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Tags: Dudes in Vegas / Survival Strategies / Bachelor Parties / → All Tags
How to Not Be 'That Guy' On Your Bachelor Trip To Vegas
The boys are coming to Vegas. Whether it’s a bachelor party, divorce party, or a much needed weekend getaway, the plans are underway and the gang is pumped.
Everyone has their ideal Vegas: a favorite hotel, a lucky craps table, a must hit pool. After weeks of planning and booking the ultimate trip, don’t be THAT GUY.
That guy is the one who:
· Tries to Skimp on The Hotel Room: Don't be that guy who continues to seek out the cheapest deal and sends a daily email with ten reasons you should consider re-booking at the $20 per hour Motel Unknown. Dude, we know the economy sucks, but the guys are staying on the Strip. In a gaming hotel. Without six guys and cots in one room.
Tags: Survival Strategies / Restaurants / Dining Alone / → All Tags
Five Places to Dine and Drink When You're a Party of One
The Pizza Place at the Wynn.
Fabulous Las Vegas is always more fabulous when you're with someone like your schmoopie or when you're with a group of someones--college buddies, bachelorette parties, hired escorts new friends or even your family.
But given the amount of convention business that still goes on in this city (despite what Prez Obama decreed in early '09), there are lots of Vegas visitors who are flying solo...traveling with a party of one...using the handle lonelyguy (or lonelygal) or hanging with their three best friends--me, myself and I. And believe it or not, there are the occasional visitors who come to Vegas alone--because they want to.
In fact, VegasChatter is actually alone most of the day. We're usually prowling the Strip by ourselves, checking into hotel rooms all by our lonesome and eating meals with no one there to point out the spinach in our teeth.
It sounds sad but we're used to it and this being Vegas, there's no shortage of people to meet. We've put together a quick of list our tried and true hits for when dining or drinking alone. The criteria for this list is good food, good people-watching, close to the casino action and full menu service at the bar. So give our list a read-through and then put your own favorite spots for solo dining in comments below.
Tags: March Madness / Gambling / Bets / Sports Books / Survival Strategies / → All Tags
Betting on March Madness: Vegas Secrets to Bracketology
Buckle up, sports bettors—save for Super Bowl Sunday, there’s no better time to hit Las Vegas sports books than the annual National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament, which starts with a play-in game on March 16.
This ritual, known as March Madness, plays out over the course of three weeks every spring, and pits the 65 best teams in the country against each other for a shot at the national title.
The 2010 national championship game is April 5, but the best part of the tournament is the first full weekend—March 18-21. Sports fans like this weekend because 48 of the tournament’s 64 games take place over four days, providing virtually non-stop tailgate-like excitement in the books. Bettors like these matchups because, inevitably, oddsmakers undervalue certain teams, providing ample opportunities to strike it rich.
We won’t waste this space to tell you where to watch the games (after all, we’ve already rated the best sports books in town). We will, however, provide you with five important pointers on how to get the most out of your March Madness experience, and how to ensure that the ritual doesn’t leave you, well, mad.
Tags: Snapshot / Souvenir Drinks / Survival Strategies / Oversized Drinks / Paris / Drinking / → All Tags
Drinking the Eiffel Tower Actually Deserves A Little Respect
Drinking the Eiffel Tower under the Eiffel Tower. See what we did there?
Ever wandered along the Strip and looked down on the people guzzling away at their Eiffel/Stratosphere towers as if their lives depended on it? So have we, friends. So have we. But however much we told ourselves souvenir drinks are so touristy and so trashy and so ghastly, there was always a little part of us despo to try it out ourselves. So when we got the occasion to indulge in some Stripside drinking thanks to our stay at Caesars last week, we knew exactly what we’d be chugging. And it would be 12 inches and shaped like the Eiffel Tower.
And now we’ve done it, we can say how harshly we judged imbibers in the past. Because it takes a lot of guts to drink an Eiffel Tower and risk throwing those same guts out the next morning. It requires strength – both physical and mental. And finishing it is a feat on a par with the finals of the Nathan’s hot dog contest.
Tags: Tweet of the Weekend / Twitter / Survival Strategies / Driving / Parking / → All Tags
Tweet of the Weekend: When People Make It Hard For Themselves
Many people got trashed in Vegas this weekend, and lots of them told the world about it. So, every Monday we’re bringing you our favourite tweet of the weekend. And don’t forget to follow us at @vegaschatter.
As you’d know if you’d been following our Twitter feed on Saturday night, we decided to stump up the readies to spend a night with Mariah Carey. We weren’t disappointed by the concert, or the drunkest girl ever who, on leaving the Colosseum, fell down the stairs, broke her glass, belched loudly and then announced to the staircase “that’s what happens when you’re drunk”.
Personally, we weren’t disappointed by the journey out, either, since we’d parked at the Mirage and walked over to the Colosseum. But by the looks of Twitter, not everyone was as savvy as us. Take @itsAlexScott, for example:
Tags: Snapshot / Hoover Dam / Video / Do Not Do / Road Trips / Driving / Survival Strategies / → All Tags
This is Why You Shouldn’t Drive to Vegas Via the Hoover Dam on a Weekend
Don’t get us wrong. We love crossing the Hoover Dam and all. It’s beautiful, spectacular, a testament to man’s ingenuity etc etc (plus we always think of the scene at the beginning of Goldeneye, and we love a good Bond film). As the guy beside us in the video here puts it so eloquently, it’s an “intense dam”. But much as we love it, we wouldn’t want to queue for hours to get over it.
Tags: Snapshot / Paris / Technology / Survival Strategies / → All Tags
Looking For the Restroom? Paris Makes It Easy
With its cobbles and its boulevards and all its signs in French (le concierge, anyone?), Paris can be a confusing place. And nobody wants to be confused when they’re looking for the toily, so we were relieved (hur hur) to see this interactive Directory of Bathrooms the other day.
It’s not just a directory of bathrooms, though; no, there’s listings and maps of the whole property, covering dining, entertainment, nightlife, gaming, spa and shopping, convention rooms and hotel services as well. It’s touchscreen, so you just press the one you want, and it takes you to the map, and your nearest facility. Sorted!
Tags: Sportsbooks / Survival Strategies / Super Bowl / March Madness / → All Tags
The Five Best Sports Books in Las Vegas for 2010
Now that it's winter, it’s high time to head to a Las Vegas sports book. Between The Super Bowl and March Madness, there’s no shortage of reasons to spend inordinate amounts of time in these gambling Meccas.
In addition to being the best places to bet on sports, books are arguably the biggest and baddest sports bars in town—the perfect spot to grab a cold one (or six) and sit back to watch your team bring it home.
Not all sports books, however, are created equal. We created a list of the best Vegas venues to place your sports bets back in 2005, but this is a different city in 2010. Places have changed and so has the technology.
So after years of taking points, giving points, parlaying and teasing, yours truly has pulled together this list of the best of the best. Here are the Best Five Sports Books in town, with a rundown on what makes each of them worth your time.
Tags: Snapshot / McCarran / Car Rental / Do Not Do / Survival Strategies / → All Tags
You'll Get a Good Price At Dollar Car Rental, But Go to the Bathroom First
Look at this scene: Dollar Rentacar, McCarran Airport. Pretty nice, right? Not much of a queue, four staff doling out the cars, and even a TV screen to watch while you wait playing the latest DVD releases. What’s not to like?
Well, the fact that they’re the only car rental station that we could see in the airport with a TV screen probably should have been a warning sign. A warning sign that read: “Warning: you will probably get really into this film because you will watch about half of it before you get served.”
No exaggeration - we waited about 45 minutes when we arrived the week before last. We took the picture as we left – on arrival, the queue was 15 deep, and with only a few of those tills manned, it took eons to get served.
Meanwhile, every other car rental place was deserted. When we finally got to the front of the queue, we asked why the world and his wife seemed to be renting with Dollar that afternoon, and were told it was always like that, “because our rates are so competitive.”
True, they did give us the best deal of the lot, but we probably would have shelled out $10 more if it meant skipping this. If you’re in a hurry, we’d suggest renting from someone else. But if saving your pennies is what you’re after, we suggest you might like to go to the bathroom and spend one before you start the slog. Your bladder will definitely be full by the time you reach the front.
Tags: Resort Fees / Westin Casuarina / MGM Mirage / Harrahs / Survival Strategies / → All Tags
Hotel Resort Fees: A Disturbing and Annoying Upward Trend in Las Vegas
We were pleased to see that the M Resort has finally done away with the $25 resort fee. However, it's a different story over at MGM Mirage properties which either introduced new fees at properties or bumped them up.
In fact, resort fees are now common on the Strip thanks to MGM's bold move. So much so that Harrahs properties (Caesars Palace, Rio's, Paris) are trying to distinguish themselves from the rest by calling out "No Resort Fees!" under their hotel listings on Expedia.
So we figured it was time to update our resort fee list from last Summer.
These resort fees listed are per night and do not include taxes. Yup, that's right. You gotta pay taxes on those fees.
Inherently, resort fees are rip-offs but the Vegas ones seem egregious like charging you for incoming faxes and local phone calls. Hello, when was the last time you needed to receive a fax in your hotel room? Also, you have a cell phone. You're not making local phone calls.
Some fees are tolerable, especially when they include internet and the use of the fitness center which a la carte would cost more than the resort fee. Yet while that's convenient for business travelers, folks coming to party on the weekends are still getting screwed.
Sigh. This is just another reminder that it's the casino's world and we're just living in it. If you're averse to paying resort fees, avoid these hotels below.
Our complete list of hotels with resort fee on The Strip in Las Vegas is after the jump.
Tags: Snapshot / Excalibur / Technology / Survival Strategies / → All Tags
Got Drunk, Forgot to Charge Your Phone? Excalibur To The Rescue
How good is this? We went into the Excalibur the other day to see if, like our commenter VegasVeteran, we’d be stopped from taking photos. Luckily for us, nobody batted an eyelid, even when we were snapping away on the casino floor (which makes the Luxor ban even weirder).
And good thing they didn’t, else we wouldn’t have been able to take this picture of the Automated Charging Machine by (what passes for) the Business Center round the back of the casino.
For $5, the ACM promises to charge your iPod, Blackberry, cellphone “and more” by up to 60% in just 10 minutes. So instead of remembering to charge up before you go to sleep (we understand habits go out the window in Vegas), you can get drunk without worrying, and come here the next day.
The geek in us loves the all the little leads they’ve got going on here:
The only problem is where to stand while you’re charging up. The Business Center is pretty gross, and the casino isn’t a whole lot better. But then again, it’s 10 minutes. A beer will see you through that easily.
Tags: Free WiFi / CES / Survival Strategies / → All Tags
More Places to Log On Without Paying Up
We hope you brought your wireless card with you.
If you're headed to Vegas this weekend for CES or the Adult Entertainment Expo, chances are you're gonna need a WiFi connection for all your uploading, downloading, Twittering, Facebooking, blogging, and other, ahem, recreational activities.
The bad news is that in the privacy of your hotel room, expect to pay at least $10 a day to sign on. Sadly, there really no hotels where in-room WiFi is free. There are, however, plenty of public options. You just have to know where to look.
Our big sis HotelChatter has culled together a list of tried and true WiFi hotspots on the strip based on our own experiences as well as the knowledge of Vegas expert @24K aka Chris Rauschnot, who is constantly up and down the Strip reporting on the scene--all from his cellphone.
So the next time you find yourself in Vegas for a conference or just some good old debauchery, here's where you can get connected.
Are you reading this from a free WiFi spot in Vegas right now? Tell us where you're at.
