The Strip! (The Strip)

Member Name: jayjolynn

Product:	The Strip
Date:	02/11/06 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Too many !

Disadvantages: Watch out for the pick-pockets!

The Strip is an experience you can never forget! Where else can you go to visit Egypt, New York, the Tropics, Rome/Greece, Hollywood, see wild tigers, Flamingos etc ? This is the street of lights, excitement, gambling like you've never seen before! The Hotels on the Strip have to compete with each other, to attract their visitors and try and keep them interested enough to stay and gamble in their Casinos, so alot of competition here, which is good news for the tourist!

From its first hotel - Hotel Nevada - in 1906 -Then Bugsy Siegel's Flamingo Hotel (which some argue that it was not him who started this), and his Mob, opened in 1946 . The Rat Pack were well known guests at the Sands Hotel and Casino in the 50s and 60s - Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jnr visited often. There was Elvis in the 1970s (though you can walk along the street, or into any casino and still see many impersonators!),
Then in 1989 Steve Wynn opened the Mirage, the first of the luxury mega-resorts. then followed - the Luxor, Treasure Island, MGM Grand, New York New York, Monte Carlo - just some of the 23 major hotel-casinos that have appeared since 1989. The Wynn, opened in 2005, is luxurious, as is The Venetian. The rooms in The Venetian are fabulous, as 2 of our guests let us peek at theirs, as we could not afford the luxury of staying there!

There are lots of hotels with over 120,000 hotel rooms available. So if you want to stay in a pyramid, take a gondola to go shopping, eat out in Central Park Or Times Square, Sit and have lunch overlooking Flamingos, the choice is endless?

There are world class restaurants and all you can eat buffets, plenty of bars and lounges (many offering free entertainment), nightclubs, great shopping, and attractions ranging from Madame Tussauds to the Guggenheim. So many different prices ranges for each restaurant, bar or cafes to list, but shop around as there are cheap places to eat as well as the more expensive!

Cheap transport options means you're never too far away from the action! Taxis perhaps about $6 from one end to the other.....

The Monorail stops at the back of some of the Hotels, but feel sometimes you have to walk miles through these hotels to get to it, and you would be as well, walking to wherever you are going!

One Ride Ticket $5

Two Ride Ticket $9

Ten Ride Ticket $35

One Day Pass $15

Three Day Pass $40

Personally. I never used this, as one of attractions is actually walking along the Strip, that way you don't miss much! Take good walking shoes though, as even walking about some of the Hotels can be miles!

The resort hotels are attractions in their own right and they are so big and accomodate so many themed playgrounds, even rollercoasters! One I drew the line at is the Stratosphere ! At over 100 stories above the ground, the Stratosphere has the world's three highest thrill rides.... the Big Shot, X Scream and Insanity the Ride.
One of them, Insanity-The Ride consists of an arm that extends out 64 feet over the edge of the Tower and spins! As the ride spins faster and faster, the riders are propelled up to an angle of 70 degrees. Riders will experience being flung over the edge of the Tower and literally facing downward The ride is 900 feet above the Las Vegas Strip' Not for the faint hearted, so I just opted for looking up with my mouth hanging open at the people who dared to do this, and even that made me feel nauseous!

The dancing fountains of Bellagio have to be seen....these fountains dance to music, and are in the the quarter-mile-long lake in front of the Bellagio, the free show generally lasts between five and 10 minutes, and run every half hourup till 8pm, then every 15 minutes up to midnight.

One could go on forever about 'The Strip' as there is so much to say, and don't think you could ever cover it completely! If you are a gambler, well, you are in Heaven! You cannot go anywhere, I mean anywhere, without hundreds of brightly lit slot machines, gambling tables, and the noise from these machines still buzz in your ears when you come home! One thing you will notice, is every hotel, has their casino right at the front of the Hotel, so you cannot avoid walking through them to get to Reception etc.....good ploy but not for the easily tempted person.

The Strip at night just sums up Las Vegas! The lights are amazing and the whole place is alive (especially weekends, where it is crowded!) all the way through the night....no clocks in Vegas.....no closing times, it is a 24 hour non stop hive of activity! So prepare for sleepless nights! You can eat, drink, gamble at anytime of the day or night.....

One down side of the Strip, with it being so crowded and it attracting so many visitors, you can have many visitors who are not there just for the gambling or fun of it all....... there are about 2000 purses and wallets stolen every day in Las Vegas! So be on your guard.....it is a haven for thieves!

Expedia, I found is the best place to look for Hotel rates, as they all vary from season to season, and of course, the weekend rates for these Hotels can quadruple in price! We stayed in the Flamingo, which I feel is middle of the road type of Hotel, but we were with 45 other people, and some stayed in The Venetian (expensive), Bellagio (expensive), Caesars (not too bad, but dear enough!), Harrah's (upper region) and some stayed in the Imperial (cheap and cheerful)! One other option is to get away from the Strip and the Best Western was a real bargain and only 2 blocks away from the Strip....this was only $30 a night if you come to an arrangement that you will stay more than 2 nights! So look into the smaller places, they are good quality and you can get their prices down!

Overall, I found The Strip to be more expensive than say Downtown, but you can still find your Denny's, McDonald's etc to eat out on a cheaper budget!

All in all, The Strip is a playground for everyone of all ages! You can find things like the souvenir shops and some Hotels either tacky or way up market, you have it all on The Strip......and the designer shops inside the Hotels are expensive, but go outside and you will find cheap shops selling everything and anything!.....






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Summary: The City that never sleeps, sums it all up!