LAS to the Strip 2026: Taxi $21-$29, Bus $4

Harry Reid International Airport sits two miles from the south Strip. A licensed taxi to a hotel on the airport’s own zone map is a posted $21, $25 or $29 for the whole cab. A shared shuttle from a listed operator starts at $15 a person. The RTC bus is $4, or $6 for a two-hour pass if you’re transferring onto the Deuce. Rideshare will show you a number in the app, and you’ll walk to the parking garage to meet it - not the terminal curb.

The short hop is why this ride goes wrong at baggage claim. People treat LAS like a coastal gateway and overpay for a car they didn’t need, or they hunt for a train that isn’t there. The Las Vegas Monorail never reaches the airport. What you actually choose is which door, which garage, and whether your hotel is on that posted taxi map.

Four posted prices for a two-mile ride

Figures checked 17 August 2026 on Clark County airport pages, the airport-hosted taxi map, RTC’s fare table, and Bell Trans’s own booking page. Tip is extra on taxis. Rideshare stays out of the price column on purpose. Clark County is also repaving the airport connector tunnels through December 2026, so budget slack even when the fare is fixed.

If you’re one person with a backpack headed to Mandalay Bay, the $6 two-hour RTC pass undercuts the $15 shuttle and the $21 taxi. Three Strip passes are $18, a $21-$29 taxi is still one fare, and three shuttle seats are $45. The bus stays cheapest on money if you accept the transfer. The taxi beats the shuttle once you have two or more people - don’t let a per-person van price hide that.

The taxi map you can argue with

Vegas taxis are regulated by the Nevada Taxicab Authority, and the airport is explicit that trips to the Strip run on a flat-rate zone system. The map the airport itself hosts (base price revised 5 August 2024, still the file linked from the taxi page on 17 August 2026) posts three numbers:

• $21 - south Strip: Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, MGM Grand, Virgin, OYO
• $25 - center Strip: Bellagio, Aria, Paris, Park MGM, New York-New York, Planet Hollywood, the Cosmopolitan
• $29 - the north end: Caesars, the Venetian, Wynn, Resorts World, Circus Circus, Sahara, The STRAT, Westgate (Horseshoe sits on Flamingo Road too, but it is in the $25 zone)

The red line on that sheet matters more than the hotel trivia: direct trips from the airport to those listed locations, and back again, must be charged at the posted price. It is a per-cab fare, not per person. Tip is not printed on the map. The Taxicab Authority number on the sheet is 702-668-4000 if the driver tries something else.

At Terminal 1, taxis stage on the east side of baggage claim outside doors 1 through 4. At Terminal 3, they’re outside baggage claim near door 52. Airport staff run the line. You don’t need an app, and you shouldn’t take a “taxi” offer inside the terminal. Downtown, Summerlin and anywhere off that hotel list is a different trip - the posted zones are the Strip corridor, not the whole valley.

Shared shuttle: $15 and extra hotel stops

Group shuttles are the middle path people forget exists. At Terminal 1 they load on the west side of baggage claim, outside doors 7 through 13 - the opposite side from the taxi line. At Terminal 3 they’re on Level Zero, west end for domestic arrivals and east side for international. The airport lists AWG Ambassador, BellTrans Charter and Kaptyn. The vans make several hotel stops, which is the whole trade: you pay less than a taxi and you sit longer.

Bell Trans, one of those listed operators, publishes $15 one-way or $28 round trip per person when you book on its own site, with a group rate of $135 one-way for ten people. Meet them at door 8 in Terminal 1 or door 51 in Terminal 3, at the Bell booth outside. Return trips from the hotel have to be booked at least 12 hours ahead. That’s one operator’s online price, not a citywide tariff - if you walk up to a different booth, ask what that company charges before you board.

Solo with one suitcase and a south Strip hotel, $15 usually beats a $21 taxi. Two shuttle seats are $30 against that same $21 cab, so two adults to a mapped $21 hotel are cheaper in the taxi. Three or four people make the per-person van look expensive next to one posted zone fare. The bus can still undercut both if you’re willing to transfer with bags.

The $4 bus, with a transfer

RTC is the public option, and it’s the one old blogs get wrong. There is no airport train. Route 108, the Centennial Express (CX) and, from 23 August 2026, the new Maryland Parkway RED LINE stop at Terminal 1 on Level Zero. Read that date before you plan a bus: on 23 August RTC rewrites 35 of its 39 routes in one go, and the RED LINE replaces the old Route 109 outright, running 12.5 miles from the South Strip Transit Terminal past the airport to the Las Vegas Medical District. Anything you read about Route 109 describes a bus that no longer exists. CX also serves Terminal 3. From Terminal 1 baggage claim you go down, cross the pedestrian crosswalk and veer right to the covered stop. From Terminal 3 the stop is on Level 2, across from door 44. A ticket machine at the Terminal 1 stop takes cards or exact fare; on board you need exact change.

Posted Strip and All Access fares on 17 August 2026: $4 for a single ride, $6 for two hours, $8 for 24 hours, $20 for three days. Kids five and under ride free with a responsible person. Visitors are supposed to buy the Strip pass, not the cheaper residential fare, and that pass also works on local routes. RTC’s page still talks about proposed fare changes, and they carry a date: if approved, the single ride goes to $5 and the 24-hour to $10 on 31 January 2027, with the two-hour and three-day passes dropped. The numbers above are what was posted on the check date, not a promise they’ll sit still, so check the table the week you fly.

The RED LINE is the useful airport hop, and it inherits the leg Route 109 used to run: roughly 10 to 15 minutes from the airport stop to the South Strip Transit Terminal, where you connect toward the boulevard. Until 22 August that same leg is Route 109. Nothing in that network drops you at every porte-cochere. Budget a walk from the Deuce stop through a casino floor, and don’t do this with three hard cases after a red-eye. The $4 (or $6) fare is real. The “bus to my hotel door” fantasy is not.

If you’ll ride the Strip later the same day, the $8 24-hour pass is cleaner than stacking singles. For the airport run alone, the two-hour pass covers the transfer window.

Rideshare is in the garage

Uber and Lyft are authorized at LAS. They do not pick up at the arrivals doors. Drop-off is the ordinary departures curb. Pickup is inside the parking garage, and the two terminals are not the same walk:

• Terminal 1: from baggage claim, take the elevator near Door 2 up to Level 2, cross the pedestrian bridge, and the pickup area is to the right.
• Terminal 3: from baggage claim, take the elevator near Door 52, 54 or 56 up to Level 1, cross the bridge, then go down to the Valet Level.

Budget that walk as part of the trip. Neither company publishes a fixed LAS-to-Strip fare, so this page doesn’t invent one. Open the app after you’re through baggage claim, put it next to $21 / $25 / $29 (taxi) and $15 (shuttle), and decide with luggage and headcount. A convention spike or a weather hold can make the app look stupid next to a posted taxi zone. A quiet Tuesday midday can go the other way. You’ll only know when you look.

Lock a price before you land

A pre-booked car is the option when you don’t want the garage, the zone map or a shared van’s extra stops. You agree the pickup and the price before the wheels are down. Compare that quote to the posted taxi zone for your hotel, not to a rideshare number you haven’t seen yet. Late international arrivals at Terminal 3, oversize luggage, and a hotel that isn’t on the taxi list are the cases where locking it in usually beats improvising at the curb.

The airport also lists Vegas Loop as a to-and-from option. The operator site is a booking app, not a static fare table, so this page does not print a Loop price as a posted tariff. If your hotel is actually on that system, check vegasloop.com the day you fly for hours and whether airport pickups are running.

Match the hotel, not the airport

Stay at Mandalay Bay, Luxor or MGM Grand and you’re in the $21 taxi zone, a short shuttle run, and the closest RTC connection. Solo with a carry-on: take the bus, or the $15 shuttle if you don’t want a transfer. Two or more people: the taxi beats the shuttle; the bus still wins on money if you’ll haul bags through a connection.

Stay at Bellagio, Paris or the Cosmopolitan and the taxi steps up to $25. The shuttle still works if you’re alone and patient. The bus still works if you like transfers. The garage rideshare walk is the same either way.

Stay at Wynn, Resorts World or Westgate and you’re in the $29 zone, farther from the airport’s “two miles” claim, which describes the south end of the Strip, not the convention cluster. That’s where a locked car or a sane app quote starts to compete with the taxi, because you’re no longer on a five-minute hop.

Once you’re on the boulevard, things to do in Las Vegas and where to stay in Las Vegas matter more than which door you used. If the first morning is a dam visit, Hoover Dam tickets and the drive pick up from the Strip, not from baggage claim. What makes LAS unusual is the posted sticker: most North American airports put you in a metered cab and tell you the fare at the end. Airport to downtown in 10 North American cities walks the cities that do it the other way.