West - West Wendover - Yay or nay?

My parents have reached the stage in life where casino junketing is a big deal, and they recently found out about charters to West Wendover, NV.

The pricing is very attractive - about $200 pp (dbl. occ.) for flight + 3 nights at one of the casino hotels. That is amazing considering you'd be hard pressed to find a one-way flight from home (YWG) to anyplace for $200, let alone return flight and hotel.

What raises my eyebrows about this is that West Wendover is tiny and isolated, with apparently nothing to do there besides gamble at the casino. I suppose that there are the Bonneville Salt Flats which might be interesting for an hour or two, but the rest of the stuff (mountain hiking, ATV riding) is not really for my parents.

Salt Lake City is under 2 hours away for a day trip, but it isn't clear to me that you can even rent cars in town. West Wendover doesn't appear to have anything besides a few gas stations, fast-food restaurants and casinos - literally. Does anyone have any experience with this place? Is it worth the trip?

I have only stopped there on my through, except for 1 day trip I took from Provo. They attract a lot of the SLC crowd on the weekends. I would assume the junket they are considering taking is midweek or sun-thurs based on the price you quoted. As for attractions, there are only a few that I remember. The Salt Flats being the biggest. 2 little know facts of the area though are: because of the flatness of some of the area you can actually see the curvature of the earth on the horizon (if that makes sense). Apparently it is the only place you can see that. 2nd fact is that there is a old air base (has a museum I believe) that the Enola Gay crew practiced their bombing in preparation for the nuclear bomb drop on Japan. Otherwise, your parents will be gambling at the casinos.

Have they checked out Laughlin? Much more interesting - don't know about costs, however, as we have always had comps of some sort. Lots of charter flights on Allegiant and Sun Country.

Thanks for the responses... it sounds like they are pretty intent on going, but they are fully aware that other than seeing the Bonneville Salt Flats, it's basically going to be casino only.

I find it amazing that such a tiny place - too small for even a Wal-Mart, K-Mart or anything of the sort - can have daily jet aircraft service bringing in gamblers from all over the western and central parts of the continent!

I have been to Wendover before and had a good time. But you are right - It is pretty much just a gambling town. There is a concert hall there where they may be able to see a show: Penn & Teller, Jay Leno, Wynonna Judd, etc. Otherwise, just hop around to the casinos, gamble, eat at the casino restaurants or lay by the pool and enjoy the sun.

The air base where the Enola Gay was based is now the airport where the Allegiant Air charter flights fly into.

http://www.outwestnewspaper.com/enolagay.html

The funny thing about Wendover is that there are actually two towns side-by-side. Wendover, UTAH and West Wendover, NEVADA. One of the casinos, which used to be appropriately named the Stateline has the state line running through the property. Of course, the casino part of the property is on the Nevada side, but the hotel side is in Utah where room taxes are lower.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stateline_Casino

BTW, all of the casino hotels there have a common website, which lists the shows coming up. Cheap Trick, Little River Band, etc. http://www.wendoverfun.com/

I've been there as well. Went to see the Salt Flats and stopped in a Casino for a little while to escape the August sun. The drive from SLC was amazingly boring. 70-something (or more) miles of perfectly straight highway. So sunny I had to put a towel over my window. Nealy fell asleep mid day. Definitely an interesting experience. But yeah, nothing there but casinos. Nothing.

Well, there is the weird tree sculpture thing on the side of the interstate... but that's good for about 20 seconds.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/neighborhoodsouthvalley/54004460-132/wendover-wharton-historic-airfield.html.csp

There are nearly a dozen Indian Casinos within 45 minutes drive of San Diego. And they are not what you might expect - several of the nicest ones are every bit the quality and scale of major Las Vegas Casino Resorts. In fact, Pechanga, in Temecula, has a slightly larger gaming floor than the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Several others well worth experiencing are Barona, Viejas, Pala, Valley View, Sycuan, and Harrah's Rincon. Temecula, about 45 minutes north of San Diego, is the home of the largest of these, Pechanga, and several of the others: Pala, Valley View, and Harrah's Rincon are not far away, and also has a wine region - although I am personally not enamored with the quality of the Red wines from there, the Whites and Sparkling Wines are pretty good.

http://sandiego.about.com/od/indiancasino1/tp/tp_casinos.htm

A couple of hours drive away from San Diego, (less than 90 minutes from Temecula) in the Palm Springs Area, are several others, Morongo, The Spa, Agua Caliente, and Spotlight 29

San Diego and Palm Springs also have world class golf and shopping and dining, San Diego also has great beach, the Zoo, Sea World, the Wild Animal Park and LegoLand, and 90 miles further north, is Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865556760/Historic-World-War-II-tower-restored-to-its-original-glory.html