My new guidebook, Moon Handbooks Las Vegas, should be arriving in stores this week. To celebrate, I'm giving the readers of my column some exclusive sneak peeks at the contents.

In the "Discover" section of the book you'll find several travel strategies, simple-to-understand options for planning a Vegas vacation based on your interests or your priorities. Here is an abbreviated version of the "Vegas on a Budget" travel strategy:

Back in the day you could get a really nice hotel room on the Vegas Strip for a little more than pocket change, stuff yourself at a buffet for a couple of bucks and see brand-name entertainment for roughly the same price as a pair of good sneakers. You also had to walk through snow, uphill, both ways. No, wait. That was my dad going to school as a kid.

All of this bargain-bin vacationing was created as a way to lure you into the casinos, where the hotel operators made the real money. It was the travel equivalent of a loss leader, offering something cheap up front to get you to spend big bucks later.

Those days, my friends, are long gone. Modern Las Vegas makes more money off of those former loss-leaders than it does from the casinos, and now room rates are sky-high, buffets cost more than many traditional restaurants, and brand-name entertainment ... well, have you seen how expensive a good pair of sneakers is these days?

Having said all that, there are ways to do a Vegas vacation without spending your child's college fund. All it takes is a little creativity and a lot of settling for good instead of demanding that ever elusive "best."

The very first thing you should do is go online and join the mailing lists/players' clubs of every single casino/hotel you can find. Yes, it subjects you to a little bit of junk mail, but the benefits can be legion. You won't be getting free room offers until you go and dump a lot of money in their casinos, but you may get discount room rates, show or meal discounts, and money-saving package deals that could save you big bucks.

When you're ready to go, start by being flexible with your travel plans. If you can go during the week in August you're going to pay a lot less for everything than if you go on a weekend in April or May. The more options you give yourself on travel times the better you'll do with the budget.

The cheapest way to stay is get off the Strip. Downtown Vegas and the locals' casino-hotels are always less expensive than most of the hotels on the Strip. Some of these places offer little more than basic accommodations -- a bed, a bathroom, and air conditioning -- but really, what more do you need? Just accept the fact that you aren't going to find a luxurious suite with mints on the pillows for Motel 6 prices and your vacation planning will get a lot less traumatic.

The downside, of course, is the transportation issue. Since most of the things you'll want to see and do are on or around the Strip, you'll have to find a way to get there and back. If you road-trip it, problem solved, but even if you have to rent a car when you get there you can still save yourself money in the long run. For example, you could pay $150 a night for a room on the Strip for five nights or you could pay $50 a night to stay elsewhere and use that $500 bucks you're going to save to rent a car, see a show or three, and still have enough left over to fan yourself with a stack of bills.

But if you absolutely, positively can't live unless you stay on the Strip there are ways to do it. Hotels like the Stratosphere, Sahara, Imperial Palace, and the Tropicana usually offer rates substantially lower than their competitors. True, none of them are as luxurious as the neighboring gilded palaces, but each offers clean, comfortable rooms at relatively modest rates.

Oh, and one more little note. If you really want to save yourself some money, don't go anywhere near the casinos. True, you have to play to win, but if you don't play you're guaranteed not to lose. But if you've got an extra couple of bucks burning a hole in your pocket the best way to make money last is to play the nickel and even penny slots, the latter of which are springing up all over town again after years of decline. You won't get rich, but it'll stretch your gaming dollar.

To find out more about the Moon Handbooks Las Vegas or to order a copy, click here.

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In Next Week's Column

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