How to Plan a Trip to Vegas on a Budget

By Space Coast Daily // February 19, 2023

Take advantage of the best Vegas discount opportunities and tricks to travel on a budget.

Las Vegas is a city for everybody. Many people assume it is a city for the rich because of all the fancy five-star hotels and luxurious amenities offered. But the truth is that Las Vegas has many affordable hotels, shows, and attractions for people on a budget.

There are many discount opportunities and tricks to save on Las Vegas travel and entertainment expenses. Let’s explore the top 9 ways to plan a trip to Vegas on a budget.

1) Book Your Tickets on VegasLens.com

Do you want to find the lowest ticket prices for Las Vegas shows? If you book from Vegas Lens for best price tickets, you can save anywhere from 10% to 40% on the standard ticket prices.

Vegas Lens is a website dedicated to helping travelers learn about Las Vegas shows and discover exclusive ticket discounts not found anywhere else. Sometimes the deals come from rare hotel discount packages, while other show discounts are available through promo codes.

2) Plan for Shows and Activities on the Las Vegas Strip

The Las Vegas Strip has all the best shows and attractions you’ll ever want to see in Las Vegas. For this reason, you don’t need to spend money renting a car if you plan on staying around the Las Vegas Strip for most of your trip.

A free shuttle bus can take you to your hotel when you arrive at the airport. And even if your hotel doesn’t offer a complimentary shuttle bus service, you can purchase a bus pass to ride the inter-city bus to your Las Vegas destinations.

Do you want to see the Grand Canyon or Red Rock Canyon? Rather than rent a car, you can take a guided tour of these locations by helicopter or bus. Either way, you can still avoid the rental car altogether.

3) Hotel Alternative: Airbnb Stays

Las Vegas hotels are beautiful and luxurious, but their nightly rates can be expensive for travelers on a budget. Fortunately, there is no rule saying you must stay at a Las Vegas hotel to attend its shows and attractions.

Why not consider staying at an Airbnb to save money? Plenty of Vegas residents and property owners rent out their homes and apartments to travelers for nightly or weekly rates. You can rest assured the rates are far cheaper than anything you could find for hotel rooms on the Las Vegas Strip.

4) Dine Once Per Day

You may have the urge to dine at all the luxurious restaurants which Las Vegas has to offer. However, your food bills will get rather expensive if you eat multiple meals at different restaurants daily.

There are a few ways around this. First, you could eat at a buffet restaurant once per day and then eat nothing else until the next day. Buffet dining allows you to fill yourself up to the max so that you won’t be hungry again for another 24 hours.

Another thing you could do is shop for food at grocery stores rather than restaurants. Grocery store food is far cheaper than any food at a restaurant. Just make sure you have a kitchenette in your hotel room or Airbnb to cook the food if necessary.

5) Stay Away from Malls and Shops

Las Vegas has the best shopping malls and retail stores in the country. Everything from the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace to the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian is enough to make anyone spend their travel money.

If you are on a tight budget, you should avoid these major shopping destinations altogether. Otherwise, the temptation to shop and spend money will be too tempting to resist.

6) Visit Free Attractions

If you are on a very tight budget, you could plan an entire trip to Las Vegas only to see free attractions. You’d be surprised how many spectacular free attractions exist throughout the city and beyond.

For instance, you could visit the Ethel M Chocolate Factory and see the thousands of gallons of chocolate it processes through its series of pipes and tanks. You could also visit Hershey’s Chocolate World and witness an 800-pound milk chocolate-based Statue of Liberty.

Other notable free attractions include the Bellagio Fountains, Mirage Volcano, M&M’s World, Marjorie Barrick Museum, The Wildlife Habitat at the Flamingo Hotel, Downtown Container Park, and the “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign.

7) Hike Mountain Trails

Turn your Las Vegas trip into a hiking adventure on the city’s many mountainous trails. Tourists love hiking on the trails of the Red Rock Canyon because of the beautiful reddish rockiness surrounding them. Check out the Ice Box Canyon Trail and the Calico Tank Trail at Red Rock Canyon if you get the chance.

8) Plan Your Seat Ticket Purchase Carefully

There are good and bad ways to purchase seat tickets for your favorite Las Vegas shows. Some of the best hacks for scoring deals on Vegas shows involve choosing the correct seating, buying tickets in advance, and staying away from ticket resale sites like StubHub.

In addition to finding exclusive ticket discounts on Vegas Lens, you can find even lower ticket prices by frequently checking the show ticket prices. If the scheduled showtime is during an off-season with low ticket demand, you may discover lower-than-usual ticket prices for your preferred shows.

9) Relax at the Swimming Pools

You could spend a whole afternoon swimming and relaxing by the pool. Las Vegas has many free and cheap swimming pools at its many resort hotels. The best ones include the Citrus Grand Pool Deck at the Downtown Grand Hotel, M Pool at the M Resort, Influence at the LINQ Hotel, and Go Pool at the Flamingo Hotel.

Conclusion

Traveling to Las Vegas can be a budget-friendly trip if you know how to plan accordingly. You can maximize your travel savings by lodging through Airbnb, shopping at supermarkets for food, and visiting all the free and cheap attractions in the city.

It all depends on how much you can afford to spend.