Quote Originally Posted by User View Post
Hah! I took the family to Las Vegas last November because my mother in law was visiting and she wanted to go. The rooms were expensive, and it seemed half of the roads were closed. Turns out I ignorantly took us during some racing event on the strip. After that, I swore I would always check for events in Vegas before planning a trip, so I can avoid crowds from events I'm not attending!
In many ways, 'Vegas" is two (or maybe more) VERY different places. And, even within "genotypes," the variations can be enormous.

For example, the "Resort" Casinos: No matter WHAT hotel you stay in, you'll need to walk THROUGH the Casino to reach restaurants and shops (sort of the same technique grocery stores use when they put the stuff you NEED (meat, cheese, dairy) in back, so they can hook you into buying what THEY want to sell you before you get there. But some Casinos are populated by barely clothed people who can't take time away from the slots to wash themselves or their clothing (and where most of them seem never to be away from their latest cigaret, whereas at the "high end" hotels such as the Wynn or Bellagio at least the typical person you'll see has some sense of fashion and cleanliness. Still, even there you'll find housewives attired as daringly as are the many "ladies of the night," but at least their clothing (such as it is) will be expensive.

Las Vegas has MARVELOUS highways. They're always updating them, too, which can mean traffic problems. But I suspect that your visit collided with the Formula 1 auto race. F1 is THE most expensive form of sport in the UNIVERSE. Except for the most rabid of fans, no one would attempt to go anywhere NEAR the "Strip" during race weekend. An example of the "no expense is too extravagant" attitude: (I don't know if this is still true, but I"m sure some variant of it is): Race weekends—almost EVERY weekend during the season—may follow each other on different continents. Teams may be limited by the total WEIGHT of equipment they can bring to a race. So, the top teams have their shop tools fabricated from titanium. Another: two decades ago, on a bike trip to France, my time coincided with the Grand Prix de Monaco. I assumed I could find a low budget way to attend. Even then, two nights in Monaco for race weekend (or even two nights over the Italian border) would have been WELL above $10,000. It's not THAT extreme for the race in 'Vegas, but it's almost impossible to get a hotel that has views of the temporary racetrack and impossible to navigate "the Strip" then.

Oh, about those marvelous roads. It seems to me that there's SO much money harvested from addicted gamblers that they need spare no expense when updating them. That may include freeway-quality bicycle paths using more concrete and rock "borrowed" from nearby mountains than used by the entire state of Montana, but the roads are still congested because NO ONE obeys the 65 mph speed limits, and you won't pass ANYONE on those freeways until your own speed exceeds 75-80 mph, even IN the posted-reduced speed construction zones. Occasionally the city will deploy perhaps a half dozen motorcycle policemen on one of the freeways, and if you use fishing as a metaphor, it takes them just MINUTES to catch their limits.

Then there are the residential areas. They're typically TOTALLY separated from ALL commercial enterprises, with criss-crossing arterial streets offering four lanes for traffic in each direction, separated from each other at remarkable constant 0.5 mile intervals. But, if you live in one of the gated communities (as most retiree or moderately successful workforce people do), you'll NEVER be able to walk to a restaurant, grocery store, or some retail establishment.

And, the games. This was my first time. OCR can offer much more educated comments than I, but I enjoyed the bands. The shopping tents mostly suggested that there were no Red-Faire events on the same weekend, but a few offered bins loaded with ex-hire kilts in MANY different tartans.

And as for getting "comped" hotel rooms, I don't know how that happens. I used to come here for medical meetings. Early in my years of practice spouses were welcome, with the sponsor of the meetings paying pretty much for everything, but now typically spouses or guests are verboten so as not to suggest illegal inducements.

We sometimes go to the Wynn for brunch, but even THERE, the restaurants are uneven. I had perhaps THE most mediocre Italian dinner I've ever suffered through at one of its very expensive restaurants. But there are places where families can enjoy themselves (for example, the Mandalay Bay, where the "pools" are enormous, AND there's a quite nice aquarium, and some of the museums are actually good.