Las Vegas, USA

Nobody plans a Las Vegas trip around the airport, but the airport is where the first surprise happens. It’s called Harry Reid International now, not McCarran, a name change that’s been official since 2021 and yet still trips up half the guidebooks. Bigger surprise: there’s no curbside rideshare pickup. Uber and Lyft collect from inside the parking garages, Terminal 1 via the Level 2 bridge at Door 2, Terminal 3 near Doors 52, 54, or 56, and every ride carries a flat $4.50 airport fee on top of the fare. Figure $20 to $35 to reach the middle of the Strip. Taxis wait outside baggage claim and run the meter, and a few drivers will “long-haul” you through the I-215 tunnel to inflate that meter. Say you want Swenson Street or Paradise Road and the trick stops working.

Picking a neighborhood matters more than picking a hotel

The Strip stretches about 4.2 miles, which sounds walkable until you’re doing it at 2pm in July. Break it into zones and plan around them rather than treating “the Strip” as one destination. South Strip properties like Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, and MGM Grand sit closest to the airport and skew toward value and families. The center, home to Bellagio, Caesars Palace, the Cosmopolitan, and Paris, is the most walkable stretch and also the most expensive. The north end, where Wynn, Encore, the Venetian, and the newer Fontainebleau sit near the Sphere, feels calmer but adds real walking time to everything else. Downtown and Fremont Street are a different city entirely: cheaper, neon-drenched, and by most gamblers’ accounts a better place to actually win something. If your idea of Vegas is old casino grit rather than a shopping mall with slot machines, spend a night there.

Actually getting between these zones

The monorail sounds like the obvious answer and only tells half the story: it runs the east side of the Strip from MGM Grand to the SAHARA, seven stops, for $5.50 online or $13.45 for a full day. It never touches Bellagio, Caesars, or Wynn, so treat it as a shortcut for one side of the street, not a full transit plan. The Deuce bus covers the whole Strip plus downtown for $4 (two hours) or $8 (24 hours) and runs constantly, just slowly. Free trams link Mandalay Bay, Excalibur, and Luxor on one loop, and Bellagio, CityCenter, and Park MGM on another, both genuinely handy and zero cost. On a big event weekend, a rideshare across the street can take longer than legs would.

Shows, wheels, and one giant sphere

Cirque du Soleil still anchors the show scene, with multiple productions running at once, and Le Rêve at Wynn remains the aquatic-acrobatic option if you want something wetter. The newer marquee attraction is the Sphere, whose “Postcard from Earth” film runs about 50 minutes with haptic seating and typically costs $114 to $191 once the roughly $22 in fees lands on top of face value. It’s worth doing once, but go in expecting a visual spectacle rather than a story-driven show; concert residencies booked into the same venue often cost more still. The High Roller observation wheel at the LINQ has historically priced around $25 to $35, so check the current rate before booking. The Bellagio fountains remain free and choreographed every 15 to 30 minutes, no ticket required, which after the Sphere’s price tag feels like a small act of mercy.

Food, and why “eat at the buffet for value” is now bad advice

That used to be reliable advice. It isn’t anymore. Vegas buffets have been closing at a steady clip, and MGM Grand’s, Luxor’s, and Paris’s are all gone. What survives as of mid-2026 includes Bacchanal at Caesars Palace (excellent, and priced at $55 to $90 or more), Wynn’s buffet, Bellagio’s, Circus Circus for a budget-friendly option, Excalibur, and the Cosmopolitan’s Wicked Spoon, though that one is brunch-only now, 8am to 2pm. At those prices, a solid sit-down meal frequently beats the buffet on cost, quality, and the amount of regret involved. If you want cheap and good instead of pricey and mediocre, drive off-Strip to Lotus of Siam for Thai food, or grab In-N-Out near the Strip for an $8 to $12 combo that won’t wreck your day.

The costs nobody puts on the brochure

Resort fees are mandatory at nearly every Strip property, added at checkout, typically $45 to $60 or more per night, and no amount of complaining at the front desk makes them optional. Parking has also largely stopped being free; expect $15 to $25 for 24-hour self-parking and $40 to $50 a day for valet, with MGM properties among the few still waiving self-park fees for guests. Casino floor ATMs charge $5 to $8 or more per withdrawal, so walk to a bank ATM instead. The gambling age is 21, smoking is still permitted on many casino floors, and if a promoter on the sidewalk offers you a “free” nightclub entry, assume there’s a commission-driven bottle minimum waiting on the other side.

If you have a spare day

Grand Canyon West, with its glass Skywalk, sits about two to two and a half hours away and is the only rim that works as a genuine day trip. The South Rim, the postcard version most people picture, is 4.5 to 5 hours one way, essentially an overnight commitment, so don’t let a tour brochure convince you it’s a day excursion. Hoover Dam is the quick win at roughly 45 minutes and pairs naturally with Lake Mead. Valley of Fire, an hour northeast, delivers red sandstone scenery in half a day. Save Death Valley, at two-plus hours away, for cooler months; summer heat there is genuinely dangerous.

Rent a car only if day trips are on the agenda. If you’re staying on the Strip the whole time, the car becomes a $40-a-day parking receipt you never needed.