[Freebird]

Thanks - yeah easy and decently safe access to the strip was important - we will avoid looking like targets, stick to the areas all of you have recommended, be safe and enjoy the year. THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who replied, it has meant so much to get advice and information from all of you.

[lvoc]

Originally Posted by tijlover

How you carry yourself, how you present yourself while walking around in marginal areas of the city makes a big difference! Walking with surefire confidence and fearlessness can be a great help! Like my fearless little ferret who will, innocently, rush up to a big dog on the street, and the dog briefly cowers before my ferret!

If I can survive 70 trips to Tijuana, walking around that city day or late night, I can survive any neighborhood! All the potentially-dangerous 3rd word cities I've traversed in around the world! How you present yourself, that's oftentimes the key!

Would-be muggers have an uncanny sixth or seventh sense, and their radar systems are alert to fearful people, easy targets!

Your ferret tries my existing cat its dead or in a fight for its life. My departed dog would have killed it in a matter of seconds. Nothing personal...it simply was bred for and loved to kill rodents and considers anything less than 5 lbs to be such. At one point we barely rescued a tea cup chihuahua from him.

I spent a good bit of very pleasant time in Tijuana. Had a boat partner who was a Salvadoran Obstetrician. He had a lovely home on the good side of TJ. He considered Tij a wonderful city...but he was also careful about where and when he went. Many central and south Americans of the richer classes have almost a six sense about what is or is not safe. I have Columbian inlaws who are certainly that way. Mostly they act like the whole thing is not a problem. But sometimes they resort to virtually military maneuvers to make a trip.

Boaters often pass through the bad parts of cities and remark on how nice they are. But periodically a couple of them get mauled or killed. The rest pass it off as the luck of the game.

I don't know how good you are at it...but I would not be surprised to read an article about the terrible fate of a guy and his ferret late one night in Las Vegas..

[LVbuyer]

The best of luck to you, Freebird and congratulations on your move. I can understand why anyone sane would want to leave LA.

I am considering buying a condo at The Martin on Dean Martin. Any opinions on the walk across Harmon to City Center and the Strip?

[Freebird]

Hi LVbuyer -

Thanks very much for your good wishes and support!

I can give you a long and rambling idea of our thoughts on that walk but to sum it up, the distance was absolutely no problem but we still never decided whether it'd be a good idea (from a safety standpoint) to do it routinely.

We were interested in The Martin also (when we were looking for a rental) so we drove across the Harmon overpass, back and forth, from different access points and at different times of the day and night. We were trying to scope out the walk to the strip for distance and safety - to see if we could see ourselves avoiding using the car. For walking proximity to the strip, The Martin is way better than Turnberry Towers - no question. Turnberry is close to two monorail stations but all things considered, we would rather be able to walk directly into the center of the strip - it's just that we couldn't find a rental in The Martin that would fit our stuff or our timeframe for moving.

We measured one mile driving from the Bellagio fountains to The Martin front entrance - easy distance to walk. If walking to the strip from The Martin, it looked like we would've needed to turn left when leaving the front entrance and walk in the opposite direction from the strip, going around the block to get up onto the overpass sidewalk (no access from Dean Martin Drive that we could tell, unless there are stairs of some type leading up to the sidewalk). First impression was that it didn't seem the best area to walk around the block at night - isolated and not as well-lit and we were wondering if there was a back exit from The Martin to get more directly onto the sidewalk.

But, it looked like the sidewalk on the Harmon overpass over the I-15 freeway was decently wide and decently lit, as much as we could tell from inside the car. I think part of it is separated from the traffic lanes by a fence. It goes up and down a couple of times - connects to the CityCenter sidewalk and appears to go into or through the CityCenter/Vdara property and then back out. We didn't actually walk it but it looked like an ok walk, actually - IF the sidewalk running along Harmon between/beneath the CityCenter properties really goes all the way to the strip somehow. We never determined whether it did or not but it seems like they would've planned it that way. We didn't see too many people walking in the area day or night - might've just been the time of year and outside temperature though - but it seemed fairly desolate with lots of concrete and not much to see - and we were trying to figure out if people just would rather drive to the strip or if there was a safety reason not to walk it.

Would be interested to know what others think and if anyone has actually walked this route across Harmon and knows if it does connect the Panorama Towers/Martin with the strip !

[Bart9399]

Originally Posted by Freebird

Would be interested to know what others think and if anyone has actually walked this route across Harmon and knows if it does connect the Panorama Towers/Martin with the strip !

I've made the walk from both Panorama and The Martin a few times.

The walk from the Panorama requires you to cross over Harmon Avenue at the light to The Martin side of Harmon before going over to the casinos. From The Martin, there is a side exit that allows you more direct access to the Harmon overpass. The Martin propaganda states that they are only 585 steps from CityCenter [The Vdara]. That seems about correct, although it is a further short walk to the Bellagio and the tram that goes to both the Aria and later the Monte Carlo:

Las Vegas Monorail Map | VEGAS.com

The walk on the Harmon overpass is on an elevated sidewalk. I've seen several older (in their 60s) couples walk from the Martin to CityCenter late at night. It appears safe. That said, "We're not in Kansas anymore."

guy

[LVbuyer]

Hi Freebird and Bart,

Thank you for your detailed and helpful answers!

I walked from Vdara to the Martin and back and it is a very easy walk, even in hot weather. The side exit by the pool puts you right on Harmon and it shortens the walk a fair amount.

I'm still deciding what to do but am leaning towards buying!

LVb