Reno Tourist Traps

We all spend enough money in the casinos. If you want souvenirs buy them along the strip at the various little shops along Virginia Street. You'll find the same things that the hotel gift shops have only less expensive.

If you must rent a RV for the festival, do no rent it in Reno or you will pay a very high price. For example, one year friends and I rented and RV for a week in a town called Stockton which is on the way from San Francisco to Reno. We paid $800 to rent the RV for a week from a company called www.rvamerica.com. Last year I met a man from the east coast who did not know any better and resevered his camper from a location in Reno and paid $3000 for the week! So shop around and look for alteratives... or simply camp out like most everyone else :-) One more tip, if you do rent and RV, go to a hardware store and purchase plastic and tape and cover EVERYTHING in plastic. The desert, or rather playa, climate at Burning Man is VERY dusty. The fine alkaline dust gets everywhere and there is nothing you can do to prevent it from getting into anywhere you stay (just prepare to be dirty no matter what). But as for the RV, it will make your clean up much easier if you take the time to prepare this step.

I got these at a casino's gift shop because I thought they were colorful keychains and they reminded me of the publisher I work with. Sadly one fell off the chain and one of my truck keys is bootless now.

Fun Alternatives: I got these for a substantial discount, but I was standing in line behind someone that spent $300 (not kidding) for one junky gift for every member of the family when if they'd gone up to Wal-Mart they could have bought the same "stuff'" for $100 or less. This is not news to anyone that travels I suppose! LOL. We shop in those kind of gift shops anyway, don't we?

In room refreshment centers. These lovely little fridges are filled with goodies so you can kick back and enjoy the evening in your room. Or bribe your children to behave.
If you are traveling with kids do not let them take anything out of the refreshment center without you knowledge. You take it out even to look and you have bought it.
The reason I call it a trap is because of the prices. You can go to the gift shop and get a bag full of munchies for the cost of one bag of M & M's ($7.00 in this particular RC)

I know Nevada is famous for the casnios but It's a trap! You loose more money then you make. I feel Nevada is a great place but casnios kinda cover it all up. So when you visit try to see the great things.