Vegas First Time - Insider Tips Appreciated

My wife and I are going to Vegas, first time. Here%26#39;s some context.

Avid Tripadvisor members, have posted to Bermuda, Canada, etc.

I am celebrating my 50th birthday. We are staying at the Venetian, at the Venezia tower. Will be there for 5 days. Love good food, lots of fun and not afraid to be a little crazy. Ya only turn 50 once.

Can the Trip community provide some advice on not to miss shows (Circ de Soleil or other?), not to miss sights (clueless??) and not to miss activities or restos. Not afraid to spend some $$ but not rolling in it either.

Thanks in advance.

Vegas First Time - Insider Tips Appreciated

Food:

Mon Ami Gabi - Paris

Bartolotta - Wynn

Grand Lux Cafe - Venetian

Shows:

Mac King Magic - Imperial Palace (I think)

Phantom - Venetian (Fantastic)

Sights:

Petty racing school - Las Vegas Speedway

Nevada Gun Store - Have a blast (literally)

When are you going?

Vegas First Time - Insider Tips Appreciated

Check out ';mystere'; or ';love';.

Both are great shows.

Most important thing is to bring comfortable shoes.

You will do a lot of walking.

AL

I too celebrated my 50th in vegas--just walk out of the front door of the Venetian-look left then right--you can go either way and find loads of fun!!!happy birthday--OAKEY

Just celebrated wife%26#39;s 50th in Vegas this year.

Show: MamaMia at Mandalay Bay (Too much fun!)

Comedy: Rita Rudner at Harrahs (Clean and hysterical!)

Casars Forum shops, and while you are there, eat at the Palm Restaraunt.

Caesars!!!!

The highlight of our last trip was going to the Voodoo Lounge at sunset. Watching the sky turn orange, pink and purple while the lights on the Strip came on was wonderful.

When I first read about the Voodoo lounge, I was afraid of feeling like a couple of old farts in a crowded, noisy nightclub. (We are about your age...) But the place was fairly empty. Too early for the partiers!

The Venetian is a perfect choice for a first trip to Vegas. That is where we stayed our first time. The hotel is glitzy and over the top, but in a tasteful way.

Have a wonderful birthday trip!

While you%26#39;re in that part of the world, I highly recommend going to see the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam. We found the most efficient and interesting way to do this was by taking a helicopter through Pappillion (sp?) tours. It was excellent. 4 hours from door to door. We were shuttled to the airport, flown over the dam, over some other stuff and to the canyon where we decended and landed on a ridge and had a nice picnic lunch with champagne, took photos, explored then flew out, took a different route back to airport then were shuttled back to hotel. $250US each if booked online.

Shows: we loved cirque O and V the Ultimate Variety show. O hard to get discounts but seats 101 sec H or J are good and are discounted b/c they%26#39;re ';obstructed view'; - you just can%26#39;t see the performers enter the stage in one corner. V - you can print a 2for1 voucher if you google coupons for locals vegas and go to that site.

We found it very useful having a car in Vegas and we toured the whole strip looking at nearly every hotel/casino. We also drove to old Vegas. Parking is free everywhere on the strip and rental cars are cheap there (we paid $12 a day plus taxes and service charges = $55 for 3 days).

Food: we loved Bellagio buffet for a fancy breakfast. We liked the Palms buffet for a basic but tasty inexpensive breakfast. We really liked the food and atmosphere at Quarks, the star trek restaurant at the Hilton (get voucher at restaurants.com to save money). Dinner buffet at Ceasar%26#39;s was very tasty and was an excellent price for us as we showed up at 4:55, so we paid the lunch price but had the dinner buffet.

Exhibits: titanic - very interesting and worth it if you have 1/2 price admission - go to tickets4tonite booth, wait in the line and buy them 1/2 price. Same for the bodies exhibit.

Hope this helps. Have a good trip.

VooDoo lounge at the Rio @ sunset and early evening...spectacular view of the entire strip from McCarren to downtown.

I had an original post with this and a request to post it again so there were not so many pages to go through.

Below find my original post.

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This is the list of things we made for our friends on our top picks of things to do, places to go etc... We took this from first hand experience and a whole buncha ideas from this forum.

I figured a first timer might appreciate this if they were looking for ideas.

Go to Circus Circus for steak night (about $40 pp )

If you have the money, go to Rosemary%26#39;s for dinner ( about $160 for two for the evening )

Go to Orleans for $3 blackjack tables (slower gambling we found, our money lasted us longer)

Go to Orleans for Breakfast $6.95 and lunch buffet $7.95 ( we found it to be fresh, tasty and not all laden with grease :) ) - remember to tip your bussers.

Take a one cup coffee maker - there are none in most of the hotel rooms ( I like cream in mine, so, brought instant flavoured coffee )

Watch the Bellagio Fountains

Sit on Mon Ami Gabi deck and watch fountains and people watch

If you are going to sit at one table and gamble a while, Tip $2 for first drink and $1 for each one thereafter.

Use a system for BJ, ask at the table for a strategy card or whatever, use a system for betting amounts, we use

3 if you win

8 if you win

4 if you win

12 then go back to

3

each time you lose, go back and start at 3

I have not thought about the math, but, my husband has, we did not make a lot of money, but managed to cover our hotel and food costs while we were there by doing this.

If we only got one chair at the BJ table, he played $20, I pocketed the made money and when he was out of his $20, I took $20 and went in and gave him all my made money etc... we played like that for hours.

Have a monetary budget each day for gambling, if you lose it QUIT playing that day! (best lesson learned!)

Check out Ellis Island for the $5 steak (you have to ask for it as it is not on the menu -but is advertised on their redo board outside the casino), but only if you have a car ( we heard it is not in your best interest to walk ~ although it seemed ok to us, we did drive each time. ) their micro brewery beer is great ( I think $1.50 for a huge mug )

Buy a day pass for the double decker busses and just sit back and check out everything.

see Purple Reign ( was at Monte Carlo on the Wednesday we were there )

Check out the free show at Rio

Go to Voo Doo lounge at Rio ( the best view ever! ) free to go up between 5-7 - check out the sub decks for celebrities, neat.

Most hotels have great lounge shows that are free. Unless you must see the big expensive shows ( Celine, KA, Zumanity etc... ) I would just stick to these personally.

Palms (accross the street from Rio) to see if you can see any celebs.

Get players card everywhere you can, they will send you offers for hotel specials when you get back.

We took the monorail on a one time pass $5.00, and just did the back and forth to see everything.

We wish we had made it to the Venetian to see the gondolas.

If you have a car, take a day trip, we heard Valley of Fire is great, but, never made it.

Nosh ( eatery ) in Bally%26#39;s ~ we just split the Highroller sandwich ( ask for horseradish on the side -- whew! hot!) and we shared it, it was HUGE

Cheesecake factory in Caesars had huge plate sizes, everyone says just share meals

Put your players card in and play some slots to get your name registered at the different casino%26#39;s, hopefully that will get you offers via e-mail.

Olive%26#39;s at Bellagio was pricey for lunch ($80) but very good I thought. I don%26#39;t know that I feel comfortable paying $80 for lunch to be honest, so, may not go back, but, great food and service.

The monte carlo micro brewery is great beer and awesome bands

PIANO BAR AT NYNY, sooo wish we had taken the advice of so many to go and watch this, we got there too late and it was packed out the doors. Duelling piano%26#39;s

Shop at Bijou Terner ( there is about 10 of these in Vegas and everything in there is $10 ) they have cool scarves, purses, necklaces etc... I saw them at MJM, Flamingo and Rio and I have heard there are other places too.

M%26amp;M and Coke store for sure.

Go to the fourth floor to the right when you get off the escalator, they have all their marked down stuff there.

GET CHOCOLATE AT ETHEL M%26#39;s :) YUM!!

If you are going to see any shows, use the 2-4-1 coupons in the magazines that are found in every hotel ( either that or pay $8 surcharge to get 2-4-1 at the two tix-4- 1 or whatever they are called - they are around the M%26amp;M store. ) So, just buy them at the actual box offices with the coupons. ( advice we got from someone else, but, it makes sense )

Do not fear using coupons, everyone does there.

Use all the slot match and the BJ match coupons that you can, it is free money.

The shops in the desert passages at Alladin are great to look in for sure.

If you go to Pussycat dolls early, you get in free, plus no lineups for PURE afterwards and I think you get in for free ( I have heard the cover charges are $25-35 each person!!! )

Check out the shadowbar, we are sooo doing this next time, we walked past it in the afternoon ( there was a dancer ) and meant to go back to watch more, but, never got there.

Just celebrated my 40th last weekend.

Shows were:

Mama Mia --Very Good,

discount tickets at ticket master $30.00 off code is ABBA Not a bad seat in the house

Legends--Good

Menapause the Musical --Great,

there were lots of men there too, get there early General admission, seats were to close together is my only complaint but all the seats are good