If Las Vegas is a stop on your road trip, and you are wondering if it's possible to do it with a campervan, we can help.
There might be a lot of questions that come to mind when planning a visit to this neon city with a campervan. Where can you park? Can you sleep in your van? How long should you stay?
In short, there are two options to stay with a campervan in Las Vegas. The first one is to stay at a hotel and leave your campervan in their parking lot. The second one is to stay in an RV park. There are a few RV parks in the area. Circus Circus is the only one on the Vegas Strip.
In this article, I will share with you our one night experience in this city with Leah, our rented campervan from Lost Campers.
This article is day 8 of our 15-day road trip itinerary through the Southwest of the US and California. Click on the yellow 'Show Entire Route' tab, to view our in-depth guides to each stop for an even greater insight for your own road trip through the Southwest and California.
Let's start this article with 5 fun facts about Las Vegas:
- Las Vegas' nickname is Sin City. This is because gambling is legal, unlike in most of the US, and there is a lot of adult entertainment.
- The Strip does not belong to Las Vegas, but instead to Clark County.
- It's the brightest spot on Earth, due to its millions of lights.
- The first huge resort was built in 1989.
- The phrase 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas' was created by a media agency in 2003.
Now to the nitty-gritty.
Where to stay with a campervan in Las Vegas
When you search online for RV parks in Las Vegas, you will see a few results pop up. We decided to stay at Circus Circus RV Park for one reason: It is the only RV Park that we found that was on The Strip. The RV park is about 200m. from the hotel.
One night at Circus Circus cost us US$50. This was for sure the most expensive night we had up to that point on our trip.
The RV park is a parking lot that is located about 200 meters from the hotel. It has its own reception where you check-in. The amenities this RV park has are showers, toilets, a swimming pool, convenience store, laundry, hookups, and dump station.
What did we think of this RV park? We would give it a 2-star rating. It is a very expensive place, the facilities are run down, and the service at the reception was bad. Although our rating is pretty low, this is the place we recommend you to stay, should you not want to spend more than US$200 for a hotel room.
How to get to the Vegas Strip from Circus Circus
The Strip is the most popular attraction in this neon city. It is a really long road where all the flashy signs, fancy hotels, casinos, restaurants, and shows are.
We thought that by staying at Circus Circus, we could walk to all of the highlights from Vegas. Boy, were we wrong! What we did not know is that The Strip is 6.8 km (4.2 miles) in length. That is really long!
One of the things we wanted to see was the Bellagio Casino. This Casino is 3.3 km away from Circus Circus.
We only had one night at Vegas, and we were pretty tired. So we decided to take an Uber to the Mirage and do the 20-minute walk from there.
To try to make the ride cheaper, we went to the Circus Circus entrance and ordered a car from there. An interesting fact is that all of the hotels in Vegas have a 'ridesharing special area', and cars are only authorized to pick up and drop off people in this section.
If you are taking any rideshare service from a hotel, make sure to find this area before you request your ride. There are tons of people being picked up and dropped off in this area, so it can be a bit hectic to find your right car on time.
Our Experience at The Strip
Our drive from Circus Circus to the Mirage took 7 minutes on a Saturday night and cost US$10. We arrived at 9:20pm, and the streets were alive and buzzing with activities, lights, music, and people.
There is no shortage of activities you can do in Vegas. The one thing we wanted to do was gamble at the Bellagio. We are not gamblers. We had never gambled in our lives. But what visit to Vegas is complete without losing some money in a fancy casino?
So we made our way through the busy streets and arrived at the Bellagio Casino. We strolled around for a bit and watched other people play. One guy bet US$500 as if it was US$5! I was so amused by the whole experience.
I wanted to play Black Jack. We started looking for a table, an empty table that is. I did not want to look like a complete fool in front of other people that actually knew what they were doing. We sat down and asked the dealer if we could play.
I guess she saw that this was our first time playing because the first thing she said was that we needed to purchase chips before we could place a bet. We were like: "Sure, we'll have US$20 worth of chips please". She looked at us and explained how dealers do not handle cash, and we had to make the purchase from a special counter. 😆
So, if you will be gambling in Vegas, here are three things you should know:
- You have to go to the chips counter and purchase your chips from them. The minimum bet you can do at Black Jack, and possibly any other game, is US$5.
- Once you have your chips, you can then go place your bets.
- Once you sit at a table, someone will come and ask you what you want to drink. Drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, are free as long as you are playing!
So, we got our US$20 worth of chips and headed back to the gambling floor to find an empty table again. We found one, and as the dealer was explaining the game, a group of guys came and sat with us. They were all friends and very nice though!
They also saw that we were newbies and were very kind to explain to us the rules. We had some laughs at the table, and it was a really cool experience.
It took us 15 minutes to win US$15 and then, of course, ended up losing all of our money in the next 10 minutes. Bummer. At least we got a couple of margaritas for "free", though.
We left the casino and as we were exciting, we saw the famous fountain dance from the hotel. That was pretty fun to watch.
We strolled for a bit longer, grabbed some dinner, and at 12:15 am, we requested an Uber to head back to the hotel.
Our ride from the Flamingo Casino back to Circus Circus took 10 minutes and was US$13.
In total, we only spent 3 hours at the Strip.
Souvenir tip: We kept a US$1 chip. When we returned home, we super glued a magnet behind it, and it became a nice souvenir from our fun Bellagio experience.
Our impression of Las Vegas
When thinking of Las Vegas, the first thing that comes to my mind is the song from Elvis. 'Viva Las Vegas!'. Las Vegas is one of the most popular cities in the world. Naturally, a lot of people want to go visit the city that Elvis wrote a whole song about. We were no exception.
What we did not expect was that we would not even last 24 hours in this place.
Our stop in Las Vegas was short and a bit unexpected. You see, after a deer hit our car, our plans to explore Zion National Park got canceled. Instead, we were on our way to Vegas, baby!
We had to get our window fixed, and the lovely people from Lost Campers arranged for a small workshop in Vegas to take care of it.
So here we are, driving on the highway with a broken window covered with a trash bag and duck tape.
After a 4 hour drive, we arrived at the repair shop. We handed in our keys and waited for 2 hours for the window to be fixed. During these two hours, we chilled at a delicious place called Abuela's Tacos. If you are ever in Vegas and are looking for some tacos, we can highly recommend them!
After our car was fixed, we drove down to Circus Circus to check into the RV park. By then, it was 7pm or so. We showered and headed to The Strip.
Our first impression was a bit of shock. After having spent a whole week being active in nature, seeing beautiful sunsets and sunrises as birds were singing, we jumped into one of the noisiest and busiest cities in the world.
So, after everything we had experienced that day, Vegas felt a bit too much for us. So after our 3-hour experience at the Strip, we decided to go home. We woke up early the next day and drove to Los Angeles.
It was definitely worth it for us to visit Vegas and kind of check it off our bucket list, so don't get us wrong and skip it altogether. Just carefully consider what you want to get out of your Southwest road trip and how much time you want to spend in Sin City.
What are your expectations or experiences with Las Vegas? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
