One of my bucket trips has always been a trip to Vegas for the first weekend of the tourney. My Class of '16 son turned 21 last Fall and so we decided to do it this year. But about the time we were looking like a tourney team we amended the plans to go watch the Ags play their games instead. You know what happened, so now we're trying to figure out if it's not too late to salvage that trip to Vegas.

My questions for those that have done this:

Is it feasible to stay off-strip and drive there to watch the games? We will be driving from Dallas so we won't need a taxi or rental to get around.

Suggestions on which casinos/sports books to watch/bet the games? I gamble, but I never have bet on games so if someone could suggest a crash course on how to do this on a limited basis for fun then that would be much appreciated.

Lastly, what time do the games usually start out there (West Coast time)? I think I remember that the higher seeds play later in the day but please correct me if memory isn't correct.

Thanks in advance.

I wouldn't want to stay off-strip, especially if you're going with your just-turned-21 son. It simplifies a lot to not have to worry about driving. And I'm not just talking about boozing. The traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard is like downtown NYC bad and getting to the parking garages on the backsides of the hotels can be confusing. Plus walking the Strip is a must-do, and I'm getting the feeling your son hasn't been before. Oh, and staying on strip means you can booze it up more easily, and if you can't drink too much with your son in Vegas, where can you drink too much with him?

Go to vegas.com to look at hotels. I just now checked and for Friday and Saturday night, you can stay on the strip for relatively cheap (Thursday night would be even less $$ if you want to show up on day 1 of the tournament). Bally's has $115/night which would probably work out to 130-140 after the resort fees (Bally's is rundown, but your son's 21 so he's not going to care if the place is a bit of a dive. Plus, you're not going to spend much time in the room anyway). MGM is $150/night, the Luxor is $140, and several other hotels have rooms available in the 120-160 price range. When you're looking the hotels, though, go to google maps and make sure that you don't get one that's north of the Encore. The Riviera, Circus Circus, Stratosphere, etc are all in a crummy part of town (it gets ugly fast). The Trump is fine, but it's away from everything, so I'd avoid that for the same reason I'd avoid off-strip hotels.

As far as the sports book, it kind of depends on the atmosphere you're looking for. Lagasse's Stadium is really, really nice, but it's expensive as hell. They have a minimum food and drink order for each person, and it's going to be a lot (Like $200+ each). Personally, I'd recommend the MGM Grand, Mirage, or Caesar's Palace. All 3 of of those hotels have gigantic sports books, so they'll be very boisterous (that's a nice way of saying borderline mob-like), which is hella-fun during March Madness, especially during the first weekend when there are numerous games going on.

As far as betting, just run a few google searches. There are so many options that it's hard to go over everything in one post.

Thanks. MGM looks like a really good option. Surprised to see it and all the other strip properties so affordable on what I thought would be a prime time weekend. Been a couple of years since I've been there. Business must not be so good.

Stay wherever you want on the strip and spend all day at Caesar's sports book. They had the best fans when I went the first week of the tourney the past few years. I'll be there 2nd weekend and am pretty pumped

The LV Hilton is off-strip but right on the monorail. 5 mins and you're in the heart of the strip. You can find ridiculously cheap rooms online.

quote:

---

Thanks. MGM looks like a really good option. Surprised to see it and all the other strip properties so affordable on what I thought would be a prime time weekend. Been a couple of years since I've been there. Business must not be so good.

---

Nah it's just the ol' "get them in town so we can take their money other ways" trick. And they will. The opening rounds make up one of the biggest gambling weekends of the year. It's like Christmas for the casinos; it'll be a got-danged zoo (which makes the huge sports books a ton of fun to hang out in).

Checked the LV Hilton (now known as the Westgate LVH) and it averaged $156 a night. MGM is $172 along with Treasure Island. Luxor and several others avg under $200 night so there are some reasonable deals to be had. If only we could catch a cheap flight. That's not a trivial road trip...

Check out the Mirage. Rooms should be competitive. Middle of the strip. Good Sports Book & a great place to stay.

I live in Vegas. The M and Green Valley Ranch are off strip, nice as hell, and have excellent sports books. No need to even be on the strip unless you just want to.

Caesers is great, located in a large open corner with a great atmosphere. Good place to just watch, even if that's not where you wager. Watching people is one of my favorite past times anyhow, and watching some guy yell and scream for a point or two in the umkc/utpa matchup is just priceless

Lagasse's Stadium in the Venetian is a pretty cool place to watch games. The food is pretty good as well.

Thanks again for all the tips for this trip. Found the best deal at Excalibur after our first late night travel day stay at Sams Town on Wednesday. Yeah, I know it's a dump relative to most strip properties. Wanted to stay at MGM but they didn't have any two queen rooms and we didn't want to share a bed. All the others would be a couple of hundred more for the stay which we decided would be much better spent on wagering.

One last question about the Vegas sports books. I ran across some internet mention of betting apps to avoid waiting in long lines but have not really been able to find one. Maybe I don't know the right search terms or maybe there aren't many for an Android device, so if somebody could anybody point me in the right direction it would be very much appreciated.

The one reference I could remember was used at the Red Rocks casino off strip, but I think I remembered something about the M, Venetian, and Palazzo having specific betting devices rather than apps, maybe?

Thanks again.

LV Hilton has a great sports book. Many of the hotels do, but a lot of them get packed during peak times. Sometimes so much that you can't even find a place to sit. LV Hilton will open up one of their theaters, and have a giant projection screen TV and show multiple games on it, and have cheap food in the back you can eat.

I love Caesars, and Venetian/Palazzo, but they can be crowded at times too.

Parking and getting around can be a pain at times and a breeze at others. Last time we went, they had the RocknRoll Marathon and they closed down the strip, which made taking a 3-4 block trip over an hour. We would have walked, but we were already in the traffic before we knew what was going on. Make sure you find out about what's going on before you plan where/how you're driving.

If you go, get off the strip and go have breakfast or lunch here:

http://blackbeardiner.com/store/las-vegas-black-bear-diner/

Great Food!

Aria's sports book is my favorite right. It's smaller, great sofas and seats, and closed it so there's not a bunch of open foot traffic like in MGM or Caesars.

That being said I stay in MGM and walk to aria.

If only all conversations on here could be this civil and helpful. Almost like we're all Ags.

Lagasse's Stadium is the best book I've been to, but no idea what the various books are like during March Madness

Stay on the strip and catch a cab/monorail to the LV Hilton (or whatever it's called now) and watch the games in their theater. For me that's a lot better than hoping to land a seat in a sports book.

Make your bets first thing in the morning or the night before. The lines at the book in the LVH get ridiculous once the games start...and it is the biggest book out there.

Skip the apps, they're all pretty buggy. Lines usually move pretty fast, I wouldn't worry much about that.

No problem that you're staying at Excalibur, but that doesn't mean you have to do anything there. Excalibur isn't a great location on the strip for walking to other casinos, but all the other casinos will be a short cab ride away, so I'd go other places to gamble and watch games.

There are usually march madness parties that you can buy tix to at various casinos. I think they put multiple projectors in a conference room or some other area and the ticket price includes food and drinks. I think you can also make bets there as well. I've never done this, but it's another option if you know you will want to watch games all day and don't want to deal with finding a seat at a sportsbook. Not sure about the price on the tickets.

Check out the Excalibur! Look for promo codes online for 30% off and stay for cheap and proximate to NYNY and less than a 30 min walk to Bellagio fountains, Cesar's .,.etc. At any rate, have fun and your son will love the environment!

oh I just read you're staying at Excalibur... good call!

Not normally in the habit of doing trip reports, but thought I would post a couple of thoughts about our three days in Vegas watching the tournament.

We had decided to check out Green Valley Ranch on our commute between casinos Thursday morning. It was a nice book and crowded as you would expect since the first game was already in progress. We found a couple of seats next to a gentleman wearing a Maroon Out t-shirt and sat down. We introduced ourselves and got to talking. After he had said a couple of things that sounded familiar, I asked if he ever posted on TexAgs. He grinned and said that he didn't ordinarily admit to that but... yeah. I correctly guessed that he was WestGalvestonAggie and introduced myself as agent-maroon. What are the odds of picking the same casino and sitting down next to one of the posters who had replied on this very thread? I don't know but they're apparently a lot better than the odds on most of my bets. The Aggie/TexAgs network is truly amazing.

So a belated shout-out to WestGalvestonAggie. It was a real pleasure meeting you and you do know your way around all things Vegas!

The Excalibur was actually a lot better than I was expecting and it was very convenient to the MGM Grand & monorail. We checked the Book at MGM and although it looked great we couldn't really find anywhere to even stand for game watching. We quickly decided to catch the monorail to the Westgate LVH (formerly known as the LV Hilton). Also considered getting off at the Flamingo and walking over to Caesars, but we were running late to make the afternoon games so the LVH with it's world's largest sports book seemed like the best option.

The LVH SuperBook was crowded as well but we spotted a sign suggesting the game watching party in the theater. Although somewhat crowded, this was EXACTLY what we were looking for. Three big screens, theater seating, and cheap beer/food in the theater bar. The only thing that I might have changed was that it was a bit of a hike over to the restroom, but even then you got to pass a bar with some very attractive waitresses. There was a betting window open next to the theater entrance but I preferred to go to the somewhat longer but much faster moving lines in the regular book where you could watch the games in progress and see the betting lines on the big board. Anyways, we spent the rest of our trip at the LVH and highly recommend it. The crowds were smaller each day we were there (Thurs. thru Sat.) which was counter-intuitive to what we expected.

As I had posted earlier, we did drive from Dallas and back. I had always wanted to make that road trip but once was enough. Got back to Dallas 4:00AM Monday morning, 17 hours to the minute travel time, 19 hours with the time changes. Obviously got a lot of quality time with my son that made it more than worthwhile. And we saw grazing antelope twice and saw a hawk take something just off the roadway. But once was plenty enough for me. Must be getting old as I'm still recovering.

Good, good times. Son and I are already planning our next trip. Thanks to all for all the tips and advice!

Glad you had fun. Excalibur isn't ultra posh like some of the other hotels, but it's just fine, which is all you need since you aren't spending much time in the hotel anyway.

I have no idea what this guy is talking about...

Just kidding. Was nice to meet you both!

stayed at the aria for the past 5 days. Holy crap it was awesome. I always love going during ncaa tourament. Props to the OP for staying at exaclibur and surviving

Excalibur wasn't without issues for certain. I was approached by a working girl a little before 6:00AM on the Sunday morning coffee run. She took off the second I told her my son was up in the room. Completely unprofessional IMO.