Parking/Driving in Vegas

My husband and I will be there in a couple weeks and I am clueless as to how driving works there. We will have a rental. Is the strip long and therefore its easier to drive to your destinations or do most people walk?

We are staying at Bills Gambling Hall and Saloon but my husband is determined that we are eating at teh NASCAR cafe that night. It seems far on the map but I was wondering what was the norm, walking or driving and parking?

Also, are there parking lots or garages if we did need to drive there for dinner?

Thanks for the help for a newbie!

Parking/Driving in Vegas

since you%26#39;re staying at a prime location, my suggestion to you would be to cab or walk to most locations. the strip is pretty congested, escpecially at night and if you haven%26#39;t driven in vegas before, i wouldn%26#39;t recommend it. but there is self-parking or valet parking at all of the major casinos and parking lots for restaurants outside of the casinos.

there is also a monorail that runs behind the flamingo that connects to mgm, imperial palace/harrahs, flamingo, convention center, las vegas hiltion, and the sahara. and yes the strip is much longer than it looks so be careful walking because all of the hotels look close because they%26#39;re so big.

we always drive to vegas and end up valeting the car and not taking it out until we go home. cabs are generally our major form of transportation. hope that helps.

Parking/Driving in Vegas

Since I don%26#39;t know where the Nascar Cafe is I can%26#39;t help you with that one.

As the previoius response stated you are in a prime mid strip location, so you can walk to a lot of places.

However, if you want to see as much of Vegas as you can, as opposed to sitting at a blackjck table or slot machine for most of your trip, I think a car will come in handy.

I would advise you study a road map, so you can take back roads and avoid Strip traffic as much as possible.

I am not sure about the entrance to Bill%26#39;s, but most big casino hotels have off Strip entrance and exits, so you only need to drive on the Strip to see the sites.

If you are not used to heavy city traffic, driving in Vegas can be intimidating.

If you drive to casino hop, say to MGM, you are best parking there and walking to NYNY and nearby casinos rather than trying to get your car and drive next door to park again. That is not pracical and even with a car you can expect to do a lot of walking in Vegas.

It%26#39;s pretty easy to get from Bills to the Sahara, which is where the Nascar Cafe is. Bills is right on Flamingo, so if you take Flamingo east to Paradise, then turn left to go north on Paradise, you can get to the parking lot that%26#39;s behind the Sahara, all without ever touching the strip. You certainly don%26#39;t want to try to drive the length of the strip, traffic is bumper to bumper. Or you could take the monorail since it has a stop in the same parking lot behind the Sahara.

bills has one of best parking on the stip,

some parking on strip is poor, i would drive to nascar cafe, hotel with poor parking like PH we would walk.

f.w.i.w.

shelby has plant tours and there is petty ride along at the the track, and close walk there is car musemun at i.p.

Get a map and study the back streets to get around.

one trip down LV Blvd for the experience is enough.

Driving is easy. Just another big town. Lots of lights.

BEWARE, the dumb tourist J walking is your enemy.

I would take the monorail to the Nascar cafe. While Bill%26#39;s is a great location for walking, I here it is tough to get in and out of the garage since you are at such a busy intersection.

Actually, it is pretty easy to get in and out of Bill%26#39;s garage from Flamingo road.

When you get there- look at the map in What%26#39;s On (free magazine). It has a map of the strip and downtown on the front and the greater LV area on the back. You can usually avoid driving on the strip by using the side and back roads.

Parking is easy and free at the strip hotels.You can self park or use valet just remember to tip if you valet park. You can use any garage- you don%26#39;t have to be a guest.

Here is a site that will give you an idea of the garages and how to get to them. Not all hotels are listed-unfortunatly, Bill%26#39;s isn%26#39;t listed:

vegas.com/transportation/parkinggarages.html

Traffic isn%26#39;t any worse that traffic in any big city. I prefer to rent a car because I don%26#39;t want to be bothered with cab fare, a slow and crowded bus or a hike to a monorail station.

I would disagree with the other posters above.

If you are use to driving at home, get a car. I get a car every time I go and would not do it any other way. The only time I council against a car is if you are planning on staying in one place or close to one place your whole trip.

The Strip can be congested, but there is not a more pleasant traffic jam anywhere in the world. Streets are multi-lane and there is so much to do in Las Vegas that I can%26#39;t believe people don%26#39;t have rental cars for every trip.

Also, if you are going to go to several places like most people, a car will be cheaper than cabs and monorails. Rental cars are very cheap in Vegas.

Some places that I go that need a car:

Up and Down the Strip

IN-N-OUT Burger

The Rio

The Orleans

The Palms

Downtown

Sams Town

All the Station Casinos

Valley of Fire

To and From the airport

The HaufBrau Haus (German Beer Garden)

The Hard-Rock Casino

....and many more I can%26#39;t think of right now.

I%26#39;m not quite sure why, but people sometimes seem to freak out about driving in Vegas. Unless you live somewhere so rural that you have never seen a traffic light, it%26#39;s really no big deal.

Sure there can be traffic, and yes, you want to take that into consideration when you drive somewhere. But there is nothing exceptionally challenging about the driving itself.

Same traffic rules...

Gas and break pedals work the same way...

We had a car and had no problem getting in and out of any casino, we went to Bill%26#39;s, MGM, Mirage, Ceasar%26#39;s, New Orleans, JW Marriot, and never had a problem parking, etc. Just study a map of Vegas, things are pretty easy. You can do it!!!

(I love Bill%26#39;s, I won alot of money there)

Julie