Answer to Game #1: How fast can we get from Mandalay Bay to The Venetian?

Las Vegas needs the opposite warning as the one on automotive sideview mirrors. Objects on The Strip are not anywhere near as close as they appear. The Strip is about 4 miles long. On the first day or two, the hotels seem really close together, but after a couple of days hoofing up and down Las Vegas Boulevard, the distances get much farther. On our last day there, I was convinced that the monorail station at Bally's had inched its way into Arizona during the week.

After some quality time walking through Mandalay Bay, located at the southern end of The Strip, we had to get up to The Venetian to make our rendezvous with the gondola rides on the second floor (yes, the indoor canal is upstairs). Google Maps puts the distance between the two hotels at about 2 miles, keeping to the streets. The pedestrian route: take the tram from Mandalay Bay past the Luxor to the Excalibur. Take the skyway from the Excalibur over the 13-lane road over to New York New York, turn right at the Nathan's Hot Dog stand to the skyway over Las Vegas Boulevard to the MGM Grand. Go downstairs, past the lion habitat, through to the back of the casino and pick up the monorail. Ride the monorail to the Harrah's/Imperial Palace station, then walk through to the front of Harrah's and take the sidewalk past Casino Royale to the moving sidewalk over the mini Rialto Bridge into the Venetian. We made that in 35 minutes.