Side street primer
 

Is there a primer on using side streets to get to the various hotels on the strip? I am staying at the Stratosphere (not my first choice, trust me) and will need to get to Caesars and Mandalay Bay on separate nights.

Whats a primer?

The way i'd go from the strat is onto the strip, right onto Sahara, then left on the freeway. Straight up to whichever place you want. Nice and easy and no traffic

By "primer" I meant a website or something that tells you all the side street ways to reach Strip properties so you avoid driving on the Strip.

Thanks for the tip!

www.mapquest.com and use Paradise as another N/S artery. But it's under alot of construction 'til Dec.-ish, from other posters on this forum!

This sounds like excellent advice!

Just to clarify, are you suggesting using the freeway for the N-S travel?

Also, the Mapopolis map I have for my PDA/GPS shows a street called Industrial that seems to run fairly parallel to the freeway. Does anyone know if that's a decent road to take also?

Industrial, which I guess splits and turns into both Dean Martin Dr. and Frank Sinatra Dr., is recommended here:

http://www.fodors.com/miniguides/mgr...ction=tra&pg=2

Yeah, I've taken Industrial from Charleston to Tropicana and it's definately an alternate N/S route.

To be honest, even as a local I get lost on those streets behind the casinos! Especially from Stratosphere (please don't walk around that neighborhood, in particular, behind the casino!)

From the Stratosphere, the easiest way would be to turn left on Sahara for just about half a block, and then turn right onto Paradise. Construction of the monorail has finished and you should be able to zip down to Flamingo (turn right) and get to Caesars, or keep going on Paradise and turn right on Tropicana to get to the Strip, then turn left to go to Mandalay Bay.

Then again, it depends on the day of the week and time of day. If it is not a weekend, and it is during the day, it will probably be just as easy to drive down the Strip and forget about shortcuts. Caesars isn't all that far, and even the long drive to Mandalay Bay isn't horrible - they have the stop lights set and sometimes you can zip all the way down the Strip with only a stop or two.

Plus, now with so many overpasses for pedestrians, the drive down the Strip is nowhere near as bad as it used to be. However, all bets are off on Friday and Saturday, so you might as well just plan to leave your hotel early to get where you are going on time.

Oh, I forgot to add that one of the newest shortcuts, Frank Sinatra Drive, behind Treasure Island, Caesars and Luxor and Mandalay Bay, is barely finished yet they have ripped it all up again! In part it is only single lanes each way, with a huge bottleneck of casino employees all trying to sneak out the back way!

Wow! Great local info! A belated welcome to FlyerTalk, DMark, and I look forward to your future posts!

Thanks! I see you are from Hawaii...so, maybe you can explain a Las Vegas mystery to a local.

Why and how did the California Hotel in Downtown Las Vegas became so popular with Hawaiians? Seems like 3/4 of all Hawaiian tourists choose to stay there. I mean, seriously, the place is sort of a dump, and other than some nice little places with Hawaiian food there, why the California Hotel/Casino??

Just wondering as nobody I know here has the answer other than, "gee, that is just where they all go."

(BTW, there is a new Hawaiian Marketplace next to the Alladin on the Strip - I haven't been there yet, but have heard it is pretty authentic.)

Ooops! I apologize for hijacking this thread about shortcuts in Las Vegas with my question about Hawaiians! Sorrysorrysorry.

Ignore question above.

Continue discussing short cuts on side streets.

I had heard probably 20 years ago that Hawaiians merely producing a HI driver's license would get free rooms at the California. The rest of their money would be taken downstairs.

Easy! About 35 years ago Sam Boyd started developing real estate in Honolulu and started taking influential kama'aina to his California Hotel & Casino in downtown LV on business junkets. This turned into more people wanting to go, requiring more bookings, which led to Sam Boyd starting a travel angency called Boyd's Vacations Hawai'i. Today's typical package: RT airfare HNL-LAS, 5 night's room at the Cal, shuttle bus McCarran - Cal and back, plus vouchers for ALL meals: $485 pp!