Visitreno

stan_allen · Joined: 19 Dec 2005 Posts: 1129

What a curious new service - one can apparently travel from San Jose, San Francisco, or Sacramento to Sparks for a dollar.

That's right, one dollar - I punched in a mid-week date about a month from now, and got two options: travel in the morning for $3.00, or in the afternoon for $1.00 - same options for the return trip.

Scheduling a similar trip with next week's dates in it, fares were slightly higher - $3 morning trip, $5 afternoon each way.

It harkens back to the days of "Lucky Tours", where you got bus passage, a hotdog, small amounts of free casino play, coupon book, and overnight stay at the Sundowner for, like, thirty bucks.

Ah, the good old days!

BC Dave · Site Admin Joined: 18 Dec 2005 Posts: 1598

Wow, that's a crazy deal - Stan you gotta do it! John Ascuaga's Nugget would make an beautiful base camp for a few days. And you could brag on the board that you got to Reno for less $ than John's car burns getting to the Seina.

There's been very little posted to our board about JA's Nugget or Sparks in general. I've been out there many times since 1985 and the Nugget is a pretty impressive operation - On a par at least with the better properties in Reno including the Peppermill and Atlantis. I've never stayed there though. Downtown Sparks itself is a very clean, attractive town (in contrast to that other place to the west). http://nevadamax.com/sparks/sparks1.html Too bad the Silver Club never got back on it's feet.

spdmrcht · Joined: 12 Oct 2012 Posts: 498

JAs is a nice place to play and stay, they have a couple seafood joints
and the rooms are nice, I was there 9/23-24/11 for a keno tourn, it fell
thru, Got a little too noisy for me fri, night.

CaSwede · Joined: 28 Feb 2006 Posts: 866

What a deal! Too bad I don't live in any of those pick up cities. I remember as a kid my family heading out to Sparks for a nice meal at John Ascuaga's Nugget. They would page John all the time to pick up a phone. They used to have an elephant (Bertha?) with painted toe nails that I saw a few times walking near the casino on the way to the showroom. Is John Ascuaga still alive? Not to be confused with -Visit Reno John.

Mammothgambler · Joined: 25 Dec 2005 Posts: 619

Jeez, that's really good deal, seeing as how it costs $28 one way to get from the Reno airport to Tahoe, or $46 to Mammoth or Yosemite! I've also talked with a few random people who come in from the Bay area and things aren't so cheap these days.

I've only been in the Nugget once on a quick walk thru in May. Looked really nice and my friend has stayed on many comp offers and mentioned the Basque restaurant, Orozko, is really good, although not as authentic as the Santa Fe Hotel or Louis Basque Corner. I really like Sparks in general, a pretty nice change, just haven't gambled there yet.

CaSwede, John is still alive but his daughter and son are pretty much running the place. It must be awesome being able to work with family members. I'd probably go nuts! Smile

I think Bertha the elephant died.

john · Site Admin Joined: 17 Dec 2005 Posts: 1181

Yes, that is a great deal. So good in fact, that I'm moving to Sacramento just so I can get here for a buck.

remano · Joined: 20 Dec 2005 Posts: 717

No need to move, John. It's the same low price starting in Sparks and heading west.

I've seen the buses on I-80 and they do look huge. It's an interesting idea for a road trip just to see what it's like, but first I have to take Amtrak to Sacramento. I haven't done that yet either.

john · Site Admin Joined: 17 Dec 2005 Posts: 1181

OK, I just checked on this so-called $1 ticket. It's a bait and switch scam. They're advertising a one dollar fare, but when I went to book a ticket for January 15 and 16, the quoted price was an unacceptably outrageous THREE dollars. Who would fall prey to that scheme? What a bunch of criminals!

Remano, the train ride to Truckee is stunning. I used to go to there every December with 42 women for Christmas shopping. Of course, I never bought anything but drinks for the women, but couldn't think of a more pleasant way to spend 6 hours

dfens · Joined: 19 Jul 2012 Posts: 59

My god, I live in Sf and this is crazy! You have no idea how bad the casino bus temptation is!

There's still another asian bus tour from SF to Reno that literally has a pickup one block away from my apartment. It goes to Reno 5 days a week. They recently raised it to $25 but it's supposed to be a day trip and they have deal where you can get $550 non-neg Harrah chips for $500 plus some discounted buffet.

There are a ton of indian casino buses that have a daily pick at the same stop a block away from me (and there's ads for them plastered everywhere). Everytime I see the casino buses drive away I get a little sad that I'm not on them!