Bob’s Travel Tips – Vegas

Told you this would be a series. Welcome back to the riveting and scintillating advice offered by the travel experts here at VIMB. If you missed out on the last Travel Tip, you missed me explaining what this is. So just go look back.

I have been to Vegas a few times. By NO means whatsoever am I an expert. I do however think that I can offer some advice to someone who has never been there before, from one amateur to another.

I have been to Vegas 3 times, all in about the last 2 years. Been there the first week of December, the last week of January and Easter weekend. The pools weren’t open the first 2 times and when I was there over Easter, it was for a wedding and only a few days so I never got out to the pools. So, I can’t give any tips on that. I also have pretty much been relegated to the strip and Freemont St. other than a couple of other excursions. I can give some simple advice on simple things. Those of you that go to Vegas a lot will probably laugh at me and call me a hack. That’s ok. I can live with that. With that in mind, and a Rhode Island sized grain of salt, here are my tips for Vegas.

 

Travel – Fly if you can. Flights are not as cheap as they used to be because of the resurgence in popularity of Vegas, but McCarran airport is KICK ASS! Be sure to see my tips on flying.

Rooms – There are all kinds of rooms. You can stay on strip, off strip and off off strip. Where you stay depends on how much you want to spend and if you want to be on an episode of C.S.I. or not. I have stayed at MGM Grand, Excalibur and Mandalay Bay. So far, Mandalay is my favorite. Both for room and amenities. There is a tv in the bathroom for cryin’ out loud. Mrs. Voices has been a number of times for conferences and has had work pay for rooms at Paris, Ballys, MGM Grand and Mandalay. Her fav was Mandalay as well. (oddly enough we stayed at Mandalay separately and not together). The ONLY drawback to Mandalay, is it is at the south end of the strip. That means that it is a long way to anything. Which brings me to the next tip …

Walking – Bring a good pair of walking shoes. When you fly in, or look up and down the strip from the 20^th floor of your hotel … you will say “well that doesn’t look that far”. It is. On average, the few times I have been out there, I have walked about 10 miles a day. That is just casual walking, not even walking on a mission. You easily can double that amount. Walking is bar far the cheapest and easiest way to get around the strip. If you really don’t want to walk …

Bus – The bus is the next best thing to move up and down the strip and back and forth to Freemont Street. You get unlimited rides for a pretty cheap price for like 24 hours. I think they have other passes too for longer times. Cabs … don’t, it can cost like $70 up to Freemont. There are a few free trams and monorails that are ok. There is also a monorail that costs money. While it is fun and a good novelty, the problem is that it goes along the back sides of the resorts so … it really isn’t a time saver. It actually makes you walk more. And when you end up walking that much, you are always hungry.

Food – There is great food in Vegas. Be prepared to pay. You can’t get away from the cost of food, especially on the strip. On the strip, there is no such thing as a $5 all you can eat buffet that I have found, and I have looked. Love me a good buffet. Don’t think that going to McDonald’s or Denny’s will save you some money. It won’t. Besides, why the hell would you go to one of those places when you can experience fine dining from just about every famous chef out there. The only drawback to that is, it gets a little harder to find quick eats later at night.

Casinos – Not much help here as I am not a big gambler. There is an I Dream Of Jeanie slot by the poker area of Excalibur that I like. I play penny slots. That way I can get a lot of free drinks.

Drinking – Did you know that technically it is illegal to have open alcohol on the strip? Who knew? Drink. A lot. You probably aren’t driving. You can drink early. It is good. It is fun.

People – The 2 times I was there when it was not spring break and the pools weren’t open were my personal favorite times. Not a lot of people comparatively and not a lot of kids. Although there were some. When I went over Easter … holy crap there were a lot of families. More than I thought were going to be there. It was more kids than anything. And going back to the whole walking thing … FAMILIES WALK TOO SLOW! I do have to say though that people watching is pretty freaking awesome! Put a large emphasis on the FREAK part. There are a lot of them.

There is one more thing I want to point out that I forgot under walking. I have walked around a lot by myself out there 2 times. Once because Mrs. Voices was in conferences all day and the other because I was out there by myself for a wedding. When you walk around by yourself, you don’t get sold anything. You don’t get approached in the hotels by salesmen. You don’t get approached by the guys on the strip selling you tours. You will still however get the strip club flyers shoved at you.

There are so many things I would love to talk about and so many things I have already talked about that are probably worthless. It’s a start though. I may re-visit this topic with some other things, or, after reading backlash of how much my Vegas info sucks, I may not.

Be sure to tune in next time when Bob’s Travel Tips will talk about the family road trip.

 

Voicesinmybrain and it’s affiliates were not paid for and did not receive any compensation, monetarily or otherwise for any referenced entities. VIMB does not itself endorse any mentioned Hotels/Casinos/Restaurants. We would however, mention that IF any hotels/casinos/restaurants wanted to give us any freebies … we would not be opposed.

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Omen

Vacation, as I might have mentioned, is in 8 days. We are going to Vegas. Since I didn’t get to watch COPS last night, I am watching it tonight while the wife is at Zumba. The episode that is on is “Las Vegas Heat”. Is someone trying to tell me something? Can I do a Kickstarter for future bail?

 

Almost There

Soon I will be on vacation. 9 days. 7 of those are actual work days. A week from Wednesday, we will be dropping off the kids, dropping off the dog and heading to the airport. I need this vacation. Vegas. I am hoping that we will win big and retire. That is what I am hoping. What I am expecting, is to come home, do my taxes and hope that we get enough money back to cover said vacation.

Not exciting tonight but I am being forced to watch the Golden Globes and I needed a distraction. Not being forced but, I feel bad leaving my wife alone while I go upstairs and watch COPS. If I did, I would have missed her just commenting on Gravity winning something with “I really wanted to see that but is seems so heavy.” Gravity … heavy … it took me a minute as well. I’m going to be in trouble for sharing that won’t I?

Vegas Vacation … In Memoriam

Tomorrow I go back to work. That means that my vacation is over. We had a blast in Vegas. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the level of customer service we experienced. I did not experience one cranky, surly or otherwise unpleasant worker while we were there. It made for a very nice trip. I don’t know if it was because it was off season or what but everyone was so nice, even the cab drivers and bus drivers. Overall our trip was one of the best vacations I have had. There was one sad part.

I mentioned earlier in the week that I thought Herman had stowed away in my luggage. I was right. I found him Wednesday morning when I came back from one of my walks. He was sitting at the bar downstairs using our room drink credit. Since he was here, we took him to see the lions with us.

After that he went out on his own again. He told us he was going to meet us on Freemont St. Thursday night. I was a little worried when I got this picture from him earlier in the day. I think he was letting the glitz and glamour get to him and he was falling in with a bad crowd.

 

Kotton Kandy, Herman's New ... friend

 

When we got back to our room after Freemont St., Herman was nowhere to be found. I figured he got lucky but … the next morning there was a knock on the door. I went to answer but there was only an envelope left on the floor. I opened it up and this is all it contained.

 

Hopefully it will fit the next clone.

 

I am assuming the worst. All I am left with is Herman’s head. The rest of him will not be leaving Las Vegas any time soon. I knew it was a bad sign when we were on the gondola ride at The Venetian and the gondolier started singing the Godfather theme. R.I.P. Herman.

 

Vegas … Day 4

I realized this morning that I should have done a Celebrity Death Watch blog yesterday … That’s Vegas for ya! I will get that blog put out there when I get home tomorrow. Today Jackie was done early so we have the rest of the day to go do things. We are goign to hit up the Venitian and Paris since we got rained out the other night.

Last night was Freemont street. It was pretty cool. I think next time I am here I might start there or even stay there. The strip is nice but too spread out. It is also FAR more expensive. The lighted ceiling “Vista view” was pretty amazing. It is all LED lights and the pictures it creates are amazing. I will get some pics posted once I get home as I forgot the cables for our camera to download them.

I have learned a lot of lessons about Vegas this week. Things that I will remember the next time I am here. Nothing bad but just a few things that will make it far more enjoyable. Like transportation, make sure the rodeo isn’t in town, come back when the “pretty people” are here … little things.

This will most likely be my last post from Vegas. I will get one in tomorrow after our flight so you know I got home safely and then it is going to be major nap time for me and my voices.

Until the final wrap up tomorrow night … “Can’t you just wrap me up in a blanket and roll me across the bed again?”

Alaska … I Mean Vegas … Day 3

IT IS COLD TODAY! I am in the middle of the dessert and it is 41 degrees. They forecast snow. I don’t care, I am not working! It was another walking adventure this morning. Let’s just say my extraordinary sense of direction did it to me again and I ended up walking a mile and a half further than I probably had to today. Other than that, it has been a resting day. We made it to Paris last night but the Eiffel Tower ride was closed because of the weather (rain). Tonight we are going to attempt to hit downtown with a few of Jackie’s work friends. Gotta figure out the best way to get there for the cheapest and we will be good. Apparently they also shut the monorail down when it is bad weather. I think I am safe and won’t move here. Can’t live somewhere that can’t handle a little rain.

Short one today but that is all I got right now. Tomorrow should be a good one based on tonight and how many more cowboys I see. The rodeo came into town … literally. Hundreds of hats, boots and surprisingly not so attractive women. More later.

 

How Did We Survive?

It is the holidays. That means that it is time for parent consumer safety nazi groups to come out with their lists of all the toys that should be banned because they are dangerous for children who have parents that buy them inappropriate toys or who don’t teach them the right way to play with their toys when they are older. Yes, there ARE some toys out there that are probably marketed to the wrong age group. Yes, there are probably toys out there that are more dangerous than others, but for cryin’ out loud … give it a little bit of a rest people!

I remember when I was young, toys shot things, had small pieces, moving parts and paint that wore off sometimes. I’m still here. I rode a bike without a helmet, and without wearing so much padding that I looked like an self defense class target. I’m still here. I ate food out of plastic containers, drank water straight from the tap and even drank from the garden hose. I’m still here.

It is bad enough that Christmas comes earlier and earlier every year, taunting and teasing children with the coolest and latest toys. Why do we have to yank the rug out from under them smashing their little teeth into the floor by telling them they are going to die, go blind or go deaf because of the toy they have been screaming for since Arbor day.

We survived and so will they. If they don’t, maybe they will win a Darwin Award or two in the process.

Speaking of Darwin Awards, I am off to Vegas soon. I think I will behave myself but just in case, I will line up a few posts to have in the hopper and schedule them in case I have to sell my computer, phone and ipod to get home. RED! NOOOOO BLACK! Crap!

Fear Of Loathing Las Vegas

As you all know, I am heading to Vegas the week after Thanksgiving. That is 10 days from now. I have never been before. I am excited but, I need ideas on what to do while I am out there. I don’t want to gamble all day. I will do a little here and there but I don’t want to have to pawn my underwear for cab fare to the airport to get home.

The reason we are going actually is for the wife’s work conference. I will be alone much of the day so I need fun, but relatively harmless things to occupy my day time hours. By safe I mean things that will not empty my bank account or find me married to 2 women at the end of the day. I don’t want to end up an episode topic for C.S.I. although that would be pretty cool in some aspect wouldn’t it?

I know a few things that I want to do and see that I will be able to get away with during the day since Jackie is pregnant and can’t do them. I can go to some roller coasters and do a lot of walking around just sight seeing.  I will not have a car so my tourist activities will need to be local. So, a couple of requests from all you out there that have been to Vegas recently. WHAT SHOULD I DO?! I am open to ANY suggestions, even if they are things that may get me in trouble with the wife, as long as they conform to the above 2 requirements.

I also need any recommendations on shows to see. I was hoping to maybe go to 2 or three while we were out there … then I saw the prices. So, now I am down to hoping to see maybe one really good show, and a burlesque performance in some seedy shack of a theater. Again, if anyone knows of any good shows to see, that are worth the price and I can’t see in Chicago … please let me know.

I will be posting every day while I am there and trying to get some pictures. I am also going to have to make sure that Herman comes along for the ride. Oh, and I forgot to mention, Tori is going to be at Grandmas house all week so the suggestions do not have to be kid friendly. In fact I would prefer it if they weren’t.

One more one more thing. Since I want, neigh, need suggestions, I am going to sticky this at the top post spot for a few days. If you are looking for a new post tomorrow, scroll down and it will be there.

The plans are in the works for the great “White Castle Stuffing Experiment of 2011”. I am only going to make a small amount because I was told “I don’t care how much you make as long as you realize YOU have to eat it all by yourself.” So, yeah. Like I said, I like White Castles but I am not sure how I will like the stuffing so it will be a very small amount. Hopefully this can get done this weekend and I can let you all share the experience with me.

That’s it for today. Until next time, remember … “I haven’t seen a beatin’ like that since somebody stuck a banana in my pants and turned a monkey loose.”

Did Someone Say Vacation?

I did. Booked my flight to go to Vegas in a few weeks. Jackie has a conference in Vegas the week after Thanksgiving. I am going to join her this year. We get to stay at the MGM. We only have to pay for my flight because the hotel is for her conference. I don’t know what I am going to do all day when she is in her conference. I will be touristy. I don’t want to gamble a lot. I have a few weeks to figure it out. I will let you all know. I will take pictures … maybe. Ironically, I just saw a commercial for Vegas that said no pictures because of the whole what happens here stays here.

The kicked Robert Irvine off of Next Iron Chef. REALLY? I had him pegged as being in the finals. I guess I better not gamble at all when I go to Vegas.