a look at the traveler articles about neighborhoods, transportation, and other tips in the left navigation bar (hotels, overview, user photos and videos, and more). Because TripAdvisor compiles ratings and recommendations in an easy-to-consume way, it’s a great place to get an idea of the general atmosphere and level of satisfaction of other travelers for a particular attraction, hotel, or other Vegas spot. If you visit only one user-review site, this should be it.

VirtualTourist has user tips for Las Vegas attractions. Scroll past the ads at the top of the page to read what other travelers (and users living in Las Vegas) have to say about what to do and where to go. Your biggest problem here is going to be choosing which of the hundreds of tips you’ll read. Have an idea of what sort of tips you’re looking for (about your specific hotel, about what to see downtown, or day trips from Vegas, for example) before you get started or the selection can be overwhelming.

VEGAS.com has a month-by-month schedule of major events (boxing matches, busy holiday weekends, conferences, big concerts, and so on) so that you can plan your trip to Las Vegas around what you want to do there.

Las Vegas Sun is a daily paper with a very user-friendly Web site. Take a look at the “Multimedia” section to get the news in pictures and video; the site also has quite a collection of staff blogs. Tourists will find the “A&E” section particularly useful for entertainment recommendations.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal is the city’s has a daily circulation of about 160,000. Read what’s going on in Vegas and the surrounding area or check out the “Best of Las Vegas” to find out what to do and see in the city.

BookingBuddy is an aggregate flight search tool that lets you enter your travel info (dates and cities) once and then performs that search on as many other airfare sites as you like, including specific airlines that fly to your desired cities. Use this search tool to avoid having to enter the same city/date combination on multiple sites.

Farecast helps you decide what times of year offer the cheapest tickets to Vegas or, if you have a particular travel time in mind, helps you determine the best time to buy tickets by predicting (based on past price patterns) whether prices will rise or fall. Farecast even has “Fare Alerts” that are delivered daily to your e-mail so that you can keep an eye on prices without doing any searching on your own.

Southwest Airlines offers one-way fares to and from Vegas, and has a large number of flights in and out of the city (nearly 250 departures daily). Look for special Web-only pricing on flights to Vegas from nearly any U.S. city that the airline flies.

McCarran International Airport has plenty of information about flight delays, weather conditions, and even transportation between Las Vegas and the Airport. Use this site as a reference when flying to Vegas.

Greyhound has, in addition to service from lots of cities around the U.S. to Las Vegas, a program called “Lucky Streak” that offers low-priced, round-trip tickets to Las Vegas from many cities in Arizona and California. With the Lucky Streak tickets, you can return home anytime within a four-day window of your arrival so that you can stay as long as your luck lasts. The Las Vegas Greyhound station is located in downtown Vegas and is open 24 hours.

Mapquest provides free area maps for Vegas (and anywhere else in the country) and also has point-to-point driving directions.

AAA (formerly the American Automobile Association) has some great features on its site that are available even to nonmembers. Enter your home zip code and get redirected to the AAA in your area. Choose “Travel” and explore features such as free downloadable maps, the TripTik planner that shows you nearby AAA deals, gas stations with current gas prices, nearby attractions and more—just zoom in on the city of your choice. Members can request printed materials such as road maps and travel planners to take on their trip.

VisitLasVegas.com provides simple driving directions to Vegas from Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco. Also find safety tips for driving in the southwest (such as carrying extra water in the summer and making sure you have enough gas to get you to the sometimes few-and-far-between gas stations).

TripAdvisor has a few features that make this site especially worthwhile: the customer photos of rooms often provide a much more realistic picture of the hotel than you’ll find on the hotel’s site; searching for a hotel by what type of people other customers have recommended it for (couples, families, singles, etc) can help you get exactly the type of atmosphere you want; and the “check rates” button you’ll see next to each hotel review lets you search for rates using a number of different room search engines to ensure you get the best price.

Hotels.com gives you plenty of easy sorting options. See customer reviews and average nightly rates for each hotel in your search results, and click on “Show Amenities & Rates” to see additional information without leaving the search results page.

Hotwire offers deeply discounted hotel rooms with one catch: you don’t find out the name of the hotel until you book (this is how Hotwire secures lower-than-advertised rates). But Hotwire isn’t just a random shot in the dark. See the star rating of a hotel, its general location (for Vegas this means central strip, south strip or downtown, for example), the amenities it offers and for many hotels, see the TripAdvisor customer rating (so you’ll know if you’re getting your money’s worth). This is a great option for those concerned with price but not too worried about name.

Lastminute.com offers deals on last-minute travel and often has package deals to Las Vegas (hotel, car, and flight or some combination of those). If you’re looking for “Last second deals” (booking 14 days to 3 hours before departure) you’ll find even better discounts.

McCarran International Airport has a list of ground transportation options from the Airport to Las Vegas. Shuttles and limousine services are listed with hours of operation, contact info, and even rates for transport. Also find rates and contact info for taxis and rental cars.

The Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) of Southern Nevada has a “Transit Trip Planner” that can help you figure out what public transit to take from point to point. This page already has McCarran International Airport filled in; simply enter your Las Vegas destination address in the second field, enter the date and time of your travel, and click “search” to find the best route to take.

RTC operates the Citizens Area Transit (CAT) bus system in Las Vegas. Use the trip planner to get from one point to another, learn how to read the paper transit schedules found on transit vehicles and bus stations, or check out the entire CAT system map.

RTC also operates the Deuce, a double-decker bus that travels up and down the Strip 24 hours a day, every day of the week. This is a great alternative to walking the Strip or renting a car, enabling you to travel between the downtown area and the Strip.

Las Vegas Monorail connects off-the-Strip hotels to the center Strip area. This can mean quick and easy transport to the action if you decide to stay in a hotel off of the main drag. Stops start with the Sahara Station, include the Las Vegas Hilton, the convention center, Harrah’s/Imperial Palace, Flamingo/Cesar’s Palace, Bally’s/Paris, and end with the MGM Grand.

Yelp provides customer reviews for restaurants, shopping, and other entertainment in Vegas. Although you’ll find that several frequent “Yelpers” dominate many of the review commentaries, the reviews are helpful and usually quite detailed. Sort restaurants by review or by cuisine type to find exactly what your heart (or stomach) desires.

ZAGAT.com requires a small subscription (about $5 a month or $25 a year) to access its famous reviews, but anyone can take a peek at restaurant lists, price estimates for each restaurant, and menus.

VisitLasVegas.com has a search tool for restaurants that provides an estimate of entrée price, location, and cuisine type. You won’t find customer reviews here, but if price is a concern or if you just want to see all that Vegas has to offer without the clutter of reviews, this could be the restaurant search tool for you.

Las Vegas Weekly is a free weekly magazine providing reviews, interviews, and lineup schedules for upcoming arts and entertainment events around the city. The quirky, late-twenties skew of the publication, illustrated by feature stories about all things hip, make it most appealing to a somewhat younger crowd. But the calendar of events and A&E-focused feature pieces can be useful to anyone into music, art or other cultural shows or events.

Las Vegas CityLife is owned by Stephens Media (the same company that owns the Las Vegas Review-Journal). This free, weekly lifestyle magazine covers food, drink, nightlife, local news and other entertainment in Vegas with an edgy, younger audience in mind (crass humor, sarcastic remarks strewn about political stories and the like).

HowStuffWorks has a great intro to gambling. Learn your odds of winning the popular casino games, get tips for staying on a gambling budget, and find out about casino freebies (or “comps”) and etiquette for tipping the dealer.

Bodog , an online gambling site, has a “Casino School” with instructions for popular casino games featured on the site (roulette, craps, Keno, and a few different types of poker). Bodog’s rules differ at least slightly from the rules in a casino, but the explanations should give you a good feel for each game. Try a few of these games for free (without betting any actual money) by entering the “Casino” and choosing “Practice Now.”