Three trams, all on the west side
The Strip's free trams are a leftover of the era when resort companies built connections to keep guests inside their own properties. All three are on the west side of Las Vegas Boulevard, all three are short (two to three stops), and all three are free, air-conditioned and open to anyone. They are: the Aria Express linking Park MGM, Aria (via the Shops at Crystals) and Bellagio; the Mandalay Bay tram linking Mandalay Bay, Luxor and Excalibur; and the tram between the former Mirage site (now the Hard Rock redevelopment) and Treasure Island. None connects to the others, and none crosses the Strip.
Their value is not distance — each replaces a 10–15 minute walk — but heat, feet and time. Strung together with pedestrian bridges, they let you move from Mandalay Bay to Bellagio with less than a mile of actual walking, most of it indoors.
Aria Express: Park MGM – Aria/Crystals – Bellagio
This is the most useful of the three. The southern station is at the back of Park MGM, near the Eataly side; the middle station is at the Shops at Crystals, a short walk into Aria and the Cosmopolitan; the northern station is at the Bellagio, in the Spa Tower wing near the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art. The ride is around three minutes and trams run every few minutes from morning until the early hours (typically about 8 a.m. to 2 a.m.; check signage).
Use it to skip the long, hot stretch of Boulevard between Park MGM and Bellagio, which on foot is 20 minutes past the Cosmopolitan's frontage and up the escalators. The catch is that the Bellagio station is a long way from the Bellagio's Strip entrance and fountains — a good ten minutes through the conservatory and casino — so if you are heading to the fountains from Aria, it is a wash versus walking. Heading to the Bellagio lobby, spa, or onward to Caesars via the bridge, the tram wins.
Mandalay Bay – Luxor – Excalibur
The south-Strip tram connects three MGM Resorts properties in a line. The Mandalay Bay station is near the convention centre and Shark Reef end of the property; the Luxor stop is served in one direction only (trams heading north from Mandalay Bay stop at Luxor; southbound trams generally run express), so check the sign; and the Excalibur station sits on the north side of the property, from which the pedestrian bridges to New York-New York and MGM Grand are a few minutes' walk. Running hours are roughly 9 a.m. to midnight, later on busy nights.
This tram matters because Mandalay Bay is the most isolated big resort on the Strip: it is a 25-minute walk to the MGM Grand corner with nothing in between except Luxor's pyramid and a hot sidewalk. With the tram, Mandalay Bay guests can reach the Tropicana intersection and its bridges in about 12 minutes. If you have a show at Mandalay Bay's arena and are staying mid-Strip, the tram plus a bridge plus a short walk is often faster than a car in event traffic.
Mirage site – Treasure Island
The shortest of the three: a single-span tram between the north end of the former Mirage property and Treasure Island, crossing above the driveways where the pirate ships used to fire cannons. It takes about two minutes and saves a 10-minute walk along the Boulevard. With the Mirage closed for its Hard Rock redevelopment, the tram's status and hours have varied; check on the day, and expect its usefulness to grow once the new resort opens. Treasure Island is a good base for it because TI still offers free parking and a cheap-ish room, and the tram plus a bridge gets you to the Venetian and Wynn side of the street.
Combining trams with the pedestrian bridges
The trick that locals use is to chain trams and bridges into a mostly indoor, mostly shaded route. Southbound from Bellagio: tram to Park MGM, walk through Park MGM to New York-New York, bridge to Excalibur, tram to Mandalay Bay. That is Bellagio to Mandalay Bay — about two miles — with maybe 20 minutes of actual walking, almost all of it air-conditioned. Northbound from the Tropicana corner, the reverse works equally well.
North of Bellagio there is a gap: Caesars, the Forum Shops, the Mirage site and the Venetian are linked only by sidewalk and bridges, about 20 minutes of walking, before you reach the TI tram. Beyond TI, Wynn, Encore and Resorts World have no tram at all. For those stretches use the Deuce or a rideshare. The full walking picture, with distances, is in walking the Strip.
Practical notes
- All three trams are free — no ticket, no card, just walk on. Anyone can ride, not only hotel guests.
- They are level-boarding and fully accessible; strollers, wheelchairs and scooters are fine.
- Hours shift with the season and events, and trams occasionally close for maintenance. Signs at each station show the day's hours.
- Stations are inside the resorts and signed from the casino floor, but the walk from the Strip entrance to the platform can be 5–10 minutes — do not count the tram as "instant".
- Late at night the trams are quiet and safe; casino security is never far away.
For a full car-free strategy that puts the trams to work, see getting around without a car.