Cheap and Cheerful Las Vegas (cheapovegas.com)

Member Name: rosebud2001

Product:	cheapovegas.com
Date:	04/07/09 (110 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A great read - amusing, witty and full of helpful hints

Disadvantages: Describing some of the outer lying casinos as off-Strip

I first visited Las Vegas ten years ago and will be returning next year on my ninth visit. There is something about Sin City that I love and keeps drawing me back, and it was a love affair I shared with my husband - so much so we got married there. Even our daughter loves the place, so they must be doing something right.

Our first trip was short, and we stayed at the Imperial Palace on the Strip, a hotel chosen by my husband purely on the basis of cost - I can still remember we paid $35 per night for a Hawaiian theme room that might have looked sophisticated back in the seventies, but was anything but in 1999. I recently noted the prices haven't increased any since then so I wonder if the 70s decor remains.

One thing we learned on this trip is there are plenty of deals to be had in Vegas, particularly on food and hotel rooms - however the problem sometimes was finding them. Vegas is notorious for having "off menu" specials which you have to be aware of - there is no shame in asking for these specials and I have yet to have a waiter or waitress look at me as if I were a cheapskate for asking - so if you are in the know you can save a small fortune.

Cheapovegas.com solves the problem of finding these deals, and also helps you choose accommodation based on reviews which are done by locals. Each hotel on the Strip and in Downtown feature along with establishments which are classified as "off Strip".

My husband first found this website after we returned from our second visit in 2001. We had stayed just off the Strip on this occasion at the now long since demolished Days Inn Town Hall motel and casino and we were most disappointed to discover that the Super 8 across the road had a far superior casino and restaurant beside it called Ellis Island.

If anyone is familiar with Koval Lane in Las Vegas they will know that you take your life in your hands if you attempt to cross it anywhere other than at the crosswalks and Las Vegas is a city which locates its crosswalks far apart. My husband was irked at this and the fact the Days Inn was frequented mostly by seniors - and staffed by the elderly too, ensuring the coffee shop, casino and bar were sedate and incredibly boring.

Ellis Island offered some amazing deals on food and drinks - in particular steaks - and had brilliant karaoke every evening. My husband wanted to know more about the place and upon googling, discovered cheapovegas.com - and from then on he wouldn't book anywhere or plan any meal out without consulting the site first.

That's the joy of cheapovegas.com - it tells you the things you need to know if you want to find somewhere to get a decent meal for under $10, where to go for cheap or free drinks, what the casinos are like and how loose the slots are, yet also tells you exactly what those hotel rooms are like. They will also tell you how big your hotel room will be, what the entertianment is like and what smellies you will get in your bathroom. Oh and they will also tell you about the hotel pool - assuming the hotel has one of course.

Casinos are reviewed in detail too, including informing you of how generous the "comps" are - that's the freebies you get if you are gambling for the uninitiated and what it's like for gambling fans. At this juncture I have to point out that much as I love Vegas, I have never really been a gambler so this is the one part of the website that I tend to skim over.

Crucially, the site does this with a great amount of humour, which is something I have always appreciated. If a place is looking tired and past its best, the cheapovegas people don't mince their words, so it's quite usual for you to read about places quite generously referred to as "dumps".

The main part of the website links you to the hotels and they are sorted into three categories - The Strip, Downtown and "Outlying Off Strip" - which is a bit of a misnomer as they include places such as the Sunset Station in Henderson and Sam's Town which is on the Boulder Highway and quite a drive from the Strip, unlike somewhere such a Rio or Orleans which are one block away. That's a small gripe however, and something a check on the website's Cheapo Maps section will help you with.

Reading some of the entries you might never in a million years consider stepping foot in some establishments - and I can confirm as a veteran of several stays in Downtown, that they are invariably bang on the money in their description of some of the lower rent places.

We never let this act as a warning however - as great people watchers and fans of the seedier underbelly of Vegas life (nay life in general) we spent several memorable evenings in some of the real dive casinos in Downtown after reading about them on the website and found most of what they said to be true.

For instance, the Western, a very cheap motel which is also home to a trailer park and is located at the outer limits of what constitutes the "safe" end of Fremont Street, is described by the cheapovegas staff thus:

"A true adventure awaits anyone who makes the walk from downtown to this dingy, smoky, ultra-cheap casino. This is where old nickels go to die, and bums go to watch."

Well speaking as a bum who sat at the bar and watched, it was worth a visit if only to see the Vegas the tourist office would have you believe does not exist. For all the glitz and glamour they like to push, at the end of the day the place attracts an inordinate number of bums who have been rendered destitute or living paycheck to paycheck (or should that be social security check to social security check?) through alcoholism, addiction to gambling, disability, old age or just sheer bad luck.

On the other hand, the website covers some of the more upscale establishments with equal humour, although one has to forget the "cheapo" part in the website's name when reading about the Mandalay Bay, Bellagio or Wynn.

The website has a list of links on the left-hand side and you can click on "Cheapo Eats" to find recommended dining establishments and this will cover places which are cheap and cheerful to the very expensive.

Similarly there are links which are fairly self-explanatory including Cheapo Eats, Cheapo Thrills (entertainment), Cheapo Games (for gamblers), Cheapo Sleep and Cheapo Deals, which links you through to holiday and hotel deals.

There's also one of my favourite pages, the Casino Boy Graveyard, which features closed establishments, several of which I have stayed at or visited. Vegas is a city which doesn't seem to care too much about its past which is something I truly lament, so that's a nice touch that appeals to my nostalgic side.

Lastly, there is a link to the site's main draw for bargain hunters, the "Las Vegas on 25 cents per day" feature which is for the true cheapskates who are looking for free or really cheap deals on gambling, hotels and food.

Through this link my husband and I learned where to go for a cheap dinner and as a result we very rarely ever paid more than $40 for dinner for the three of us and that included a tip. Granted we invariably had steak but the food was always well cooked, and the service mostly excellent. For instance Ellis Island used to have an off-menu porterhouse steak dinner for $5 - and this included either a soup or a salad. It is currently running at $6.99 but that's still rather cheap and I can confirm the steak was always tender and tasty.

Similarly Terrible's used to do a t-bone steak dinner off-menu which came with soup or salad and a pint of beer for $7.99. Last time we visited in 2007 it was prime rib and it had gone up to $9.99 but it was still a bargain.

Buffets are also reviewed and I heartily recommend you read this before planning a visit to any buffet as there are some amazing buffets in Vegas, but also some downright awful ones. My recommendation would always be for the one available in the Main Street Station, but there are some excellent buffets available on the Strip too which are featured here.

I visit this website several times a year just to check on what is happening in Vegas and find out what has changed in the city. Vegas is suffering from lean times right now but in the past when things were booming it seemed to me as if a hotel was closing and being replaced with something swankier and more upscale every couple of months, something I personally find very sad as I prefer "old" Las Vegas.

So if you are planning a trip to Las Vegas, no matter what your budget I can heartily recommend cheapovegas.com - it is jam packed with information to help any tourist and more importantly it makes for a far better read than anything the tourist office or even an earnest travel guide company such as Rough Guide could ever come up with.

www.cheapovegas.com

Summary: Your first port of call when planning a visit to Las Vegas