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Wednesday, July 17, 2019

The genius of the Las Vegas Monorail

By now you know I visit Las Vegas 2-3 times per year, so I have seen a lot of the city, have seen it change, and know a lot of tips. My favorite is the Las Vegas Monorail. Many people don't use it, so it's hardly ever packed. It also tends to go behind hotels on The Strip, and that's the genius of the Las Vegas Monorail. You get away from the crowds walking along Las Vegas Blvd and you get where you want to go faster.


I do a LOT of walking in the city, which is fine, but with everything so far away from everything else, never getting to walk a straight shot from one block to the next, and it generally being blazing hot and miserable after a few hours, especially in the summer, it's nice to rest your feet. It's also nice to enjoy some air conditioning away from the casinos (which are also full of people smoking and drinking). 



You could take a taxi or ride share, but depending on the hotel you're at, by the time you get to the designated pick-up area, you could have already gotten to your destination. You could also rent a car, but the majority of hotels charge for parking now, too. Both of those options quickly add up.

Each Monorail pass day lasts 24 hours (which begins as soon as you first use it, meaning you have a full 24 hours, since the Monorail runs 19-20 hours a day). If you start using it at 9:05am, you have until 9:04am the next day before it expires.



I exclusively use the Monorail when I'm in Vegas for the Travel Goods Show each year. You've probably seen my Monorail selfies and Boomerangs on Instagram. I tried driving one year, but it took me nearly an hour to get from one end of the Strip to the Convention Center, and then another 20 mins to actually park with all the construction and it cost me $10 with no in and out privileges. So, if I wanted to leave, I could, but I'd have to pay another $10 when I came back. I tend to leave in the middle of the day, take some stuff back to my room, and grab some food before I head back. That didn't work for me at all. I drove back to my timeshare, parked my car and bought a Monorail pass for the rest of the show.



You can't really walk the whole Strip, and who'd want to? An Uber costs around $8-10 a pop and takes quite a bit of time as well. From one end of The Strip (the MGM) to the other (the SLS), it takes about 15 minutes by Monorail. I took it down to do some gambling, left at 4:30, waited probably 5 minutes for it to arrive, and took it back to MGM, walked the two blocks to my timeshare and met up with everyone to head out before 5pm.


The schedule is really convenient, with trains coming every 7-10 minutes, depending on the season. (There is a sign that says 4-7 minutes, but the average for my visits have been 7-8.) There are 7 stops, with one close to pretty much anywhere you want to go. I find myself getting off at the Flamingo stop pretty often, because it's in the middle of everything and you don't have to walk through a mile of casino to get out. Much of it is a covered bridge outside where you can watch people at the pool. I hit up the Linq Promenade and then go across the street to check out the Conservatory at the Bellagio. 


The view from the Monorail is pretty awesome too. You can see the mountains, pools, tennis courts, a golf course, the High Roller. Plus, you get the joy of seeing all the terrible traffic you're missing from above the streets.



The other day I took it in the evening when everyone else in my party went back to the room and I stayed out to watch people and "invest" some money at the slots. It was only me and another tired lady in our car, and the others weren't much fuller. It's a nice break from all the noise and the crush of people everywhere else. The evening usually tends to be busier, and also lunchtime, as that's when people are most active in the city.


I see all different kinds of people riding, and I even saw a couple bring their little dogs on. I bet they were happy to not have to walk a million miles on the hot pavement. Even taking the Monorail, I walked 40 miles in 7 days, so imagine how much I would have walked if I didn't have a ride.

I plan to buy a multi-day pass on every one of my Vegas trips, as it saves me money and time, plus you pay less per day if you do more than one day. If you have the MyVegas app, you can even get a BOGO pass, so you spend less per person. Bonus all around!



This time I used it via the Google Pay app. No fumbling to find your pass, though you can buy those at machines at all the stops. You just hold your phone up to the turnstile window and go. The only slight issue I had was that this was the first time I'd ever used Google Pay, so I hadn't turned the NFC Bluetooth-y thing on and it didn't work, but the nice man running the desk helped me and then it was smooth sailing.


By taking the Monorail and going paperless, you're really helping out the environment. The trains don't run on fuel, so they aren't emitting pollution. You aren't another car on the road clogging up traffic. In fact, there's no driver for the Monorail. It runs by computer system and the doors open and close automatically like elevators. One day I even talked to a cool dude who runs maintenance when the trains are down or have problems. I think he's probably an engineer. He said he loved the work he was doing.

If you feel like you might be unsafe in a metal tube with a bunch of (often drunk) strangers, each car has multiple cameras and there are security guards at every station. They even ride with their dogs sometimes. It's probably one of the safest place in Vegas that isn't the casino floor.

Learn more about the Las Vegas Monorail by checking out their website and next time you're in Sin City, enjoy your own designated driver wherever you go.

How do you like to get around Las Vegas when you visit?

Follow the Las Vegas Monorail on all their social media channels to learn about all the cool stuff going on with the Monorail and along its route:


Disclaimer: I was given a 5-day pass for the purposes of this review and social media coverage, but all opinions are 100% my own.

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