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Guest STSF Lebowski

Lebowski's cheapskate Shore Leave Guide - updated!

A lot of people don't go to Shore Leave each year because they don't have the money, or they just think it will be too expensive. So as the resident Shore Leave despot and spendthrift, having gone the last 6 years and still having all my arms and legs, I have concocted a guide on how to go to Shore Leave without breaking even a fragile bank.

 

Seriously, folks... don't let money issues stop you from going. It's not as hard as you think to figure out some inexpensive plans.

 

The three main sections are "getting there," "where to stay," and "food/entertainment." I tend to be a bit longwinded, so feel free to skim through it, but don't let the length scare you out of being cheap. I have underlined the key points so you can glance through to find the part you are most concerned about. Main sections are in bold and subsections are in italics. Let me know if there is anything I missed or that is unclear... Enjoy!

 

 

Getting there.

How to affordably get to Las Vegas (and back, if necessary).

 

First I'll address air travel, since that's what most people will likely use. The earlier you book the more likely you are to get the good cheap seats.

 

For flying, I recommend using the travel search sites that are around. Travelocity.com, travel.yahoo.com, and expedia.com are all such sites that let you search through available flights for the cheapest one. You put in dates and they'll search for cheap flights around the days specified, but there are a couple tricks for squeezing the cheapest option out of the system.

First of all, if you can be flexible about your arrival/departure at all, you'll be much better off. Each of the 3 sites above have options for searching for flights close to when you specify that will tell you if there is a better price on the day before or after. Usually flying in on Friday and out on Sunday is the most expensive option. If you can arrive a day or two early and/or leave a day or two late you can get some breaks.

Last year, for instance, I went round trip from FL to CA for $300 (not bad for cross country on short notice) by flying towards mid week instead of the weekend. The same flight was $40 more for every day I moved toward the weekend, so Fri-Sun would have been more like $420.

The three airfare search sites I mentioned have different ways of doing their flexibility options, so you might type your dates into all of them and see what gives you the best results, since they all search the same pool of flights, anyways.

Now another trick, ironically, is to NOT use the travel search sites. Heh, allow me to explain. The search sites have to make money somehow, and aside from trying to sell you car rentals and hotels while you're there, they also like to tack on a fee or two for their services. At least one of them (travelocity I think), for instance, charges you a $20 "paper ticket fee" and won't allow you to do an electronic ticket, forcing you to pay the fee. But what you can do, in this case, is go directly to the website of the airline and put in the same flight times/dates as the cheap flight you found, and the airline will give you the same price but not charge the extra fee (and probably let you get an e-ticket). Even if it looks like you're transfering between 2 airlines on expedia, they are usually affiliated so you will get the same transfer from the website of one of the airlines involved.

 

Now I mentioned this before, but it bears repeating because it makes a big difference, whether or not you use a travel search site, getting your tix well in advance keeps the price way down. The worst thing is searching yahoo travel for a flight and finding a disgustingly cheap round trip even a few months beforehand and discovering that the price that came up is sold out (it will pop up sometimes because the price is available for a different weekend or something).

 

If you really want to spend the time, I have also had success with looking into using airports that are farther away than the local one. For instance, I saved ~$100 once by flying out of San Francisco instead of Sacramento, and only had to spend about $15 and a couple hours to get from Sacramento to San Francisco by train. Larger airports that have more traffic will be more likely to be cheaper.

 

You could also try booking 2 seperate one way flights from different airlines, if you can find any one way specials, and see if you can get them to add up to less than the cheapest round trip. I have not personally done much with this, but if you're really determined (and poor) you might try it.

 

And lastly, I'll mention that Southwest Airlines tends to be on the cheap side, so if you have a SW terminal at your local airport you might want to check their website directly and see what comes up. Check out their specials section once in a while and you might find a sweet deal if you're lucky.

 

Other ways of getting to Vegas..

 

If you don't mind a long ride, you might look into taking a train or bus to Las Vegas. Greyhound.com and Amtrak.com each have service to Las Vegas. Amtrak gives a AAA discount if you have it, and can be a surprisingly cheap and pleasant mode of transportation, depending on where you are coming from. A friend of mine took Amtrak across the country from CA to NY and enjoyed seeing the sights even though it took a few days. Just a thought.

 

Another method which might be more feasible than you think is going by car. If you live a reasonable distance from Las Vegas and don't mind spending the time (yes, I realize that most of these cheap methods require extra time, but oh well), it would be worth looking into whether the cost of gas would add up to too much. In a reasonably mildeaged car, for instance, round trip gas costs from San Francisco to Las Vegas would only total about $120, with approximately 7-10 hours travel time each direction. If the distance to Las Vegas has a number of miles with only 3 digits, it might work out to be the cheapest option. One year we had a person drive all the way from Colorado to Vegas.

Now this option gets really sweet when you factor in the possibility of ride share. First, of course, you might ask around your sim crewmates to see if anyone is in your area and going to shoreleave. But you're more likely to find some arrangement online with strangers. A slightly scary thought to some, but honestly I've never heard any horror stories. Most people are just nice people also looking to make things less expensive. There are lots of rideshare sites around for various places (google search for 'ride share' and your city), but I recommend craigslist.org, which has subsites in most major cities in the United States (find yours on the right side). I'm not familiar with everywhere, but there are ROUTINELY people offering rides to Las Vegas from various locations in California on craigs list. A few years back I drove from San Diego to Vegas for SL (shore leave) and gave a lift to 2 guys I found on craigs list. Together they paid for my gas for the entire trip, plus a little more. They got really cheap transportation to Vegas, and I got FREE transportation, plus company on the long trip.

 

Well, now you've got some options to look at. It doesn't take long to go through each of these options, punch some information into some web sites, maybe do some calculations, and see what you can come up with. There are shuttles from the airport and usually a few airport pickup runs made by simmers with cars, so don't worry too much about getting to your specific hotel once you get to Vegas. Find the cheapest way to get into the general area and then worry about finding your area.

Now, there are still 10 months until Shore Leave, so you've got a little while before all the cheap seats start filling up on the planes, but if you start looking into things now, you should be able to lock down a sweet deal before they go away.

 

Thus ends the "getting there" portion of my guide. Now that you're there.... where do you stay!?

 

Where to stay

No, you don't have to sleep on the street.

 

 

Now, this topic scares a lot of people away from Vegas, and with good reason. Don't get scared, though.. I'm just saying that to introduce the topic. Keep reading. Anyways, to cut to the chase, I'm going to assume that if you are reading this, you can't or don't want to spend much money on a room in Vegas during Shore Leave. So I'm going to address the cheapest options for your stay in Vegas.

 

The cheapest way to stay, by far... is staying with a friend or relative :blink: If you know someone that lives in Vegas... email them soon and let them know you'll be in town. This seems obvious, but I mention it because I think a lot of people are afraid that they will be imposing on someone that they may not talk to very often, and that it will be an awkward situation. So I just want to say that really, they'll probably be happy to see you and to help you. Last year when Shore Leave was in Orlando, I happened to remember that an old friend of mine lived in Orlando, and looked her up. We hadn't talked in several YEARS, and yet, when I emailed her to say that we should hang out and catch up, she invited me to stay in her extra room without me mentioning it. Now, the imposition comes when you EXPECT people to do things for you, so don't count on it. But I'm just saying at least consider it. Moving on..

 

Hostels

 

The best option if you don't have a contact is in one of the two hostels in Las Vegas. Now, some people think hostels are a bit scary, but again, please read the whole section and you'll see they're not that bad.

 

First of all, prices. Staying at a hostel is really quite a deal, all considered. The two I found are called Sin City Hostel, and USA Hostels Las Vegas. Prices vary a bit, but basically you're looking at about $20 a night, even on the weekend, at either one. This is for a 'dorm' style accommodation. What this means is that you'll be in a room with 6-8 bunk beds, and you'll get a bunk which will be yours alone for your stay. If you're worried about other people.. first of all, I've stayed in lots of hostels, and based on my experience, typically only a maximum of 8 people (however many beds there are) will have access to the room. It's not a rule, and I haven't stayed specifically in these hostels in Vegas, but usually you need a specific key to get into a given room. There is almost always some kind of lock or checkpoint at the front desk, too, so only people staying at the hostel can even get inside. Secondly, there are almost always lockers that you can stow your things in, so the other 7 people can't touch it. Bring a padlock with you (or buy one at check in) and you're set. And honestly.. who is going to be staying at a hostel besides other poor travelers? Yes, theft happens. But typically the kind of people crashing in a hostel aren't going to be too interested in stealing your stuff. I've only ever met nice people in hostels who are usually from someplace interesting and fun to talk to.

 

Now, if you're still worried about your property or your privacy, there is another option. The dorm style situation is the typical stereotype of what a hostel entails, but most people don't know that they usually have private rooms available as well. That's right, your own room and only you have the key. In either a dorm room or a private room you use a shared bathroom somewhere down the hall, but who hasn't used a public bathroom before? Usually facilities in hostels are actually pretty well taken care of, and the showers never run out of hot water! Anyway, even a private room will still only run you about $40 a night (and that's sometimes paying for both beds of a two bed room, so if there are two of you it's only $20 each).

 

In either type of room in either hostel, you will be given clean sheets when you check in, and free breakfast in the morning. Neither hostel in Vegas has a curfew, and both have parking available, internet access (which may or may not be free, but it's there), and a 'guest kitchen' that you can use to cook your own food.

Now here's the cool part about the hostels in Vegas... property on or near "the Strip," which is the main drag where the biggest hotels and casinos are, is pretty expensive, so the cheaper hostels are a little ways off the strip. But... the Star Trek Hilton (at 3000 Paradise Road (there's more than one Hilton)) is also off the main strip!! Sin City hostel is 1.7 miles from the Hilton, making for an easy walk over to the Star Trek Experience and the convention. The USA Hostel is also only 3 miles from the Hilton. Perhaps more importantly, there is a monorail station in the Las Vegas Hilton and one at the Sahara hotel which is actually a half mile closer to the hostels. For those of you that don't know, there is a monorail system in the heart of Vegas that goes by and through all the major places on the Strip. So what this means is that if you're going from your hostel to the MGM Grand or something, it's a short walk to the Sahara and then a $5 ride to anywhere else on the Strip. $9 for a round trip, $15 for a day pass, or $40 for a three day pass, operating until 3AM on the weekend. So even though the hostels are technically out of the way, the core of Vegas is still quite accessible, and the convention in particular is pretty darn close.

 

The two hostels are roughly the same, with a few little differences that will decide you which one you prefer. The Sin City hostel is closer by a little over a mile, so if you dislike walking this one will be preferable. But the USA Hostel, while a bit farther, is slightly cheaper if you book at their website at their website and a few bucks cheaper for a third night if you're going to be staying more than Fri/Sat. Sin City's website is pretty primitive.. it says you can reserve things there but you can't pay online. Personally, I'd recommend hostelworld.com , but there are a few other hostel sites you can book through if you like. Hostelworld lists USA Hostel as having a few more features, but Sin City has a little bit better user rating. If you need more information on then, you can check out http://www.hostelworld.com/findabed.php/Ch...untry.USA or consult the the internets. For the record, I am in no way associated with hostelworld.. I've just used a few different hostel sites and theirs is easiest and more comprehensive.

Update: I stayed at Sin City hostel last year, and it was pretty good. A few roaches wandering around OUTSIDE at night, but it was a block from the walgreens which was nice. Unfortunately, I found out that they require you to have a student ID or an international (non-U.S.) passport to let you stay there. They prefer the passport, so if you are a U.S. resident but a student you should call ahead and double check that they'll take you in. You should probably double check USA Hostel, too.

 

 

Budget hotels

 

Okay... just for posterity, I will also mention the two "budget hotels" I discovered in Las Vegas, AAE Casino Wild, and AAE Las Vegas Paramount. Both are virtually the same, and the AAE Paramount is even farther away from everything than the hostels are, so I'll only talk about AAE Casino Wild. The only way these will be a decent deal, financially, is if you are sharing a room with other people that you know. There are no dorm style rooms at AAE, so if you are by yourself, you will have to pay for all the beds anyways. This will cost you about $100 a night, which still isn't terribly bad, considering that AAE Casino Wild is fairly close to the strip, only a couple long blocks down Tropicana from the MGM Grand (although this will put you FARTHER away from the Star Trek Hilton. Now if you have 3 other people with you, then you can get a 4 bed room for only $30 a person, which isn't too bad. You can find out more about the AAE budget hotels at the hostelworld info link up there, or http://www.hostelworld.com/findabed.php/Ch...osenCountry.USA

 

So, stepping back a moment and looking at what we have so far.. if you really really wanted to do Shore Leave on the cheap, transportation aside you could stay in a hostel for under $40 for the entire weekend, walking around to see the sites and hanging out with your shipmates. And even if we add on some conservative comforts and frills... a private room at a hostel, a monorail pass, a convention day pass, and some free entertainment (plenty of it in Vegas).. we're looking at $160 for the whole weekend.

 

That's it for now for the 'where to stay' section of my cheapskate guide. In the not too distant future I'll be posting additional information on some of the less logistical details of the trip, such as food and entertainment, both of which can be done on a limited budget.

 

Food, entertainment, etc

I'm in Vegas, I'm not homeless.... now what?

 

I left the last line of the previous section in there for comedy's sake, since it took me well over a year to get around to finishing this guide. The tourist part of Las Vegas is an entire city dedicated to one thing and one thing only: to get you to give them money. But it doesn't have to be that way. This section will be on how to eat, drink, and be merry on the cheap.

 

Food

One time, while watching the fountains at the Bellagio, I went to buy a bottle of water, and discovered that the larger bottle of water was $9! It ended up being cheaper to buy italian sodas instead of water. Now there are people who actually walk around by the Bellagio and sell water for relatively cheap, but the point is... if you buy your sustenance on the strip, it will be expensive.

 

The best solution is to stock up at a grocery store and do most of your eating that way. There are actually several grocery stores nearby to the strip, even though it's hard to notice. Specifically, there are actually not just one but several grocery stores right near the Hilton, on S. Maryland Pkwy, which is the next big street east of Paradise Rd (which is the street the Hilton is on). It will still be a significant walk to carry groceries, but it won't be too difficult to get someone to drive you over there if you can't drive yourself. There should be a grocery run or two made near the beginning of the weekend that you can tag along with.

So I will leave your own shopping methods up to you, but suffice it to say you could buy some fruit and maybe bread and a jar of goober (that's the stuff where they have peanut butter and jelly mixed together in the same jar) for under $10 and be set for the weekend! Not bad considering if you eat breakfast in the hotel that will be $10 by itself.

 

There is also a Costco in town, which would be good for stocking up if you have the car to get there and the member card. In particular this would be a good place to grab a case of bottles of water to have those around. There may or may not be a Costco run made, since it's a little farther out from the strip, but you can ask around and if you ask nicely (and give away bottles of water) it's very likely someone will give you a lift.

 

Now, a note on the general reality of the food situation in Vegas. Historically speaking, Shore Leave has been basically a big excuse to sit around talking and eating and drinking. We get up, we eat breakfast together, we hang around for a while until it's lunch time, we eat lunch together, we maybe go and see some sights or something until it's time to eat dinner together. Since most of us are on our yearly vacation, we usually like to splurge a little on the main activity of the weekend (food). This means that if you follow the main crowd, you'll end up spending most meals eating "out." If you have more than a shoe string to spend on Shore Leave, you should probably count on spending your reserve at restaurants. We end up at a decent restaurant every night for dinner, and usually end up at a buffet at least once during the weekend. However, DO NOT LET THIS STOP YOU FROM COMING. I mention all of that just so you know what to expect, but don't worry, all hope is not lost.

First of all, you are not required to go to any restaurants that we go to. We're all there on our own individual vacations.. we can't make you do anything. Second of all, you are more than welcome to eat first and then just come sit at the table with us! Myself and others have done this before; you won't feel left out; there's nothing wrong with this option. Some places will also have a cheaper place nearby. For instance, the $30 fondue place has a sub sandwich shop next door. Go get a sandwich, scarf it down, come back and hang out with us. Piece of cake! Get it... cake?!

I personally despise fast food, but it is worth mentioning, I suppose, that there are your usual fast food places around the strip, too, if you're interested in that.

 

Entertainment

 

Now I will reveal to you one of the great secrets of Las Vegas. You ready...? Are you sure?? Okay, good. Don't worry, it's not that shocking actually.

Las Vegas makes most of its money off of gambling. They will do almost anything to get you at a machine or at a table. No, that's not the secret. The secret... well... okay it's not really that secret I guess, but the great part is that a ton of stuff in Vegas is free to entice you to actually come to Vegas. They figure once you're there, you'll spend enough money on gambling to make up for it.

So the trick is..... don't gamble! Just take advantage of the freeness! Almost every major hotel has some kind of free display for you to look at, and there are other random free shows and museums and such as well. It's even entertaining just to walk through the hotels and casinos and check out their themes and spectacles. For instance, the Paris hotel has a ceiling painted like a sky with wispy clouds and a slightly smaller than the real thing Eiffel Tower.

I won't go into all of the various free entertainment here, because there are so many of them, but the highlight in my book is the Bellagio fountains, which run all day and are awesome to watch at night. Other notable mentions are the Lion Habitat at the MGM (although the Lions were nowhere to be seen when I went last year) and the Fremont Street Experience, a big light and sound show downtown. For a list of more, check out http://www.vegas.com/attractions/freeattractions.html

 

Again, usually the group picks some big Vegas show to go to, but again, no one is required to go. I have personally opted out of these things before and it's no big deal. You hang out on the penny slots for a little while and meet back up after the show.

 

Speaking of which, yes, one of the main events in Vegas is the gambling, and while that is the first, best, and easiest way to make your trip expensive, if you absolutely must gamble, you can still do a little of that if you have moderation. There are penny slots which are fun to play and obviously don't cost much money. You have to be careful, because even the penny slots will let you bet upwards of $5 per spin, but sometimes you can find one with fun pictures and sound effects and have fun wasting a dollar and a half an hour.

 

Hopefully this goes without saying, but you MUST always expect to lose anything that you put into gambling. You have to think of it as entertainment. Whatever you put in the machine or on the table, you are paying that amount of money for the fun you have during the time it takes to lose it, and you're not getting it back. True subscribers to my cheapskate methodology won't gamble at all. I have spent many hours having fun watching other people gamble, and it's fine.

 

Wrapup

 

Well, there you have it. It is possible to go Shore Leave even without much money. Let's take a look at our costs in total..

 

Traveling by car or finding a sweet plane ticket deal - $150

Staying at a hostel, last year for 4 nights I spent - $80

Grocery run plus a sandwich or two out - $20

Fountains, lions, spending time with nerds - Free

 

Total = $250. Last year I spent a little less on travel and a little more on food and ended up spending about this much, so it's not just a made up number. Not bad at all for an entire weekend of fun with your nerd friends. And you can even go cheaper than that... One year I got some people to ride with me and stayed at my uncle's house, and so the only money I had to spend the entire trip was on food. If I had gone to the grocery store that year, I could have done the whole weekend for $20.

 

A quick note on the convention, by the way. I know this is a recurring theme, but no one is required to go to the convention. Last year some folks didn't go to it at all and still had fun. And if you want to go to the convention, you could buy a day pass for as little as $15 (for Sunday) and still see everything there is to see (it's really not that big of a convention).

 

Look forward to seeing you there!

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Just a little note on hotels. I worked in the industry not too long ago. No hotels have set room rates. Thus, all are negotiable. If you push hard enough (which might require talking to the manager) and depending on the hotel's greed for trying to get you there (i.e. desperation), you might be able to secure a pretty nice deal for a pretty nice place. I've never been to Vegas, but the same principle applies relatively everywhere.

 

Flights, on the other hand, if you've got sufficient spyware protection, I recommend SideStep.com. This site searches several of the other travel sites (including Orbitz, Travelocity) and a good percentage of the airlines' sites (with the exception of Southwest, which is sometimes the cheapest option) Start looking 2-3 months out for the best deals. After you've found the best deal, double check with the airline's site again to make sure they're not beating SideStep's price.

 

You can also save a lot of flight money on being date flexible (i.e. flying on Tu, W, or Sa), but that might be difficult considering the event. :blink:

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Just something for any military members/retirees who are here: Nellis Air Force Base has a Space-A rate between $22 and $30 dollars a night. The base may offer transportation into town, the site doesn't say, so be prepared for a rental or mass transit fare. Space A is only good for up to 3 nights though, so plan your trip accordingly.

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Southwest airlines has a good deal THIS WEEK only.. For me round trip Denver to Vegas will be $140.

 

Reservations must be made by March 8. If you can fly southwest and book it now it might be well worth it.

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Its Vegas...why stay anywhere? Hang out at the casinos and drink all night. :)

 

I slept in my car in the MGM parking garage one night. A bit noisy with cars driving by periodically, but heck, it was free!

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I slept in my car in the MGM parking garage one night. A bit noisy with cars driving by periodically, but heck, it was free!

 

That's what earplugs are for. Probably no worse than the multi-engine freight train passing my barracks at odd intervals throughout the night

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Try sleeping under the # 3 wire on a aircraft carrier. Now that gets loud. :)

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Its Vegas...why stay anywhere? Hang out at the casinos and drink all night. :)

 

Because the giant man in the perfect black suit will throw you out when you start making a butt of yourself.

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