Transportation

Vegas traffic Las Vegas is pretty easy to do on foot if you don’t mind walking long distances, but you can see a lot more in much less time if you rent a car or utilize some of the other ways of moving around more quickly.

For transportation to and from the airport see the Las Vegas Airport page.

Car rental

If you just want to see a few other casinos around the city and maybe see Downtown, renting a car probably isn’t worth it. Parking at hotels has become a big hassle. They all have complimentary parking lots that are a long way from everything, and most have free valet parking too, but you sometimes have to wait so long for your car that you’d be better off self-parking anyway.

But if you plan on scooting around the area more than just visiting a few other hotels, renting a car in Las Vegas can be great. There is the Red Rock Canyon area only 15 miles away, but Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, and the Grand Canyon can also be incorporated into a Las Vegas vacation if you have your own wheels.

>>more information on Las Vegas car rental

Taxis

Taxicabs are everywhere you look in Las Vegas, and usually finding an empty one means signaling to a hotel employee out front that you’d like one, and he signals one at the front of the line to ease up to where you are standing. Sometimes it can take a while to find an open taxi, like right after a big show has let out, but that’s rare.

Prices aren’t too cheap, but they are the same for up to 5 passengers so if you have more than 2 people they can be a real bargain. Going from the South Strip to Downtown is the furthest you’ll need to go and that will cost around $20 total, but there is a catch at times.

Traffic in Las Vegas - particularly along the Strip - has gotten so bad in recent years that pedestrians can get from one hotel to the next more quickly than the logjam of cars in the street can. Cab drivers obviously see this before you do, so they’ll find a back way that might be a couple miles out of the way in order to save time. You can trust them when they do this because they are usually not trying to rip you off, but rather to get you where you are going for less money, where they can pick up their next fare.

So if the Strip is packed and cars aren’t moving, a taxi ride could cost more and take longer than it would at other times of the day, but it still might be worth it.

Trolley

A bus that resembles a trolley trundles up and down the Strip from 9:30 a.m. until 1:30 a.m. every day. It stops at all major hotels on the Strip and a few that are slightly off the Strip, but it goes in a loop so if you want to go north you should be on the east side of Las Vegas Boulevard and vice versa. You pay the driver directly, but they don’t carry change. Keep in mind that these trolleys are much slower than the crafty taxi drivers when traffic is bad. More information is available on the official Strip Trolley site.

Single ride: $2.50
Day pass (8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.): $4.25
Night pass (5 p.m. to midnight): $4.25

Limousine

If you like showing off or if you’ve just won big in the casino you can easily rent a limo in Las Vegas. Prices range from $40 to $80 per hour depending on the company and the car. Ask at the airport or at your hotel and they’ll call you the car of your choice.

Monorail

It’s not cheap, but the ultra high-tech monorail that just opened in 2004 might be the best way to get around the city. It runs for 4 miles on the east side of the Strip and it connects many major hotels with each other as well as the Las Vegas Convention Center. It’s fast and fun so it’s probably worth the high price. It’s much nicer than the one in North Haverbrook, and safer as well.

Single ride: $5
Two-ride ticket: $9
One day pass: $9 special, $15 normal price

Hours: 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. Monday – Thursday, and until 3 a.m. Friday through Sunday nights.

>>more information on the Las Vegas Monorail