Las Vegas on the Cheap – Cheap Hotels

In these days of credit crunch and high gas prices I thought I would write a few posts showing how to save money in Las Vegas and still have a great trip and am kicking it off withover 40 trips to Vegas some on a large budget and some on very small budgets a post on Cheap hotels.

I have stayed at almost every property from Bellagio, Wynn and Encore to Excalibur, Circus Circus and Sahara. I have eaten at places on every level of the spectrum from Eiffel at Paris LV and Mix at Mandalay Bay to Peppermill and the Circus Circus buffet. I have had best seats at Cirque Shows and front row seats to Vegas “A list” headliners I also been to shows where tickets cost $5. Whilst I would not say that my most enjoyable ones have been the ones where I have been on the tightest budget I have still had great trips without, spending  very much money. I have discovered that the cheapest options do not always save the most money, in this post I hope to give you some pointers from my experience on how to get the most out of a trip to Las Vegas when on a budget. You can make huge savings  on how you book and when you come there is a post all ready on this here.
 

Your room will take up some of your budget but not as much as you think, in Las Vegas there are rooms that will suit every pocket and in most cases you generally get what you pay for. Now the cheapest rooms on the Strip can  be found at Rivera, Circus Circus , Sahara and Stratosphere. The problem that you have with all of these resorts is that the location will mean that you will end up spending money on transportation to get to the parts of the strip that you want to be at, even if you buy monorail or Deuce bus passes the cost of these can be as much as the difference between staying in one of these hotels and staying at a better hotel in a better location.

Excalibur, Tropicana, Bills, and Imperial Palace are the cheap options with good locations Luxor is also worth a mention as some of the offers  that  they have make bring the prices on a par  with these. I have stayed at all of these hotels and unless there is a great offer on at Luxor Excalibur is my budget choice. The rooms are large  and the hotel is clean, not too smoky and it has a great location., with good staff, good cheap eats and also they have some of the best offers around offering not only rates as low as $25 per night but also often include food or entertainment credits. I once stayed at Excalibur on a $40 a night rate for 2 nights this included 2 free buffets, 2 free spa passes, 2 free drinks and some 2 4 1 coupons the value of this  was about $120, more than I paid  for  total for my stay. Wherever you stay if you get any extras included make sure you use them millions of dollars worth of these coupons are thrown away each year.

If you get a very good rate at an expensive hotel you will spend more money than you would if you stay at a cheaper hotel, as everything is more expensive, coffee, breakfast, water or soda in the shop and of course meals and drinks at the bar. Even if you try not to spend money you will spend more if you stay in an expensive resort than if you stay in a cheaper one.

You can of course stay in a cheaper hotel Downtown (Fremont Street) or off Strip, whilst I will on a longer trip have a  couple of nights downtown its not where you want to stay for your Vegas vacation. I have stayed off Strip once and would not do it again as it just does not fell like you are in Vegas and the transportation to where you want to be is inconvenient and can be costly.

To find out how to ensure that you get the cheapest possible rate read the post here

Downtown Vegas to Groove like 1969

Forty years after the Woodstock music festival, downtown Las Vegas is looking for people who want to relive the groovy days of 1969.

The Fremont Street Experience is paying tribute to 1969 all summer with free rock concerts, plenty of tie-dye T-shirts and peace symbols to trigger memories of a year many people say resonates with them to this day.

The bands expected were heavy hitters in the day — Blood, Sweat and Tears, Three Dog Night, the 5th Dimension, Rare Earth, the Grass Roots and Canned Heat.

Organizers have hired John Van Hamersveld — an artist recognizable for his movie artwork for “The Endless Summer” in 1966 and for the cover of the Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” album in 1967 — to paint two buses, one to be used as a stage.

Special video shows planned for a giant screen hanging over the street include a rolling-credits style memorial for the 58,000 Americans killed or missing in action from the Vietnam War.

The comprehensive promotion gives tourists an excuse to celebrate hippy sensibilities, the first astronauts walking on the moon and Woodstock.

But the 10 casinos located in the venerable section of Las Vegas are hoping the 108 days of throwback entertainment result in more visitors to help revive the city’s top industry.

“It’s coming at a time when it plays well,” said Jeff Victor, president of the Fremont Street Experience, the management company in charge of promoting the destination.

Victor said he and others felt Fremont Street didn’t do enough events during the summer.

Fremont Street Experience is spending about $1.7 million on the campaign between the Memorial Day and Labor
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Day weekends, $500,000 more than it normally would during the season. Officials want to increase the share of Sin City visitors that go downtown, less than 3 miles north of the end of the Las Vegas Strip.

Victor said each casino is also making plans to tie to the 1969 theme.

“This economy and Las Vegas in particular requires retail opportunities for visitation, and that’s exactly what this promotion provides,” Victor said. “With people in their 50s and 60s, there is an emotional connection (to 1969).”

Forty years later, Las Vegas finds itself scrambling to reach visitors who are coming less often, spending less money on food and entertainment and not gambling as much.

Visitor volume was down 10 percent for all of Las Vegas for the first two months of this year compared with 2008, according to the latest figures available from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Casinos downtown earned $83.9 million in gambling revenue in January and February, down 17 percent from the first two months of 2008, the tourism agency said. Other casinos in the rest of the county experienced similar declines.

But a recent profile study by the tourism authority showed that 46 percent of Las Vegas visitors in 2008 spent some time downtown during their trip. That was down significantly from 57 percent in 2006, but up from 40 percent in 2007.

The 10 casinos on the Fremont Street Experience have a combined 6,600 hotel rooms — 4.7 percent of all the hotel rooms in the city.

Victor said the 1969 campaign could be first of several seasonal themes for Fremont Street — if downtown can pull it off.

“We’ll be checking to see a promotion of this duration is repeatable,” Victor said.

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