People have many pre-conceived ideas about Las Vegas.  You can get ripped off here, you can spend thousands of dollars in seconds, and you can lose track of time and your cash!  However, when you know what to do and where to go, Vegas can be done on a budget, you can avoid the tourist traps and common mistakes. 

Therefore, we have compiled our own guide to Las Vegas, based on the 30+ times we have been here between us.   Read this before you come so that you can plan your time here and make the most of the city that literally never sleeps!

Travel

Do not be fooled by the Strip. It looks close to the airport, but you will not be able to walk there to save a few dollars! Nor will you be able to walk the Strip in a day. It’s over 4.5 miles long! Always check out walking distance times on your phone map app because everything is further away than you think. You’ll get a lot of Ubers.

Your travel around Vegas will start as soon as you land at the airport. The cheapest way to reach your hotel is via a local taxi. This will be the only time you’ll use a local taxi. They have fixed prices to all hotels because they had to find a way to compete with Uber and are now cheaper. Head out of the baggage collection hall and the taxi rank is right there, always with a long line of taxis. You’ll not be waiting long, if at all. The rest of the time, use Uber for private transport.

If you want to use public transport while in Vegas, it is perfectly safe. Check out the monorail map here. It’s cheap and a great way to see the Strip and get from one end to the other quickly.

Alternatively, if you want a slower way to get around, which is equally entertaining, get on the Deuce bus that runs up and down the Strip. Here is the route map and you can buy a single ride ticket for $4 or a 24-hour ticket to hop on and off whenever you want for $8. Exact fares are needed. They don’t give change.

There are two main areas to Vegas, The Strip and Downtown. We much prefer Downtown as a location and rarely visit The Strip. Downtown is huge fun, cheaper to eat and drink and has tons to do. First timers to Vegas might want to stay on The Strip for the glitz and glamour, but if you do, 100% visit Downtown on a night time. It’s a feast for the senses!

If you stay on The Strip, you will be able to walk loads of places. Be aware that you won’t be able to walk between North and South of the Strip because it is too far. You’ll need get either the bus, monorail or Uber. Staying Centre Strip will save you on Ubers.

Getting between Downtown and The Strip will require an Uber.

Outside hotels and other attractions, you will sometimes be offered rides by private drivers. If you’re ASKED if you want a ride, NEVER ACCEPT. They are most often premium rides in premium vehicles and you’ll pay a very high price. If you want a premium ride, as Steve & Gemma often do when heading out all dressed up in Vegas, book a ‘Premium’ category ride on your Uber app. It will be a pristine, luxury vehicle that you won’t get your gladrags dirty in and you’ll be arriving at your venue in style!

You will be able to fit 4 in an UberX. If there’s more then 4 of you heading somewhere, book an XL or Premium ride for up to 6 people. This will work out cheaper than 2x UberX rides.

Accommodation

Vegas has an abundance of accommodation, from the famous hotels to Airbnbs. You can spend $20 per night or $20,000 per night. Use the QR code below to download the ID90 app. This is one of Gemma’s work perks and it offers discounts on many Vegas hotels. They vary and fluctuate, so be sure to check back and back until you book something. You can get some real bargains!

If you’re going down the AirBNB route, Steve has booked 200+ over the years. His advice is go for somewhere scoring 4.5*+ and preferably a Superhost.

Here’s our pick of where to stay and where not to stay, based on our personal experiences.

Winners

• 5* The Trump International – North side of the Strip opposite the clothes-oriented Fashion Show Mall, quiet luxury hotel, great rooms, no smoking & no casino. Free 6am alarm clock for light sleepers when the train comes by and blasts its horn.
• 5* The Venetian – Luxury hotel, abundance of bars, restaurants and shopping. A must-visit, even if you don’t stay. Don’t gamble here. Machines are tight and table odds are extremely low.
• 4* Treasure Island – Great location, good value rooms and restaurants. Great casino.
• 4* The Westgate – Elvis’ off-strip residency hotel, cheap tram station attached which takes you to the Las Vegas Boulevard. Great rooms and great casino.
• 4* Virgin Hotel – Off-strip location, great pool, great rooms, great casino. Be aware you will need to Uber to virtually everywhere. You can get some great room rates here, which offset the Uber costs.
• 4* Downtown Grand – Amazing location. Downtown is very noisy and busy, but this hotel is set back a block and noise levels here are much, much lower. $5 3:2 Blackjack tables, which are rare.
• 4* Golden Nugget – Hugely popular. Bang in the middle of Fremont Street, so if you want to stay here, book a room in the Rush Tower, away from the noise. A fab hotel with a great casino.
• 3* The Orleans – A budget hotel with aging rooms, but great value for money. It has a great casino, cheap food choices and a great pool. Off-strip, so you will need to Uber everywhere.
• 3* Gold Coast – Sister budget hotel of the Orleans. Great value, great casino and the best authentic Chinese restaurant in the whole of Vegas, Ping Pang Pong. Off-Strip, so you will need Uber.
• 3* Flamingo – Great value, great vibe, centre Strip. Gemma’s choice for a Centre Strip hotel.

Losers

• 2* The Plaza – Noisy & Terrible Staff
• 2* The Strat – No Bed-making in Room Service
• 3* Harrah’s – Awful Service
• 3* MGM Grand – 20 minute walk from your room to the front door!

Places We Know Something About

• 5* Fontainebleau – Vegas’ newest luxury hotel. If you want 5*, you could get a bargain room rate here because they are haemorrhaging an incredible $400,000 A DAY and they need to get people in!
• 5* Caesars Palace – Jawdropping to walk around, but over-priced. Don’t gamble here. Notoriously hard to get a win.
• 5* Aria – Expensive, but bougie AF
• 5* Bellagio – Overpriced, overhyped and always BUSY! That said, if you can get a good room rate, you will enjoy your stay in one of the most iconic hotels in all of Vegas
• 5* Cosmopolitan – Overpriced and turning English chavvy. Great breakfast at Eggslut and an Instagram dream of a hotel.
• 5* Wynn – The ultimate Vegas hotel, but you’ll pay through the nose to stay there. Opulence epitomised. Everything in here is pricey, but classy.
• 4* Paris – Rooms are average, but has one one th best vibes and selections of amazing food choices of any Vegas hotel.
• 4* Sahara – Don’t walk too far off the main streets at night here, but you wouldn’t anyway. You’ll get Ubers everywhere due to it’s location, but looks fab, good value for money and we’d give it a try.
• 4* New York New York – Where Steve organises the ISCA Awards night. Average rooms, but great atmosphere everywhere you go. Great food and great bars.
• 3* The Linq – Average rooms, but bang centre Strip and has amazing breakfast in Hash A Go Go
• 3* Circus Circus – Don’t be tempted by the cheap prices. You want to hang yourself just walking around. Puzzlingly, has one of the most luxurious and best steakhouses in Vegas, however!
• 3* Excalibur – Old and tired. Hard ‘NO!’

The Check-in Tricks

At check-in, never go to a machine. Always go to a person!

At every decent hotel in Vegas that Steve has tried this at, it works. If you’re in a budget hotel, it may or may not.

The $50 Sandwich Trick:

You will be asked for your passport and payment card. Before you arrive at the check-in desk, do this: Fold a $50 bill in half and tuck it between your passport and payment card. As you arrive at the check-in desk, ask how the clerk is and if they’re having a good day. When you’re asked for your passport and card, slide it across the desk, casual as you like and ask in a normal tone ‘Do you have any complimentary upgrades today please?’

This can result in some major room upgrades, free vouchers, etc. You might get a strip-view room, a suite, etc. It will be at the discretion of the desk clerk. If they say they don’t have anything, discretely take your $50 back when they hand your passport back. This is one of the greatest and lesser-known Vegas hacks. Steve tries it every time he checks into a Vegas hotel. If it works for you, you owe him an Old-Fashioned!

A Medical Fridge

At check-in, ask for a fridge for medical purposes. Tell them you need to keep medicine in the fridge. They will then not charge you $50, as they normally do! You’ll get a fridge to keep some drinks and snacks in for free! When this works for you, you owe Steve another Old-Fashioned!

The Dreaded Resort Fee

Be aware that when you book a hotel on the Strip or in Downtown, you’ll pay the room fee, PLUS a resort fee. The resort fee is detested by everyone, but there’s no getting out of paying it. It covers things like your internet, etc. It can vary from hotel to hotel and will be between $40 per room per night up to $60 per room per night in luxury hotels. This will be on top of your room fee, so be aware of this hidden cost when booking your hotel. Google the hotel’s resort fee before you book.

There are a handful of hotels that don’t charge the resort fee, but you either don’t want to stay there because it is ropey or what you’ll save on resort fee, you’ll spend on Ubers.

Breakfast

Stock up with a good breakfast in Vegas and you won’t eat lunch. It’s a money-saver. Plus, breakfasts tend to be huge. So order one main breakfast and a side between the two of you. It will be enough.

Winners

• Hash A Go Go – They have one in the Linq (Centre-Strip) and one in the Plaza (Downtown).
• Blueberry Hill – Family-owned and always busy because it is so good. Expect to wait up to 15 mins for a table.
• Peppermill – Expect to wait up to 15 mins for a table. Great decor and great food!
• Denny’s – Classic, all-American average and cheap breakfast. There’s a few dotted around.
• Eggslut – Inside the Cosmopolitan on Level 2.
• Omelet House 50’s Diner – 10-mins off-Strip, but vintage vibes and great, cheap breakfast menu.
• IHOP – International House of Pancakes. Serves all types of breakfast, not only pancakes.
• La Salsa Cantina – Inside the Miracle Mile shopping centre, they do breakfasts for just $6.99 Monday – Friday.
• Ocean One Grille – Again in the Miracle Mile, but expect waiting times of up to an hour. They serve over 1 million people per year! Walk up to the desk, book your table, they will tell you a waiting time. Then you can walk off, come back to the restaurant 10 mins before your allocated time and wait. It’s ALWAYS busy, but with breakfast choices from $5.99, lunch from $4.99, dinner from $7.99 3-for1 premium spirits for $10 and 3 for $12 cocktails, we figure you can eat and get wasted for less than $50 for two people. It’s worth the wait.

Losers

• McDonald’s – Anyone caught eating McDonald’s at any point will be shot at dawn.
• Virtually every hotel breakfast restaurant. Don’t be lazy. Make breakfast an occasion to go out for. Your hotel breakfast restaurant will be bland and overpriced. The exceptions on the quality front are probably only the Terrace Point Cafe at the Wynn and Mon Ami Gabi at the Paris, but they’ll be pricey.

Lunch

If you’ve paying attention and are doing Vegas properly, you won’t need lunch unless you’re a fat bar steward. However, if you fancy a sandwich one day, there’s only one place we’d recommend, Earl of Sandwich. Sandwiches there are unreal. The only place we have found to rival their sandwiches was around the corner from the Pantheon in Rome and you’re not going to be there!

Dinner

Where do we even begin??? Las Vegas has nearly 5,000 restaurants listed on Trip Advisor. You can land on a good one, get ripped off and have total trash. We do not recommend trying somewhere by chance whilst wandering around. There’s good, bad and ugly here. If I’ve included a link below, you’ll need to book. Here are our personal favourite top eats, along with the location & budget:

• Oscars Steakhouse $$$ – Downtown. Try to get a window seat for amazing views and the food is amazing!
• Hell’s Kitchen $$$ – Inside Caesars Palace. The 3-course Menu De Prix is scallops, beef wellington & sticky toffee pudding for $135.95
• Eiffel Tower Restaurant $$$ – Inside the Paris Hotel on the Strip. The ultimate date night location. It’s $80, just to secure a window table overlooking the Bellagio fountains! They don’t have a wine menu, they have a wine Bible. It’s spenny, but you’ll never ever forget eating there. It’s one of our best meals together ever! Truly world class!
• Benihana $$$ – In the Westgate Hotel. Amazing hibachi, Japanese food that is cooked at your table. A brilliant dining experience. Just sit back and admire the skills of your chef!
• THE Steak House $$$ – Inside the hotel where you want to hang yourself while you walk around, Circus Circus. Frank Sinatra could be singing in this phenomenal place as you eat. It has that Godfather film-set vibe. The waiters in there have all worked in there for between 32 – 44 years. They never leave. What’s that about?!
• Hobak Korean BBQ $$ – 5 mins off-strip. Some of the best meat we have eaten anywhere in the world, cooked right at your table. A proper dining experience!
• The Boiling Crab $$ – Don’t Google it!!! 10 mins off-Strip. It is one of the most unique dining experiences you’ll ever have. If you like shellfish, just go and enjoy the ride. It’s WILD!!!
• Heart Attack Grill $$ – Downtown. Average food, but again, a total one-off eating experience which is worth every cent!
• Maggiano’s $$ – Inside the Fashion Show Mall. Classic New York-style Italian food with great furnishings.
• Victory Burger $ – Inside Circa Hotel, Downtown. One of Steve & Gemma’s favourite places. They do amazing wings! We eat there and enjoy drinks at the Overhang Bar opposite. A classic night for us that we do nearly every time we go to Vegas!
• Tony Roma’s $ – inside the Fremont Casino, Downtown. They do a Steak & Lobster Special for $11.99 between 9pm -11pm. Get there at 8pm because you have to book a table in person. Wander and explore, then go back 10 mins before your table time. Not mindblowing, but incredible value!
• Tacos El Gordo $ – North Strip. The best tacos Steve has ever had. Cheap late night, post-drinking food!
• Battista’s Hole In The Wall $ – 2-mins off-Strip behind the High Roller big wheel. Amazing, authentic Italian food and where Steve arranged for everyone to go just after he proposed! A special place in our hearts and with the best value Italian menu you’ll ever come across.
• Pizza Rocks $ – Downtown. The BEST pizza in Vegas bar none! Go, don’t mess around, just go!

Best Bars

There are bars and then there are bars in Vegas. The drinking scene here is wild, varied and world class. Whatever age you are, carry photographic ID with you because at some point in the night, you’ll be asked for it. Here are our favourite watering holes!

Downtown

• Carousel Bar $$ – Outside the Plaza in Downtown. Somehow, this has turned into an immortal place for us. Not least because whilst staying at the Plaza one time, we came home one night at 1am to discover U2 were just about to record the music video for Atomic City right outside the bar! A mega Vegas memory. Gemma is in the video!
• Bar 46 $$ – Inside the Golden Nugget, Downtown. This bar is where Steve & Kevin first shared a drink together. The rest, as they say, is history!
• Troy’s Liquor Bar $$ – Again, inside the Golden Nugget, but has a balcony area overlooking the centre part of Fremont. Amazing place to have a couple of drinks and people-watch!
• The Speakeasy $$ – Inside The Mob Museum. We’d highly recommend the Mob Museum as a tourist attraction, especially the gun-training exercise. Incredibly fascinating and you can finish off with a cocktail in the underground speakeasy bar.
• Hogs & Heifers $ – Around the corner from Pizza Rocks in Downtown, this is one of the wildest bars in Vegas. A proper dive bar, but great fun! To get in, you’ll 100% need your ID!
• Whiskey Licker Up & Down $ – Grab a table on the rotating bar section of this Downtown establishment and look down on the antics of the people on Fremont Street. Wild!
• Cats Meow $ – The go-to karaoke bar in Downtown. On a Friday and Saturday night, this place is lit!

The Strip

• Ghostbar $$$ – On the top of the Palms Hotel. Dress code enforced. Off-strip, giving you some of the best night-time views of the whole of the Vegas Strip.
• Baccarat Bar & Lounge $$$ – Inside the Bellagio. Dress up. This is a bougie, up-scale cocktail bar. It is never overcrowded, but a great spot to people watch on the busy casino floor. Sip slowly. It’s pricey. If you can find Dennis wandering around as we did one day, you might get free drink vouchers from him! Legend!
• Bleau Bar $$$ – Inside Fontainebleau, North Strip. If you want to sip on premium cocktails and do a spot of celeb-spotting, this is your place.
• Good Pie $$ – If you venture to the Art District, which we HIGHLY recommend for a totally different Vegas vibe, this pizza joint does surprisingly good cocktails. Sit at the bar.
• The Shag Room $$ – 5-mins off-Strip in the Virgin Hotel. An intimate and sexy space for quiet cocktails with your nearest and dearest. Classy.
• Tom’s Watch Bar $$ – Inside New York New York. If you want to soak up the atmosphere where Steve organises the ISCA Awards night, this is your place.
• 108 Drinks $$ – Inside the Strat, North Strip. We stayed at the Strat in 2024 and drank here during the Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying. While we wouldn’t stay at the Strat again, we’d certainly head back here for inexpensive cocktails with amazing sunset views and to see Sin City come alive!
• The Sportsbooks at the Westgate Hotel and at Circa Hotel $$ – If you’re a sports fan, you MUST head to one of these locations to watch the game. They serve your typical game food, wings, burgers, etc. They are the biggest Sportsbooks in Vegas and have great atmospheres on game day!
• Blondies $ – In the Miracle Mile. Try to hit their happy hour, Monday – Friday from 3pm – 6pm. We got an off-the-menu unlimited champagne here for $20 for 3 hours! They don’t do it anymore sadly. Good news is, they do dirt cheap beers and unlimited coctails for $20 for the 3 hours! Some of the best value drinking in Vegas!
• McMullan’s Irish Pub $ – 5-mins off-Strip. Home of the Las Vegas Liverpool Supporters Fan Club. Sat there watching the match whilst drinking beer and eating breakfast with Americans belting out football chants is an experience and a half!
• Stage Door Casino $ – Another dive bar, just next to Battista’s Hole In The Wall. You’ll need you ID, but it is the cheapest drinking in Vegas. $1 for a premium bottled beer and cheeeeap drinks galore on the rest of the menu!
• Dick’s Last Resort $ – Inside Excalibur Hotel. Don’t Google it. Were not telling you why you should go, but you should go! It’s hilarious in there. You’ll laugh A LOT!!

Head Out Of Town

Hiring a car out here is CHEAP and you don’t need to drive too far out of Vegas to have your mind blown by the sights! It’s beautiful!

It may seem intimidating to drive in Vegas when you see the volume of traffic and the size of the roads, but after 10 minutes, you will find it easy. When driving, if you miss your turn, don’t worry. Take the next one and your sat nav will re-route you. The whole of the U.S. is one big noughts and crosses board. You’ll do well to get lost out here.

Driving Tip: There’s one massive driving difference in the U.S. compared to the U.K. You can turn RIGHT at red lights on two conditions. 1. There is no sign saying ‘No Right Turn On Red’. 2. If there’s nothing coming. You treat it as you would a right turn at a Give Way in the U.K. If you sit at a red light where you can turn right, don’t worry. The locals will let you know by blasting their horn at you!

So it is 100% worth hiring a car for the day and if you do, here’s some good day trip routes:

Route 1 – Cowboy Town via Route 66

Las Vegas > Lakeview Overlook > Hoover Dam > Chloride > Kingman Visitor Centre > Drive Route 66 to Oatman > Laughlin > Las Vegas

Route 2 – Western Rim of Grand Canyon

Las Vegas > Lakeview Overlook > Hoover Dam > Western Rim Grand Canyon > Las Vegas

Route 3 – Zion National Park & Bryce Canyon

Las Vegas > Zion National Park > Bryce Canyon > Las Vegas

Route 4 – Valley of Fire

Las Vegas > Valley of Fire > Elephant Rock > Rogers Hot Springs > Redstone Picnic Area > Las Vegas

Route 5 – Death Valley

Las Vegas > Zabriskie Point > Furnace Creek Inn > The Last Kind Words Saloon > Towne Pass > Ridgecrest > Peggy Sue’s 50’s Diner > Las Vegas