Vegas suggestions?

Not Lords of Vegas, not Vegas Showdown...the actual city.

My wife and I will be there Wed-Sun, and are looking for a few suggestions. We're seeing some shows ("Pin-Up" and Penn & Teller), going down to Hoover Dam, the Mob Museum, Atomic Testing Museum, Pinball Hall of Fame, KISS Mini-Golf...

She's a vegetarian (and I am decidedly not), so more restaurant suggestions would be fantastic, too.

Plus, I'm free Saturday night (she's going to a bachelorette party), so anything that a single dude can do without looking like a lone nut is also appreciated.

The light show on Fremont Street, held after dark, every hour on the hour, is worth seeing. One of the few free things you can do there.

If you are a drinking man, get to a PAI-GOW table. It takes forever to lose your money, and the dealer is obliged to play optimally on your behalf. You can just chill out and slowly lose your money as you elevate your BAC. And you can't even drunkplay your money down faster!

If you don't drink, go play CRAPS. Bet the pass line to hoot with everyone. Switch to the Don't Come line to become the table bad guy. It's incredibly fun.

i can't get enough poker when I'm in that city. you should sign you and your wife up for a nice small intimate and friendly tournament somewhere. That's always a blast. The other person cheers for the other if you get busted.

the buffet at the Rio is insane. It'll be perfect for both of you.

i would obviously recommend my favourite burger joint, the In & Out Burger on your way out of the city but veggies no likey

that's all I do in Vegas. I've been four times I think and it's usually the same routine.

1. Fremont Street. You must see this; it's the old strip and it's pretty neat. Lots of cheap stuff to do, free street performances. Lots of freaks.

2. Cirque du Soleil "Ka" at the pirate themed place 5 mins off the strip. Best show I've ever seen.

3. In the Hollywood casino there's a restaurant on the mezzanine. Forget the name but they have everything from Vegan to steak. Really great food, not too horribly pricy.

4. superflycircus.blogspot.com/2010/04/las-...-damned-or-just.html

You're not there for the SHOT show are you?

Oh yes, In-N-Out Burger is fantastic.

If you make it to East Fremont St (not under the roof) there's a Martini Glass and Red Shoe...My company made those.

My girls and I were there for a few days before Christmas, and among other things went to the Mandalay Bay place, which is kind of a mini Sea World type thing with sharks and bat rays and such. We also saw Penn & Teller, which was awesome.

If you're going for cheap stuff, there are some fun free shows every 15 minutes at Circus Circus.

Fremont Street is cool.

SuperflyTNT wrote: You're not there for the SHOT show are you?

Nope, we'd been talking about going for a while, and her teammate having her bachelorette party this Saturday pulled the trigger for us.

I've been numerous times (for the GAMA Trade Show and for Rollercon, but there's not a lot of leaving the Bally's or Riviera complexes, respectively), but she's never been.

Grudunza wrote: If you're going for cheap stuff, there are some fun free shows every 15 minutes at Circus Circus.

Heh, I did make it there last time I went, because I wanted to play the clown-balloon-waterpistol game from Diamonds are Forever.

I haven't been in a long time...but yeah, Fremont Street. OLD Vegas. It's where the OLD casinos are, where you can see pensioners plugging at slots all day drinking well drinks. Not the "beautiful people" of the strip. The Golden Nugget, Binyon's Horseshoe...good stuff.

There was this joint there on Fremont called Mermaids. Place was RATCHET as hell. But it was awesome. The waitresses all wore mermaid outfits. The ceiling was leaking onto a bank of slots so they had trash bags draped over them (of course I had to play those machines, lost anyway). I saw no less than three waitresses finishing drinks left by patrons. Oh, and the food. Some monstrosity called a "Greek hot dog". Deep fried twinkies. Deep fried Ho-Hos. Deep fried oreos. I seriously doubt the place is still there. But it was a blast.

Caesar's was pretty cool, my wife hit a $4000 slots jackpot there, Caesar came out and all that. MGM was alright. Mandalay Bay was good. Didn't see Circus Circus or Excalibur.

We didn't have any trouble eating...there's something vegetarian pretty much anywhere you go. But if you go to one of the big buffets like at the Parisian, see if they'll cut you a discount since you're not going to the carving station and all that. Frankly, all of that buffet/tourist food is trash. There is a TON of good food in Vegas, lots of chef-run joints. Of course, $$$, so there's that. But it is worth spending some money to hit a couple of nice places.

Actually, one of the best places we ate at was this Mediterranean joint way off the strip...can't remember what it was called, might have been Cedar Tree or something like that. We also ate at a place that claimed it was the top-rated Thai place in the US. It sucked. Completely slammed, waited forever, and had Thai food that was about like any place in Atlanta.

Do get off the strip. Go out into the desert. Go up into the Sierra Nevadas. The best times I had in Vegas were AWAY from all of the hullaballoo. Granted, we had a friend that lived there that could get us away from the strip and into the better, "locals" sort of stuff.

Heh, my wife won SO MUCH FREAKING MONEY while we were there...I was at GAMA, and she'd call and say "I hit another jackpot". She was hitting SLOTS jackpots, repeatedly. So we had all of this money. Then I started to play, and I may as well have laid $500 on the roulette table and walked away. When I realized that we had LOST a bunch of money (which we didn't have when we got there), I got pissed because I didn't really get that's how it works there. Our trip wound up with me winning about $20 playing this Star Wars penny slot at our hotel. I blew up the Death Star.

jeb wrote: If you are a drinking man, get to a PAI-GOW table. It takes forever to lose your money, and the dealer is obliged to play optimally on your behalf. You can just chill out and slowly lose your money as you elevate your BAC. And you can't even drunkplay your money down faster!

If you don't drink, go play CRAPS. Bet the pass line to hoot with everyone. Switch to the Don't Come line to become the table bad guy. It's incredibly fun.

An alternative to this: have a seat at a bar in a casino that has video poker.

In most spots, as long as you drop at least $10 into the machine your drinks are comped just like on the floor. Video poker is an easy play and a slow way to lose money, and since you are right at the bar your glass will get refilled the moment it goes empty- no waiting for a someone to stop by for your order.

My Vegas must-do list:

Mandalay Bay breakfast buffet
dinner at the Wicked Spoon in the Cosmopolitan
dinner at the buffet in the Paris
shop at the outlet mall just away from the strip, out past Mandalay.
the rollercoaster at New York New York is fun if you've never done it

Have fun, I'm jealous. It's been too long since I've been back.

It's been a while since I've been to Vegas, but most of the big casinos that I saw on the south end of the Strip had sports books and keno parlors. If you're wanting to do nothing at the machines or tables you can get smashed while betting on horse races or basketball games. Or if that's too exciting, play keno.

Penn and Teller did not disappoint, and had me excitedly laughing in spite of myself. I thought the Hoover damn was pretty cool too.

If you want to add a rich layer of weird, urban occultism to the whole experience and learn a lot of the history, read Tim Powers' Last Call before you go.

goo.gl/kDILSo

SuperflyTNT wrote: 2. Cirque du Soleil "Ka" at the pirate themed place 5 mins off the strip. Best show I've ever seen.

Ka's actually held at the MGM Grand. But it is incredible.