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BH and I just bought tickets to see the Eagles in Las Vegas in Feb. We have never been as adults.

We are totally excited. We are staying 4 nights just because.

All you experienced travelers out there, we would love some tips.

-Great places to stay?

-Do we need a rental car or should we take taxis or other transport?

-Shows that shouldn't be missed? We are thinking Cirqe de Soliel (sp?) and BH wants to see Penn and Teller (I think that's who he said? Magic?)

-Any other suggestions? We don't gamble or drink but we love to have fun. We are leaving the kids at home.

ETA I haven't bought plane tickets yet either it was just going to look on priceline but I am happy to take advice on travel arrangements too if anyone has any.

[This message edited by knightsbff at 8:04 AM, December 19th (Thursday)]

I recommend staying on the strip instead of downtown. Do you want to be near the concert or stay somewhere else? Do you want somewhere awesome or are you budget conscious?

I strongly encourage you to not get a rental car. It's totally unneeded unless you want to venture out to Hoover Dam or Red Rock to go hiking or something. Even then, I would get a car for a day. Taxis are plentiful and cheap in Vegas.

Penn & Teller is at the Rio which is off-strip, but just a short taxi ride. If you go there, heading to the top floor to the Voo Doo lounge still gives one of the best views of the valley (although it isn't as cool of a bar as it was a few years ago).

I do recommend heading downtown for an afternoon/evening. There is a major revitalization going on. More little locals places, cafes, etc. The Zappos headquarters moved downtown and it's changing everything. There is even a mall going in with some stores in containers.

The restaurants in Vegas are amazing. I have some off-strip favorites (Lola's, Eat, Mundo and Le Thai, are all in parts of downtown). In the strip hotels are just one amazing place after another.

Gimme more ideas of what you want and I'll see if I can refine my info for you.

[This message edited by Rebreather at 11:50 AM, December 19th (Thursday)]

There is a lot of free stuff to see and do on the strip just by walking from hotel to hotel. Check out trip advisor too.

Cirque is fantastic with a capital F!!

I really enjoyed New York, New York. I recommend staying on the strip.

The hop-on/hop-off bus saved a lot of money in taxi fare. Plus, it will help you get a sense of direction around town.

As posted before, there is a lot to see just walking through all the casinos, hotels, and shopping areas. I was there last Feb. It was chilly, but I live in Pennsylvania, so I was used to it. The locals were freezing.

As for shows, we loved Zumanity, but it is very sexual.

I also recommend checking out TripAdvisor.

Have fun!

It would be great to be able to walk to the concert but we would rather stay someplace awesome and sometimes nice hotels have shuttles that run to concert venues so walking distance isn't important since we're only going to one concert.

We are fine with taxis or other transport too.

I am looking at trip advisor now.

[This message edited by knightsbff at 5:54 PM, December 19th (Thursday)]

If you stay on the Strip there's also the monorail that takes you from one end of the strip to the other. We spend one day just walking up and down the strip going into the hotels and looking at the sites. Actually, that usually takes two days, there's so much to see!

We enjoyed Anthony Cools. He's an R-rated hypnotist. Very entertaining.

I'm so jealous that you're going to see the Eagles!

If you haven't been as adults, then yes, stay on the Strip.

Lodging will depend on your budget. I recommend:

Mandalay Bay

MGM Grand

Bellagio

The Mirage

There are some hotels off the strip that are just as nice, such as The Rio (this is an all suite hotel).

If you're staying on the strip, you don't need a rental car. Your hotel MAY offer a free shuttle to/from the airport. Even if they don't, the rental will be a waste because a)you can walk the strip, b)there will be a lot of traffic on Las Vegas Blvd, which you will be stuck in if you drive, and c)they have a monorail that will take you up & down the strip with stops at each major hotel/resort location. If a shuttle is not available, you can take a cab. It's not that expensive. Just make sure you tell the cab driver to take the local streets so that you don't get scammed in the "long haul" scam: http://www.aboutfact.com/Las-Vegas-Taxi-Scam-Long-Haul

As for shows, I've heard Zumanity & O are both amazing.

Food!!! There are some serious eats in Vegas. If you are down for a feast, I recommend the Carnival World Buffet @ The Rio or the Bayside Buffet @ Mandalay Bay.

NO KIDS - YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! HAVE FUN!!!

[This message edited by MissesJai at 10:59 AM, January 6th (Monday)]

Oh, and for shows, go to the kiosk on the street for tickets (I think it's right outside Bally's). I think it's called Tickets for Less.

You just go the day before or even the day of and get the tickets ahead of time and they're significantly less than the box office. They do that for restaurants, too. You can look on the marquis and it tells you what they have discounted.

As far as hotels, we found Caesars and MGM Grand overwhelmingly large. We like to stay at Paris because it's beautiful, but smallish and very quaint.

I love Vegas. I'm probably going again in April, for my professional association's annual conference.

And I love having any reason to share this story, so, T/J:

The first time I went to Vegas was when I won a national award from my professional association. I was the Nurse Assessment Coordinator of the Year, and it was a really big deal. My parents are both nurses, and somehow I decided it would be a great idea to take my mom with me on this trip, so she could see me get my award.

I've mentioned a few times on here that my mom is freaking nuts. I mean... not just a little weird or nutty. Seriously, seriously cracked.

Up and down the Strip, there are little hooker cards. Sorta like baseball cards but with very scantily (or un-)clad women along with contact info. Apparently, people are paid to just go around sticking those cards everywhere.

So my mom and I were walking the Strip, just looky-looing and my mom started grabbing every hooker card she could find. She had about a hundred of those suckers. I said, "What are you doing with those?" She said, "They're souvenirs. And they're FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I said, "Who are you going to give those to?" She never answered. Just kept grabbing them. I swore I wanted her bag to get searched in the airport, just because I thought it would be pretty funny to see the look on the TSA agent's face when my little-old-lady mother had a deck of 200 hooker cards.

Rent a car and drive to Red Rock Canyon state park. Great for hiking and amazing photos.

I'm going at the end of January/ beginning of February to "study" for my family medicine recertification boards. Definitely stay on the strip. I usually like to stay at the Belagio but will have to be at the Flamingo this time (yikes... Although I've heard they've redone it) I've also stayed at the Mirage (ok), the Stratosphere (NO) and the Hilton (meh after Star Trek left)

There are about six different cirque de soliel shows. The best are "O" and "Mystere". I'm going to go to the Beatles music CDS show.

Also consider a trip to Hoover Dam/ Lake Mead.

Just booked airline tickets and our room at the MGM Grand. We get two free tickets to a show with our airline/hotel deal and Zumanity is on the list we can choose from so I'm going to try to book that when the travel documents come in.

We are REALLY getting excited about this trip. Especially since we had to cancel our trip to the Myrtles Plantation after New Years due to everyone in the house but BH getting the FLU.

Thank you ALL so much for the use of your travel savvy.

38 days and counting!

ETA: The Eagles concert is at the MGM Grand so we won't have far to go.

We are planning to take another trip to Vegas with the kids sometime in the near future so we will be able to try out some more of your hotel suggestions then.

[This message edited by knightsbff at 11:19 PM, January 5th (Sunday)]

Another thumbs up from me for the O show at the Bellagio.

Sounds like a plan!

I am not a fan of kids in Vegas. That said, I took my dd 18 and 4 of her friends a couple weeks ago. It was freaking exhausting. "Don't take those cards from those men! don't look at the ground!" lol

"Don't take those cards from those men! don't look at the ground!"

Be sure you call your bank/credit cards and let them know you will be going off the chain in Vegas. You have no idea how many fraud reports I see just from people partying it up in Vegas and it triggers our fraud system, lol.

"Don't take those cards from those men! don't look at the ground!"

Hmmmmm……maybe we won't take dd14 and ds10 to Vegas after all. My dad took my brother and I when we were a bit younger than the same ages and I don't remember all that. ….That was a few years ago though…..

After some more thinking I'm wondering if my dad didn't take us to Reno and I just mixed it up. Seems we went to Lake Tahoe too during that trip.

Oh well, I can't imagine trying to explain hooker cards to my fairly sheltered kids.

4 days is not near enough to see all there is to see. H's mo lives there, so we go regularly...3-4x a year. We also have a timeshare, so lodging is never an issue for us.

I agree, don't worry about a rental car unless you want to get out and about. Mt. Charleston is a nice drive, Red Rock Canyon is fabulous and of course, Hoover Dam.

I never miss the Bellagio....I love the Chiluhy ceiling, the conservatory and go looking for the chocolate fountain. The fountains outside are a must see, but the inside is just as good.

You can spend all your time just walking around, looking at free stuff in the casinos and people-watching. OMG...the people watching in Vegas is only bested by NYC.

We laugh about the hooker cards as well. We discovered a few trips back that if H walks on the inside, away from the 'vendors' they generally won't hand them to me. We were there one trip and ahead of us is a very elderly Midwestern looking couple (we took to referring to them as George and Margaret) and he was doing the usual 'gentlemen walk on the outside'. He politely accepted every single card they handed him....like HFSSC's mom, he must have ended up with a couple hundred within a couple blocks. Vegas blocks are loooong. Finally, we stopped them, explained what the cards were (I don't think he even looked at them) and suggested they change places on the sidewalk or simply refuse to accept them. He was polite, but I was never sure either of them understood exactly what we were saying.

Rebreather.....H's mom took us to EAT the last time we were there, lovely place. If you want a killer burger, the Grind off Tropicana just west of the strip is well worth a short taxi ride. Juicy Lucys to die for AND the best onion rings I have ever had and I don't much care for onion rings. At the Quad/Harrah's is Hash House A GoGo. Killer comfort food in portion too large to be believed. Only negative is one has to wade through one of the smokier casinos I have been in.

Oh, I could go on and on. Oh, yeah...Zumanity is well worth seeing, but be aware it is overtly sexual. DON'T let the performers take you up on stage....I learned the hard way.

I ended up changing the free show to Zarkana because I was afraid Zumanity might somehow be a trigger for BH….

We can still see Zumanity (he says he wants to see it but when I shared my concern about triggers he agreed).

I know we are in OT but to BS can anyone give a thumbs up or down from possible trigger perspective for Zumanity?

PurpleJacket, I stayed at the Flamingo on my last conference trip and LOVED it! I'm not a real gambler but I won $1600 on some silly fishing slot machine game at the Flamingo slots