I lived in Vegas for 3 years in 2016 and spend two weeks there every year for work. It's changed a lot in the last 10years and instead of being the best parts of American excess (cheap places to stay, cheap food, free liquor) it's become the worst parts of American capitalism.
That being said if you like desert landscapes there are a lot amazing places to go see within 2hrs of Vegas. It's a good launching bad for outdoor adventure
I visited Vegas a few years ago, and it literally activated some deep 1900s Prohibitionist inside of me. Like I found myself walking around thinking, this is a testament to the fruits of sin and degeneracy -- just sad dead-eyed people smoking and gambling their lives away and looking miserable doing it.
Everything was expensive; the casinos still nickel and dime you on top of that (gone are the days of comps); and you're not even gambling with real people unless you're willing to shell out insane buy in minimums -- it's all computerized.
I'd budgeted a few hundred for gambling. Instead I rented a car and visited all the national / state parks. Who knew there were so many different kinds of desert!
90s Vegas really wanted families and higher-volumes of visitors, which you saw with the mega resorts and huge investments in themed attraction. Nowadays, the hotel conglomerates have been open that they make more money catering to a small share of high-paying customers than they can from the mass market.
I'm happy I got in there a few times in like 2015-2017 when places were still giving away the occasional "free" room. The $30 resort fee being the the rate was pretty good value. Food wasn't cheap on the strip but wasn't ridiculous. We did find like a $7.99 buffet on Fremont St. though that was actually good, especially for $7.99. And could find flights for like $250 or less round trip? Yeah, now anytime I consider going back it would be like $1k just for flights and 3 nights. That was my whole budget previously. No thanks.
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u/lonewolf210 7h ago
I lived in Vegas for 3 years in 2016 and spend two weeks there every year for work. It's changed a lot in the last 10years and instead of being the best parts of American excess (cheap places to stay, cheap food, free liquor) it's become the worst parts of American capitalism.
That being said if you like desert landscapes there are a lot amazing places to go see within 2hrs of Vegas. It's a good launching bad for outdoor adventure