Atlantic City Tips

iwannamovetoflorida

Earning My Ears
Joined
May 8, 2007
Hey everyone, my husband and I would like to go to Atlantic City for our anniversary this May. We would like to stay on the boardwalk or at one of the casino hotels. They seem to be really pricey. Does anyone have any recommendations, tips or must sees? Any info would help. Thank you!:)
 
Yea, unfortunately the hotels in Atlantic City can be expensive, especially on the weekends. You can check Expedia or Travelocity to see if they have any better prices on hotels.

Until recently I lived about 40 minutes from there and always received comped rooms. Our favorite hotel is the Borgata, it's at the marina, not the boardwalk, but it's beautiful and more like the resorts in Las Vegas. The marina is a short cab or Jitney bus ride to the boardwalk.
 


Go onto the websites for all of the casino/hotels and sign up for their players cards...you'll start getting offers in the mail and via e-mail!
 
Once you go and play you will start getting comps. Weekdays are your best bet if you have no comps. Even try sunday-monday. I see you want to go this month, Avoid memorial day weekend if you can. Traffic is going to be nuts. My anniversary is May 28th and we usually do something the weekend before of after because of the holiday.

I like staying at Ballys... I used to work for them when they were owned by Park Place. Great thing about staying is ballys is you can walk from Caesars, Ballys, Claridges without even going outside. Good for bad weather of that middle of night gambling when you dont want to go out on the boardwalk. Now the owners or harrars bought them out so you are also linked to showboat and Harrars. So your options are more for future comps. I have stayed in Caesars, Ballys, Claridge, Showboat, Taj Majah and Resorts.
 


We really like the Latin Quarter at the Tropicana. The rooms in the Havana tower are relatively new. There are good deals at the Sheraton convention center too. We had a really nice room there and the brew pub is great. It's not on the boardwalk but they have a shuttle to Caesars (last time we were there the shuttle was a limo). The new pier is really nice...nice shops and restaurants, a little fountain show, cool views of the beach. It's not Vegas by a long shot but they are trying.
 
I grew up in the Atlantic City area and I think I can probably help you. Your cheapest bets for a hotel stay are going to be at Showboat, Bally's, and probably the Hilton. Those are all on the boardwalk. Of course if you are willing to stay inland a little bit, it will be much cheaper. In regards to must-sees.... you have to eat at a restaurant called Los Amigos. It is a tiny little place that mostly only locals know about but it has wonderful atmosphere, food, and margaritas. If you like Italian, try Angelo's. Things to do... well that is where you have me stumped unless you like to go to dance clubs, bars, or casinos to gamble. There is a karaoke restaurant and a comedy place in the Tropicana. There is a Starbucks in the Pier accross from caesars that has a huge glass wall and you can sit in their couches and look out over the ocean.. really pretty. You can always catch a pretty good concert. Borgata has the most well known bands while House of Blues also brings in some good talent. Speaking of House of Blues, one fun thing you can do on Sunday mornings is go to Gospel Brunch. They have a huge pread of food and a gospel choir there to entertain you. It is really good fun and the food is pretty yummy too. I have plenty more suggestions but these will get you started. I will check back on this thread if you have any more questions for me. Hopefully I can help you. :upsidedow
 
Once you go and play you will start getting comps.

I often hear people say this, but they leave out any mention of how much you have to play to get any comps. I was in AC two weeks ago. I played blackjack for several hours over 3 days, betting between $15 and $50/hand. I swiped my card in the comp machine before I left and I had earned a grand total of about $3.50 in comp dollars. I probably won't ever earn enough for a free room at that rate. I'll be lucky if I earn enough to get free parking next time I go.
 
I grew up in the Atlantic City area and I think I can probably help you. Your cheapest bets for a hotel stay are going to be at Showboat, Bally's, and probably the Hilton. Those are all on the boardwalk. Of course if you are willing to stay inland a little bit, it will be much cheaper. In regards to must-sees.... you have to eat at a restaurant called Los Amigos. It is a tiny little place that mostly only locals know about but it has wonderful atmosphere, food, and margaritas. If you like Italian, try Angelo's. Things to do... well that is where you have me stumped unless you like to go to dance clubs, bars, or casinos to gamble. There is a karaoke restaurant and a comedy place in the Tropicana. There is a Starbucks in the Pier accross from caesars that has a huge glass wall and you can sit in their couches and look out over the ocean.. really pretty. You can always catch a pretty good concert. Borgata has the most well known bands while House of Blues also brings in some good talent. Speaking of House of Blues, one fun thing you can do on Sunday mornings is go to Gospel Brunch. They have a huge pread of food and a gospel choir there to entertain you. It is really good fun and the food is pretty yummy too. I have plenty more suggestions but these will get you started. I will check back on this thread if you have any more questions for me. Hopefully I can help you. :upsidedow

Can you tell me where Los Amigos and Angelo's is ?
thanks !
 
I often hear people say this, but they leave out any mention of how much you have to play to get any comps. I was in AC two weeks ago. I played blackjack for several hours over 3 days, betting between $15 and $50/hand. I swiped my card in the comp machine before I left and I had earned a grand total of about $3.50 in comp dollars. I probably won't ever earn enough for a free room at that rate. I'll be lucky if I earn enough to get free parking next time I go.

I never gamble a lot.. maybe $200 a trip. I never get huge cash comps... $5 here.. $10 there... usually postcards that come in the mail for dates I am not going.

The room offers come separate.. usually you get a multi page package with discount or free show tickets, your free room offers and either food comps or buy 1 get 1 free offers.

Another tip... Have you and your wife you the same comp card.. instead of individuals ones.
 
The Borgata is the nicest..it is on the marina. Tropicana...only stay if you are in the Havana tower, otherwise the rooms are crappy. My 2nd to Borgata would be Bally's...and you can get decent rates for a weekday stay. Go to www.harrahs.com (they own Bally's) Forget comps. You have to gamble fairly frequently to get them.
 
We never gamble alot , in fact I have only been twice. Hubby went down in January with a friend (who had a free room). He went down with a $100 and came back with $100. We got free room offers in the mail. We are going down on Thursday for a free night (yeah), I even have $50 on gift cards from Rain Forest from mypoints. I am excited.

I do like the Boardwalk. Its nice to walk from Casino to Casino. There is also Atlanticcity.com. Sign up with them and sometimes you can get a good rate. Weekends tend to be quite expensive, so if you could do a weekday its cheaper.
 
As someone else mentioned... definitely look into going during the week instead of a weekend.

My wife and I went to AC at the end of March... we paid $89 for a thursday night. The same room for Friday or Saturday was $300.
 
I was just there recently. Maybe I'll start getting offers now. I hope so. Now that the smoking ban has started in the casinos we plan to go periodically. We could never go before because of the smoking.
 
We stayed at the Tropicana for the first time in December. Since then we've been getting flyers in the mail for all kinds of comps, but of course they all expired before we could go. We had the urge to go 2 weekends ago but we didn't want to pay $400+ for a hotel room. So we called them and gave them our Rewards Card # (free to sign up for one) and what did they say....we got a free room in the Havana Tower (the new building)!!! Now keep in mind we had only been there 1 other time and only spent about $250 in gambling $$. We also got all kinds of comps for food and drinks. So we got a free room, free drink alllll night (nice bottled beer, not the plastic cup full you get on the game floor) and free food!!! Awesome!!
 
We stayed at the Tropicana for the first time in December. Since then we've been getting flyers in the mail for all kinds of comps

I didn't stay at the hotel as I was staying at my partner's beach house. That may have lowered by comp rating. I'm sure the comp offers will start. Especially if we go back again soon.
 
DH and I are very modest slot players. Our comps do not amount to much, but we do receive free room offers for weeknights, (Have been offered 4x a month, but we usually go 2 nights every 6-8 weeks. You pay only about $10 per night for tax and fees. We go with a limit of what we will spend and enjoy the pool and boardwalk when that runs out- lol. The Irish Pub is a fun and budget place to have a lunch or light dinner. ( Off the boardwalk at St. James Place.) Nice quick getaway but not WDW!
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!











facebook twitter
Top