Cheap Las Vegas Hotels

Lance Burton

April 19th, 2009

You can’t come to Las Vegas and NOT see magic. While magic is all around Vegas, Lance Burton has done a fantastic job of bringing the Magic of Las Vegas together into a full show spectacular. The Monte Carlo has had the pleasure of being called home to Lance Burton for ten years. And Lance has provided Las Vegas with one of the most popular and longest running magic acts ever. One visit to his show and you won’t wonder why. Lance answer’s the audiences longing for “classic” magic. He remains a favorite in the hearts of fans all over the globe as a classic magician. His full tuxedo gains him instant respect at the beginning of his show. His breathtaking sleight of hand is fast. His dexterity is unbelievable. Objects appear, disappear, and reappear again. He tears down paper and it reassembles right in front of your eyes. Birds come from no where and vanish into thin air only to show up somewhere else again.

While this part of the act is always a favorite, it only gets better. Burton takes the whole audience through a journey. A journey that jumps right in to magic and what magic is all about. Lance Burton is a extroverted personality and is instantly loved by the entire audience. His jokes and southern charm force you to smile and love him.

Lance takes everything one step farther than what you would expect a magician to. He doesn’t just vanish his assistants, he vanishes himself as well. He is constantly making people and things disappear only to show up in an unexpected place, like the back of the theatre, etc. He turns a woman into a solid gold statue. He causes his assistant to mysteriously rise up into the rafters. He then goes one step farther again and he himself flies up into air.

One lucky audience member (or maybe not so lucky) takes a ride in a car with one flaw – it disappears… with the poor audience member INSIDE IT! Just when you think you have a trick or illusion figured out, he proves you wrong. This is a magician that keeps you on the edge of your seat and guessing all night long, only to come out wrong in the end!

Kids aren’t forgotten either. Children are invited up onto the stage to help Lance with certain areas of the show. Children will go away with a bit of magic that will stick with them for the rest of their life. Such is the same with Mr. Burton himself. When he was pulled onto stage by another magician as a child, he knew then that magic was going to be his life. The spirit of magic is contagious and you will know this to be true when you leave Lances show.

Burton has been features as a signature act in the Folies Bergere and has been a Las Vegas icon ever since. He had his own show at the Hacienda Hotel and finally singed a thirteen year contract with the Monte Carlo in 1996.

Tags: lance burton, Las Vegas
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A Las Vegas Icon – Cher

April 19th, 2009

Honestly, can ANYONE hear the name Cher and not scream? At least a little… inside maybe? When you think of Cher you think of over the top, grandiose, and majestic designs. That is exactly what you will get when you’re sitting in the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. The show is entitled “Cher.” And that is exactly what it’s all about – Cher. A true performer for forty years, Cher treats her audience members to flashy sets, some of the most impressive costumes in all of Las Vegas, and sound and music design that will have you hearing Cher for the rest of the year!

Cher has been a music icon since 1964 when she debuted as a solo artist. Since then, she has sold over one hundred million records in forty years making her one of the greatest and most popular female artists in the world-wide history of music. Since 1969 Cher has been playing the Las Vegas strip. She and her late husband Sonny Bono played as the opening act for Pat Boone and also played the Sahara all throughout the 70s. Cher has been a regular performer at Caesars Palace since the late seventies as well.

Cher starts by knocking your socks off with an entrance from forty feet above your head in a stunning gold costume that will make your jaw hit the ground before she lands. The audience is taken down a trip to memory lane when Cher starts a monologue similar to those on “The Sonny and Cher Show.” Such favorites like “I Found Someone” are performed and also “Love is a Battlefield.”

In all of the show there are one hundred and forty costume changes between Cher herself and all of the performers. Its no wonder costume designer Mackie has been appropriately nicknamed the Sultan of Sequins. You will see more costumes and wigs in this show than probably your entire visit to Las Vegas. At one point four assistants help Cher change outfits and the entire change is done in less than two minutes!

Consume changes allow the audience to view some of the vintage footage of Cher with her late husband Sonny, as well as her own acting career. The thirty four foot tall, one hundred and nine foot LED screen is a site to see alone!

Cher takes the audience to the Grand Canyon with clothes in it… a term appropriately used to describe her closet. She shows all sorts of costumes and clothing she has had over the last forty years. A visit to the seventies, a disco ball, and a light up costume pave the way for songs like “I Got You Babe” and “Don’t Leave Me This Way.”

Cher, her cast of eighteen talented dancers and aerialists, and a talented five piece band all work together like clockwork to keep the audiences’ hands together and up and down out of their seats. Arguably the biggest hit of her career, the hit song “Believe” is reserved for the shows finale, and an overwhelmed audience rises to their feet begging for more. If you miss this show, you miss what Las Vegas is all about.

Tags: Ceasers Palace, Cher, Las Vegas
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Phantom! – The Las Vegas Spectacular!

April 19th, 2009

What gets people most riled up about the newest spin on the classic “Phantom of the Opera?” How about the rumors that first began to spread through Las Vegas of a forty million dollar custom theater that was specifically designed for it’s newest show, “Phantom – The Las Vegas Spectacular.” While rumor spread of this fantastic new show coming to the Venetian, production insiders informed Vegas that the show was edgy, but still maintained the integrity of Andrew Lloyd Webbers, original Broadway show. In fact Andrew Lloyd Webber, along with other members of the original Broadway hit, like director Hal Prince, and choreographer Gilliam Lynne, helped to develop “Phantom – The Las Vegas Spectacular.” The biggest difference from the original hit “Phantom of the Opera,” are the elaborate new set, special effects of today’s time, and the 1,800 seat theater that is a spectacle in and of itself.

Renowned architect David Rockwell was employed to design the Phantom Theatre which took eleven months to fully build. This amazing theatre features plush red seats and curtains, gold statues and carving, opera boxes lining the sides and a hand painted topped with an eighty foot wide dome. The star of the show, the chandelier, weighs over two THOUSAND pounds and has a price tag of over four million dollars. It has almost thirty thousand individual crystals that were strung by hand.

At some point during the show, the chandelier falls almost on top of the audience below. You will feel the wind from the fall hit your face. This usually causes a scream or two and stir from the audience.

The audience will enjoy real fireworks that go off outside the theatre during certain parts of the show. The show features several fire illusions and the show actually has two pyro-technicions on staff.

The phantom audience will see one of the largest stages to ever grace Las Vegas measuring sixty feet by fifty feet. The stage also has special CO2 fog machines used during the lake scene. With a full team of almost one hundred and twenty people, you better hold on to your seat, because this is a show like no other!

For those that have never seen the original phantom show, it is a tale of unrequited love from the famous novel by Gaston Leroux. Christine Daae is an aspiring opera singer who is tutored by a mysterious man. She believes the man to be her “angle of music,” sent by the spirit of her deceased father. The man turns out to be the Phantom of the Opera, a disfigured man living beneath the opera house. The story twists when the Phantom falls in love with Christine, but she decides to marry her childhood sweetheart. Love is challenged and hearts are broken. Who does Christine choose? Will the music give her the answer? Will the Phantom of the Opera ever know love? There is only one way to find out. Don’t miss “Phantom – The Las Vegas Spectacular.”

Tags: las vegas shows, las vegas spectacular, Phantom las vegas
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Finding a cheap las vegas hotel

April 5th, 2009

Since very few of us have a travel budget that qualifies as “unlimited,” you are going to want to snag the best (read: least expensive) rate you can for your hotel room during your vacation so you can enjoy yourself and spend more money on fun than a place to sleep. There are many ways to go about getting a great rate on a great Las Vegas hotel, and making use of them will land you the cheap Las Vegas hotel you’ve been looking for.

The following tips could prove invaluable to you, so as you plan your next trip to Sin City, keep them in mind while you hunt down and book your hotel:

Go for off peak times. If you book your room during an off peak time for the hotel, you are much more likely to get a cheaper rate than the standard “rack rate.” “Rack rate” refers to the maximum amount of what you would pay if you just walked in off the Strip and asked for somewhere to sleep. By choosing an off peak time and booking your trip ahead, you will bypass the rack rate and get a better deal. Off peak for many Strip hotels is considered to be Sunday through Thursday nights, as well as during the summer months, the weeks leading up to Christmas, and the weeks directly after Christmas. For other hotels – the business and convention hotels – off peak times are the weekends, since conventions and business events are generally held on weekdays.
Make use of a membership card. If you are a member of AAA, AARP, any corporate rewards programs, a credit card rewards program, a frequent flier program, or anything else along these lines, make sure to mention this when you book your room. It may turn out to be worth decent discount depending on which membership you have.
Go for an older hotel. It’s no secret that Las Vegas is a city full of the wow factor, and hotels compete fiercely with each other for clientèle. New hotels are generally much more flashy than the older hotels, and you will find that they are also much more expensive. If you go for an older hotel, they will make up for being in the less flashy department by offering better room rates.
Go low key. For a lot of people, the hotels in Las Vegas are the attractions themselves – casinos, fountains, shows, other entertainment. But just because a certain hotel has something you want to see does not mean you have to stay in that hotel to enjoy it. Instead, you can book a cheaper room off the Strip and head over to the fancy place to take in the show. You save money and still get to do what you wanted to do in the first place – a win-win situation all around.

Planning is key when you want to get a good deal on a cheap Las Vegas hotel, so do your research before you book and you will find it won’t cost you an arm and a leg to head out to Sin City after all.

Tags: cheap las vegas hotels, cheap vegas hotels, las vegas deals
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Cheap Las Vegas Hotel Options

March 29th, 2009

Cheap Las Vegas Hotels

A trip to Las Vegas does not have to cost you an arm and a leg (unless you have a gambling habit and aren’t very good at it, of course!). It takes a little planning and forethought, but if you are armed with both, you can take a great vacation to Las Vegas, see everything you want to see, do everything you want to do, and stay in a nice place while you’re doing it without breaking the bank entirely.

Room prices in Las Vegas fluctuate often and can vary wildly, so this is where the forethought part comes in. If you have a certain time frame in mind for your trip but the prices you find for the hotel rooms are outrageous, check the prices on the surrounding dates. You just might find that the rates are drastically lower. The reason for this is that Las Vegas is a city that hosts tons of conventions throughout the year, and when one is in town, rooms will be scarce and expensive if you are not one of the people attending any of the conventions. When the convention is over, then the room prices will be much more reasonable, and this is especially true of hotels on the Strip.

As a general rule, room rates are higher on Friday and Saturday nights. As another general rule, room rates are lower Monday through Wednesday. If you aren’t locked into having to go on a weekend, and you aren’t locked into having to go on a particular time, being flexible about when you visit can really help you nail down a low room rate.

For those of us on a budget, the Imperial Palace is a great hotel to stay in. It is not the fanciest place in town, but it is located in the middle of the Strip so you have easy access to all of the surrounding attractions. The rooms are nice and clean and feature walk out balconies, and the room rates are very reasonable. Add that to the low table minimums they offer, and you have an all around winner of a cheap Las Vegas hotel. However, if you are traveling with kids, and want a hotel that will be more amenable to them, Circus Circus is a great kid friendly hotel with reasonable rates.

If you have your heart set on a certain hotel that is not exactly in the “budget” category, you can still often get a better rate anyway. Rather than just accepting the “rack rate,” ask for a discount. The “rack rate” refers to how much you would pay for a hotel room if you just walked in off the street and asked for a room. Since you will be planning your trip in advance because you are a smart traveler, you can score a better deal by shopping around and then calling the hotels themselves to ask the manager about a better deal. More likely than not, they will be happy to hook you up!

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Get Rated For A Cheap Las Vegas Hotel

March 28th, 2009

Cheap Las Vegas Hotels

It is no secret that hotels in Las Vegas can get pricey. If you would like to plan a trip to Las Vegas but are on something of a budget, don’t worry – it is possible to get some fantastic deals on hotels, food and more anyway. One way to go about doing it is to get “rated.”

Most Las Vegas hotels have several different tiers for their room rates. One tier is the “rack rate.” The rack rate refers to the price you would pay if you just wandered in off the Strip and asked for a place to stay. The rack rate is not going to be the least expensive room rate in the hotel, but fortunately for you, people rarely end up paying that rack rate, and you aren’t likely going to have to, either. Instead, you should aim for the “casino rate,” which will be considerably less – and could even lead to you getting your hotel room for free. Yes, you read that right – for free.

If you let the hotel know that you will be spending time in the hotel’s casino while you are there, you will likely be given a lower room rate. The hotel wants you to stay there and spend more money, so they are going to try to make that as easy as possible for you to do. Once you are there at the hotel, the absolute first thing you should do is get a players card from the casino. This is what is going to help you get free stuff, from rooms, to food, to room upgrades. The casino term for free stuff is “comps,” which is short for “complimentary.” When you are sitting at a gaming table and you are given a free drink, that’s a comp.

Players cards are often referred to as “slot cards,” but they are not only valuable for use at the slot machines. They are also good to have for the gaming tables themselves. The cards are what will get you the great free stuff, so make sure you use them and hang onto them. When you use a slot machine, insert the card into the machine BEFORE you start playing. When you’re done, don’t forget to take it with you, because it is recording your activity and lets the hotel know you are spending time in their casino, which they like.

If you gamble at any of the tables, put your card down on top of your chips when you sit down at the table. The dealer will give it to the pit boss or floor man, and they will set you up to get rated. You are rated on your average bets and how long you play, so try to be there for at least an hour. You do not have to be what’s considered a “high roller” to start getting comps, but anything less than ten dollar bets will be seen as a waste of time, as will you getting up and leaving a table after only 20 minutes.

After you’ve got all this activity recorded on your card, present it while you are planning your next visit, and depending on how much you’ve played, you may find you are offered a drastically reduced hotel room rate or even free nights – a great way to get a cheap Las Vegas hotel for your vacation.

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Best Time to Visit Las Vegas

March 28th, 2009

There is not really a bad time to visit Las Vegas on vacation, regardless of whether you want to go for the shopping, the shows, the gambling or all three. Las Vegas is a city that offers so many different options in terms of things to do, places to go, and things to see that you can find something to make your trip great no matter what time of year you decide to visit.

That being said, depending on the goal of your trip, there are some times that are better than others in terms of making your trip as pleasant and fun as possible for you, your family, or your travel companions. For example, if you are looking for cheap Las Vegas hotels, deals on shows, and more, you want to head out to the city during its off season. The off season in Las Vegas is admittedly a rather narrow time period, but worth aiming for if you want a great vacation for less. Hotel prices drop when the weather gets hot, so look to July and August. Hotel prices also tend to drop in January and February, since Christmas and New Year’s are very busy times for Las Vegas. In the ensuing drop off in people flocking to the city, you will find some great deals for your stay.

If your prime objective is to hit the casinos, you will find far fewer fellow tourists on the floor on a weekday than you will on a weekend. Weekends in Vegas can be a crowded affair, since many people come up from Los Angeles and other cities for a quick break. The only exception to this general rule is that if the hotel you have chosen to stay in is having a convention – then the place will be crawling with people. To avoid that, put in a call to the hotel before you make any concrete plans to see what they might have going on during your planned stay.

If gambling is your goal and crowds aren’t a problem, then the other best times to hit Las Vegas are during the Super Bowl or the opening weekend of March Madness. This is obviously the ideal time for sports fans, but even if you are not big on betting on games, you will still have a blast. Prices tend to ratchet up a little during this time, but since it’s also technically occurring during the off season, great deals can still be had if you look for them.

All in all, as said before, there is no real bad time to visit Las Vegas. It’s a city that was built to have a good time, and you will have one no matter when you decide to go. Even if you aren’t interested in gambling, and are there for the entertainment, most shows in Las Vegas run year round, so you should have no trouble there unless you really want to catch one of the seasonal holiday shows. Just keep in mind the goal of your trip and plan accordingly, and you will have the time of your life.

Tags: las vegas off-season
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Las Vegas Hotels Off the Strip

March 6th, 2009

There are many reasons to visit Las Vegas and not stay in a hotel on the Strip. For example, some people do it because they want to avoid the crowds and some people do it because they want to get a room for less. Some do it because they are not looking for the same type of Vegas experience the average tourist is looking for – they want a hotel and casino where the food is good but cheap, the gambling limits are low, and they are not likely to get overrun by 50 different bachelor parties or groups of college kids on Spring Break every five minutes. And some, of course, are looking for all of that.

One place to look for hotels off the Strip is the Downtown Las Vegas area, otherwise known as the Freemont Experience, but even then, you can run into many of the same “issues” you will find on the Strip. Instead, to find great accommodations for a great price and get a great experience in the process, look elsewhere entirely.

The hotels and casinos you can find off the Strip run the gamut from simple and functional to crazily ostentatious – sometimes, as in the case of the Palms or Hard Rock, even more flamboyant than anything you will find on the Strip anyway. Celebrities throng to the Hard Rock instead of a hotel on the Strip for that reason – it’s fun and much more fancy and over the top than what they will find on the Strip itself or Downtown. But for most tourists like yourself, that is not going to be the best bet for finding cheap Las Vegas hotel rooms.

If budget-friendly is your goal and you don’t really want a suite with a bathtub big enough to seat 40, have a look at other hotels like Boulder Station or Santa Fe Station, both owned by the same company. The rooms are cheap and clean and you will find easy access to the gambling floors, with low limits and less chance of being overrun by anyone. These hotels are not going to provide you with a ton of bells and whistles, but you will find them comfortable and affordable, leaving you with more extra money to spend at the tables, out seeing a show, eating at one of Vegas’ famed late night buffets, and shopping.

Of course, if you are looking for something more than the basics but do not have the money to shell out for a room at the very expensive off-Strip Marriott, the Rio is a great compromise. The Rio falls neatly into the “middle ground” area. It has low room rates but is also set up more like what people imagine a traditional Las Vegas hotel should be like, with more bells and whistles and perks than you’ll find at one of the Station hotels. Whatever your vacation goals are, you will be able to find a great place to stay without having to brave the Strip if you don’t want to, and it can be much easier on your bank balance in the process – a win-win situation!

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Get a Good Hotel Deal on the Vegas Strip

March 6th, 2009

Whenever you plan a trip or vacation, you want the best deal possible on your hotel accommodations, and this is certainly true when you are planning to hit Las Vegas, Nevada. With so much to see and do, not to mention the gambling, you want all the spare cash you can hang onto to do the fun stuff! And when one thinks of Las Vegas, they naturally think first of the Strip – that long shining street with all of the amazing, huge, fancy hotels and casinos. The Strip is where most of the action is to be found, and staying on the Strip ensures that you are right in the middle of everything so you can make the most of your trip and get the full Vegas experience.

Fortunately, “amazing, huge, and fancy” doesn’t also have to equal “outlandishly expensive.” While it is certainly true that many hotels and accommodations located on the Strip price somewhere in the “arm and a leg” range, you can still find some fantastic deals on great rooms so you can stay on the Strip without breaking the bank. The kind of deal you get and the kind of room you get will naturally depend on your own personal budget – what is inexpensive to some is not inexpensive to others – but if you are not really picky about exactly where you stay (after all, most of the fun of Vegas is to be found OUTSIDE your hotel room, anyway, right?) you can manage to save a big bundle on your room.

The first thing to do is check out the various tourism websites online to get an idea of what room prices are like. Often, you will find special deals online that give you a rate reduction for the room or some kind of package that makes up the difference and makes the room rate worth it. For example, a slightly more expensive room package that includes several meal coupons and some show tickets may work out to make much more sense financially than just booking a slightly less expensive room alone and paying for your meals and shows yourself. So comb over these carefully and compare – you may just find a special offer that translates into big savings for you.

Another thing you should try is to get the numbers of several hotels that look like good options and give them a call. Ask to speak to the director of sales or the manager on duty. Do NOT call the 1-800 number for the hotel chain, because they won’t be able to help you like you want here. Once you have that manager or director on the line, explain that you are planning to come to Vegas and ask if there are any special deals on offer that you can take advantage of. This is a great way to get a great rate, because with the economy in the shape it is currently in, Las Vegas is certainly feeling the strain and these hotel managers want to fill up their rooms – even if it’s at a reduced rate. Don’t be afraid to negotiate, and you’ll soon find that cheap Las Vegas hotels – on or off the Strip – are not an impossibility.

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Booking a Cheap Hotel in Las Vegas

March 4th, 2009

Let’s face it: heading out to Las Vegas, Nevada, can end up making for a pretty expensive trip, especially if you are a fan of the gaming tables and like to play the slots. So when you are planning a trip out there, you want to do it as cheaply as possible so you have more money to spend on the fun stuff. At first blush, all of the fancy hotels with all of their lights and bells and whistles just scream “expensive!” but it is definitely possible to find clean, well kept, inexpensive places to stay in Las Vegas – a nice hotel that isn’t going to cost you an arm and a leg.

The first place to look is not at the hotels on the famed Las Vegas Strip, but rather the hotels in the Downtown Las Vegas area. The Downtown area is the business center of the city, and home to all of the high rise buildings that aren’t on the Strip. The main attraction here is the Freemont Street Experience. Here, you will find many great hotels and casinos that are all attached to each other and to the street itself by an enormous canopy. The canopy is embedded with over 2 million lights, and features a state of the art sound system, and each night, beginning at dusk, amazing Light & Sound Shows begin. Some of the shows are about Las Vegas history, and others are about things like race car driving and science fiction stories pitting humans against aliens.

The Freemont Street Experience was conceived to help draw more attention to the hotels and casinos there in that Downtown area, since many people still flock just to the Strip alone. That’s unfortunate, because while the rooms in these hotels tend to be smaller, they are also much less expensive than those rooms you will find on the Strip – and that is why you should consider staying here instead if you are looking to keep accommodation expenses down in order to be able to spend your money on other things.

Another great thing about this Downtown Las Vegas area is that it’s famed for its inexpensive late night eating specials. A great, affordable meal can be found nearly everywhere in this part of town, which will lower your expenses even more. And what’s more, if you do plan to spend the money you’ve saved on hotel accommodations at the gaming tables, the casinos here are less steep than they are on the Strip, as well – table limits are much lower.

Among your options are the Four Queens Hotel & Casino, Fitzgerald’s Casino Hotel (which has a fun “luck of the Irish” theme), and the famous Golden Nugget Las Vegas, which is not only the largest hotel and casino on the Downtown area, it’s also one of the oldest establishments in the entire city. So if you want to find a great room for a fraction of what it would cost you to stay on the Strip, look to the Downtown area for cheap Las Vegas hotels.

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