Las Vegas Monorail Tickets, Stations and Passes

Anyone who's walked from the Sahara to the MGM Grand in July knows the problem — the Strip is longer than it looks on a map, sidewalks are jammed, and taxis get stuck in the same gridlock as everyone else. Las Vegas monorail tickets solve a narrower version of that problem: they buy you unlimited rides, for a fixed window, on a driverless elevated train that runs along the east side of the Strip, roughly parallel to Paradise Road and behind the resorts rather than along Las Vegas Boulevard itself.

The system has seven stations and covers about 3.9 miles one-way, with trains running every four to eight minutes during operating hours. It's not a cheap municipal transit line — it's privately operated, which is why fares run higher than a city bus and why it doesn't reach the airport or the west side of the Strip at all.

How the monorail line runs along the Strip

The line runs from the MGM Grand at the south end up to the Sahara Las Vegas at the north end, staying entirely on the east side — behind Caesars Palace, Harrah's, The LINQ, the Las Vegas Convention Center, and the Westgate. That routing matters more than most first-time visitors realize. If your hotel is Bellagio, Aria, Paris, or Mandalay Bay, the nearest monorail station is a 15–20 minute walk away through a casino floor or two, which defeats the purpose. Check the Las Vegas monorail map before you buy anything — it's the single biggest factor in whether this makes sense for your trip.

How ticket validation works

Tickets are either a printed paper pass with a barcode or a mobile pass through the official app, scanned at turnstile gates on the station platform. Single-ride tickets validate once and expire; multi-day passes activate on first use and then allow unlimited rides until the pass period ends, not from the moment of purchase. That distinction trips people up — buying a pass two days before a convention and not using it until day three doesn't waste days, but you do need to tap it for the first ride to start the clock.

A monorail ticket covers exactly one thing: rides on the monorail itself, for the duration printed on the ticket. It sounds obvious, but a surprising number of visitors assume it bundles in other Strip transport, and it doesn't.

Covered: unlimited rides within the ticket period

Once activated, a day pass or multi-day pass lets you hop on and off at any of the seven stations as many times as you like until it expires. There's no limit on number of rides, and you don't need to show ID or match a name to the ticket — it's transferable in the sense that whoever holds the valid barcode can ride, though sharing one ticket between multiple people riding simultaneously obviously won't work since each ride needs its own scan through the gate.

Not covered: buses, trams, airport transfers

The monorail ticket does not cover the RTC Deuce or SDX buses, the free trams connecting Mandalay Bay–Excalibur–Luxor or the Mirage–Treasure Island loop, or any airport transfer. Harry Reid International Airport has no monorail connection at all — you'll need a taxi, rideshare, or shuttle, which is a common point of confusion for first-time visitors searching "Las Vegas monorail airport." If you're staying somewhere served by one of the free resort trams, factor that into whether you need the monorail at all for short hops.

The monorail sells a handful of ticket types, and picking the wrong one is the easiest way to overpay. A single ride costs noticeably more per trip than any pass averages out to, so the math only favors single rides if you're taking the train exactly once or twice on your whole trip.

A multi-day pass only beats single rides once you're taking the monorail three or more times during your stay.

Las Vegas monorail tickets compared: single ride, day pass and multi-day pass

Exact fares change periodically; confirm current Las Vegas monorail pass pricing on the official site before buying.

Ticket types compared side by side

Options typically include a one-ride ticket, a round-trip ticket, an unlimited day pass, and multi-day passes covering several consecutive days. Prices have crept up over time and change periodically, so treat any number you see online — including here — as approximate and confirm current Las Vegas monorail pass pricing on the official site before you buy. As a rough guide, a single ride has historically run in the $5–6 range, with day and multi-day passes priced to pay for themselves after three or four rides.

How many rides make a pass pay off

If you're attending a convention at the Las Vegas Convention Center and staying at a connected hotel, you'll likely ride at least twice a day — back and forth from badge pickup, meals, evening events — which makes a multi-day pass the obvious choice within the first full day. Casual tourists doing one dinner run from Harrah's to the MGM Grand are better off with single or round-trip tickets; buying a three-day pass for two total rides is money left on the table.

Buying is straightforward, but where you buy from affects both price and hassle.

Official website and app

The most reliable route is the official Las Vegas Monorail website or its mobile app, where you buy a digital pass and scan it directly from your phone at station gates — no printing required. This is also where you'll find the current, accurate fare chart and any operating hours for the day, since both can shift around major conventions like CES. Buying direct also means you're not paying a markup, which brings us to the next point.

Station ticket machines and avoiding resellers

Every station has vending-style ticket machines accepting cards and cash, so you don't need to pre-book — unlike, say, a Grand Canyon helicopter tour or a Cirque du Soleil show, this isn't something that sells out. What you should avoid is buying monorail tickets through third-party resale sites or hotel concierge desks that bundle it into a "Strip transport package" at a markup; the monorail has no official third-party resale partners, and anyone charging a premium for what's a same-price government-regulated-adjacent ticket is just taking a cut.

There are seven Las Vegas monorail stations, and knowing which hotels sit at each one is more useful than the fare chart for deciding if you need a ticket at all.

Station-by-station hotel guide with map

From south to north: MGM Grand station serves the MGM Grand directly; Harrah's/The LINQ station serves both Harrah's Las Vegas and The LINQ promenade, with Caesars Palace a connected walk via the casino floor; the Flamingo/Caesars Palace station sits closest to Flamingo Las Vegas; the Convention Center station serves the Las Vegas Convention Center and Westgate; and the line continues through Las Vegas Hilton to the Sahara Las Vegas station at the northern end. There's no station for Bellagio, Caesars main tower entrance, Paris, Planet Hollywood, or anything south of MGM Grand or north of Sahara — a genuine gap that catches people out.

Station entrances and walking distances

Stations sit on the back or side of each property, usually accessed through the casino rather than from the Strip-facing entrance, so budget 5–10 minutes of indoor walking even once you're "at" the right hotel. The Harrah's/LINQ station is the busiest because it also feeds foot traffic to the High Roller observation wheel and LINQ promenade shops, so expect lines at peak evening hours.

It depends entirely on your itinerary, and I'd rather talk you out of an unnecessary pass than oversell one.

Best fit by traveller type

Convention attendees get the clearest value — a multi-day pass easily pays for itself ferrying between a Convention Center hotel and the show floor. Families with tired kids benefit on hot afternoons when the alternative is a 25-minute walk in 100°F heat. Solo travelers and couples bar-hopping between Harrah's, The LINQ, and Caesars find it faster than fighting Strip sidewalk crowds at night. Senior travelers with limited mobility often prefer it to the free trams, since monorail stations have elevators and it covers more ground per ride. European and other world travelers used to dense transit systems — Macau's networks, for instance, or Atlantic City's compact boardwalk layout — sometimes expect the monorail to connect everything the way Reno's downtown or Palm Springs' walkable core might; it doesn't, and that gap disappoints people who assumed Vegas had full rail coverage.

When walking or trams are faster

If you're staying west of the Strip — Bellagio, Aria, Vdara, Mandalay Bay — walking or a short rideshare beats the monorail every time, since you'd need to cross the entire Strip width just to reach a station. The free trams linking Mandalay Bay to Luxor to Excalibur, or Mirage to Treasure Island, are faster and free for those specific short hops. And for anything south of MGM Grand or near Fremont Street downtown, skip the monorail entirely; it simply doesn't go there, unlike broader regional comparisons such as driving from Los Angeles or flying into Orlando where transit options blanket the whole destination.