When you genuinely don’t need one
Strip-only trips of three or four nights: skip the car. Uber and Lyft base fares run $8-18 between any two Strip resorts, the Deuce bus is $8 for 24 hours end-to-end, and the Las Vegas Monorail covers MGM Grand to Sahara for $13/day. Harry Reid airport is an $18-25 rideshare from mid-Strip, faster than a shuttle and about the same as a taxi with the flat rate.
Add up what a rental actually costs: $45/day for an economy car in 2026, plus $18-25/day in valet or self-park at your resort (only Circus Circus, Casino Royale, and a couple of downtown properties still park free), plus another $10-20 anywhere you drive on the Strip. That's easily $80-95/day before gas. Four Ubers a day rarely gets there.
The three trips that need a car
Red Rock Canyon, Valley of Fire, and Mount Charleston: all under 90 minutes, all essentially undoable by transit. Tours exist but you’re on someone else's schedule and paying $90-140 per person for what a $60 rental day covers for four people. Hoover Dam has a couple of bus tour options but a car lets you continue to Boulder City for lunch and back through Lake Mead.
The second case: a multi-city trip. Vegas to Zion, Death Valley, or Grand Canyon South Rim all need a car; there are no useful buses. The third: staying off-Strip in Henderson, Summerlin, or near the airport. Uber surge pricing plus the distance eats the savings fast, and you’ll want your own wheels for groceries and the further-out restaurants that are half the reason to stay out there.
If you rent, rent smart
Pick up off-airport if you can. The airport concession fee and taxes add roughly 30% to your rate; the Strip-adjacent depots (the Enterprise on Paradise, the Hertz at the Convention Center) are 25-40% cheaper for a stay of three-plus days, and rideshare there is $12. Fill up at the Terrible's or Chevron on Tropicana or Rainbow, never at the airport return where gas runs $2/gallon over market.
Parking on the Strip: MGM properties charge $18-23 self-park after the first hour, Caesars properties $18, Wynn/Encore up to $25. Downtown is still mostly free with validation at the D, Golden Nugget, and Plaza. Never leave anything visible in the car at trailhead lots; Red Rock and Valley of Fire both have smash-and-grab problems on weekends.
Good to know
Is the Monorail useful?+
For the east side of the Strip, yes. It skips traffic and is faster than walking between, say, MGM Grand and the Convention Center. It doesn’t reach the airport or the west side (Bellagio, Aria, Cosmopolitan).
Can I use a car to get to Lake Tahoe from Vegas?+
You can but shouldn’t. It's 7-8 hours each way. Fly into Reno-Tahoe instead; it's under an hour to the south shore.