But there are still ways to do Las Vegas for very little money if you work at it.

What follows is a day in Vegas for $25 including sightseeing, activities, and meals. I’m presuming a Saturday for this itinerary so be warned that if you try this on a different day of the week the prices and hours of operation might be different. I’m also presuming that you have your own transportation, whether it’s your own car or a rental and I’m not factoring the cost of gas or the rental in this exercise.

Start your day at around 9am with a solid breakfast at the Gold Coast Ports o’ Call Buffet. Not only is it a good quality buffet but it’s one of the least expensive anywhere near The Strip. Stop by the players’ club desk first and sign up for a card and you can get a “members only” price of $5.95 for the buffet.

Drive over and park at Caesars Palace and take a wander through the Forum Shops to do some window shopping – it’s free, you know! You’ll need to have some willpower to keep from busting out those credit cards but I think you can do it. While you’re there you can watch the free fountain shows in the mall. They aren’t as exciting as the Bellagio Fountains but they are worth a gander. Oh, and you can also ride one of only two circular escalators in the world. I know, it’s not a roller coaster but it’s something unique to do.

By now, if you’ve done it right, it should be about 11am.

Walk out of Caesars and head south across the pedestrian bridge to Bellagio. Inside you can spend some time in the Conservatory soaking in the amazing (and amazingly free) floral arrangements. You could also walk back to the Jean-Philippe Patisserie where you can drool over the giant chocolate fountain. I think you need a snack so break out a buck and grab a single piece of one of their amazing confections.

At about 11:45 you should head out front to get a great view of the first showing of the Fountains at Bellagio. I don’t care how many times you’ve seen this it is still impressive.

For lunch walk across the street to Planet Hollywood and find the legendary Pink’s Hot Dogs. You can get their classic chili dog and a drink for about $5.

It’s about 1pm-ish and so far you’ve spent about $12. By this point on most days you probably spend more than that on Starbucks coffee.

Walk back over to Caesars to retrieve your car and drive down to the MGM Grand. Once inside take some time to visit the free Lion Habitat. Most of the time the lions are just lying there but every now and then you might luck into some frisky behavior that you can catch on camera.

Head outside and walk over to New York-New York where you can take a moment to view the Tribute to Heroes display outside in front of the Statue of Liberty replica. It’s a somber memorial to 9/11 and totally out of place in this visual overload of a city, but that’s exactly why it’s worth visiting.

At this point if you have either never been or haven’t been in awhile you should go check out the South Strip casinos like New York-New York, Luxor, and Mandalay Bay. All of them have made some pretty big changes inside that are worth seeing. Not necessarily because they are terrifically cool but just so you can speak with authority when you arguing with Bob in accounting about how most of the Egyptian stuff inside Luxor is gone now.

It’s about 4pm now give or take so head back to the car and drive Downtown. Your first stop should be at the corner of McWilliams and Encanto, just north of Fremont Street. This is where they keep all of the old neon signs that will someday be restored known as the Neon Boneyard. You’ll have to peek through a fence to see them but it’s definitely worth a gander to see that kind of history.

Drive over and park at The Golden Nugget and on your way through the casino be sure to have your parking ticket stamped at the main casino cage so you don’t have to pay on your way out later.

Stop at the Golden Gate hotel and sign up for their player’s club card so you can get the famous shrimp cocktail for 99 cents.

Then check out the casinos along Fremont Street and take advantage of the various “Free Pull” offers you’ll find. 99 times out of 100 you won’t win anything but it’s worth a shot, right?

For dinner go to Magnolia’s Veranda at the Four Queens where you can have a variety of full meals for under $10. Their food is not going to win any epicurean awards but it’s good, filling, and quite satisfying for the price you’ll pay. I’m going to give you $9 to spend here.

By now it should be approaching dusk so you can go back outside and catch the first showing of the Viva Vision light and sound show at the Fremont Street Experience.

Jump back in your car and head back down to The Mirage where you can watch the recently upgraded Mirage Volcano.

Okay, so now your day is drawing to a close and you’ve spent $22 so what do you do with that last three bucks? Put it in a slot machine of course. My recommendation would be to go for broke and try out a Megabucks machine where you can turn that three dollars into millions with one pull.

Somebody has to win it. It might as well be you!

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The first big April opening was big in a lot of ways. The El Rancho was the very first major resort hotel and casino on the stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard that we now call The Strip. It was located on the corner of Sahara and Las Vegas Boulevard, across the street from what is now The Sahara hotel. It opened April 3, 1941 with just over 60 rooms and anchored the burgeoning Strip for two decades until it burned down in 1960.

Nine years later on April 24 of 1950 the Desert Inn opened. This place set a new standard for luxury on The Strip – it was the Bellagio of its time in a lot of ways. It also had the highest structure in Las Vegas at the time at a dizzying three stories. The Desert Inn grew and expanded over the years and survived for five decades until it was torn down to make way for Wynn Las Vegas – a hotel that opened in April of 2005. How’s that for symmetry?

April of 1955 saw not one but two major openings just a day apart. On the 19th the Royal Nevada opened. It was located right next door to The Stardust on the northern end of The Strip and almost immediately fell into financial difficulties. It was later purchased by the same folks who owned The Stardust and incorporated into that hotel. The entire combined complex was torn down a couple of years ago to make way for the upcoming Echelon resort.

A few hours after the Royal Nevada opened, Liberace greeted the crowds as the official host of the opening of The Riviera. That hotel is one of the few on this list that still exists, although rumors of its parent company’s impending bankruptcy could change the classic hotel’s future.

On April 4, 1957 another classic opened on the southern end of Las Vegas Boulevard called The Tropicana. Known in its heyday as “The Tiffany of The Strip,” The Trop became a luxurious playground most famous for its swim up blackjack tables. That hotel also still exists today but it too is going through some serious financial upheavals.

Finally, there was no fooling when the original Aladdin opened on April 1, 1966. A few years later it was the site of Elvis and Priscilla’s wedding and it remained in existence until the late 90s when it was torn down to make way for a new Aladdin that opened in 2000. That hotel became the current Planet Hollywood.

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