Las Vegas Travel Guide and Tips for First-Timers

Now, Las Vegas can principally do no matter it needs with you, it doesn’t matter what you propose. So an enormous piece of surviving the town is chopping down on the “Oh no, I’m dying?” feeling so as to maintain and gasoline the “Woo, I’m DYING!! TO LIIIIVE!!!!!” feeling that all of us got here for within the first place. You simply want slightly pragmatism to information you within the sheer RECREATION and SPLENDOR of all of it (with out ending up broke or damaged).  That is what pinned our ft to the bottom as we surfed the warmth, derangement, and elation of Las Vegas—we hope it helps you get your bearings on the market, too. —Amy Rose Spiegel, deputy editor

1. If you’re out and about at night time… change into The Bullshitter. Minimize the road, lie about being on the checklist, and faux out indignantly leaving when not one of the above work. As soon as we huffily turned to go after we have been denied entrance to a megaclub, they allow us to in immediately.

2. Stroll the Strip one (1) time, after which by no means once more. Ideally, you’ll knock this out proper after you get to Vegas with an enormous Miller Lite in hand. (Purchase it at CVS, which sells the most cost effective beer on the Strip.) Making that trek on foot provides you a very good lay of the land, and a possibility to see all the massive, bougie locations you’ll acknowledge from motion pictures like Ocean’s 11—The Bellagio! Caesars Palace! MGM Grand!—together with the varied characters who populate Las Vegas Boulevard: gaggles of women in elaborate showgirl costumes; two outdated guys doing “Veterans’ Karaoke” on a pedestrian bridge; rapping youngsters who ought to in all probability be in class however are totally not; and so forth. It’s type of enjoyable the primary time you do it, however, after that, the ocean of sweaty our bodies and cheesy chain eating places turns into borderline nauseating. It’s lots like Instances Sq.. Get in, get out, and by no means do it once more.

3. When you’re new to playing, get your ft moist in Fremont, a gritty, neon-soaked neighborhood about six miles from the Strip. The casinos there are stocked with low-minimum tables: You may wager as few as 5 bucks on blackjack, roulette, et al., whereas most casinos on the Strip pressure you to fork over at the very least $25 per hand/roll/spin/what have you ever, if no more. Heat up at El Cortez, a small, darkish, vaguely seedy joint that’s been open since 1941, which has a particular place in our hearts a) as a result of it rips and b) as a result of certainly one of us received $180 there. Then amble throughout the road to the Golden Nugget, a glitzier spot with funky carpeting, outlandish lighting fixtures, and a wider collection of video games than you’ll discover at El Cortez. 

4. Respect the solar and its life-style, which, like yours, will in all probability be much more excessive in Vegas than at house. How your days and nights go will probably be wholly contingent on the way you account for the warmth, so you may’t simply wing it in opposition to 101° climate. At the least two of us discovered this the exhausting method after straight-up scorching in a wave pool after which having to spend the remainder of the day taking chilly showers and in addition in mattress due to debilitating sunburns and warmth exhaustion. Prioritize shade at any time when doable. Be militant about SPF upkeep. DRINK ELECTROLYTES. 

5. Some miscellaneous money-focused issues to keep away from (further) value gouging: Purchase cigarettes, alcohol, water, and snacks outdoors of the casinos and massive accommodations. Carry your individual sunscreen for the above-mentioned heat-preparedness (we paid $60 for 2 spray cans in a resort—don’t be us!!). Additionally don’t pay for drinks at casinos—you don’t must should you’re playing, or if a pal is—however do closely tip the servers who’re bringing you free ones on a tray. Gasoline stations are your bro, and your cab/Lyft will cease for you should you’re courteous and tip closely. (Not numerous strolling tradition right here. Take Lyft, not Uber—locals have been FIRM about it for causes we nonetheless don’t perceive, however we abide by native knowledge.)

6. Don’t purchase medicine on the membership, and should you can’t at the very least get them from a pal of a pal, don’t trouble. There’s anecdotally plenty of pretend and laced coke round, and should you’re not native, it’s exhausting to know should you’re getting something near semi-pure.  The upside: Even while you’re sober, Vegas seems like pure cocaine. And weed/edibles are high-quality (and legal, as long as you’re 21)—one supply strongly advisable the Henderson location of RISE Dispensaries.

7. CASH IS KING. Preserving a restricted provide of money readily available can be a pure cut-off level should you’re the type of one that turns into an enormous spender 5 (free) G&Ts deep. Plus, you’re going to run into numerous spots with huge fats ATM charges, so arriving with a stack of payments may find yourself saving you in the long term. 

8. Pack equal elements sensibly and delusionally. Costume such as you’re dressing for Miami, however with extra dice-print clothes and blue, mirrored wrap-around Oakleys. Plan, over all, to put on as little as doable (that may also make suitcase room for extra pairs of beautiful footwear). Camp works NOWHERE like it really works in Vegas: Among the best outfits we noticed was a silk Burberry caftan worn with a straw fedora festooned with an enormous diamanté dragonfly brooch obscuring the entire a part of the hat that wasn’t the brim. Sounds unforgivable at house; was unforgettable within the taxi line outdoors of Caesars Palace.

9. Ask locals for suggestions. A few of our favourite locations in Vegas have been these we found on the bottom, by conversations with regulars, bartenders, inveterate gamblers, and folks who’ve lengthy referred to as Vegas house. They know what’s cool, what sucks, and what was once cool however sucks now that some new proprietor took it over and gut-renovated it. Write down the spots they advocate in a working checklist, and flag them in Google Maps. 

10. On playing: Determine how a lot cash you’re prepared to lose, and the way a lot you need to win. Then persist with these numbers. It’ll maintain you from getting unhappy bizarre since you blew an irresponsible amount of money on the craps desk, and provide you with a concrete benchmark for when to give up when you’re forward. Set a nightly goal—e.g., profitable $100, or shedding  $200—and should you hit one, get the hell out of there. 

11. Additionally on playing: If, like VICE’s Drew Schwartz, you don’t have a lot expertise with it, research up on just a few video games earlier than you get to Vegas. He spent two or three nights earlier than his journey watching—and, considerably concerningly, falling asleep to after which dreaming about—craps tutorial movies made by a man who runs a YouTube channel referred to as Color Up, in addition to reviewing some literature on blackjack and consulting his dad, who loves roulette, about learn how to possibly win cash at roulette. Even that minimal quantity of preparation allowed him to stroll into the on line casino with a baseline understanding of the video games and some primary methods to maintain him from shedding all his cash in like 20 minutes. 

12. A remaining notice on playing: Play pai-gow. Play the shit out of it. And all the time put a greenback on the button. We don’t have the area to clarify what “put a greenback on the button” means, nor to clarify how pai-gow works—you can learn the ropes here—however simply belief us: It guidelines so, so exhausting.

13. Don’t anticipate the town to cater to your well being. Pack an empty water bottle and a provide of path combine and dried fruit in your carry-on for backup. And take a while to do some stretching or a lightweight body weight exercise in your resort room earlier than you head out for the day. Your physique is unquestionably not going to thanks for something you do in Vegas, however you’ll really feel rather less deranged on the airplane or automobile journey house should you’re maintaining some semblance of a wellness routine. 

14. Tip usually, tip heavy. Man who hailed you a taxi? Tip him. The girl who watched you lose $200 in 10 minutes on the blackjack desk? Tip her. The cleaners of your disgust-o, trashed resort room? Tip the shit out of them. When you’re throwing extra cash round than regular, let that additionally apply to getting folks paid! It’s all the time gonna be the proper factor to assist out the folks serving to YOU have an incredible time in Grownup Disney World. 

15. All the time search for. Indoors, Vegas has the very best ceilings within the nation: butterfly chandeliers (on the Bellagio), unselfconscious Cupid frescoes (at The Little White Chapel, and in addition in every single place), gilded skies above in each room you enter. And it’s even higher outdoors—huge streaks of robin’s egg and tangerine, relying on the time of day.

16. When you’re trying to exit on an evening that’s let’s say… non-traditional (aka Sunday or Monday—the whole lot else is the weekend), test the hours of the spots you need to hit. Vegas might need an all-party, on a regular basis fame, however a number of the larger spots on the Strip and bars in cool neighborhoods like Chinatown and the Arts District shut sooner than you may anticipate (assume 10 p.m. as an alternative of three a.m.). 

17. When you keep in Vegas lengthy sufficient, you’ll in all probability hit a degree while you really feel like should you drink one other vodka soda, or stroll by one other on line casino, or see one other large video advert for the Blue Man Group, you’re going to blow up. If you want an escape, go to Red Rock Canyon, a Nationwide Conservation Space about half-hour from the Strip. It’s a balm for the soul. Craggy, windswept towers of sandstone, the colour of purple clay, jut out of the desert. You may scramble up the rocks, which rose from the earth some 66 million years in the past, and snake your method by the crevices that carve them aside. For a completely transcendent expertise, hire a automobile—ideally a convertible—and reserve a timed slot to drive the 13-mile scenic route that winds by the canyon. Make a playlist of the prettiest music —which, for us, sounded like this—and let it wash over you when you gaze out on the rock partitions throughout you, awestruck, getting goosebumps, marveling at how stunning the world might be.

Comply with Katie Way, Drew Schwartz, and Amy Rose Spiegel on Twitter.

This story is a part of The VICE Guide to Las Vegas, a no-holds-barred journey by the skanky desert jewel of the usA.