Campground in or near Las Vegas

Sam's Town is very tight with neighbours barely an armspan away.  Mostly gravel and asphalt with no picnic tables.  The public facilities are good; pool, hot tub, decent showers, excellent 24 hour laundry.  Hookups are good, though the sewer is a bit different.  The Gambling Hall at Sam's Town has 5 restaurants, 8 fast food places, a theatre, a bowling alley, a bingo hall, and many other amenities and shops (as of early 2011).  It is about 5-6 miles from The Strip but, as mentioned, there is a shuttle service.  Being on the east side of town, travel to Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, and the new commemorative bridge is a little easier if you're driving a toad or rental car.  It was fairly quiet at night when I was there in February 2011, though it is right on the Boulder Highway.  I'm not sure if it would be an interesting place for young kids but it was a good base for my solo adventures around Las Vegas.  I paid $28/night with full hookups for my 32' Class A.

Loddy -

Given the June temperatures and the fact that Las Vegas is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, you might consider making Las Vegas a separate leg of your trip, flying from your entry port directly to Las Vegas and spending several days there, then flying to Sacramento to pick up your RV. 

There are lots of bargain flights if you can book two weeks or more in advance.

There are also real bargains to be had for accommodations during the week - you can be right on the Strip Sunday-Thursday in a perfectly good room in one of the major casino hotels for $30-40 a night, especially if you can book a week or two in advance.  Friday and Saturday nights are when the prices double or triple.  Just check the websites and book online.

Last week I was in Las Vegas for a major convention, when hotel prices are higher than normal, and I was able to get a nice room in the CircusCircus tower, overlooking the parking lot they call a KOA Kampground for $45 a night.  Versus $80 a night to stay in my RV in that parking lot ... er, Kampground.

Imperial Palace, Tropicana and Stratosphere are others on the strip with good rates (Stratosphere is actually a little north of the strip).

Public transit in Las Vegas is very good.  There's the double deck Deuce bus that runs up and down the Strip and to Downtown.  Drops you off right in front of all the hotspots, instead of having to find a parking spot in a garage that may be at the other end of the property, a long way from the action.

Even if you rent a car (again, book in advance for the best rates) your trip may wind up costing less than staying in  the motorhome.  Southwest Airlines has great fares in and out of Las Vegas and has a handy car rental section on their website that compares rates from all the major companies.  You can use it even if you don't fly with them.

Thanks everyone
very good advise

Loddy 8)

We arrived at Sam's Town in Las Vegas today.  Seems okay so far for only $25 a night.

I would heed the advice on coming in summer.  It's April and 101 in the heat of the day!

Just to make everyone feel better, we used to stay at Sam's Town in the mid-1980s when we were working in Death Valley and it was $5/night and you got funbooks that included free buffets and free ice cream. Life Was Good

Wendy
home in Cortez

aubreyshaw said:

I would heed the advice on coming in summer.  It's April and 101 in the heat of the day!

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Yeah, but it's a dry heat.

Molaker said:

Yeah, but it's a dry heat.

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Last words spoken by the Thanksgiving turkey.

Wendy,

How far is Death Valley from Sam's Town?  I looked it up at one point and it said it was over 2 hours away!  Would love to go there on a day trip!

aubreyshaw said:

Wendy,

How far is Death Valley from Sam's Town?  I looked it up at one point and it said it was over 2 hours away!  Would love to go there on a day trip!

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Depends on where in Death Valley you want to go. A lot of people do day trips from Las Vegas but it's a long day, about 125 miles each way from Sam's to the visitor center at Furnace Creek. Doable, but long. If you had a couple of extra nights, you could drive to Pahrump and stay there 2 nights and do the day trip to DV. That's a better trip.

Wendy

I'm going to jump in here.  It's 135 miles from Las Vegas to Death Valley.  Add 5 miles from Sam's Town which is on the east side of LV.  I don't think a day trip is all that reasonable.  The problem - aside from the 270-280 miles round trip just to get to and from DV - is that you wouldn't have time to see much once you get there.  Death Valley National Park covers 200 square miles (larger than Delaware) and driving distances between sites within the park are quite large.  For example, it's 41 miles from Badwater at the south end of the park to the visitor center and most attractions are north of the visitor center.  Scotty's Castle requires at least four hours to see.  And then there are all the hikes and drives to various viewpoints.  We "do" the south end one day, the middle one day, and the north end a third day - and still haven't see everything!  Death Valley needs several days minimum to explore, so trying to do a day trip would be doing yourself a disservice in my opinion.  See their web site at http://www.death.valley.national-park.com/

ArdraF

Not to pick nits, but the NPS site for Death Valley is http://www.nps.gov/deva/index.htm. As for the distance from LV to DV, it is long and I would only do it if I was never going to have a chance to visit Death Valley again. Some of us are unusual in that we spend much, much longer in places than the average. Did you know that the average stay in Death Valley is 2 hours? Same thing for Grand Canyon, 2 hours. I find that incredibly sad but I also find it sad that some people will never see these places, even for just a few minutes.

Wendy

Wendy - Interesting that I used the wrong web site.  I thought I was there when I copied it - but maybe not!  Yes, it's incredibly sad that most people only spend two hours at those places.  They're missing so much!

ArdraF