Get to Las Vegas from Los Angeles...
This guide to getting to Vegas from LA by car, air,
bus, and even train was put together by the
editors of
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Once you have booked your Vegas
hotel, you will of course need to get to Las
Vegas. Many visitors going to Vegas come from Los Angeles, which is why we have
put together our guide to traveling to Vegas from LA by car, plane, bus,
shuttle, or limo and even
discuss train travel. You will also find information about airlines, free ride offers, things
to watch out for, and other travel tips.
Driving to Las Vegas
It is 264 miles traveling the highways from Los Angeles to
Las Vegas. In between these two cities are miles of desert, attractive scenery,
an old fashioned ghost town, fast food restaurants, historic route 66, an outlet shopping mall and
some hotels along the way -
Whiskey Pete’s, Buffalo
Bills, Primm Valley,
and South Point.
There is also a speed trap if you’re not careful. (I got my speeding ticket just
outside of Baker, California).
Following all of the posted speed limits, the drive will take almost 4 hours. It
is suggested that you allow 5 to 6 hours for the trip, so you can stop, stretch
your legs and have a little fun along the way.
If you consider that the average car gets somewhere between 22 and 32 miles per
gallon on the highway, you will be spending about $30 to $45 one way for gas. If
you have 2 or 3 passengers it gets much less expensive than having to buy 3 or 4
plane, or even bus tickets. On the other hand, you might have to buy lunch for
some bored hungry passengers!
You might want to rent a
car before you go to save mileage and wear on your car (you will be driving
through the desert). If you're going on a weekend, know that there will almost
always be traffic. However, even with traffic, one can drive to Las Vegas from
Los Angeles in under 5 hours. It is about the same drive time from San Diego.
Most visitors leave L.A. between Friday morning and very late Friday night, but
everyone heads back to L.A. between noon and 8 p.m. on Sunday. The trip to L.A.
is almost always slower than the trip to Vegas. If you can take Monday off and
travel then, you'll be traffic free. It is advisable to take some breaks every
hour or so during the drive to make the trip easier. There are places to visit,
such as a stop in Baker (try the
Mad
Greek for some of their strawberry and date shakes) or stop by the
Calico silver mining town in Barstow.
There are also some outlet shopping malls, such as the
Fashion Outlets of Las
Vegas (40 miles south of Primm) on the way to Las Vegas.
Driving Directions LA to Vegas
Enter the I-5 freeway going south. Keep slightly left
and merge onto the I-10 East towards San Bernardino. After about 38 miles, merge
into the I-15 North towards Barstow for 223 miles. Exit Flamingo Road in
Las Vegas then turn on to Las Vegas blvd.
Click here or on the map below for more detailed mapquest driving
instructions.
Driving to Vegas From Other Cities
Needless to say, time and distances will vary from
other cities, but there will always be fast food restaurants, a vast hot
desert and maybe some speed traps along the way. Some good mapping /
driving direction sites are
mapquest and
Google Maps. If you plan on using a GPS unit, you may need to enter
a specific destination address.
Mandalay Bay
is one of the first major hotels you will easily see approaching the
Vegas Strip on I-15 with its bright copper color windows. All the other
Strip hotels are just a few miles north of it. The address of
Mandalay Bay
is 3950 Las Vegas Blvd South Las Vegas, NV 89119.
Since going to Vegas is so popular with people from Los Angeles and other
nearby California cities, there are many bus lines that
have regularly scheduled Las Vegas trips.
One such line is Greyhound.
They also have
their
Lucky Streak bus service that offers more discounted rates, but a
less flexible schedule. Their buses are comfortable, air
conditioned, and have reclining seats with foot rests. Even though the
buses all have restrooms, rest stops are made from time to time. The
buses try to stop near a restaurant if it is close to meal time.
Greyhound bus tickets cost about $32 one way with advanced purchase. It is suggested that you either make
reservations for a ticket online or by phone, or arrive at their
terminal 45-60 minutes early.
Greyhound has many stations that go to Vegas and includes
Anaheim, Los Angeles, Barstow, Phoenix, Claremont, Riverside, Compton, San
Bernardino, El Monte, San Diego, Hollywood, Santa Ana, Long Beach, and
Victorville.
You should also be aware that the bus will only let you off at their
downtown Las Vegas terminal. If your hotel is on the Strip (about 5
miles away), then you will have to
make transportation arrangements such as a cab or another bus, like the SDX
(Strip & Downtown Express) which is easily done. You can find more info, such as
fare details by visiting the
RTC (Regional
Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada) website. Plan on spending about $5
extra if you also need to get to a Vegas Strip hotel from the downtown area by
shuttle bus, or you can save more with public transportation and don't mind
walking a bit. A
taxi from the Greyhound station to a Strip hotel is convenient, but will be
almost the same cost as your entire LA to Vegas bus ticket.
An alternative to Greyhound is the
GotoBus which runs
buses from different locations in Los Angeles to Las Vegas and takes about 5
hours. The costs is $25 to $40 one way, with a $10 discount on round trips.
A Free or Almost Free Bus Ride
The casinos in Las Vegas are anxious to get your
business. As a result, they will sometimes, but not very often, put together free or discounted bus
trips to their casino. These may be advertised in the Sunday
paper or at various social centers, such as senior center groups.
However, you do
not have to be a senior to go. You might also check with some of the bus
companies that provide buses for charter groups. One often needs to ask
around to find them.
These trips are usually daytime affairs and return in the early evening.
The only requirement for the trip is that you hang around and play at
the sponsoring casino for a certain amount of time. Some of these junkets even give you some free gambling cash to get started,
but there are minimum gambling spending requirements that are fully
explained before you sign up for it.
Take a Luxury Shuttle to Vegas
You can sit back and
relax on a shuttle that departs from
Los Angeles and
Anaheim. The trip is about 5 hours and will drop you off at
Harrah's
which is conveniently located in the middle of the strip with
inexpensive
monorail
service to most of the major hotels. They even show the latest
movies, have complimentary snacks and beverages, reclining seats and
on-board attendant service. However, it will cost more than Greyhound
with prices starting at $58 each way. The shuttle makes only one
trip each day each way, picking up and drop off in downtown LA,
Hollywood, LAX Airport, Santa Monica and Beverly Hills hotels, and in
Las Vegas at the
Flamingo,
California Hotel and
Harrah's.
Let’s Fly to Vegas
There is a lot to be said for flying to Las Vegas
instead of driving or taking the bus. Putting aside the time spent going
through airport formalities (searches, inspection, etc.) flying time is
about 1 hour and 5 minutes. The price of roundtrip tickets can vary from
$75
or less to $195 or higher.
It all depends on the airline and the date of your flight. For example,
air travel to Las Vegas is cheaper in the summer time (because of the
desert heat they are not as busy). Holidays when more people travel are
always going to be more expensive. Vegas is home to some of the largest
conventions in the world and traveling during one of these dates pushes
up rates significantly. You can find a listing of major conventions
here. It is often less expensive during the week than on weekends.
Sunday night is an expensive time to fly since you will be coming back
when many others are doing the same thing.
By
comparing the cost of tickets of the different airlines, you will often
find that one is having a low cost special for the week. Below is a list of airlines flying to Las Vegas from LAX, based upon the
cheapest to the most expensive. You should realize that prices can
change almost from moment to moment and the order is just based on
general averages:
The Las Vegas airport,
McCarran International, is about 5 miles from the
heart of the city. Cabs, buses, car rentals, limos and vans from
specific hotels are all available. For around $9 you can take the Bell Trans
minibus that goes to all the hotels, on the strip or downtown. It
operates 7:45am until midnight.
Saving Money with an Air/Hotel Vacation Package In many cases an
air/hotel vacation package is cheaper than booking your own
flight. One of the reasons is that the hotels often subsidize the cost in order
to get more visitors to their hotel, so you wind up paying less compared to
booking the hotel and air separately. However, this is not always the case, so
it is best to compare booking your air and
hotel separately compared to a
package. Las Vegas
Direct Vacations specializes in discount Vegas packages and is worth
checking out for an online quote.
Let’s Take the Train to Vegas ... Maybe
The X Train proposal calls for an Amtrak crew
aboard a 576-passenger train that runs at standard speeds on traditional
tracks. It would start in Fullerton, Calif. — already home to an Amtrak
station and part of Southern California's Metrolink commuter train
network — and end in downtown Las Vegas. Tickets for the adults-only
train would cost $99 each way and include a meal and beverage, with
alcohol available for purchase. To keep ticket prices low, the company
plans to make money booking Las Vegas hotels and entertainment for
passengers. Initial plans call for a one trip a day on Thursday, Friday,
Sunday, and Monday some time in 2013. The train ride will be designed to
make you feel like you are already in Vegas as soon as you step aboard.
Stay tuned.
Take a Limo!
If you want to really live it up, one can arrange to have a limo
(complete with bar) pick you up at your house and drive you to your hotel in Las Vegas. See our
limo guide for details
and prices. If you go with a large group and share the cost of the limo ride, the cost may not be as much as you think and can be be comparable to going by air on a per-person basis.
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