Vegas tips needed

Ok so i'm heading off to vegas again soon but this time i'm going to make it more of a business trip, and want to minimize my expenses as much as possible.

Anybody know any terrific websites giving deals on vegas trips for airfare?

Is it worth staying in a lousy small hotel a mile or two away from the strip if you're going to have to either pay a cab or walk to where you plan on playing each day? If so, any recommendations on those would be helpful too.

Just all around money-grubbing advice of any kind!

[ROCKWHACK]

http://www.cheapovegas.com

[StevieG]

http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/topten.cfm

[Fishwhenican]

If you are going to be spending your time on the strip, stay on the strip. There are hotels on the strip that are usually not horribly expensive and withing walking or monorail distance of all the other strip hotels.
Excalibur, Tropicana, San Remo, Boardwalk are all usually inexpensive (compared to places like Bellagio and MGM) and either have card rooms or are close to other rooms. If you like center strip try the Imperial Palace or Barbary Coast. Again, usually inexpensive and either have a poker room or are really close to a bunch of other poker rooms.

I usually play mid-strip at the Bellagio and Mirage. But I usually stay at Flamingo or Ballys. Both are major hotels but sell out much less frequently than the super resorts. Therefore, they have a lot of rooms available and you can get them cheap. They also have AAA rates available which are at a 10% discount over the advertised rates, but you have to call to get them.

I wouldn't stay at Trop or IP due to the Trop being a total dump and IP being extremely loud near the Harrah's Mardi Gras until 3am.

Also Flamingo has a decent poker room for late night action before bed if you go back and aren't ready to sleep.

Also, you should book direct with the hotel rather than expedia or hotels.com because if the rates fall you can reconfirm at the lower rate, or cancel and go to a different casino. If you book through a site, you are on the hook and cannot cancel without a penalty.

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http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/topten.cfm

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the GG has dished up tens of millions of cocktails; the price has been raised once and the quality has never declined.

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The GG shrimp cocktail basically consists of shrimp fragments with sand, in a sauce that might as well just be ketchup.

Hard to decline from that, I guess.

The Cheapo Vegas guide has helped me a lot in my trips. They have even recently added poker room reviews.

My $.02:

For cheap entertainment, IP has karaoke in their divey street-level bar with $1 beers, meaning there's lots of embarrassing drunk singing (and you will be doing some of it). Afterwards, stumble over to the coffee shop at the Barbary Coast (which is also the best BJ casino in Vegas) for some inexpensive, greasy but good eatin'. (There's also a Mickey D's close by, if you need ultra-cheap.) I've been to the Voodoo Lounge, Ghost Bar and Ra, and low-rolling is every bit as fun (often more).

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I wouldn't stay at Trop or IP due to the Trop being a total dump and IP being extremely loud near the Harrah's Mardi Gras until 3am.

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Who's in bed before 3 in Vegas? The strip only wakes up after the elderly folks go to bed.

As for the Trop, four words: Mirror. On. The. Ceiling.