McCarran Airport Baggage Claim

McCarran Airport Baggage Claim
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

The Las Vegas Airport is one of the most manageable in my experience. Large but not huge, McCarran is fairly easy to navigate, especially if your arrival and departures are using the standard Taxis or Shuttles. City bus service in and out of McCarran is a little trickier as the bus departures are from level 0 and not signed well. Unless you are really short on cash the best option will generally be a Taxi if you have more than 2 people or the comfortable $5 shuttles which leave from just outside of the baggage claim area and deliver you to the door of your hotel for $5.

Golden Nugget, Las Vegas Downtown

Although the Las Vegas Strip, home to dozens of mega resorts and casinos, now plays the key role for most visitors to the city you'll want to consider riding the Deuce bus or taking a short Taxi ride to Downtown Las Vegas, renamed "The Fremont Street Experience". Here, the world's largest light show is displayed on a screen as wide as a street and as long as a city block. Short shows play frequently from about dark to midnight.

Golden Nugget, Las Vegas Downtown
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

AEE Adult Entertainment Expo, Las Vegas

Originally part of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas - now simply overlapping in time and place - the Adult Entertainment Expo is the world's largest convention venue for the adult industry. Held this year in two halls of the massive Sands Convention Expo in the Palazzo Venetian Hotel empire, the AEE brought together trade people, press, fans, adult stars and novelties from all over the industry.

Not for the faint of heart, the AEE event fills a large convention hall with hundreds of adult exhibitors featuring themes as innocuous as teeth whitening to live sex shows.

The highlight of the AEE event this year was the AVN Adult Video Film Awards held at the lavish "RAIN" nightclub at the Palms Casino.

CES Las Vegas

January brings the Consumer Electronics Show to Las Vegas. Even for the convention capital of the world this is a huge show, with some 140,000 attendees and 2700 exhibitors. CES is so large that it fills both the Las Vegas Convention Center and most of the Sands Expo Center as well as most of the hotel rooms in Las Vegas, which tend to run at much higher than even weekend rates.

Budget tip for CES? Stay downtown during CES. Many of the hotels there are as nice as the moderate priced strip hotels, and the Deuce bus runs very frequently from Downtown to the Strip 24 hours per day. Rates downtown didn't appear to be any higher during CES this year.

The rooms in Fitzgeralds on Fremont Street were nicely remodelled a few years ago and you'll also find nice rooms at most of the downtown properties. Just be sure to ask for a room change if you aren't happy with the first one they give you.

Palazzo Las Vegas Grand Opening Jan 19

If you are heading to Las Vegas in January contact the Palazzo about their $199 luxury suite specials in association with the Grand opening of the Palazzo on January 19th. I had a chance to tour part of the Palazzo today while in Las Vegas for the Computer Electronics Conference, and it's a very impressive, beautiful property with a tasteful yet spectacular ambiance. Bill Gates keynote speach was at the Palazzo Grand Ballroom, which must hold about 8,000+

They are still working on getting all the suites ready, though the construction was nicely hidden from the public. Even if you don't stay at the Palazzo be sure to drop in to see the sculptures and waterfall. It's right next to the Wynn, another of the "newer" must see properties like the Bellagio Hotel.

The Palazzo Las Vegas is part of the Venetian's hotel empire, and from their website we learn:

The Palazzo will give the company the largest hotel and convention complex in the world on the heart of The Strip. In addition to JERSEY BOYS, The Palazzo will feature more than 3,000 all-suite rooms and offer its new shopping, dining and entertainment on two luxurious levels. The 450,000-square- foot retail space, The Shoppes at The Palazzo™ will be highlighted by Barneys New York and connected to The Venetian via The Grand Canal Shoppes. It will house approximately 60 high-end and mid-level stores from the most recognizable brands to the hottest newcomers and unique one-of-a-kind boutiques drawn from all over the world. Additionally, The Palazzo will offer a variety of new restaurants from renowned chefs, many of whom are not yet featured in the Las Vegas area.

CES Las Vegas 2008

The Computer Electronics Show here in Las Vegas is in many ways *the big* technology event of the year. I'm here covering it but the posts will be at Joe Duck:
http://joeduck.com

Taking the Bus?

Las Vegas has a great selection of transportation options that vary quite a bit in terms of cost. Many folks take taxis around, but it's not clear to me that they save any time over the cheaper alternatives since during big events you may have to wait in a taxi line at the hotel. The Monorail is fantastic, and it is what you want to take if you are near a monorail station - basically places between the Sahara on North Las Vegas Strip and MGM to the South. This is *the way* to get up and down the strip unless you *really* love to walk. The strip his huge so wear great shoes in any case, even if you'll be taking transportation you'll be walking a lot.

Here is a good roundup of McCarran Airport to Strip and Downtown via bus:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070901202908AAGJftl

The $5 shuttles from the Airport are comfortable but usually pretty slow as they stop at many hotels.