My friend Scott and I set out on a mission -- to have a complete Vegas trip while spending as little money as possible. Of course, anyone can just get to Vegas and then just sit in their hotel room and do nothing and come back saying they didn't spend any money at all, but what's the fun in that? So instead, we set out to have as much fun as possible, while spending as little money as possible, searching out the best values Vegas has to offer. This page documents our experiences, and shows that yes, you can have a Vegas vacation for under $100!

Planning

For accomodations, we used TravelAxe. What's TravelAxe? It's a *free* Windows program that is the absolute best thing for finding the lowest hotel rates on the Internet. Here's a question: Which travel website has the lowest prices? The answer? None of them! There is no one travel website that has the lowest prices for every hotel at every destination on every day of the year.

The TravelAxe program can search up to 18 major travel websites simultaneously, showing you which websites have the best prices for which hotels!

Using TravelAxe, we booked our two night stay at Lady Luck through travelswitch.com... for $22 a night! After taxes and other fees, the hotel room came out to a total of $48.40 for the two nights.

Sunday

1:00PM: Ontario, CA - We make a pit stop at the Ontario Mills mall in Ontario, CA for gas and lunch. While dining at the Carl's Jr., we found ourselves sitting next to a group that was sitting there quoting and singing songs from homestarrunner.com... what nerds! Of course, we were the nerds that actually recognized what they were talking about so I guess we can't criticize them too much. Unforutnately, I forgot to note how much we spent at Carl's Jr, so you'll just have to guess, I guess. 10.3 gallons of gas at $1.80 per gallon ended up costing us $9.35 per person for gas. After filling up the tank, we were off once again!

3:08PM: Mojave Desert - At aproximately 230 miles out of San Diego, just past Baker California, we saw some dark, black smoke billowing overhead. Car fire. We haven't even gotten to Vegas and already there's been all kinds of exciting stuff! The freeway slowed down and eventually came to a complete stop. Fire trucks rushed by in the emergency lane. People started getting out of their cars to see what was going on. This is now the second time I've gotten out and sat in the middle of I-15 on the way to Vegas. Anyway, it turned out to be a pickup truck on fire. As the road reopened and cars started moving again, some cars sat empty as their occupants had gone and wandered off somewhere without realizing that the road was reopened. Ooops.

4:45PM: Lady Luck - We check in to our room at the Lady Luck. The room is actually quite nice, in fact, quite a bit nicer than the room I paid $29 to stay in at Las Vegas Club a few months back. Of course, don't expect anything fancy for these prices, but these rooms are clean and in good condition. Just make sure you don't get one of their "garden" rooms... those are kinda old and ratty

Lady Luck is about a block away from the Fremont Street Experience, and I actually think it's better for it -- You don't have to deal with the noise of the music that's constantly playing all night down there. Downtown Las Vegas is great, especially if you're on a budget. I think it's sad that so many people never make out there... it's just pure, no nonsense drinkin' and gambling, with plenty of low limit games and late night food specials around. No volcanos, no pirates, no fine art galleries, no pretense! Plus, the fact that when you want to see something "next door", it really is next door, not a half a mile away!

6:15PM: Plaza - We actually headed to the California first to get our first meal deal, but the line was a little long, so we walked over to the Plaza to gamble a little bit to pass sime time and wait for the line to get shorter, and boy am I glad I did! I started playing some $2 craps, while Scott (who had never played craps before) watched for a while. Well, the guy who was rolling when I got there went on a great roll, at least 20 or 30 minutes after I got there, and he was already going when I showed up! Then the next guy after that also had a pretty good roll, and well, I rolled pretty well too.

There was a guy near the middle of the table betting $25 hardways, and every time he hit one, he'd end up winning $225... and he'd toss a $25 green chip to whoever it was that rolled the hardway and helped him win. Well, the first guy that was rolling probably ended up making $300 or $400 off that guy... I ended up rolling a couple of hardways during my roll, and the guy gladly tossed $50 over my way. After seeing all of this, Scott just had to get in on some of the action, and he started playing, and the guy after me rolled pretty well.

When all was said and done, I had won $200 playing $2 craps with only $20 risked, plus another $50 from that guy! Scott, who joined in much later ended up winning only $39. You snooze, you lose, I guess! But what a wonderful way to start out in Vegas... a nice big win at the first table you walk up to!

8:15PM: California - Finally we made it back to get our $5.99 Prime Rib Dinner Special at the Cal. It comes with an unlimited salad bar, potato, veggies, and even a dessert! Not a bad deal at all! It's not the biggest or juiciest piece of prime rib I've ever had, but after the salad bar and dessert, I was more than full, and again, a great deal. After adding soft drinks and tip, we ended up spending $8.40 per person.

9:23PM: Casino Royale - We decide to head to The Strip and hit up Casino Royale for their free frozen margarita deal. When we got there we were sorely disappointed to find that they no longer offered this deal! Now their "great" deal is $1 beer. Granted, it wasn't the biggest or greatest margarita ever, but it was still free... but now it is no more.

9:45PM: Imperial Palace - Undaunted by our disappointment at Casino Royale, we headed over to Imperial Palace for what we call the Imperial Palace Drink Machine. Now, most casinos will comp alcohol to any of its patrons that are gambling. Unfortunately, at most casinos, the drink service at the nickel slots is poor, probably mostly due to the lack of good tips given by the types of people who would play nickel slots. Well, I'm glad to say that the nickel slots at the back of Imperial Palace get relative good service for nickel slots, which can make for a good amount of free drinks for a relatively small gambling risk.

But of course, you've got to maximize your time at the machines, since you never know when the waitress will be coming by next! Thus, the Imperial Palace Drink Machine is best played with a friend. I suggest that you sit down next to your friend, each at your own video poker machine, and do everything you can to slow your play down. Only play one nickel at a time, and manually put one nickel in. This takes more time than just hitting the "bet one credit" button. Only play one at a time. When it's not your turn, watch your partner play out their hand. This is also why video poker is great -- instead of just spinning some reels, you have to actually make a decision about which cards to keep, which takes up extra time... especially if you are really drunk already! Playing in this manner will assure that you bet as little money as possible while still collecting free drinks from your waitress (who at this place, is usually not bad to look at).

Scott workin' the drink machine

Cheap? Sure, but hey, that's the point of this trip, right? Besides, feeling like you're "getting away with something" is a load of fun in and of itself. Just don't forget to tip your waitress once in a while! We got out after each losing a buck a piece.

After hitting up the drink machine, we sat down at one of Imperial Palace's blackjack tables and played for a little while at $3 a hand. I ended up winning $16, Scott picked up $12, and a couple of more drinks, of course.

After contemplating several options for things we could do, we decided to just return to the hotel and turn in early, as we were both tired from being on the road all day.

Monday

11:30AM: Main Street Station -

Over in the "Pacific Rim" section there is a strong asian/hawaiian influence going on, which due to the high level of traffic from Hawaiians here and at the Cal, ended up being at a much higher level than I expected. I especially enjoyed the oyster tofu. The southwest, south, and italian sections were equally as good. The meat at the cutting board wasn't the best I'd ever had at a buffet, but the overall high quality of the other foods more than made up for it. The only thing is that I wanted to try eating everything but there's no way I could do that in one sitting. Anyway, the buffet ended up being $8.03 plus a buck each for tip.

12:30PM: Gambler's General Store - Located at 800 S. Main Street, about a mile or two south of the Plaza hotel and Casino, the Gambler's General Store is my ultimate candy store. While the website is a good listing of all the products they sell, it's not nearly as fun as going to the actual store. If you're into casino gambling and want to bring some of that feeling home, this is the place for you! They literally sell everything, and I mean everything you need to run a casino. From slot machines, to table games, even things like the podiums they have in the middle of gaming pits that the floormen stand next to. All the way down to the little details like "dealer" buttons and cut cards, chips, chip trays, dice, etc.etc.etc. But the best part of it all is that they have everything all out there where you can play with it all.

Deal some blackjack, break down a stack of chips, have a go at the dice. Don't forget to pick up a free catalog on the way out the door, and the visit is free!

1:15PM: Sahara - Sahara is a haven for low-rolling gamblers, with $1 blackjack, craps, and roulette going on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We stopped in for the $1 craps, and also a couple of spins of the roulette wheel. At these low limits, $20 is enough to last quite a while! After about 30 minutes I was up $35, and scott was up $6. You gotta bet big to win big, I guess, hehe.

2:00PM: Fry's Electronics - Yep, you read that right, Fry's Electronics. After satisfying our gambling urges, Scott and I needed to fulfill our huge nerd urges, which we did by checking out the newly opened Fry's location, the first in Nevada. This one, not surprisingly, has a Vegas theme. The front of the store has an animated slot machine display, with stacks of gigantic quarters. The inside of the store is very nice, nicer than any of the Fry's locations I've been to in Southern California, and certainly nicer than the San Diego location which is a total dump. The decor actually reminded me more of a Border's type store than a Fry's. Historic Vegas photographs are placed around the store, and other than those things, it's not much different than other Fry's locations, right down to the inattentive employees.

Fry's is located 6845 Las Vegas Blvd -- past the south end of "The Strip", way past Mandalay Bay. It's actually right next to the old Vacation Village "resort" if you know where that is. You'll see it right off I-15 if you're coming into Vegas from the south, you can't miss it.

3:45PM: Terrible's - Shortly after leaving Fry's, it started raining. This was the first time I'd ever been to Vegas in the rain. New experiences to be had all the time! Terrible's, if you don't know, is actually a gas station/car wash chain, and a few years, they opened a casino at the corner of Flamingo and Paradise. The first thing I did when we got there was duck into the convenience store and buy some lip balm... I forgot to bring some with me and my lips were just getting demolished!

After that we hit up the 1 cent Austin Powers video slots, where I broke even and Scott lost a dollar. We then moved on to some nickel video poker where I lost a buck, and scott won 50 cents. Then we decided to try our hand at the $3 craps table, and I can say that we wish we hadn't. In a few short minutes, I lost $40, and Scott lost $30. During that time, Scott learned a very important lesson about craps -- at one point he dropped a chip and dove under the table to retrieve it... with the dice still in his hands! The dealers damn near had a heart attack, since as a matter of security, they don't like the dice to be taken from above the table! Overall, we agreed that Terrible's was pretty terrible to us that day.

4:30PM: Walgreen's - I usually stop into one of the many Walgreen's locations in Vegas to buy a pack of bottled water to drink so as to not get dehydrated. We picked up an 8 pack for $1.75. Much cheaper than the hotel vending machine!

5:30PM: Lady Luck - We returned to the hotel room to regroup and figure out what to do that night. We wanted to ride the Big Shot at the Stratosphere, as neither of us had ever ridden it at night. It would have cost us about $8 a piece, but we were afraid that the rain might have kept them from operating the ride, a fear that was confirmed by a quick phone call over to the Stratosphere. Oh well. If you haven't ever ridden the Big Shot ride, definitely, definitely check out it. In my opinion, it's the best thrill ride deal in all of Las Vegas.

In our effort to be entertained for cheap, we scoured the promo magazines and racked our brains trying to think of something fun and cheap to do. Inspiration struck me... why not look for a good lounge act? I mean, Vegas is famous for lounge bands, and yet few people ever set out to go check some out. And why not? Very few lounges have cover charges, leaving you to just pay for the drinks.

6:30PM: Downtown Las Vegas - Before actually heading to the car, we decided to check out some of the stuff around our hotel. Of course, there's the Fremont Street Experience, a giant canopy that runs down the now-closed street that lights up with an amazing multimedia display with visuals and music put together. At the end of the canopy sits Neonopolis, a new addition to the Downtown area. Neonopolis has a bowling alley, and a movie theater, as well as some restaurants and shops. It's got a bunch of old neon signs around it too. I wouldn't really make it a destination on your trip, but if you feel like bowling or watching a movie, you might want to check it out. Also scattered around different sections of the area are pieces of the Neon Museum, historic neon signs from the old days of Vegas. All this stuff is just out there for anyone to see, so of course, it's all free.

7:00PM: Hard Rock - One of my favorite food deals in Las Vegas is the "Surf and Turf" special served at Mr. Lucky's inside the Hard Rock casino. It's a steak and shrimp dinner for the very Vegas price of $7.77, and the shrimp you get are nice, big, plump, juicy shrimp, not some dinky econoshrimp. This special is not on the menu, so you get to feel like you're "on the inside" when you order it. It's not as cool as it used to be though, since it has been publicized on some TLC shows about Vegas. After drinks, tax, and a healthy tip for our unusually friendly waitress (who rubbed our backs for us), we ended up spending $12.50 each for dinner.

While you're there, you can also check out all the rock and roll memorabilia that they have around the casino, all for free of course. The theme is definitely rock and roll, with slot machines that have guitar necks for arms, and super snazzy felts on their table games. Being low rollers on this trip, Scott and I confined ourselves to the nickel video poker machines, where Scott was introduced to the joys of Five Play Poker, where he picked up $3... and I lost $7. O well, you can't win 'em all!

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is located at the corner of Paradise and Harmon, a few blocks east of the Strip. I've you've never been there before, I highly suggest you check it out, as it's still the hippest, swinginest, eyecandiest, fun joint in Vegas.

10:00PM: Casino Royale - By 10PM we made our way back to the Strip to Casino Royale for some $1 craps action, where again, the dice did not roll our way. On the other hand, we did occupy ourselves for over an hour and a half with me losing $20 and Scott losing $18, getting free drinks all along the way, so I suppose in that sense, it wasn't too bad of a deal. I was actually surprised that they'd have $1 craps here, although, it was on a weeknight, so if you show up on a weekend, your milage may vary.

As an aside, these "liberal rules" they advertise on their marquee sign are standard rules for blackjack anywhere in the city of Las Vegas.

11:59PM: Harrah's - And now on to the free lounge acts! Harrah's has a lounge inside located right next to their south entrance that opens up on their outdoor Carnival Court area. When we showed up it was jumping, and the particular act that was on was kind of strange in the sense that it was the drummer on lead vocals most of the time. It was a surreal experience watching a group perform Nelly's "Hot In Herrre" live with the drummer on vocals... with some slutty chick getting up on the stage threatening to actually take her clothes off.

Almost more entertaining perhaps was watching the drummer during the break trying to pick up on the ladies in the front row. He was definitely workin' it hard, and I bet he's quite successful a lot of the time. I think if I ever move to Vegas, I'll join a lounge act. It seems like a whole lot of fun! This particular act displayed quite a bit of range, going all the way from Young MC's "Bust a Move" to Prince's "Get Off" all the way to Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama", to which a giant group of thirty something white people at the table next to us got up and rushed the dance floor.

The entertainment is free, however the drinks are not, and Scott's Corona, which I guess when you're outside of San Diego is considered an "import" beer cost $5.50, though my drink was only $2.50, and we tipped the waitress a buck on the entire tab.

About 45 minutes later, we decided to head out, but right outside the door was one of those "win a car" slot machines, which of course, I had to try, especially since I had a few quarters in my pocket. Well whaddya know, I ended up winning $6.50 in about 5 minutes! Perhaps our luck was turning around!

1:30AM: Stratosphere - In trying to figure out where to head to next, I remembered from previous trips that the lounge that is located right in the middle of the Stratosphere's casino is usually going off right about this time of night, so I suggested we head over there. As soon as we got in the door, we knew something was going on because before we even got to the lounge area, we could see a huge crowd of people piled up in front of the lounge area

Further proving that anything can happen in Vegas, when we got up to the actual lounge, believe it or not, we discovered it was The Temptations on stage drawing that huge crowd, finishing up a super extended improvised version of "My Girl". What was actually going on was that there was a huge group of R&B and blues (particularly Chicago blues) musicians in town and they were all gathered at that one stage that one night, with different musicians and singers constantly switching off, the names reading like a veritable who's who of blues musicians. Indeed, many of the people watching were standing around with their own guitar cases and what not. A few minutes later, Ray Charles showed up and sang a tune!

My guess is that all these folks were in town to do some other show, and that one of them is a regular peformer at the Stratosphere and invited all of their buddies to come down that night. What really started it all, I will never know, but we were extremely lucky to have happened on such a find, that was probably worth more than anything we could have paid for, and ended up not costing us a single dime!

Well, actually, it cost me $5 in a video poker machine that I played while we were watching, but hey, we could have stood around there for free just as as easily.

2:15AM: Golden Gate - It got late, so we headed back downtown, but not before hitting up Golden Gate for their famous 99 cent shrimp cocktail. And of course, before we could head to the snack bar in the back, we had to have a few rolls of the dice at the $3 craps table that was sitting there with 4 bored looking dealers and no players. And what a great idea that was, as (mostly due to good rolls by Scott), I won $15, and he won $20 after about 45 minutes. By then it was late, so I decided to get my shrimp cocktail to go.

This shrimp cocktail is a cup full of tiny shrimp, with some tangy cocktail sauce on top -- it's 99 cents so don't expect any jumbo prawns or anything like that. But that being said, it's still quite good for a snack, and often times (though not as late as 3AM) there is live jazz music going on. 99 cents for a tasty snack and live entertainment, you can't beat that! Scott isn't really into seafood much, so he didn't get one, and I ended up paying $1.07 including tax.

3:15AM: Lady Luck - I ate my shrimp cocktail while walking back down Fremont Street back to the hotel. You get an erie juxtaposition of the silence on top of all those dancing neon lights that seem to be screaming out... yet not making any noise.

Tuesday

12:05PM: Downtown Las Vegas - It's election time, and over the course of our trip, we saw some "Re-elect Oscar Goodman" campaign posters. I think Oscar Goodman is a cool guy. He's openly (even flamboyantly) alcoholic, and he made his career as a mafia lawyer, representing the defense in every major mob court case of the last few decades. In fact, he plays himself in the movie Casino as DeNiro's lawyer -- as that movie is based on the true story of the Stardust resort, and Goodman represented the "Lefty" Rosenthal, the man who DeNiro's character is based on. Basically, there's no other city in the world but Las Vegas that would actually accept him as mayor.

One of the reasons why I think Oscar Goodman is such a cool guy, is that there's a certain honesty about him that other politicians don't, or even, can't have. Where most politicians are busy trying to put forth a wholesome image by hiding all of the sordid details of their past and downplaying their relationships with unsavory characters, basically living fake lives, all of the nasty details of Goodman's past are out in the open, and everyone knows about them. In that sense, he has nothing to hide and can be completely honest and forthcoming about everything.

Anyway... if you're wondering where this is going... crazy me thought it would be kind of cool to take a couple of these campaign posters home with me to San Diego. Just as I was wonder "I wonder where his campaign headquarters are", we happened to drive by a building with a gigantic "Oscar Goodman Campaign Headquarters" sign. Well whaddya know. The two ladies inside couldn't believe that a person from San Diego had ever heard of Oscar Goodman or knew who he was, let alone have any fans out there, and told me that they would let Oscar know that "Bryan from San Diego" stopped by. Cool!

12:15PM: Ellis Island - We went to Ellis Island for their $4.95 Complete Steak Dinner special, offered 24 hours a day. Ellis Island is by no means a fancy casino. In fact, it's attached to the Super 8 motel located at 4178 Koval Lane, a couple blocks east of the Strip. Yes, that's right, I said Super 8 motel. But if you can get past the seedy look of the place and make your way over to the restaurant, you will be blown away by the quality of this steak dinner!

It's a 10 ounce choice grade sirlion steak, juicy, tender, and delicious. Not the tiny, tough, flavorless piece of leather that you'd expect for $4.95! We were quite impressed with the quality of the food, and I'm sure I'll be back for more in the future. Definitely the best meal value of this trip!

12:50PM: Harrah's - Unfortunately we had to cut our trip short so we could get over to Harrah's for the Mac King Comedy Magic Show -- which was sold out by the time we got there. Yes, a Tuesday afternoon show, sold out. That's actually a testament to how great this show is, and the most you could pay for it is around $15, and there are always coupons available to get in for less. It's a great, lighthearted show, suitable for all ages, and again, there's a reason why it's selling out even on a Tuesday afternoon... it's that good. Definitely one of the best entertainment values in Vegas!

2:30PM: Las Vegas, NV - Having not been able to get into the show, we decided to just head back. We filled up the gas tank (which I know from experience to be just enough to make it back to San Diego) at a cost of $18.72, and headed back to San Diego in the rain, and although the weather prevented us from being able to do everything we wanted, we still had plenty of fun and plenty of things to do, and spent very little money in the process!

6:00PM: Hesperia, CA - On the way back we got to reap the rewards of dealing with the rain on the way down and also from the day before... in the form of snow! Now Scott and I, being from San Diego and all, don't get to see snow very often. In fact, I'd have to say that this was the first time I'd actually been standing in the snow for at least a few years. So we took advantage of the situation and pulled off the freeway to play in the snow for a few minutes.

The End

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Travelaxe - Software for your Windows computer that can help you find the lowest rates online for the hotel you want.
Las Vegas Advisor - These guys are the experts on finding the best deals in Las Vegas.
Cheapovegas - Humorous, but honest reviews on the various hotels around Vegas. If you're not familiar with Vegas and are looking for a hotel on the internet... if it's not on this site, you definitely don't want to stay at there!