A:
If your hotel is near a Las Vegas Monorail stop (MGM Grand, Bally’s/Paris-Las Vegas, Flamingo, Harrah’s Las Vegas, Las Vegas Convention Center, Westgate Las Vegas), we recommend taking the monorail to its northern terminus, SLS Las Vegas. Instead of paying the $5 one-way fare, you’ll want to spring for the $12/24-hour ticket. Once you reach SLS, you can walk over to the Strip and catch the double-decker Deuce, which will take you to Fremont Street. Six dollars gets you a two-hour pass and $8 allows you to ride for 24 hours. In other words, you can ride all you want for $20 apiece.
Or, to save money (if not time), you can take the Deuce from any major Strip hotel from Mandalay Bay northwards. Be warned, it’s a very slow-moving ride, due to the heavy traffic on the Strip and out-of-towners struggling to come up with the right fare as they board. So, by taking the monorail, you avoid the most time-consuming part of taking the Deuce and pick it up at the point where it becomes a speedier ride to Downtown. We hope this helps and that you are able to save some transportation dollars on your next trip to Las Vegas.
(For those who prefer to stay off-Strip but want to see downtown, Sam’s Town offers free shuttles to the California Hotel & Casino and Fremont Hotel & Casino, the latter of which is on Fremont Street, as its name would suggest. Other casinos, including Gold Coast, Orleans, Silverton, M Resort, and Rampart offer complimentary rides to the Strip, from whence you can follow the instructions above.)
Update 18 January 2015
Some reader feedback:
- "A comment to the Jan 18, 2015 QOD...getting downtown without taking all day or breaking the bank. I stay mid-Strip and take the free Sam's Town shuttle that leaves from Harrah's. I can relax (OK, gamble) at Sam's Town for a while, catch the laser show (if the timing is right), stroll through the atrium, and then catch the shuttle from there that goes downtown to Fremont and California. It's a great way to get to an off-Strip casino for a little change of pace. You can even catch a movie or a meal depending on the shuttle timing. And the casino break between shuttle rides from the strip to downtown makes the trip less arduous. Driver tips for the free shuttle are minimal compared to taking a taxi. I do take the bus back to the Strip late in the evening. But even with a $6, 2-hour limited ticket I can hop off at Circus Circus for a short time and use the same ticket to catch the southbound bus back down the Strip. The ST shuttle is a great alternative to an expensive taxi ride or very long, crowded bus ride during the day."
- "If you are on the south end of the Strip, you can take WAX airport bus (pick up by New York-New York) for $2. It toes on I 15 and has been always been fast for us."
- "Your advice on QOD today, 1/18 was lacking. Anyone near Tropicana can take the WAX bus for $5 for 24 hours and get downtown 2 or 3 times faster than the deuce or monorail deuce combination."
No part of this answer may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the publisher.
