22 Tips on How to Save Money in Las Vegas (with no Gambling or Comps)
Scribbled by Claire ◊ 07 Aug 2024
Here are 22 tried-and-tested top tips on how to save money in Las Vegas without the usual ‘spend loads gambling and get comped’ tactics (which we think are not really very money-saving at all!).
Las Vegas is not really the kind of place we usually write about. It’s a far cry from the nature, solitude, and camping experiences of southern Utah and California. Or is it?
The city is in a prime location for everywhere you could possibly want to visit in the American Southwest. Whether you drive 20 minutes or five hours, there are incredible outdoor experiences in every direction. It also has a fantastic range of retail outlets to stock up on gear.
Having visited Las Vegas around 50 times and stayed in many of the hotels, we now spend relatively little money and don’t really gamble. We are thrifty, budget travellers, but still like to have a good time, eat some decent food and stay in a decent hotel room (it’s a rare treat).
So, this is how we do it!
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1. Stock Up on Supplies
Do this before arriving at your hotel if you rent a car. Las Vegas is a huge city with a lot of supermarkets – there are several near the airport. Without a car, visit a Walgreens or CVS on-Strip – there’s loads of them and you can buy moderately priced snacks, alcohol, and soft drinks.
2. Don’t get Caught Out by the Las Vegas Resort Fees
This isn’t so much a money-saving tip than a warning.
Resort fees are a nightmare for a Las Vegas budget traveller. When you go on price aggregate sites, there are so many cheap deals, but then you see the fine print – hundreds of dollars extra in ‘fees’ that you pay directly to the hotel.
The resorts claim that it is for parking, WiFi and pool access, but really, it’s just a way of masking the true room price. Also, hotel prices are often quoted without taxes, so check the price you see includes that too.
3. Know the Las Vegas Hotel Brands
Each of the major Las Vegas Hotel Brands include different services within the resort fees, for example MGM branded hotels charge around $15 for parking on top of that $30-50 dollar resort fee they stick you with.
It’s also helpful to stick to one hotel brand if you do decide to gamble a decent amount.
The main ones are the Caesars Entertainment (Caesars, Flamingo, Planet Hollywood, Harrah’s. LINQ and many more), MGM Resorts International (MGM Grand, Park MGM, Bellagio, Aria, Mandalay Bay and more) and Wynn Resorts.
4. Free Parking on the Strip
Back in the day, almost all parking on the Strip was free so you could hop about in your car all day if you wanted to. Sadly, this is no more.
If, like us, you always rent a car (for all those epic camping and hiking trips), then you’ll need to park somewhere. Parking is expensive and free parking options are now extremely limited, especially at MGM Resort hotels (they charge even if you book a room there) and Caesars brand charge if you don’t stay there.
The best options are parking at the Venetian – this hotel offers free parking for their shopping mall and is great for any of the adjacent hotels on the north/central end of the Strip. The other choice at the opposite end of the Strip is the Tropicana. This has no charge, very easy access and it is across the road from New York, MGM Grand, Excalibur, Luxor, and Mandalay Bay (via tram). If you visit from downtown or off Strip, use one of these.
2025 update | Venetian is no long free (it costs the same as all the other hotels in the area). The Tropicana is shut. Do not use Caesars’ car park unless you have. If there is an event on, the parking may end up costing you $35 instead of the standard $18, which you don’t know about until you enter the car par and can’t turn around! If you’re willing to walk, there are a few places that have free parking, but they’re not on the strip.
We sometimes park for free at the Virgin Hotel, Curio Collection and wander down to Planet Hollywood from there. A small bonus is that the top of the car park there has epic night time views of the strip.
5. Increase You Chance of Getting A Free Room Upgrade
There’s obviously no guarentee, but the best way we have found to get a free room upgrade in Vegas (without payment) is to check in late in the day to your hotel.
I’ve not seen anyone else mention this tactic, but it’s regularly successful for us. The staff have often told us that they run out of basic rooms by later in the day and give out the better ones!
Examples | last year, we paid $40 total per night (before resort fee) and were given a high-roller strip-view upper-floor suite in Caesars. Previously, we were also upgraded to massive suites in places like Mandalay Bay and the Flamingo for (below) basic room rates. We’ve also been given a nice, upgraded corner room in Paris with Eiffel tower views, plus fountain view rooms in the Bellagio and more.
Just leave your bags in your car before check-in and see a show, go to dinner, grab a few drinks. Maybe it is just luck (I am far from charming and never dressed well), but it’s something we would recommend trying.
Note | it also never does any harm to politely ask the staff about a free upgrade! Also, always smile and be extra friendly with the check-in staff, I figure they spend their days watching other people on vacation and could do with a boost.
6. Check Hotwire for Las Vegas Room Bookings
The best hotel rates can be found using Hotwire (we do not make any affiliate money from this recommendation!) This is no good if you need cancellation options, and it’s often best if you are flexible with your dates, but we have secured $15-20 dollar rooms at Harrah’s, Bally’s, Paris and more. Our $40 Caesars Palace suite was also booked on Hotwire.
The website makes it simple to figure out what hotel you will be getting, as there are only a few hotels per selectable region. This means no ‘mystery’ booking (and desperately hoping you won’t get Trump Tower).
If Hotwire is not your thing because of the non-cancellable issue, book cancellable options on your favourite aggregator site (ours is Booking.com) and continually check for better prices. They often fluctuate.
7. Get More Free Drinks at the Slot Machines
To get more free drinks at the slot machines, pick a machine (with low minimum bets) nearest the bar to get free drinks more often. Again, this may be luck (or charm – we are British after all), but it tends to work for us; the wait staff are more inclined to notice you.
Always tip a dollar for your drink, smile, and make the wait staff feel appreciated.
If you want value for money, alcohol wise, order wine (the glasses are often huge). Our favourite location is the cheap poker slots in Paris adjacent to the bar.
Or go super cheap and chuck some wine from Walmart in a Sunkist can. Never fails.
8. Bring Your Own Booze
Alcohol is allowed nearly everywhere, so take your own drinks or top up with your own liquor.
I have been known to walk around with a Sunkist can full of wine (as per above). If you buy those icy Fat Tuesday’s style drinks, never pay for the extra shots – top them up yourself with the $5 bottle of Vegas-rum from Walmart you keep in your bag at all times.
9. Go for a Buffet Lunch
In Las Vegas, the buffet lunch spreads are *nearly* as good as a buffet dinner, and far cheaper.
Even better, go towards the end of lunch, just as dinner is beginning to get more food options. It is not cheap, but Wicked Spoon in the Cosmopolitan is our absolute favourite. We found that the famed, super-pricey Bacchanal Buffet at Caesars was pretty shit if you’re a vegetarian (for some reason I’ve been three times now and question my judgement every time), and the Ballagio’s buffet effort was lacklustre.
Breakfast/brunch can also be a great value option, too.
10. Sign up for a Las Vegas Player’s Card
Get one for the loyalty programs with both MGM and Caesars Rewards.
People will tell you that you will get comped stuff – you probably won’t unless you get extra spenny (and I’m assuming any reader of this post is not), so don’t get too excited about that.
We did find that the wait staff were way more receptive to us if we had a player’s card in the slot machines though! Every now and again you can get a small reduction on your food and drinks bill with your card, too.
11. Las Vegas Conventions Suck
These large convention events fill Las Vegas with no end of random business type people – in the tens or even hundreds of thousands.
Prices skyrocket, there’s not a deal to be had anywhere and everything is teeming with people who all wear the same clothes. Avoid if possible.
12. Avoid Weekends in Las Vegas
Do not visit Las Vegas on the weekend, like, ever.
Just like with conventions, weekends get crazy busy and are exorbitantly priced, sometimes 3,4 or even 5 times the cost of an average weekday hotel night. Use a website like Booking.com with grid pricing or a nightly price breakdown for the nights you want and note the extortionate increases on Friday and Saturday (sometimes other days too).
If you do have to stay on a weekend, it’s worth looking at individual nightly rates and hop between different hotels. Or just camp in the desert, like us!
13. Buy Show Tickets After You Arrive
Buy Las Vegas show tickets when you arrive – We’ve used Tix4Vegas in Casino Royale in the centre Strip, it can be relatively cheap.
We’ve seen a bunch of shows including Cirque du Soleil, Blue Man Group, Penn and Teller and more for very reasonable costs (and decent seats).
There are other options for cheap tickets, such as sitting through a timeshare presentation (these can be found at the beginning of the Miracle Mile in Planet Hollywood, for example). We’ve never degraded ourselves that far for cheap stuff, though.
14. Consider Las Vegas Downtown
Las Vegas Downtown is seedier (some may say vintage) but is way cheaper to eat, sleep and is far more player friendly for gambling. The best hotel is, without a doubt, the Golden Nugget, but nothing up in Downtown is as holiday-glam as the Las Vegas Strip.
Splitting your stay between the Strip and Downtown is also an option for budget travellers. Or, just stay off-strip and away from Downtown if you don’t mind travelling in to the entertainment centers.
Note | one of our favourite restaurants is on Fremont Street – Le Thai, which does great quality Thai food and excellent beers in a casual, alternative setting.
15. Utilise All the Free Things to Do
For a first visit to Las Vegas, there are so many things to do for free, on and off the Strip.
The Bellagio Fountains and beautiful conservatory, Treasure Island’s pirate boat thing and free music on Fremont Street downtown. There’s also a cheesy Atlantis thing at the end of the Forum Shops in Caesars (Nick made me watch the whole thing).
Off strip, there’s a million hikes that you can do and areas to explore if you have a car!
Wandering around the casinos can take days of your time all on its own. For example, the Wynn and Encore have beautiful art.
16. Make the Most of Portion Sizes
Portion sizes are giant pretty much everywhere in Las Vegas, even in the posh places. This means you can share dishes or take away leftovers for the next day.
Our value-for-money on-Strip dinner recommendation is Carmines in Caesars Palace. This place is an absolute bargain. Everything on the menu is portioned for four people (at least), so although prices for pasta are between $33-$45 dollars, this will feed two of you for dinner and lunch the next day. It’s fantastic value and you get a classy(ish) experience with great service, on-Strip.
17. Food Courts can (Sometimes) Be Your Friend
Food courts can be found all over the Las Vegas Strip, inside and outside the casinos.
Do not expect one-dollar menus in McDonalds (they’re not that cheap), but do provide quick, cheaper options for food.
Honestly, we still avoid these, but in a bind can provide a quick meal.
18. Use the Free Trams
Take advantage of the free tram routes. In fact, make use of any free services that you can find in Las Vegas (everyone is after your money).
Treasure Island and The Mirage (now shutand being re-done by Hard Rock) are connected by tram, the Excalibur to Mandalay Bay route via Luxor has a very useful tram, and the Bellagio to Park MGM via the Aria and Vdara, too. These are a great free way of getting around on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip.
19. Use the Las Vegas Downtown Shuttle
The Downtown Shuttle loop route is free and takes you from the Strat to the Mob Museum and Fremont Street.
20. Use the Monorail Instead of Uber or Lyft
Ok, so the monorail isn’t that cheap at $5 per journey of $13 for the day, but it can be more affordable than a taxi from one end of the Strip to the other. It’s quicker normally, too (for the east side of the Strip).
21. AVoid ATMs in Casinos
ATMS are (unsurprisingly) crazy expensive to use, up to $10 per transaction. Some shops, like CVS and Walgreens, have cheaper fees. Bring some cash or go off-Strip to avoid excessive charges.
22. Choose Las Vegas Hotels Without Resort Fees
Hotels on the Strip in Las Vegas without resorts fees are few and far between, unfortunately.
On-Strip, the only hotel is the Best Western Plus Casino Royale (great location opposite Caesars Forum, boring casino, nice-enough rooms for the price). In downtown, the Four Queens and Binion’s have no fees either.
Our personal favourite off Strip (but nearby) is the newish Virgin Hotel. It’s a 20-minute walk east of Planet Hollywood and has no resort fee, free WiFi and free parking (it often has deals too, excellent rooms, and a restaurant in the casino has very well-priced, quality pizza by the slice). The view of the strip from the top floor of the car park is outstanding – go mid evening after sunset.
Final Thoughts – Saving Money in Las Vegas
Travelling in Las Vegas, and the United States in general, has become super pricey in 2024-2025. Finding ways to travel more affordably becomes more and more essential on each trip we take.
There are loads of websites out there that can provide similar money-saving Las Vegas tips, but these are often penned by regular gamblers with big budgets, or people who stay on-strip for many weeks of the year. Getting anything complimentary if you are casual/non-gamblers, like us, is rare.
It’s also tough to get any benefits from these big corporations if you are a thrifty, budget traveller – they don’t like to reward us very much! So these tips are just particular things we do every time, and it has saved us a lot of money.
We hope that some of these Las Vegas money saving tips are beneficial, and you have an incredible, low-cost trip.
Happy travels!
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Thank you, Claire + Nick
