If you are new to Vegas, you should take an afternoon and see this attraction. The Stratosphere (click on link) is the tall tower casino you see in all those Vegas pictures and the view is worth a trip. In the 360 degree circle there are also maps to show you the areas you are seeing.The best time to view it is to time it just at sunset so you see Vegas in the daytime and then watch the lights come on until all the unlit areas are dark. You have to time your trip a bit, and you have to be a little patient, but when it is uncrowded there are benches.
I am not hearing anyone ask about thrill rides, but if the wind is right, you can experience a good fright because the rides take advantage of the fact that we are so far up. It is thrill enough for me to just watch a couple.
By also timing your visit, you can see the Viva Las Vegas afternoon show for $10 with a drink. I have some coupons, but to print your own go to http://www.stratospherehotel.com/coupon_viva.html
Technically, $10 is what you pay for the drink, but who pays for drinks in Vegas? Well, except you nongamblers.
This is a nice little Vegas review with comic, dancers, singers, a dog act. Think vaudeville and there you have it. I'd go with you, but I've seen it 8 times now and I have all the jokes memorized.
There is also in that area of Vegas a roller coaster in the Stratosphere and some "car" themed adventures at the NASCAR cafe. I have not experienced the car themed stuff, but some have done the new Drive and enjoyed it.
Details are in the Car post on my Blog: http://vegasbirthdaybash.blogspot.com/2006/09/like-cars.html#links
Finally, in that same neighborhood is the largest and tackiest Souvenir shop in Vegas which is worth seeing even if you buy nothing and just pretend it is a pop culture museum. Here you can buy anything you can imagine with pictures of Vegas, dice, cards stuck on somewhere as well as original dice or $1.50 decks of used casino cards marked with their logo. And there are a host of Spencer gifts type items as well as enough knick knacks to keep enabling China to make enough profit to buy out yet another trillion dollars of your debt.
While this small section of the strip is sort of an island between the Circus Circus section and the two or three miles of pawns-erotic dancers- wedding chapels that finally breaks into Downtown, it is easily accessible on the Deuce buses that run every 20 minutes. $2 a trip or $5 for 24 hours of unlimited bus rides.
FOOD: This is not the prime area to eat a meal so if you can, plan to get somewhere else before supper time, that is probably the best plan; however. I always get stuck long enough to be a little hungry. The Sahara buffet can be pretty cheap with easily available coupons, but it is also considered one of the worst in Vegas. That being said, I eat there on occasion with the right coupons often filling up on fruit. Some of the cheaper diners don't seem to offer much fruit. The Sahara diner there, however, is nice and at certain times in the evening offers a wonderful prime rib special. The Stratosphere buffet is passable. I like the Statosphere's 50's themed diners and in one sometimes the waiters sing. If you really want to splurge, you can eat on top of the tower. The food is reviewed as fine, but pricey. For additional information here are the dining links:
http://www.stratospherehotel.com/las_vegas_dining.html
Walking up to the Riviera/Circus Circus/ Slots of fun section of the strip for food is not a good idea unless you have a coupon for a free foot long hot dog at Slots of Fun and even then you are dragging the bottom of the Vegas food barrel. Circus Circus is a joke in most reviews with its buffet coming in as dirty and tasteless at best and at the worst, diarrhetically dangerous. When the Stardust was there, you could eat a decent small meal,but the old Stardust is all dust now. (You will however, soon be able to see the classic old Stardust neon sign at Neonopolis in Downtown Vegas.)
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MUDGRIFF LOUISIANA DAN DISAGREES WITH THE CIRCUS CIRCUS NOTE:
I do not agree with you about the Circus Circus buffet. I ate there 2 times during their last June-July for the comvention trip to LV. While not, I agree, top notch, like Rio or Belliago(I've eaten at Belliago 6 or 7 times, Rio 2 or 3 times) , I found it to be a decent buffet to eat at. I thought the Gold Coast buffet was far worse then the Circus Circus buffet. But, I guess thats my opinion. In any case I did not get sick after eating at any of them.
In case you do not know -- The roller coaster on top of the Stratosphere has been closed and dismantled to be replaced by a night club and a smaller type of ride. The Sahara still has their roller coaster type of ride though. I guess the car ride you are talking about is the ride behind the Sahara and the Las Vegas monorail station in what used to be a parking lot. Your travelers probably would like this ride. The attraction is set up like a proving ground/obstacle course. For a fee($10 or $20 I think, you might check this) a person drives a real, out of the factory (not hopped up) car, through the course, with an experienced trained factory course driver. It will test a person's driving skill and abilities. There is something for anyone to learn here and I really think it would be fun.
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Lucky Pete wrote me with information on a sale at NYNY. If anyone is interested, let me know.
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Travelworm is still at $19 during the week for the Gold Coast. They have other specials as well. Check them out if you are still looking for rooms.
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In general, I am unaware of anyone who has booked air and not decided on hotels. If you want help finding a deal, let me know once you have your air dates and I'll check around for deals on those dates. And in general, I am pretty much "question driven" at this time. I won't know what to tell you about, if you don't ask. Then, as always, I will tell you too much.
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NEED A MAP TO PLAN?
Don't miss the links to the right of the Blog that are permanent. In particular, as you play look for the link called Vegas Maps as it has a really cool map of the strip and downtown with the shapes of the casinos drawn in accurately and with options to check on major shows and other things along the route. It is one of the coolest maps I have seen on Vegas.
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