I did this myself back in April this year, wanted to go skiing in March but none of my usual crowd had either the money or holidays from work left. So I decided to go to Vegas for a week having visited for 2 days with a Travelsphere tour 2 years earlier and only scraped the surface of what to see. I decided to stay at the Stratosphere as I got a cheap deal and I wanted to see the Fremont St area and it's ideally placed for that.
What I did was book some tours before the holiday online, if you do a search online you will find some. I did an evening tour of the hotels and Fremont St which I recommend if you haven't done it. I also booked a trip to the Hoover Dam one day and a trip to the Area 51 area another day. There are a lot of other trips such as Death Valley NP, Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon, Lake Mead trips and Los Angeles but some of them will be very long days. The trip company will pick you up and drop you off at your hotel.
On the other days I visited the local Natural History Museum and the Mormon Fort, looked in the hotels along the strip which I had not seen on my previous visit. There are some attractions in these such as Mandalay Bay and Luxor, I did the Shark Reef in Mandalay Bay but it was a bit overpriced for what it was. I think in the Luxor they have Titanic exhibit and also for those of a ghoulish nature a skeleton exhibition by that german guy. I also visited the Pawn shop from Pawn stars its about a mile north of the Strat and Ricks restorations round the back of the Strat. Another day I did a shopping trip Barnes and Noble, Walmart and Bass Pro fishing shop, there are some outlet malls one about a mile north of the Strat and one about a mile south of Mandalay Bay.
To get around I used the bus system as the Taxis can be quite expensive. A 3 day pass is about $20 and the buses are quite regular and if you look online you can find the route maps to plan your trips. I recommend using the bus to travel between the Strat and Fremont st as some of the area is a bit dodgy looking especially at night. I walked it during the day but I'm a fairly big bloke.
Eating I usually went to Dennys or IHOP for breakfast and had a big breakfast that set me up for the day, also at 8 in the morning you don't feel out of place on your own in these places. So lunch consisted of a cool drink or an ice cream on the go. On an evening I usually went down the Fremont st area and ate in the casinos up there which are better value than the strip. I can recommend the buffet in Main St Station casino up there. The SDX/Deuce bus drops at the top of Fremont st and picks up at the bottom.
Hope this gives you some ideas.
Probably will go to Vegas again in the next few years and do Bryce and Zion from there since the NP's were closed on the recent National Parks and LBH trip.
If you need any details e.g. online links let me know, I'll see if I can dig them out.
Regards,
Steve
Steve, love your details and advice on Vegas. I've been twice with JY but would love to go back on my own, the ideas in your post are great for things to do. One thing I also like to do is visit a firing range, it's great fun especially firing the 'Dirty Harry' gun, its so heavy your need both hands just to hold it! (I'm not a 'gun nut' by the way, it just takes me back to my miltary days).
