Renting a Car in Las Vegas

If there is one bit of advice you should trust me on, it is my recommendation to get a rental car. They are relatively inexpensive and offer you more freedom and choices in your travel itinerary. Yes, most hotels charge for parking these days, which sucks, but if you are planning on going anywhere other than to your hotel’s pool, renting a car will be cheaper in the long run than taking cabs or Ubers everywhere.

Here’s an illustrative scenario to prove my point. You are flying into Vegas, staying on The Strip for two days, and planning on going Downtown to the Mob Museum, off The Strip to the amazing Raku restaurant, and shopping at the Las Vegas Premium Outlets South. A small rental car and parking for those two days will probably run you in the $100 total range ($25-$30 per day for the car, a few bucks for gas, and $20 per day to park it on average). Cabs two and from the airport will easily run you $40-$50 including tip and the round trips to Downtown, the restaurant, and shopping will push you well over that $100. Yes, you can save a few bucks on rideshare services like Uber, but you’re still not going to have the freedom you will if you rent a car.

The major companies that service Las Vegas McCarran airport are listed below with toll-free numbers and web-sites where applicable.

The rental car counters that used to be inside the terminal are gone and all companies now operate out of a consolidated facility off airport property. It is accessed by taking one of the McCarran Rent-A-Car Center branded buses that you can find just outside of the baggage claim area. Buses leave the main terminals roughly every five minutes so waiting won’t be a problem unless you are visiting at a particularly busy time, in which case there may be a line at the bus stop.

Hop on the bus and it will take you off of airport property to the facility on Gilespie Street, near the intersection of Warm Springs and Las Vegas Boulevard South, which for the familiar is where the Las Vegas Outlet Mall is located.

The facility has counters for Avis, Advantage, Budget, Enterprise, Hertz, Dollar, Alamo, National, Payless, Savmor, and Thrifty car rental agencies and most of the vehicles will be housed in multi-story parking garages, thereby making the prospect of hopping in that Ford Taurus a little less intimidating than it was when it was sitting in the middle of a hot July parking lot.

There are a couple of agencies not included in the main facility but there are shuttle buses from that facility to those lots. Look for signs and listen to the pre-recorded announcements on the bus.

For more information on the consolidated rental car center, visit McCarran.com and click on the Ground Transportation link.

The folks at the Las Vegas location of Dollar Rent a Car are offering my readers an exclusive discount on rentals at that location. Use the link below and you’ll get 10% off their already low rates. For the record, I am not endorsing Dollar over any other car rental company and I don’t get any kind of commission if you use this offer – it’s just a way for you to save a few dollars (see what I did there?).

Next: Las Vegas Monorail