Changes in downtown

Late night on Fremont

One of the great things about Vegas is that it changes all the time.  While the big construction projects won't be happening again for the foreseeable future, things still change there, and pretty quick too.

Half my stay will be downtown, and there have actually been a lot of changes since I was there last summer.  Here's what I'm curious about:

The Plaza - Recently renovated, new restaurants, new food court.  I am curious to see how they fixed (or tried to fix) what was probably the most low-rent, smoke-filled, depressing casinos downtown.  That distinction now belongs to the Las Vegas Club, which is actually owned by the same people.
     I always thought that the Plaza could have the best sportsbook downtown - it's big and well laid out, so I'm hoping they got the redo right there.

The D resort - Used to be Fitzgeralds, which was a decent enough low-roller place.  I stayed there once years ago, rooms were good sized, I had a decent view, Howard Johnson-like decor.  The whole place was bought out by the people that own the Golden Gate.  These guys did a great job spiffing up the GG, so I'm excited to see what they have going on down at the old Fitz.  I know they put in a big new bar that looks interesting.
Incidently, I searched "D resort vegas" on both google and bing, niether brought me the new website.  It's here, www.thed.com , if you are looking.

Golden Gate - Always one of my favorite places to play, by the time I get there in July they should be finished with their renovation/expansion.  I don't see anything really breathtaking in the plans, but I'm interested in seeing it anyway.  Between buying and rebranding Fitzgeralds and the expansion here, these guys have been busy.

Drink & Drag - Last time I was downtown (actually, for the past ten years or so) Neonopolis has been a big empty hulk of a place in the middle of Fremont Street.  Now it actually seems like it actually has some life to it, with a whole bunch of new businesses.  One of them is Drink & Drag, which just opened this month.  It's a bowling alley, with dartboards and everything.  Staffed by drag queens. 
     No, it doesn't make sense to me either, and it's not really my scene, but where else on earth can you go bowling with drag queens?  I can't say I know a lot about drag queens, but it's hard to imagine they put on the bowling shoes.  We can file this under "Only Vegas."

I've also been reading about new bars opening up at Binion's and the Golden Nugget, neither of which look particularly exciting to me, but I'll certainly check them out.

www.fremontstreetbars.com - A good website about the bar scene, and downtown info in general.  www.vegaschatter.com  also has some good info on downtown once in a while.

Until next time............

I sketched this sitting in the laundremat.  Guess it shows where my head was at.

A list of places I'll go in Vegas

I'm not going out for three months, so this list will be expanding and evolving with time, but here we go:

1. Holsteins - Cosmopolitan Hotel

I first went to Holsteins a short while after the Cosmo opened, mostly just because I was wandering around and hungry.  All I ordered was an appetizer, the Philly Cheez Steak Spring Rolls.  Oh boy were they good.  They also have a good beer menu.  And, of course, good looking waitresses.  Next time I'll certainly get a burger.

You should feel honored, Holsteins - you are first on my list.

Picture was stolen from their website, BTW.
  

Taxi stories.

Inspired by an article in the LV Review-Journal, I thought I'd share some quick taxi stories from my Las Vegas trips.

I usually do solo trips.  As a guy in his forties, alone, and frequently slightly inebriated getting into a cab, at least once a trip I get a driver who tells me he knows the best strip club or massage parlor.  No thanks.

I have had drivers ask me if I'm looking to meet women while in town.  I assume that if I say yes he will produce a card with a phone number for a Hot Babe Direct to My Room or some other shady commercial enterprise he will get a kickback for.  Nah, I'm just in town to gamble and have a few drinks.  I'd prefer not to risk a night in jail or a nasty disease.

Once, while riding from the airport to downtown, a driver asked me if I wanted to buy a beer from him for the ride.  I have no idea if that's legal or not, but I actually thought that was a nice service to provide.  I declined, but I found out he actually grew up not to far from me.  He gave me his card and told me to call him if I needed to go to  a strip club.  I took his card, but never made that call.  Nice guy.

As I mentioned in a previous post, all cabdrivers at the airport will try to take you the long way, but it's easy enough to avoid.  Once I was staying at Hooters, which is basically at the end of the airport road.  The guy tried to sell me on the tunnel.  "Traffic very bad now, we take the highway?" 
"No we won't take the highway.  I could walk to the hotel faster than driving the highway. (I think I actually could have).This ain't my first rodeo." (I really didn't say that, but I kinda wish I did). That guy got a not-so-great tip.

Anyway these things annoy the hell out of some people, but I just laugh them off.  I'm in Vegas, I'll be damned if a cab driver will bring me down.

Beware visitors, you will be long-hauled

In Vegas, they will try to long haul you.  Guaranteed. 

Long hauling is basically overcharging you for a taxi ride by taking the longest route.  The most common practice is for taxi drivers to pick you up at the airport and take you to your hotel via the highway, which, unless you are staying downtown, is almost always the long way by far.  The Las Vegas Review-Journal had an article today which basically said "No one really cares and this practice will continue."

So beware my friends.  Before you step into that taxi line, know where you are going and how to get there. A bit of time spent on google maps can seriously save you a good deal of money and time.

My personal tactic, being a very polite sort, is to say something like "I'm going to Bally's.  Is Paradise or Koval quicker right now?",  knowing full well it's basically the same route.  Saying this tells the cab driver that I'm not a rube and I know the scam, without being blatant about it.  If you are less worried about offending than I am simply say "Don't take the tunnel.  Don't take the highway.  Use the back roads. Please."  By law, drivers are bound to take you via the route you state. 

Oh, and if you get an honest ride, please tip.  Conversely, if you are long hauled, don't tip at all.  And don't feel bad about it.

If you are at the casino and need a cab, you can always ask the guy who hails them what the best route is.  He will even right it down or tell the driver if you ask him to.  Of course, you need to shoot him a tip as well, but it's money well spent.

And maybe the best tip ever, Never Never Never say to the driver "This is my first time ever in Vegas!"  or even worse "This is my first cab ride ever!"  Act like a pro, even if you aren't, and you'll be fine.

Why did I pick the California?

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm splitting hotels for my July trip - three nights on the strip, two nights downtown.  For my downtown stay, I picked the California.

I'm not from Hawaii.  I'm from Boston, which is close to as far as you can get from Hawaii.  So why would a grumpy Bostonian choose a hotel that pretty much caters to Hawaiians? 

I looked at a few different places downtown - the Plaza, The D (formally Fitzgeralds), the Gold Spike, and all of the Boyd properties - Fremont, Main Street Station, and the Cal. 

As I said before, I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to hotel rooms.  I decided that I wanted a pool, especially since it will be towards the end of my trip, so I might need to wash some of the booze out of me. 

In the end, it came down to price.  I had a good deal from the Boyd companies through the Bconnected players' club.  I've stayed at the Fremont before, and liked it fine.  Boyd might not have the fanciest properties, but I've always gotten such good service there.  I was about to book the Fremont again, but just figured I'd try someplace new. 

So I'm set - three days Planet Hollywood, two days at the California.  It feels nice to be a bit settled.

Well, I picked my hotels.

I'm a simple man, really.  I'm not fancy.  My criteria for Vegas hotels is simple too.  I want:

• A clean, comfortable room.
• A good location
• A pool I can cool off in. 

I leave out a lot of things other people want.  The hottest nightclubs, a great spa, fitness rooms (ha!), the greatest party pool, a chance at meeting a Kardashian.  These things are important to some people, not so much to me.

I walk a lot, but then everyone does in Vegas.  If there's a restaurant, or a bar, or something I want to see, I walk. 

Other things I like in a hotel are a decent bar and a greasy breakfast place, but these are a dime a dozen in LV.

I also like to see different places.  If I live long enough, and start making a lot more money, I'll stay in every hotel in Vegas.

Well, getting back to my hotel choices.  I have five days, I looked at many places, ran the numbers more than a few times.  I decided to split hotels, three nights on the strip and two downtown.

For the strip, I was really leaning towards Ballys.  I've stayed there before and it's my kind of place - nice enough rooms, not a crazy party place, friendly staff.  Price was right, and you can't beat the location.  And I liked the pool.

I also looked at Tropicana, which seems like a cool place to stay, but the price wasn't right.

Harrahs and Imperial Palace were also in my price range, but I've been through the casino at Harrahs and it just hasn't impressed me.  Imperial Palace was the cheapest, but after checking reviews on www.tripadvisor.com and www.yelp.com, it seems the place is a bit run down and there is construction going on there, so I crossed it off the list. 

An unexpected contender arose - Planet Hollywood.  Yes, it's hip, and I'm not.  But what the hell.  It was only a bit more pricey than Ballys, and it will be a new experience for me.  Which, in it's own way, is worth the money.  So I'm on my way.

You might notice all my choices are owned by the same company - Caesars Entertainment (CET).  Later I'll write some stuff about players clubs, but really it came down to three things - I like the hotels, no resort fees, and the website made it easy to compare and price hotels. 

Maybe staying at the MGM hotels would have saved me a buck, but I'm not sure, since their website wouldn't take my info. Sorry MGM, ya lost my business.

I also booked a room downtown for two nights.  More on that later.

http://www.planethollywoodresort.com

My flight

If money wasn't an issue, I'd only fly jetblue direct, Boston - Vegas.

Alas, money is an issue, so I'm booked on Delta, with a stopover in Cincinnati on the way out and Atlanta on the way back.  I must admit that i have a soft spot for Delta since they put me in first class once, for no good reason that I know of.  It was nice, and I tried to act like I had been there before.

When I have the dates I want more or less, I use kayak.com and bing.com/travel to check prices.  Both are super-easy to use and both show calenders with prices, which are nice when your dates are flexible.  Both will also let you set up an alert so they can send you an email with fares.

Airline fares change all the time, when the fare you want comes up, you have to be ready to grab it.  Other people have had good luck with deals on facebook and twitter, but those haven't worked for me yet.

It's always cheaper to travel to Vegas during the week than the weekend - Sunday, Monday & Tuesday are the cheapest days to fly. 

When booking my flight, I believe in the old adage that the airlines release fare deals on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so these are the best days to book.  Don't book your flight on a weekend, fares are highest because that's when the most people are booking.  I book direct through the airline websites, which means I spend a good deal of time going from one to the next to find the right price.  I also don't mind flying the redeye, so long as I can get back to Boston while the subway is still running.  Arriving late night  in Vegas is no problem.  Vegas never sleeps. 

Anyway it took me some time and some searching, but I found the fare I wanted - 255 round trip, on Delta.  I also took a big gamble - bigger than any I'll take in Vegas - a 41 minute changeover in Cincinnati.  So if you see me running, please be kind and get the hell out of my way.

Picking travel dates

I suppose I should start at the beginning.  My somewhat-odd work schedule makes it very easy to travel in the summer.  Thus, I have a good window to work with.  Although there really isn't a "low season" for Las Vegas, the summer is a bit slower than other times.  Airfares are still way too high (this year, anyway) but doable, and reduced room rates are a wee bit easier to score, especially if you are able to get a comp.

So this time I'm going in early July, actually the week of July 4th, which is a bonus.  July 4th is a Wednesday this year, so it will be a bit less crazy than a long weekend.

Yes, Vegas in the summer is hot, too hot for some.  It's a dry heat, so it's much more comfortable than a hot day here in Boston, but anyone who tells you "you won't feel it" is full of crap.  When it's a hundred and six degrees, you feel it.  It is too hot, for me at least, to play golf or hike the desert, but I can walk around outside or sit by the pool and be alright so long as I stay hydrated.  I also do the siesta thing when I need to.  It's hot, but not too hot for me.

Next up - picking a flight.

My crappy new blog

I get to Las Vegas maybe two or three times a year, but spend a silly amount of time thinking about it.

I follow the conversations on the Vegas forum on Tripadvisor, (www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g45963-i10-Las_Vegas_Nevada.html) and it occurred to me that others might be interested in my whole travel planning process.  Or not.  But let us see.

If you find anything I write remotely interesting, or you have a question, please say hi.

And thanks for stopping by.