Las Vegas Has No Single Answer to the Cost Question
The most common complaint about Las Vegas trip budgeting is that every estimate online is either hopelessly optimistic or designed to upsell you on a luxury experience you did not ask for. The honest answer is that the city has been deliberately engineered to serve every price point simultaneously — the same Strip block contains a $99 room and a $900 suite, a food court and a Michelin three-star restaurant, a free fountain show and a $180 Cirque du Soleil ticket. What your trip costs depends entirely on which version of the city you choose, and the calculator below will give you an honest estimate based on your actual choices.
Estimates based on current Las Vegas averages. Excludes gambling, nightlife spend, and shopping. Flights not included. Actual costs vary by property, season, and booking timing.
Hotels: The Biggest Variable in Your Budget
Accommodation is where the widest cost range lives. Strip hotel room rates in 2026 run from around $89 per night at value-tier properties like Excalibur, Luxor, or The STRAT on a mid-week booking, to $150 to $230 per night at mid-range Strip properties like Paris, Harrah's, or Planet Hollywood, to $260 and above at premium properties like Caesars, Cosmopolitan, Bellagio, Wynn, or the Venetian. Suites, high-floor rooms, and weekend bookings push all of these numbers significantly higher.
The number that frequently surprises first-time visitors is the resort fee. Almost every Strip property charges a mandatory daily resort fee on top of the room rate — fees range from around $30 per night at budget properties to over $60 per night at luxury resorts. These fees are not optional, and they are not included in the price displayed on most booking platforms at the initial search stage. On a four-night stay at Bellagio, the resort fee alone adds roughly $250 to your hotel bill. Factor it in from the start or your budget will be wrong.
Shows and Entertainment: Budget $80 to $150 Per Person Per Show
The practical range for a well-regarded Las Vegas show in 2026 is $80 to $150 per person for most mid-tier productions — magic shows, variety acts, comedy, and the mid-range Cirque du Soleil productions like Mystère or Michael Jackson ONE. O by Cirque du Soleil at Bellagio, widely considered the flagship production, runs $110 to over $200 depending on seat location. Headliner concert residencies are priced like concerts anywhere — $100 to $500 depending on the artist and your seat. The Mac King Comedy Magic Show at Excalibur is the value outlier at under $40, consistently reviewed as one of the best value shows on the Strip.
Two shows is a reasonable planning assumption for most three to four night trips. Budget $160 to $300 per person for two mid-range shows and you will be in the right range. If a big headliner concert is the centerpiece of your trip, build that specific cost in separately and treat other entertainment as optional.
Food: The Range Is Wider Than Almost Anywhere Else
Las Vegas has the most extreme food cost range of any American city. On one end: a full day of eating through food courts, grab-and-go options, and the occasional In-N-Out Burger runs $30 to $45 per person. On the other end: a single dinner at Joel Robuchon at MGM Grand can exceed $400 per person with wine. Most visitors land in the practical middle: a nice dinner one or two nights, casual meals for the rest of the trip. Budget $65 to $100 per person per day for mid-range dining and you will cover sit-down restaurant dinners, a couple of decent lunches, and breakfast each morning without going hungry or splurging irresponsibly.
One practical note: drinks on the casino floor are famously free while you are gambling — a real budget lever if casino time is part of your trip. The same cocktail costs $15 to $20 at a pool bar or nightclub.
Activities and Attractions: A Few Paid, Many Free
Las Vegas has a legitimate collection of free attractions that cost nothing beyond showing up. The Bellagio Fountains, the Conservatory, the interior architecture of Wynn and the Venetian, the Fremont Street Experience light shows — a full day of Strip walking and sightseeing costs nothing. The paid attraction tier — the High Roller observation wheel, Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay, Meow Wolf's Omega Mart, the Museum of Illusions, Flyover Las Vegas — runs $30 to $60 per person per experience. Budget two to three paid attractions per trip and you are looking at $60 to $180 per person in activity costs, excluding any experiences at the thrill ride or racing experience level.
Transport: Getting There and Getting Around
Flights are not included in the calculator since they vary too much by origin and timing to estimate meaningfully. From Las Vegas airport (Harry Reid International) to a Strip hotel, the Uber or Lyft ride runs $15 to $25 each way. The airport shuttle (shared ride services) is cheaper at $8 to $12 per person each way. Once on the Strip, most major properties are walkable to adjacent attractions. The free trams between Bellagio, Aria, Park MGM, and the Venetian-Palazzo area reduce the need for rideshares between those clusters. Budget $60 to $90 per person for ground transport across a three to four night trip and you will be covered for airport transfers plus several rideshares.
What the Calculator Does Not Include
Gambling is excluded deliberately — it is the one cost category where the range is genuinely unlimited and the relationship between input and outcome is unpredictable. If gambling is part of your trip, set a loss limit before you arrive and treat it as a fixed entertainment budget rather than a variable expense. Nightclub and bar spending, shopping, and spa services are also excluded from the calculator estimates. These categories are where Las Vegas most effectively separates visitors from money they did not plan to spend — which is, of course, exactly by design.
