Hope you were planning on filling up with Regular at this place, but if they could find a way to make their prices any more vague, I guarantee you they would. I already noticed when I moved to Las Vegas that gasoline prices were higher than they were back home, but do they have to make it even harder for you to figure out if you're getting a good price? If you're new to Vegas or you're going to be renting a car here, you might as well know how deceptive the gas prices are at each station's sign. First of all, although Rebel and Arco AM/PM stations will generally have the best prices, the price they're posting on the big sign alongside the street to get you to pull in are going to be the cash price, so if you're running low on the greenbacks and were planning to use your debit card, it's going to cost you. AM/PM stations are a particularly bad offender here, because although their sign may say the cash and debit price are the same, once you swipe your debit card you'll find you're going to be charged a 35-cent debit card fee if you proceed. So if you only planned on pumping two or three gallons, those savings will evaporate faster than the fumes in your empty tank.
(AM/PM stations have installed self-service kiosks between the pumps to save you a trip into the store. Don't even bother using them. Just go inside and pay in cash; give them a twenty and say you only want ten dollars' worth if you need an excuse. Often the debit card swipe won't work so it will just tell you to use cash or find another pump, and often they won't have installed a cash slot yet. That's if you're lucky; otherwise you'll learn about that 35-cent fee.)
The other bait and switch is if you see a really great price at that Shell station on Flamingo, but when you get closer you notice the fine print: that price is only if you buy a car wash at the same time you buy your gas. The most deceptive of these miscreants is a 76 station on Charleston; there's really nothing on their sign that said to me the regular price was valid only if you were also buying a car wash. I'm sorry, merely having the words "Car Wash" somewhere on your sign doesn't do it for me, and I'm just going to go back inside and ask for my cash back rather than pay the extra 15 cents a gallon.
In summation: Here's the real reason you always have to have cash in your pocket when you drive around Vegas.
Now, another way you can save on gas is if you get Fuel Rewards, which you can by picking up rewards cards from Smith's and Food 4 Less, or by signing up for Shell's Fuel Rewards Network. In the latter case, you can save 3 cents a gallon at all participating Shell stations, and an extra 7 cents a gallon every time you spend $50 at participating Vegas restaurants. Hey, that's only ten breakfasts or tapas orders at the Florida Cafe! That 10-cents-a-gallon discount will only apply to your first fill-up after you earn it though, so don't waste in on a top-off of a couple of gallons; afterwards you have to start all over again making trips to the Florida or Hussong's Cantina or one of dozens of other restaurants around town. First you fill up, then you get your car filled up; not a bad deal.
Hey, turns out if you take head west on Harmon Ave. and cross Las Vegas Blvd., it will take you directly to the parking and valet entrance for the Cosmopolitan. When you leave, turn right onto West Harmon, turn left when you get to Polaris, and you'll come out on Tropicana, just west of your choice of I-15 or Dean Martin. Avoid that nasty Strip traffic altogether!
Anyway, on our last visit we decided to splurge on a $40 upgrade to a room with a north-facing private terrace, based on the guidebooks' recommendation that it was the best view of the Bellagio fountain show. And what a room! Two beds facing a gigantic flat-screen TV, a sitting room with a sofa and chairs and a desk with a slightly smaller flat-screen TV, the private terrace with a chair and ottoman overlooking the pool and the Bellagio fountain, a kitchen with a microwave and a dishwasher (you heard me) and a refrigerator (don't touch any of the mini-bar items or you'll trigger the weight-sensitive sensor and get billed for that bottle of champagne). They gave you a cloth laundry bag emblazoned with Mark Twain's slogan, "Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society." The bathroom had a tub and a big shower with a marble bench for sitting down and, uh, whatever, and a big picture window looking out over the bedroom or vice versa. Okay, if that last seemed a bit awkward, it had blinds you could draw over the scene. (At the Princeville Resort on Kaua'i, the same window has a switch you can flick to turn it opaque. Now that's cool.) The bathroom sink had a little stainless steel container holding cotton balls and cotton swabs in addition to the usual bath and shower amenities. Even the spare roll of toilet paper came in a cotton draw-sack. Now, that's class.
If you don't upgrade to a terrace room...well, you get very little of that stuff. You will get a very nice good-sized room with comfy beds which will likely have a spectacular view and overlook the pool. You get one decent-sized flat-screen TV. There's no kitchen; there's not even a microwave or a coffee maker. There's the fridge for the mini-bar, and the staff will volunteer to empty it if you want to be able to use it as your refrigerator without worrying about nudging a bottle of champagne and having it billed to your room. The extra roll of t.p. still comes in a draw-sack, and you might still want to draw those blinds. Also, all the Cosmo's rooms are non-smoking, so if there are any smokers in your party, they might really miss that terrace.
So is it worth $40 to upgrade to a terrace room? Hell, yeah! If you can get a good deal on a room at the Cosmopolitan (like, only being charged the $25 a day resort fee) for just one or two nights, you should treat yourself to the experience at least once. Careful, though; you might get addicted to it.
Heads Up: By default the Cosmopolitan will put a hold on your credit card for $150 each night against expenses that might be charged to the room, so be sure you have that kind of funds available.
So, here I was staying at the Rio on my last visit, and after picking up my car from the valet and exiting the parking lot, instead of turning left or right on Flamingo decided to go straight and see where Hotel Rio Drive took me. Turns out it takes you straight to Dean Martin Drive/Industrial Drive (the street fades from one name to the other at about this point). And it's my new favorite way to travel from one end of the Strip to the other, bypassing the frequently jammed Las Vegas Boulevard entirely. Head South on Dean Martin and you'll get all the way to the South end of the Strip, home of South Pointe and the glorious Silverton. Turn North on Industrial and after passing what seems like most of the strip clubs in Vegas (not to mention the Erotic Heritage Museum), you'll get as far as Wyoming; turning left will take you to Little Darlings, while turning right will get you to Las Vegas Boulevard across the street from the OG. It's a nifty shortcut towards Downtown (to the North) or the Stratosphere and points South without having to deal with the hassle that is frequently the Strip itself. Even I-15 traffic can sometimes get crazy, with a line of cars backed up waiting at the on-ramp; ain't no waiting to get onto Industrial. And many of the streets that intersect the Strip will continue on to Industrial. There's easy access to parking for many of the Strip casinos, especially Circus Circus, and other Strip locales like Fashion Show Mall. As a bonus, the views of the Strip casinos can be just as spectacular from the back side (twilight falling over City Center and the Cosmopolitan was a sight to behold).
Vegas regulars are no doubt familiar with the similar function streets like Koval and Paradise serve on the West side of Las Vegas Boulevard, but I found Industrial especially zippy. Staying at the Rio as I was, Hotel Rio Drive not only gave me direct access to Industrial but led me directly back to the Hotel on my return.
