The Duece

I will be traveling to Vegas for a week at the end of September. I will not be renting a car as I plan to be intoxicated most of my trip. I have researched the public transportation system and have decided that riding the bus down the strip may be a good option. Does anyone have any tips or tricks for riding the bus. I know it may seem like a silly question but I am not familiar with public transportation.

That bus traveling on the strip is ok during the day before mid afternoon, after that it is very packed and travels slowly, if you need to go to the bathroom, FORGET about that. In the evening it is almost impossible to board while on the strip, and all times on the weekends are busy. That being said, depending on where you are staying will come into play as well. For me, I usually do the strip thing during the day and end up back downtown for the evening festivities, not having to rely on a very crowded unpleasant bus trip back to my Casino. Hope this helps!

Don't cut yourself close on time when using the bus as at times it moves slow.

Exact change is needed to purchase a pass.

If you are planning a long ride--head to the upper level as it less crowded most of the time.

If you plan on using the deuce to change hotels--mid morning seems to be less crowded.

No liquids allowed on the bus--so drink up before you get on.

I know it is unpopular, and expensive compared to the deuce, but the monorail zips and is less crowded. on a crowded weekend day, this is a faster option. There are also a number of free trams on the west side of the strip now too. I believe there's a link to the trams/monorail from LVA's main site. Also, I belive the monorail stops running after 1amish.


oh, and I remember using my credit card to purchase a bus pass with the new machine. you can get one pass for multiple days as well.

LVA Transport Link (trams under free shuttles)

If you let us know where you are staying, that might let some of us LVA'ers better answer this. My experiance is the Duece from downtown to the strip , plan on 1 hour, during heavy traffic times double that. If you aren't planning on using this route from DT to the strip, then this doesn't apply. This is a very viable way to travel stating you will be drinking.

The Strip/Downtown express makes many less stops along the strip and might serve you well. Do a search on the transportation thread for SDX and you will pull up a wealth of information

If you do take the bus watch your wallet.

I have read that pickpockets tend to ride on them.

As far as the monorail, I used it on my last trip.

I think I caught the last train at either 3 or 4
AM on a weekend.

I think they stop running a little earlier than that on weekdays.

There are a couple of links that you will want to review and maybe bookmark. First is the main RTC page. Second is the direct link to the changes coming September 18.

A few quick notes:

* The SDX is MUCH faster than the Deuce, but it doesn't run 24 hours.
* You can buy passes online, before your trip. Or you can buy them at many stops.
* Most casinos are linked along one route or another.
* As far as pickpockets on the bus, I've never had a problem, and I've never heard of any problems. They have cameras on all the buses, and it's an enclosed space, so it's not very attractive for them. The picketpockets on the bus are probably on their way to Fremont St. or one of the places on the Strip people like to hang out. But yeah, Las Vegas is a big city, and you need to take big city precautions when moving around town.

I would like to thank everyone for all the helpful information. We will be staying downtown at the Nugget, checking in Sunday September 25th and checking out Friday September 30th. We have a whole list of things we wanna do and know taxi's will eat up a lot of money. We do expect to have to use Taxi's for some stuff, but would like to avoid when we can.

I've ridden the bus all over Vegas, I like it, we don't have efficient public transit where I live.

Fremont4ever provided helpful advice. To that I can add:

Don't ever ride the Deuce. It's too slow and designed for the clueless. Ride the Strip and Downtown Express. It stops less, is fast, kinda cool as buses go, and has stops both directions on the northeast corner of the Golden Nugget. Here's the SDX schedule, good through Sep. 18. As you see, it runs every 12 minutes for most of the day and evening. Before you board, buy a ticket from a machine at the stop. You don't have to show it to anyone unless asked by a bus system employee. You can board and exit any door of the bus.

The Vegas bus system has done a good job entering its routes and schedules into Google Maps. Learning to use that is fun and helpful.

For a quick trip between downtown to the MGM Grand-NYNY-Tropicana-Excalibur corner, try the Westcliff Airport Express. It's just a regular bus, so it's just $2 to ride. It runs every hour or so but takes the highway and makes the journey in just 30 minutes.

You've made the right choice, especially since you'll be drinking.