Las Vegas - Sin City Half off

We had visited Vegas on numerous occassions - for corporate events or as tourists with the been-there-done-that attitude. This was our first attempt at really exploring the show biz aspect of Vegas. Our plan was to spend some quality time with quality shows. Here goes a quick writeup on some of the shows, tips and hints on procuring tickets to these shows etc.

We were in the Venetian right across Treasure Island. We love the ambience at Venetian and are quite familiar with its layout, and have a natural inclination towards it. We did rent a car, but typically parked at an optimal point and walked...Bellagio is probably quite central and we ended up valet parking there for most events, walk for every thing and at the end of the night drive back from Bellagio. Traffic is quite bad, but walking is quite tiring.

We have tried the monorail, it may be a long walk depending on what your destination is, the ticket is priced at $5/ride, but if you get an all day ticket, it works out quite cheap. Again, it depends on your destination proximity to the train station - how you can get that extra mile from your all day monorail ticket. It is quite convenient, compared to sitting in traffic on the strop.

Try to decide on the shows and book them before you get there....Otherwise, we do end up spending some time in booking them, and then the seating is not as good. Two of the shows for which we booked months in advance was the Phantom (Venetian ) - which was quite alright - and also David Copperfield. David Copperfield can be a really amazing first time experience. He will love this .....

We attended the Bellagio museum of arts that has a audio tour for the paintings of Van Gogh, Monet etc. That is quite nice.

We also went to George Wallace in the Flamingo, stand up comedy. Hewas boring at times, but he is a legend in his own right and quite witty at times.He does have quite a following.

ZUMANITY in New York New York was very artistic, but got boring at times...it has acrobatic features, comedy, everthing, but all classy. Most of the shows have become like variety entertainment packages try to squeeze in something for everyone.

It is best to take seating in the center close to the stage, that is where you feel like you are part of the show. The half price tickets are only available for not the high demand shows, and their seating is not good. We found George Wallace show through the half price tickets at the showcase mall (see below writeup on details of the half ticket). The seating was terrible. But you can even upgrade the half tickets for better setas.

Once you get these half price tickets (which are really vouchers), it is critical to go exchange these vouchers immediately into tickets so that you can get the best available seating. They will tell you where exactly to go to exchange them. For example to exchange zumanity vouchers into tickets, there are a few casinos that let you exchange it.

Your kids will like Stratosphere, tower in Stratosphere has some rides. We didn't go up. We did go up the Eiffel tower, was alright. New York New York has an arcade for kids, but kids don't seem to have too many things to do in Vegas, as Vegas attempts to correct the ambience - it is no longer a family friendly place that they tried in the 90s.

You may want to dress up in the evenings, it does get casual due to the heat, but dressing up is better than down. Try to take good walking evening shoes, otherwise it gets very tiring on the feet. Some people just wear sneakers in the evening and that is acceptable in Vegas, as people know how tired the feet get with all the walking.

We had the buffet at Wynn (The Buffet) brunch...was multi ethnic and decent quality. But I felt the Bellagio buffet is better. We ate at Tamba, http://tambalounge.com/ opposite New York NewYork in one of the inside strip malls. Their buffet is better (had that in January) than their dinner. I am sure you will enjoy the buffets at most of the good casinos ( Paris, Bellagio etc.). THere is an Indian restaurant in RIO - Gaylords, very nice decor, but quite expensive. Lots of Asian fusion restaurants eg in Luxor, very good presentation and decent food. Cannot go wrong with the food in the nicer casinos. With the rest you have to watch out.

The heat in June is like 100 F, so you can't really sit poolside except in the evenings. Unless you find an indoor pool. Best part of Vegas that I like is just walking on Las Vegas Blvd in the evenings, lots of people are walking and it is a nice walk in 80 degree evening heat. We don't seem to get these warm evenings in the bay area.

I started appreciating what Vegas has to offer. Most folks enjoy the luxurious living, great food and opulent setting (kinda like a cruise ship vacation, but this is bigger as are in a big city with a lot of attractions for you to pick and choose what you want, hard to get such a vacation anywhere else).

Here is excerpts on the FAQ

The Half Price Tickets in Vegas FAQ

First, there are two main half price tickets vendors. They are Tickets2Nite and Tix4Tonite. Both vendors open at noon daily, and close around 9pm, pending on when the last show starts that they are selling tickets for. They sell half price tickets for day of the show ONLY. And Tix4Tonite also sells discounted (not 50%) tickets for some of the major shows. These are listed further in the FAQ.

Tickets2Nite is located on the strip in the Showcase Mall next to the “big Coke bottle” across from the Monte Carlo Hotel and next to the MGM hotel.

Contact info:

Tickets2Nite
http://www.tickets2nite.com
3785 Las Vegas Blvd. S
1-888-4-TIX2NITE

Tix4Tonite has several locations on the strip. They are:

south strip. Next to the Harley Davidson Cafe on the corner of Harmon and LV Blvd.

Fashion Show Mall. The entrance is located right off the street near Neiman Marcus

north strip. Across from the Stardust, and next to the Riviera.

Tix4Tonite
http://www.tix4tonight.com
1-877-849-4868

Okay, so what shows do they offer? Do a google search now