Las Vegas?

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TheLing: Jul 20, 2008

I wish i had thought to check this thread before making all my reservations

I'm flying over to US for the first time in a bit over 2 weeks and i'm staying for 5 days in vegas, i've reserved rooms at the All Suite Hotel Rio.

This is the first time ever i'm on a vacation on my own and the first time i'm in the US.

So a few questions/myths i'd like clarified

1) in the US european debit cards are prettymuch useless and creditcards are king
I've heard this from three different people so i filled out the application to get a visa just for this trip.

2) it's better when reserving a hotel to get the basic room and then ask for an upgrade once you arrive since it's cheaper than just booking a better room

3) public transit in the US is nonexistent so you'll prettymuch end driving a taxi around for your whole stay in vegas since you don't have a lisence

# ¿ Nov 8, 2011 09:24

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 17:02

TheLing: Jul 20, 2008

Craptacular! posted:

Sounds good. In the US, Visa also handles most of our debit cards and so there's a whole in-network thing since they're accepted at any Visa terminal.

Possible. Depends on the size of the upgrade.

By European standards, all public transit outside of New York and possibly Chicago is total crap. But, all the tourist draw of Las Vegas is clustered into one big stretch of road (it's not impossibly long, but it is longer than it appears because the buildings are massive.) There's a few hotels offshooting here and there onto side streets, and Rio is one of those hotels. However, it has a few semi-reliable shuttles to corporate sibling properties on the Strip like Harrah's and Bally's.

The public transit people runs buses up and down the Strip with pretty good frequency, with one route stopping at every hotel and taking forever to get anywhere, and the other one making fewer stops and thus less time spent in congestion. While it's lovely to live here on transit, like everything else in the city they coddle the tourists with frequent, but very expensive, routes that serve to move people between casinos. There's a couple of free overhead trams along the Strip, too.

Basically: So long as you want to gamble, drink, see tits, lose money, etc you'll be all right. If you plan to leave that bubble and come out to where the residents live you're kinda boned. And you can't go out into the desert to see the natural wilderness at all.

Well that puts my mind at ease, thank you!
not planning to gamble until the last night though, mostly i'm there to see the sights and visit places as seen on tv...Also i want to visit walmart (theres one 5 miles from rio) and eat at a mc donalds once(shouldn't be too hard to find right?)

# ¿ Nov 8, 2011 17:14

TheLing: Jul 20, 2008

Craptacular! posted:

There's a ton of McDonalds on the Strip, and down and across from Rio at the Palms. I'm not sure what European country you're from, but The Rio also has a special Burger King restaurant concept inside of it called the "Whopper Bar" (Whopper being one of their burgers) that is unique even among American towns.

Yeah, i'll probably eat at burger king once then too, that chain as far as i know has never expanded to Finland.

The reason i'm intrested in mc donalds is that one guy in my class who used to live in America for 6 years says he can't eat at Finnish Mc donalds because the food tastes like crap compared to what he's used to

Craptacular! posted:

Walmart might be only a few miles away but chances are it's in a not so great part of town, and you'll have to rely on the absolutely bonkers/poo poo residential public transit to get there.

For that part of the day i intend to just walk there and back, good excercise and i get to see the city more, and it's specifically walmart i'm intrested in visiting (read way too many stories about that place and i'm a retail worker back in Finland)

Craptacular! posted:

For convenience's sake, if you want to just see a big American retail box store, Flamingo Road (the street that the Rio sits upon, and which connects it to the Strip) has a really frequent bus service that you can take east to Maryland Parkway where you can find a Target. They're the biggest Walmart Clone, whose niche is having better public relations and more fashionable marketing than Walmart's southern Ma and Pa Kettle appeal. They're just as big, boxy, anti-union, and full of Chinese crap though. And you'll just need to take one bus route, which is a godsend.

Also possibly appealing, on a somewhat distant trip south from the casinos (on the same road, but you'll need wheels) is a Fry's Electronics, which is a big warehouse full of nerdy computer stuff in addition to mainstream gadgetry like TVs and video games.

I don't think i want to visit electronics stores, mostly because the prices would probably be cheap enough for me to blow my entire travel budget "because thats way cheaper than back home!"

# ¿ Nov 8, 2011 17:44

TheLing: Jul 20, 2008

Well i'm used to long walks (hiking around 3 kilometers per day just to get to work and 6.5kilometers just to get to nearest shoppe yaaay rural Finland) but i guess i'll either take a cab that day or see how hard that bus route is.

I found the closest walmart by typing "all suite hotel rio to walmart" into google maps, which said around 5 mile walk.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2011 19:36

TheLing: Jul 20, 2008

So here are my travel plans as far i've figured them out

Saturday, arrive at airport at 8pm local time, go to hotel and sleep
Sunday: spend the day at hotel recovering from jetlag and checking out the shopping opportunities there
Monday: from morning to 9pm ??? then go see the penn&teller show
Tuesday: take the bus to the strip and spend the whole day there sightseeing and shopping
Wednesday: during the day visit the gold&silver pawnshop (brother and i are fans of the show and he asked me to pick up something for him from there, i know it's a cesspool in real life and would rather maintain the illusion) and in the evening spend the rest of my travel budget at the casino
Thursday: in the morning fly back home.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2011 22:35

TheLing: Jul 20, 2008

The only problem with the first night is that the flight over is a bit over 16 hours and then probably another two hours for the airport stuff before i get to the hotel so yeah.

I think I'd rather unpack my bags, call folks at home over skype to tell them i'm okay and go to sleep.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2011 00:01

TheLing: Jul 20, 2008

WouldDesk posted:

Wow, first day and you already ruined the drat trip. Why in the hell, HOW in the hell could you arrive at night and go straight to bed? I don't care if you had a 15 hour plane ride... sleep on the plane and have a good time

Well we'll see if i can sleep on the plane, i'm kinda afraid of flying so i'm usually just too nervous to sleep

WouldDesk posted:

I always avoid contact with the outside world (family, cell phone) while there. If my family wants to make sure I made it they just use a flight tracker.

It's kinda a condition i had to agree to get support for this vacation.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2011 01:07

TheLing: Jul 20, 2008

Yeah, monday 9pm is when they have their show, no shows on sunday and tuesday if i remember right

Next question: what are the gun laws in Nevada like? i've never held a gun or actually even seen an unholstered one in real life, can i just go to a range and shoot a few clips into a target?

# ¿ Nov 14, 2011 09:23

TheLing: Jul 20, 2008

I'm more intrested in being able to unload a clip or two of a rented gun into a target, since i know thats prettymuch never going to happen back home unless i go to military service

# ¿ Nov 14, 2011 21:17

TheLing: Jul 20, 2008

Well, the FAQ in the first website answered all the other questions i might have had, totally adding that to the list of locations i'm visiting, Thank you!

Just a bit under 2 weeks until plane leaves, can't wait!

# ¿ Nov 14, 2011 22:07

TheLing: Jul 20, 2008

luminalflux posted:

Don't. Jet lag will screw you and you'll wake up at 3am and be a zombie for the rest of the week.
Call your folks and then hit the strip, get stupid drunk, pass out and then wake up at 6am because timezones. I did this. Worked out great, my friends tried to do what you want to do and ended up hating themselves.

Plus it's saturday in vegas, who the gently caress wants to miss that? That's when all the action is.

edit: Internet in the rooms is crazy expensive, like $25 for poo poo wifi that keeps dropping out.

Fashion Show Mall, Planet Hollywood, Caesars, Bellagio... every drat casino has shopping in some form. I took a cab out to some outlet mall place that kinda blew but my swedish friends wanted to go to.

re: EU Debit cards.
They work in ATMs, but better to change a fuckton of money ahead of time since the ATMs in the casinos charge like 5% for cash withdrawals, plus who knows what rate your bank will give you. Get a credit card anyway, since they work better with hotel reservations (A large reserve for a hotel room will gently caress with your bank account, whereas it doesn't affect you as much with a credit card).

A VISA debit card looks more or less like a credit card to the processing system.

I've already got myself a visa credit card with 1000e limit for the trip and i'll be using that to pay for everything i can, i also forexed a few hundred in cash just incase.

The internet might be expensive (i think i checked it to be around 13ish dollars per day) but calling home according my phone companys rates can be up to like one euro per minute

And as for the first night i guess we'll see what will happen.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2011 19:41

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 17:02

TheLing: Jul 20, 2008

Thanks for all the advice, i just returned from my trip this morning.
Managed to go do most of the things i wanted and i only exceeded my budget slightly.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2011 10:48

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tourism & Travel > Las Vegas?