Shuttles

Some of the casinos have free service using busses that can be as small as 14 seaters at Green Valley to full blown busses such as at the Palms and Sam’s Town. Most shuttles are about 20 seaters and first come first served. Have room key in case they check. These schedules can change so always confirm with the Bell Desk before making plans.

The major hubs are Fashion Show Mall, the Rio, Bill’s and Mandalay Bay. There are 4 hotels that use Fashion Show, 3 that use Rio, 3 have Bill’s as their key hub and 4 that use Mandalay Bay. Here is an overview of the shuttles.

Bally’s/Paris, Caesars, and Harrah’s have shuttles that use the Rio as their hub. To shuttle to Bally’s or Paris from Harrah’s, for example, go to the Rio first. Shuttles run about every half hour at about 10 am to 1 am.

Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay are connected by the Tram (a free monorail) that runs about every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day. No one checks for room keys so any visitor can use it. Excellent backdoors and the Tram make Mandalay Bay the key transportation hub for the South Strip.

Gold Coast, Suncoast and the Orleans use Bill’s as their hub despite the fact that parent company Boyd’s Gaming who owns all 3 and Sam’s Town no longer owns Bill’s. Gold Coast runs about every 15-20 minutes and from 9 am to midnight.

Suncoast’s shuttle lag times for the return trip from Bill’s vary from one-half to a full hour. It leaves for Bills’s 7 times a day at 10, noon, 2:45, 6:45, 8, 10:45 and midnight.

They also have a McCarran shuttle that runs about 9 times a day starting from 7 am to 9 pm. Orleans runs from 9:30 to midnight but not as often as Gold Coast. Only Suncoast within the Boyd’s properties has a free airport shuttle.

Sam’s Town has the second best shuttle service of any casino in Las Vegas with an advantage that some of their large busses can take wheelchairs too. Here are the locations they serve. Sam’s Town uses a pay service for the airport unlike before.

• Downtown-California and Fremont (both owned by Boyd’s)
• North Strip-Riviera and Harrah’s
• Mid Strip-Bill’s
• South Strip-Tropicana

Fremont to Sam’s Town starts at 8:15 until 11:15 with another stop at the California about 15 minutes later. There is a lag of about 30-45 minutes for the return service and 12-13 shuttles everyday or about an hour and 15 minutes between shuttles.

Harrah’s to Sam’s Town has 9 shuttles a day that begin at 9:30 am and run until 9:30. There is an hour’s delay for the return trip, last one to Harrah’s at 10:30. This shuttle also stops by the Riviera about 20 minutes after Harrah’s so the first Riviera bus is at 9:50. North Strip shuttles are every 1 1/2 hours.

The first shuttle from Bill’s to Sam’s Town is at 9:40 until 9:40 at night with return trips lagged about 55 minutes. This means the first trip back to Sam’s Town is at 10:25 am. There is an estimated interval between busses of an hour and 20 minutes.

Sam’s Town from the Tropicana at the South end of the Strip begins at 9:40 with the last one at 9:40 pm. There is an hour’s lag for the return trip which starts at 10:40 am. Busses run about an hour and 20 minutes apart.

Green Valley has airport and Strip shuttles (to Mandalay Bay). They have Monday through Thursday, Friday and Saturday and a Sunday schedule as shown below. Vegas Made Easy.com recommends that you arrive early for shuttles and especially so for Green Valley because they don’t run that often and have smaller shuttles (14 seats) than usual.

Mirage and TI have a shuttle that runs between the hotels for a glorious 30 seconds or so. It starts at 7:30 and runs until 11:30 except for weekends when it runs until 1 am. They never check for room keys.

Palace Station has the best shuttle service because they run frequently hitting the South Strip (Tropicana) and the Mid/North Strip at Fashion Show Mall plus airport service. If you want to go Downtown, then Sam’s Town would have the best shuttle service.

McCarran service starts at 6 am with service on the hour until 11 pm. Return trips to Palace are about half an hour later except that the 12:30 and 7:30 pm slots are skipped.

The first shuttle heads to the Tropicana at 9 am every hour on the hour until 11 pm. It takes about 20 minutes to reach the Tropicana and it continues to the Fashion Show Mall. About 35 minutes later, they leave Fashion Show for return to Palace Station. There is a service gap to the Tropicana at 12:20 and 7:20 where they head directly to Fashion Show instead.

They do not check for the Strip shuttles however, they might for the Airport run. Getting the Boarding Pass (their player’s card) is a good idea. Their busses are about 20 seats.

Palms runs a shuttle every 2 hours to the Fashion Show Mall and Caesars and it is open to everyone 18 years or older. They leave the Palms starting at 10:30 and about 10 minutes later reach the Fashion Show and 5 minutes later, Caesars. 6:30 pm is the last shuttle.

Rampart’s shuttle is actually the J. W. Marriott shuttle. Rampart leases the casino space from them. Like Sam’s Town, they have a pay service to the airport but their Fashion Show Mall shuttle is free. It starts at 10 am and runs until 10:45 with their 20 seaters running about every 2 hours. The last returning shuttle is 11:30 pm. They do not check for room keys.

Red Rock goes to the Fashion Show Mall and has McCarran service as well.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, their McCarran run starts at 8 am running every 2 hours until 8 pm. There is an hour lag for the return shuttle so 9 pm is the last one.

For Monday through Thursdays, the shuttle runs at 7 am until 7 pm, also every 2 hours and with an hour lag for the shuttle back to Red Rock.

South Point has shuttles from the airport and the South Strip (Mandalay Bay). The Strip shuttle runs from 9 to 1 am about every half hour or so. Here is their airport schedule.

Wynn has 2 shuttles: McCarran and the Monorail. The Monorail shuttle runs from 8 am to 8 pm on the hour, 12 times a day. Their airport shuttle runs hourly from 6 am to 6 pm, also 12 times a day.

Summarizing, here are the most important things to remember about the shuttles:

• Arrive Early
• Bring your room key (you need it to get back in your room anyway)
• Check for schedule changes

If you have any updates or comments about transportation in the Las Vegas area, please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .