Vegas at New year

First post here hope you all can help.

Me and two friends have just booked our flights from th UK for 6 nights in vegas over new years eve.

Could really do with some advice on where to go etc and how much notice we would need for booking tickets. We haven%26#39;t chosen a hotel yet as we are not sure if you need to be staying at a particular place to get access to their clubs. We are all very early 30%26#39;s.

Thanks guys

Vegas at New year

You can go to a club if you want. But for New Years, the party is on the Street. You can go downtown and hang out, or be on the Strip. It%26#39;s the one night of the year they close the Strip to cars and people wander around drinking, dancing, partying. Just don%26#39;t do anything stupid that lands you in jail. Police are out in force to keep the party from getting out of hand.

Vegas at New year

You%26#39;ve booked a vacation that will be the most exciting time of the year in Las Vegas. But it is also one of the most expensive and the most crowded, so keep that in mind. Therefore, be sure to book your room as soon as you can because as spots fill up, the price goes up.

I have stayed in Las Vegas during New Years for 97%26#39;, 98%26#39;, 99%26#39;, 00%26#39;, 01%26#39;, and 04%26#39;. With experience, I%26#39;ve learned to choose a hotel that is close to the Strip and to where you will be going for the night. DO NOT rely on taxi-cabs, as the lines for them will be at least an hour long and it will take forever to get somewhere, resulting in a very high fare. DO NOT dress in uncomfortable clothes (high heels, short skirts, no jacket). Be patient with the crowds and watch your back - it can get dangerous because of so many people and many, many drunken fools. (I was nearly crushed to death on New Years 2000, and I was inside the Hard Rock Hotel Circle Bar!!) DO NOT expect any hotels will give you a quiet nights sleep that night. You will hear yelling and screaming all night long. Come prepared with extra cash and book any activities and New Years packages in advance, as things sell out way before that night.

The good news is that there%26#39;s no other place to be other than Vegas, and it will probably be one of the funnest times of your life!

Hope this advice helps.

Thanks for the superb advise guys, looks like the strip is the place to be. I%26#39;m even more excited now than i was 5 days ago when i booked the flights.

Any other recommendations on the other nights?

P.S any advise on how to tell my girlfriend i have booked a week away with the lads... oooppps?

Can%26#39;t help you with that one, injury. :) Good luck!

Injury, I personally prefer to be South Strip (presumably North Strip would be just as good) rather than Center Strip for the New Year%26#39;s Eve fireworks. They have synchronized fireworks displays going off from multiple locations. When I was at the Tropicana intersection, I was able to look up the Strip and see the same displays being fired off all the way up the Strip. That was really cool. In Center Strip, I couldn%26#39;t make up my mind whether to look north or south or at the display immediately in front of me. All the choices were good, but to see all the displays in line, going further and further away, was much greater. So I prefer to go to one end or the other, instead of the middle.

I try to stay on one side of the Strip or the other on New Year%26#39;s Eve day, because the Strip is closed to traffic. Driving, you have to detour far north or far south to be able to cross from one side to the other. (I%26#39;m guessing that you can%26#39;t cross between Russell and Desert Inn.) So, for example, if you want to go from the Hard Rock Casino (east of the Strip) to the Orleans or the Palms (west of the Strip), it can be quite a chore.

The suggestion that you book ASAP is correct, unless you think ou will be an invited guest at a casino. The casinos set aside large blocks of rooms for inviteed guests, and the other rooms tend to sell out early. Which causes the hotels to raise their rates.

Thanks for the advice guys, any recommendations on what hotels are worth staying in over new year.

Remember, the crowds that we there for NYE, are still there on new years day. I took a bus from fremont street to the intersection of tropicana blvd, and it took us almost 2 hours to get there. 2 hours of crowded, standing only, smelly people. Not to mention, nowhere to eat without a reservation..... We watched the fireworks from the expressway overpass on tropicana blvd. Truely amazing. We could see them all. Have a good time.

Actually, the most happening hotels are Casino Royale, Harrahs, and Tropicana, where the casino doors are open for people to swarm in and out of feet from the street. This has also been my experience of where the biggest concentration of people are.

Remember though that the Strip is closed down on New Years so the streets are insane. They also close down and lock the doors of most of the hotels on the Strip so you won%26#39;t even be able to get in to use the restrooms unless you have a room key from that particular hotel.

I learned this lessons the hard way back in 98%26#39;. :)

Calidancer, I%26#39;ve never seen the hotels lock down for New Years Eve. I%26#39;ve spent the past 4 New Years%26#39; Eves in Vegas, and have gone (sometime soon after the fireworks were over) to casinos other than the hotel I was staying at on three of those four years. Never was I asked for a key.

But I%26#39;m respectable looking, and on New Year%26#39;s Eve, I usually wear a tux. That kind of thing does matter!

I know Bellagio locked down this past NY from about 11PM to 12:30AM, but you could get in with a room key or club passes.