<p>So we are headed to Vegas. Staying at Monte Carlo and already have one show booked. Am very concerned about feeding the 4 of us without breaking the bank. Looking on line but having trouble figuring out what is legit.</p>
<p>Renting a car. Staying (ugh) for the week. Hoping for a side trip to Grand Canyon but I know it’s far.</p>
<p>Any advice would be great. thanks!</p>
<p>If you don’t have one nearby where you live, then be sure to eat one meal at In-N-Out Burger…a transplanted CA favorite. There’s one alongside the freeway coming into town from CA.</p>
<p>ellemenenope: oooo… a definite stop for the 21 yr olds. </p>
<p>aside: so I am typing your name which I have seen a thousand times and always thought it was ellen o mope. HAHA. Took me a while of sounding it out before i got it and now I feel like an idiot.</p>
<p>Many of the better restaurants are doing specials now due to slow business. NY NY has lots of casual food spots. Paris also has some good ones. For moderate priced nice dinners we like Mesa and Table 10.</p>
<p>Don’t they have a game called Balderdash where you say a phrase really fast a number of times and you figure out it’s another phrase entirely–Isle of Ewe = I love you? I’m not very good at it…</p>
<p>The Grand Canyon south rim for lunch is a long all day field trip – leave early, have lunch at the wonderful lodge, look out from an observation platform, drive back, arrive late – and very cold this time of year.</p>
<p>Doing the tour of the Hoover Dam, however, is very convenient to Las Vegas and a fun family sightseeing deal.</p>
<p>Otherwise, my advice would be don’t succomb from pressure from children to ride any rollercoasters that you don’t want to. In my case it was the one that winds around the outside of New York, New York.</p>
<p>Thank you Barrons. i will look them up and add to the list.</p>
<p>We loved the Beatles LOVE show! My kids also love the humor of Spamalot. If you’ve never seen Blue Man Group, they can be entertaining.</p>
<p>There is a Carnegie Deli in one of the hotels. One sandwich will feed four people - they are huge!</p>
<p>Funny, I am going there for the first time in …uh, a lot of years.</p>
<p>This might help with the food:</p>
<p>[Your</a> favorite inexpensive spot in vegas to grab a snack/meal - Las Vegas Forum - TripAdvisor](<a href=“http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g45963-i10-k3283246-Your_favorite_inexpensive_spot_in_vegas_to_grab_a_snack_meal-Las_Vegas_Nevada.html]Your”>http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g45963-i10-k3283246-Your_favorite_inexpensive_spot_in_vegas_to_grab_a_snack_meal-Las_Vegas_Nevada.html)</p>
<p>When are you going?</p>
<p>You might want to check this out, too:</p>
<p>[Tix</a> 4 Dinner](<a href=“http://www.tix4dinner.com/]Tix”>http://www.tix4dinner.com/)</p>
<p>I heard that the Bally’s Steakhouse is good.</p>
<p>Haha interested dad. Yes. They are on their own for the rollercoasters. </p>
<p>The dam interests me greatly and I did not know it was so close. That can be a great day trip.</p>
<p>How many hrs to the south rim by car? I have been told various things from 4 hrs to two.
I really, really want to go.</p>
<p>Thank you everybody.
Going the first of the yr.
Thanks for the link dadinator. I will investigate.</p>
<p>Not sure who you are renting your car from but we use Dollar Express. It will allow you to bypass the regular line and go straight to the garage for car pickup. You can book it and then rebook it if the rate goes lower. I rebooked our last car six times and lowered my price by close to 75 dollars for four days.</p>
<p>There are a ton of nice places to eat and a lot of them are very expensive. We usually do a breakfast buffet and this fills us up usually until dinner. Breakfast buffet prices usually are reasonable. The In-N-Out Burger is very close to the Monte Carlo. Go online to the different hotels/casinos and they list their dining places. Most have some sort of food court for quick and easy dining.</p>
<p>There are also a couple of discount ticket places where you can pick up tickets to shows for half price the day of the show. I think they are called Tix Tonite or something along that line. </p>
<p>There is a website I frequent called The Las Vegas Advisor. They have a lot of good info. Can you tell I go once a year or so? lol</p>
<p>Leave the kids to their own devices one morning and treat yourself to breakfast at Bouchon (Thomas Keller’s restaurant at the Venetian) —FYI closed on Mondays
And check out Yelp.com for “cheap eats” in Las Vegas. Plenty of the better options are small non chain restaurants off the strip.</p>
<p>And as mentioned before, lots of the better restaurants have great “tasting menus” (examples:)</p>
<p><a href=“Las Vegas Restaurants | Buffets | Fine Dining | MGM Grand Restaurants - MGM Grand Las Vegas”>Las Vegas Restaurants | Buffets | Fine Dining | MGM Grand Restaurants - MGM Grand Las Vegas;
<p>interesteddad- You and I might have “talked” about that NYNY coaster before. I completely agree. I hated every second, was terrified, and paid about $12 for that privilege! (it’s probably more now) </p>
<p>Off-strip there are some decent chain restaurants like PF Chang and there are some places in the Caesar’s Shops (mall on the strip) that are somewhat reasonable.</p>
<p>Red Rock Canyon - north and west of the Strip.</p>
<p>Red Rock Canyon is located about 17 miles west of the Las Vegas Strip. From Las Vegas the Conservation Area can be approached from Charleston Boulevard [north of Sahara Avenue], which will turn into State Route 159; or from State Route 160 [south of Tropicana] to the Junction with Route 159. Just follow Route 159 until you see the entrance.</p>
<p>Will you really need car rental the entire time? I can understand car rental for trip outside of Vegas, but if you are on the strip and your trip mapped out, you may not need a rental car the entire time. Plus, as I recall, parking is a hassle, not to mention traffic! We did a alot of walking, no car, but also did not go off the strip. Used cab when we did, which was not much. You might be able to save some money on car rental/parking and only rent it when needed.</p>
<p>Sax…try Restaurant.com for Las Vegas…many of the Strip restaurants listed…today’s promo code is Cheer…so you can get a $25 certificate for $2…(watch the restrictions)…
you could also print these at hotel, once you get to LV and eyeball places you and kids want to eat at…</p>
<p>As for shows, if you have time, stop by their ticket booth on the afternoon of the show. We’ve paid half price for last minute tickets that way in the past. Also, the concierge at your hotel should be helpful.</p>
<p>Off the strip, there are big malls - the one we used to go to was in Henderson (the Galleria) w/a big food court but I heard there are newer and bigger ones close to the strip.</p>
<p>I’ve gotten some show discounts from travelzoo.com and smartervegas.com.</p>
<p>I think someone already mentioned the “tix 4 tonight” booths (I think there are 8 of them)that discount show tickets for that day’s shows.</p>