A new Vegas podcast, for tourists, by tourists
What does a 40-year-old Canadian father of five know about planning a visit to Las Vegas?
Everything.
Ten years ago, Scott Stratten lost his Las Vegas Boulevard virginity during his 30th birthday celebratory vacation. Like tourists standing in a casino buffet line on crab night, he keeps coming back for more.
“Wandering on the Strip is a beautiful thing. You never know what you’re going to run into. You never know what you’re going to see.”
The Toronto-based businessman loves Sin City so much, he’s returned 59 times since, he estimated at a Starbucks inside the MGM Grand earlier this month. This time was as a guest speaker for IBM InterConnect 2016.
During one trip, he proposed to and married his wife, Alison Kramer. Together, their affinity for Vegas’ bright lights, world-class cuisine and one-of-a-kind experiences would flourish into a business.
“The song playing right now was the song we pulled out to,” he said, recalling his downtown Las Vegas drive-thru wedding. He pointed to the coffee shop ceiling to reference the Bruno Mars track, “Marry You,” playing in the background.
Now, Stratten and Kramer call the city their “second home.”
“I start smiling as soon as I walk out at the airport and find I can get a real rest, even in just a weekend,” Kramer wrote in an email.
The pair make it into town about every six to eight weeks, but it’s not always for rest and relaxation.
“You pick the reason. Every reason to be here, we’ve been here,” he said. “You know, bachelor parties, birthday parties, to conferences and trade shows,” Stratten said.
Stratten noticed a gap in the Las Vegas tourism information market throughout all those visits, and he wanted to fill it.
In 2014, the husband-and-wife team launched “The Vegas 30,” a podcast directed at those en route to Las Vegas who are “too old to stand in line at a club, too young to retire to the bingo hall.”
“There’s a whole bunch of other things that we want people to experience, from the shows, the food, to the acts outside the Strip.”
And without sponsorship, Stratten said he and Kramer are allowed to express their likes and dislikes without bias.
“The show doesn’t have a sponsor, which is on purpose, because we don’t want influence,” he said.
“That’s the problem with, like, the show on the TVs in the hotels and stuff, which is always like promoting. It’s owned by one of the chains, right? So, they’re only promoting their own.”
The only thing the couple wants to promote is their favorite places in their favorite city.
“We would get offended when people would say they didn’t like Vegas. It’s like somebody not liking a certain food that you like.”
In the 14 30-minute episodes, Stratten and Kramer have addressed topics such as, “The things you MUST do on your first trip to Vegas,” “The letdowns of Vegas” and “Here’s what we wish we knew about Vegas!”
“People know Vegas one of two ways. It’s a blast or it’s gross,” Stratten said.
But, your visit is what you make it, he added. So plan ahead.
Plan to bring comfy shoes. Plan to walk a lot. Plan for sometimes-extreme weather. And plan out which properties are important to you. The “rookie mistake,” according to Stratten: trying to hit every casino.
If you’re in town for work, plan for that, too.
“It’s a different world if you’re here for a conference or a trade show,” he said. “Vegas is the worst place in the world to be if you’re at a trade show, because you’re on your feet for 14 hours, and then you’ve got to deal with the people in Vegas who are here for fun or the weekend.”
The trade show silver lining?
Stratten said there are oftentimes convention freebies.
“If you’re here for an event, go to the event parties, which is where they rent the clubs out at 6 p.m.,” he said. “You get to see that club without having to wait and pay the price and everything else.”
“I have all the time in the world and no time to wait in line,” Stratten said, and his wife agreed.
“I didn’t start going to Vegas until I was in my 30s and well past the age of waiting in line for some club,” Kramer said.
Shifting from a gaming economy to an economy that relies heavily on experiences has much to do with the VIP treatment that has people lining up to enter nightclubs on the Strip, Stratten said.
“You have to shift. If you don’t shift, you become Atlantic City,” Stratten said with a laugh.
“I can gamble all day. I can gamble zero. There’s so much more. If you love excellence, it’s here.”
No matter why you choose to visit Las Vegas and its surrounding spectacles, like Stratten’s picks, Red Rock and the Valley of Fire, make sure to prioritize the things you can’t see, eat or do at home.
By being so compact and concentrated, Southern Nevada, specifically Las Vegas, distinguishes itself from other metropolitan destinations, Stratten said. It’s built on service and made to make people feel like they matter.
“The world can learn from Vegas, that people like to be treated well,” he said.
Working on other projects, the podcasters have been on a yearlong hiatus, but new episodes are expected anytime, Stratten said.
He and Kramer hope to film live episodes with a crew from Strip hot spots, encouraging people who have had a bad time to visit again and prompting first-timers to come to the valley.
“I love showing people Vegas for the first time,” Kramer said. “That’s my Christmas.”
Contact Kimberly De La Cruz at kdelacruz@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5244. Find her on Twitter: @KimberlyinLV.
