Cheap Drinks in Las Vegas: Where to Drink Without Paying $25 a Cocktail

Order two cocktails at a center-Strip lounge and you can hand over $50 before the tip. Doubles at one of the big resort bars can push a round close to $100. A bottle of Tito’s at the CVS down the street costs less than that.

People who live here don’t pay those prices, mostly because we know where not to sit down. Most of it comes down to which bar you pick and what time you show up.

If you want the bigger picture on why the Strip got this expensive, we covered that in Did Vegas Price Out the People Who Loved It Most. This is the practical version.

What drinks actually cost here

So you know what “cheap” means in Vegas:

Same city, sometimes the same block, and a 5x difference in price. That gap is what this whole guide is about.

Stage Door: the cheapest bar on the center Strip

If you’re anywhere near the LINQ, Flamingo or Caesars, walk over to Stage Door Casino at 4000 Linq Lane, behind the Strip. It’s a small, smoky, old-school casino bar, nobody’s taking pictures of their drinks, and the prices haven’t caught up with the rest of the neighborhood.

Its published menu lists $3 Corona or Modelo, $3 Busch Light drafts, $5 vodka sodas and screwdrivers, $6 Captain and Cokes and $7 Jack and Cokes. It also runs a $2 bottle special on Dos Equis or Heineken. It’s open 24 hours, and there’s a liquor store attached if you want to stock the room.

Three minutes from Caesars Palace, you can drink for a fifth of what you’d pay inside it. Check Stage Door’s current menu.

Happy hour, and the late-night ones

Happy hour is the easiest way to drink at a nice place without paying full price. You just have to know which ones are real. Half the happy hours on old Vegas lists don’t exist anymore, and some only run in the bar area.

A few worth knowing, from our verified list:

• Oscar’s Steakhouse at the Plaza downtown: $3 domestic beer, $6 wells and $7 house wine in the bar, Monday through Thursday 5 to 10 p.m. You’re looking straight down Fremont Street from inside a glass dome. On weekends it ends at 7.
• House of Blues at Mandalay Bay: happy hour 3 to 6 p.m. and again 9 to 11 p.m., except on some show nights.
• SUGARCANE at The Venetian: $8 cocktails, $7 beer and $2.50 oysters late at night.
• BALLA at SAHARA: $7 Limoncello Spritz.
• PT’s Taverns all over the valley: $5 drafts and $6 wells from midnight to 2 a.m. at participating locations.

One warning: the Yard House at the LINQ doesn’t do happy hour. The off-Strip locations do.

We keep the full list, with times and prices, in our guide to late-night happy hours in Las Vegas. Check it before you head out, because these change.

Drink where the locals drink

Locals have never paid Strip prices to drink. They go to the neighborhood taverns: PT’s and the dozens of places like it in strip malls across the valley. Video poker built into the bar, TVs, wings, beer for a few bucks, and parking out front. Many are open 24 hours.

Locals casinos work the same way. Bars at places like the Orleans, Gold Coast, Red Rock or Green Valley Ranch run cheaper than anything on the Strip, and there’s no resort fee to get in the door. If you have a car, or don’t mind a $15 Uber, this is where your money goes furthest.

Ellis Island on Koval, just east of the Strip, has its own brewery and has been a cheap-drinking stop for years. It also has a free beer for eligible military and veterans and an industry drink promotion for local casino workers, both with ID and enrollment. Those aren’t tourist deals, but if you qualify, use them. Ellis Island promotions.

If you work in the industry, the CASBAR at SAHARA does half off wells, wine and beer from midnight to 6 a.m. with casino or hospitality ID.

Free drinks while gambling

Casinos still bring free drinks to people who are gambling. It’s not what it used to be, though. A lot of the Strip’s bartop video poker machines now track your play, and the bartender won’t pour until you’ve put enough money through. Table games and slot floors are usually more relaxed, just slower.

A free drink stops being free if you lose $60 waiting for it. If you were going to gamble anyway, it’s a nice perk. Tip your server a dollar or two per drink, or the service dries up fast. We go into the details in how to get free drinks in Las Vegas.

Buy it at the store

The cheapest drink in Vegas is the one you buy at a CVS or Walgreens. There’s one every few blocks on the Strip, and they sell beer, wine, liquor and mixers at normal store prices. Stage Door’s liquor store works too.

A few things to know:

• Leave the minibar alone. At some hotels the minibar is on sensors, and moving something to make room can get you charged for it.
• Don’t bring your own to the pool. Most resort pools don’t allow outside drinks, and glass is a no-go everywhere.
• Pregame before the club. Pay $25 for your first drink at a club and you’ll see why everyone does this.

You can drink on the Strip sidewalk, but with rules. Unsealed glass is banned along the Strip corridor, and Fremont Street has its own restrictions on glass, cans and original containers. Put it in a plastic cup. Don’t drink in a car, even as a passenger. LVMPD’s alcohol ordinances have the specifics.

Downtown: cheaper, but not everywhere

Downtown is still cheaper than the Strip, but Fremont Street has a lot of tourist bars charging Strip money for frozen drinks in plastic towers. Walk past those. The deals are in the casino bars like Oscar’s at the Plaza and in Fremont East, a couple of blocks from the canopy.

If you’re taking an Uber from the Strip just to save on beer, do the math first. $40 round trip buys a lot of drinks at Stage Door. Downtown is worth it when you’re making a night of it, not just for two cheap beers.

The souvenir cup

Those yard-long frozen drinks on the Strip run $25 to $40, and a lot of what you’re paying for is plastic. Some of those stands do cheaper refills if you bring the cup back, so ask before you toss it. And ask how many shots are actually in it. A huge cup doesn’t mean a huge pour.

Nightclubs and pool parties are the same deal, at a bigger number. You’re paying for the DJ and the room. If that’s why you came, fine. If you just want a few drinks with friends, go somewhere else.

What you save

Two people, three drinks each:

That’s $120 in one night for picking a different bar. Do that all weekend and you’ve paid for a show.

A cheap night out, start to finish

Grab a 12-pack and water at the CVS for the room. Hit a happy hour before dinner. If you’re on the center Strip, end up at Stage Door instead of a lounge. If you gamble, set the budget first and count the free drinks as a bonus, not the reason. Go downtown if you want a night downtown, not because somebody said every drink there is cheap.

And drink water. It’s the desert, and it’s dry here even when it isn’t hot. The most expensive part of a cheap night is usually the morning after.