Las Vegas Monorail Review

October 26, 2023

The Las Vegas Monorail is an automated train system that runs up and down the East side of the Las Vegas Strip. It’s mostly used by tourists moving up and down the Las Vegas Strip. It’s not really public transportation.

Originally, the Las Vegas Monorail was created by MGM and the Ballys hotels to help move people between their hotel and casino properties. It was later extended and then sold to the Las Vegas Monorail Company who operated the monorail until 2020.

In 2020, the Las Vegas Monorail Company went bankrupt. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority purchased the Monorail in 2020 and began operating it again as usual. So while it might not have had the easiest and productive existence, I do like using the Monorail because it’s just so convenient.

Bottom Line: I’ve used the Monorail whenever I visit Las Vegas and attend a show at the Convention Center. The Monorail is the easiest way to get to and from the Convention Center and any of the hotels that are served by the Monorail on the East Side of the strip. In fact, I tend to choose my hotels in Las Vegas based on easy access to the Monorail.

Las Vegas Monorail Map

The Las Vegas Monorail runs a North/South Route from the MGM in the South to the Sahara in the North. Along the way it stops at the Horseshoe/Paris, Flamingo, Harrah’s/Linq, Convention Center, and Westgate.

Las Vegas Monorail Tickets

The Las Vegas Monorail is not free. It uses tickets and turnstiles. You can buy paper tickets at vending machines or you can buy them on their website and they are sent to your email where you can add them to your digital wallet on a smart phone. There is a discount for using a digital ticket instead of a paper ticket. It’s also easier and faster, in my opinion, to use the digital ticket. Another option is many large shows at the Convention Center will include Monorail tickets or allow them to be added for a discounted rate.

The Las Vegas Monorail sells single ride tickets along with day and multi day passes. A single digital ticket is $5.50. The multi day tickets start at $13.45. This means that it’s cost effective to buy the one day pass if you’re going to take more than 2 rides in a day. If you’re attending a 3-4 day event at the Convention Center the Multi-Day passes are cheaper than even 2 rides per day. A 3 day pass costs $29.95, if you rode the Monorail to and from the Convention center all 3 days, you’d pay $33 on single ride tickets.

The day passes are good for 24 hours from your first ride. So a one day ticket, where your first ride is at 9am on Monday, is Valid until 9am on Tuesday. You can also use this to your advantage.

Locals can buy $1 rides on the Monorail. While riding recently I talked with a local couple who like to come and stay a night at a hotel and catch a show occasionally. They liked to use the Las Vegas Monorail to stay at a cheaper hotel with free parking and then ride to wherever their show would be. For $1 it’s a no brainier, they just have to buy tickets in person at the counter.

Las Vegas Monorail Hotels

In my opinion, there are 3 categories of hotels when it comes to the Las Vegas Monorail: hotels with direct Monorail Stations, hotels near Monorail Stations, hotels with awkward/reach Monorail stations. The easiest hotels are those with direct monorail stations, but some with close monorail stations are not too bad either. I tend to not consider the awkward/reach stations as really having a monorail.

In the first, and easiest, category, there are a half dozen hotels with direct access to the Monorail. These are the MGM Grand, Flamingo, Harrah’s, The Linq, Westgate, and The Sahara. These hotels have direct access to the Monorail.

The next category is hotels that are an easy walk to a Monorail Station. There are a ton of hotels in this category, ones like the Paris and Planet Hollywood on the Strip. There are also a lot of non-strip properties that are great for this like the Elara Hilton(Review Here).

The final category is hotels I don’t really consider on the monorail. These tend to be hotels that are on the West side of Las Vegas Blvd(the Strip). For Example, the Monorail advertises a stop as Flamingo/Caesars Palace, and yes, you could get off there and walk to the Caesars, but it would be a solid 15 minute walk to the Caesars from the monorail. Not that a 15 minute walk is that difficult, but it’s not exactly close.

Las Vegas Monorail Hours and Frequency

The Las Vegas Monorail runs from 7am to 2am most days of the week. On Mondays this is shortened to midnight. Friday through Sunday the Monorail runs until 3am. On large holidays like new-years the monorail will run 24 hours, but this is not the usual schedule. You can check the schedule on the Monorail Website.

During normal operation, the Las Vegas Monorail will run at 9 minute frequencies. When there is less traffic these can increase to 12 minutes, but it’s uncommon. If there’s heavy demand, such as during a large trade show, they will decrease head-time down to 5 minutes to increase capacity.

Convention Center

Getting to and from the Convention Center is a somewhat annoying. The Monorail makes it a little easier but keep in mind, when you’re trying to get 40k people to a single location, and the only other alternatives are car based, the monorail get’s busy. Especially when leaving the convention center at the end of the day, there is often a line to get onto the Monorail, but this will clear.

Another thing to note, is the earlier on the train you can get, the more space there will be. The MGM Grand and Flamingo will have the most space on the train, as you get closer to the convention center the train will become extremely full. This is usually only an issue for hotels south of the convention center, those going north likely don’t have an issue.

Using The Las Vegas Monorail

Riding on the Las Vegas Monorail is just like every other train system. The process is simple, buy a ticket, scan at the turn-style, head to the platform, find the correct direction, get on the train, get off at your stop. There’s one price per ride so no need to scan off, just exit the turn-style. You can also get a good view of a few Las Vegas land marks and in particular the Las Vegas Sphere.

Most of the Monorail platforms are “island platforms” meaning the platform is in-between the two directions so you can easily get onto the correct train. The directions are labeled “Northbound” and “Southbound.” The end of line all passengers must exit.

Las Vegas Monorail vs Loop

While the Monorail and the Loop both service the Convention Center, they are pretty different. The biggest being that the Loop (Currently September 2023) only runs to 1 hotel, the Resorts World(Hotel Review Here). The Monorail covers a much larger area. This is expected to change as The Loop expands it’s footprint. For a full guide to using the Las Vegas Loop, check here.

Places The Las Vegas Monorail Doesn’t Go

The Las Vegas Monorail has some notable omissions from it’s route. The biggest would be the Airport. The Las Vegas Monorail doesn’t go to the airport, there are mostly political reasons for this, but it’s a big reason that the Monorail isn’t used more. There have been plans in the past to extend the Monorail to the LAS Airport, but those have been cancelled.

The Las Vegas Monorail also doesn’t run as far north as Freemont St/Downtown Las Vegas. So if you want to head up north, you’ll have to take some other form of transportation.

Las Vegas Monorail Final Thoughts

The Las Vegas Monorail is great for people who need to get around the East Side of the Las Vegas Strip. Especially those people who are staying at a hotel that has direct access to the Monorail. Also those people who are in town to visit the Last Vegas Convention Center.

It does have it’s downsides, but for the most part, it’s cheaper and faster than the alternatives. Ticketing is fast and easy using on the Monorail website. Mobile tickets are my preference. The hours are good and rarely will I be out past the usually close time of 2am, even in Las Vegas.

While it’s not really public transit, and the lack of an LAS Airport stop is a big hole in the route map, but the Monorail is useful. I’ll keep riding it.