PS, SP and 4Q, September 2023

  That is my plan, I like the food there.

Thanks for good TR, valuable info, planning trip in early December, prefer dowtown Vegas, but tempting offer on Harrahs Charter to Laughlin. Will review pros & cons over next month & make decision by mid October. Again Thanks for TR.

Thanks for the kind words, Candy.  Bobby, we've wanted to get to Laughlin for a long time; have you spent much time there?  I'm guessing that you have some significant CET play that generated the Harrah's package offer, right?

Laughlin is...underwhelming. There's NOTHING to do there other than gamble, and the gambling has deteriorated to Vegas-lousy (it used to be kind of a low-roller haven).

If you don't want to eat in the casinos, you have very few options unless you have transportation and can cross the river to Bullcrap City. And the worst part about Harrahs is that it's not within walking distance of the other casinos! So, you're stuck there.

I find Laughlin profoundly depressing, and the cherry on the sundae is that half of the year, it has literally the worst weather on the planet, except perhaps for Death Valley. There's a reason why they're offering that charter!

jstewa22 this is my opinion of Laughlin and my opinion only and I hope it helps.

First of all a little backround on BWW & MJ, we are 83 & 67 years of age live in Smithville, Texas (pop. 4,800) for 6 years afer 50 plus years in Austin, married 24 years, 50 plus trips to Vegas 8 to Laughlin. Our gambling budget per trip is $3,000. to $5,000 per trip for both of us. MJ plays 80% slots 20% DDB video poker, BWW plays 80% DDB video poker 15% slots 5%craps. We live 1/2 mile from Our Colorado river 100 feet from shore to shore, 5 feet deep. 

We stayed at Flamingo 13 times between 2005 to 2015, & moved downtown in 2016 mostly at The D .  We like downtown because of better gambling & short walking distance between the casinos. 

Lauughlin charters stay at Harrahs rooms are decent & charters cost between $0 to $208, you land at Buulhead City,  a small airport used mostly for charters ,Fed EX, UPS, etc. . Your luggage is taken directly to your room by someone( hotel or 3rd party) taken to Harrahs by charter bus , table set up at Harrahs to give you room key and players card, at your convenience during your stay you must give credit card at check in.

Charters are usually 4 nights , on your return trip your flight is very early and must ave your bags ready for pick up at 5or 6am (hangover?>) they take bags to airport where you locate bags & walk thru check in.

The Colorado is probably 1/2 mile wide and appears to be deep enough to all size boats, jet skis etc.

We have visited 4 or 5 other casinos to far for us to walk but hotel shuttles, taxis & water taxis are available ,semi reliable and inexpensive.

The crowd is older, casinos quiter,gambling not as good as downtown Vegas, bartenders no comparison to the bartenders at The D or 4  Queens, other staff is only fair. Resturant at Harrahs decent for breakfast, Bubba Gumps at Golden Nugget good, Outback at Aquarius ok. Both casinos are worth a visit.

To repeat this is our opinion & due to cost of flights & bad departure times from Allegiant & Southwest we are still on the fence for our December trip, any other questions are welcome.

God Bless America, Hookem Horns, Gigem Aggies.

Bobby S/Sgt USAF 1959-1967

      Thanks for your informative, unbiased posting. 

I should let Bobby answer this, but those charter offers (Caesars, MGM, lots of places, Sun Country Airlines) are hard to pass up.  At least one other Laughlin hotel offers charters, but we have only done Harrah's in Laughlin.  Free flight, which if you are from a city not known for good airfares anywhere (ours), that plus free rooms makes them all tempting.  MGM charter usually come with a good amount of Free Play, which Harrah's doesn't usually. 

Harrah's is a little on the dowdy side but not bad enough to pass up.  Always friendly staff.  I can't recall when I started getting the charter offers, but way back then it didn't take much, and if you do one you stay on their offer list.  A friend of mine went as the "guest" of someone who got an offer.  Friend doesn't play high at all, but ever since she gets offers, though hers are usually priced about $240, which still isn't bad considering airfare and four nights which would be way more in total.  If I were a better friend I would offer to have her along as my "guest", but then we'd have to share a room and I'm past liking to do that except with husband.  LOL.

Candy

Sorry for my typing (sic)  errors, yes Candy ,Sun Country does a very decent job, we had one trip charter to Laughlin on Swift airline, it was a disaster from the start to finish,always call Air Program tp confirm airline prior to considering trip, last phone call a nice young man from New Orleans said Sun Country handles 95% of their charter flights & will handle our Dec flight if we go.

Additional info Crap minimum bet $10 during day at above mentioned Casinos not $15 & up in Vegas, understand Downtown Grand in Vegas is $5?? Boothlings , sports betting people,& gift shop people were super helpful. Still on fence about Laughlin & Vegas. Any more questions?

Thanks, guys, this is really helpful.  We've been talking about getting down to Laughlin for years, maybe on one of those one-day bus excursions from Vegas, but we're always too busy in Vegas to make the trip.  Haven't seen any charters from where we are (Tampa Bay area), they may exist but we don't have any significant play with CET or MGM to be on their radar.  We may give it a try sometime, but I doubt that it will become our regular play.  Thanks!

It's a 90-minute drive through absolute nowhere, so I imagine the bus trip takes 2+ hours. That's probably why there aren't many bus tours from Vegas. And it's much too far from Feenicks for a day trip. Laughlin is isolated.

I've only talked to one person who took a charter flight, from SFO as it turned out, and they mentioned the minor hassle of actually landing (and eventually departing) from across the river and having to transfer. But I'm sure that's less of a pain than what you go through at McCarran, sorry, Reid.

I do agree with Candy, the casino staffs in Laughlin are really friendly and the place overall seems much less intense and more laid-back than Vegas. I've come down there in the past when Vegas was having some kind of event that jacked up room rates and I didn't want to pay them. It used to be that there was good gambling and good food in addition to the low room rates.