What to do for 5 hours in LAS this Friday Night?
 

I am flying into LAS from LAX on UA the night of Jan 6th or 12:30 AM on the 7th. I leave for YVR the next morning at 6AM so about five hours to burn. I am sure both the old CO and the new UA lounges close at 1 AM, so what to do? Do l leave the security area and rent a car and drive the strip or stay put and cruise the secured side of the airport? I have no baggage just carry on and as this is one of two one way tickets I will more than likely have the SSSS on my boarding pass so I may want to stay in the airport? Is anything open? Any suggestions would be great. Thanks.

I think this is better asked in the Las Vegas Forum, so I will move this thread there.

FlyinHawaiian, Co-Moderator
United Mileage Plus Forum

No need to rent a car, the airport is very close to the strip, plus the traffic sucks. just take a cab to the strip.

You can take a taxi to one of the hotels, Paris for example, and then walk to other 4 or 5 hotels, and then head back to the airport, Just make sure to keep track of time, there are no clocks in the casinos and once inside it's hard to keep track of time :). I recommend Paris, because from there you can walk to many hotels, vs if you go to MGM, Luxor or Excalibur it's a long walk to the center and were most on the excitement is. Good luck

Depends on what you like.

I'm not into it, but plenty of clubs open -- Marquee, Pure, LAX, etc...

Same with gambling -- pick any casino.

The following are actually options that I enjoy.

For freebie tourist activities at that time, should still be able to catch a fountain show outside Bellagio, then head inside to check out the arboretum.

If you want a bar/lounge near the airport with an awesome view of the Strip, try Mix on the 54th floor of The Hotel (at Mandalay Bay).

For dueling piano bars (not sure show will still be happening once you're there... can't remember show times), near the airport is the Times Square Bar inside New York, NY, LV (bar closes at 2:30AM). That's probably your best bet coming in after midnight, but another decent dueling piano show done by gorgeous twin sisters at Harrahs on the Strip, and Napolean's in Paris LV has a piano show too, but with better wine options than the other 2 venues.

Here's a list of some late night Las Vegas activities. If you like bowling there's a 24-hour alley.

You might also check out Late Night at the House of Blues (inside Mandalay Bay). I don't know what time they close, but since they call it late night I imagine you'll get an hour or two of show before they wrap up. Double check the dress code.

A few months ago I saw the piano show at Harrahs and it was two guys. I never saw the twins. But the two guys were hilarious and really knew how to work a crowd. Really worth seeing and totally free. ^

There's a 24-hour Starbucks inside the New York, New York Hotel & Resort on the strip.

Pretty much everything else is going to be nightclubbing or gambling-type activities at that time of night...

And of course there's free wifi everywhere in the Las Vegas airport, so if nothing else interests you, there's always Flyertalk.com. :)

http://www.bellagio.com/amenities/fo...-bellagio.aspx

Looks like they stop at midnight.

+1

Paris is a good starting point. I also suggest Venetian, because you can get to Palazzo, Mirage, and Treasure Island.

Some hotels are connected by free trains. For example, you can go between Bellagio-City Center (Aria, Cosmopolitan, Mandarin Oriental), Mandalay Bay-Luxor-Excalibur. Just make sure they run 24 hours. No need to take the pricey monorail that takes you a football field away from where you're going.

If you want to cruise down the strip, there's the double-decker Deuce bus. But I'm not sure what their schedule is. It's about $2 each way.

Have fun. Go win some money.

...and Wynn/Encore, by going through Palazzo to the pedestrian bridge across Sands Ave.

If you want to gamble, I recommend somthing closer to the airport like MGM. From there you are very close to NYNY as well.

If you do not want to gamble (or if you want to gamble just a little), the other suggestions are good.

To minimize cab expenses, do cab pick up and drop offs on the east side of the strip. If you arrive and depart from the same hotel, you could leave your bag with a bell hop for a couple bucks tip.

Or, you could have an "unfortunate" situation like I had my last trip.

I had an early morning flight out, so I planned to stop gambling at a reasonable hour. Unfortunately, I kept winning and couldn't even think of quitting till my luck cooled off. I rushed to the gate just in time to see my plane being pushed away without me. Since I won some money I was willling to pay for any change fee. I went to the service desk and told the truth.

Luck continued when the agent found a connection leaving in a about an hour and then booked me on a competitor's flight. To make matters worse, as I was walking away, she asked if I had missed breakfast and would I would like a meal voucher. All at no charge.

LOL you got very lucky, did you had status at the time, if yes what was it?

Nope. No status. I just got lucky.

I got lucky once before, I woke up at 3am to get ready (had to be at the airport at 7am) I was ready by 4am did not want it to wake up the wife (she insisting on taking me) until 15 minutes before we had to leave. I decided to watch TV for and hour or so to make time, I close my eyes for a second and when I had reopen them it was 6:45am oh men was I upset, We rush to the airport, I arrive at 7:30am the agent was very nice and got me in a flight that was leaving 1 hours later free of charge. no status at the time, have not fallen sleep ever again.

Things at LAS should be slowing down after the holidays, but I would say you should plan for having no more than 4 hours on/near the southern end of the Strip (as others said already.) Grab a taxi for the trip to/from the Strip. I don't think you want to do a car rental as all dropoffs are at the remote, centralized ground transportation center - indoor garage, after refilling the tank ? plus then a 5 minutes walk down to street level & wait for next available shuttle for a 10 minutes ride back to the main terminal - less time to "enjoy" Sin City itself with your layover.

LAS security started getting busy very, very early in the predawn hours - and UA/CO's flights are few & in-between, and the line to get pass security can be rather long - plus, you will need to take the shuttle train out to the satellite terminal for UA + then walking upstairs to find your gate. We used to do lot more UA into LAS, and it's easily 20 to 30 minutes from wheels on the runaway to the taxiway, docked & into the terminal, walk & ride to the main terminal & downstairs/bypassing the luggage claims and then out to ground transportation.

I say if everything worked smoothly, you will be on the Strip no earlier than 1:15 or 1:30 am and need to start getting back no later than 4:00 or 4:15 am with your carry-ons and SSSS on the BP so as to allow extra time to wait in line & clear TSA. If you have UA/CO status and/or flying F or J, there are priority lanes and will save you a few minutes.