How we did VEGAS for under a $1000!
Dave and I are not seasoned travelers, this was our first trip since being married that involved more planning then one nights hotel. So I'm sure others will have lots of tips too. We were given tons of tips and tricks and so I wanna pass that wealth of knowledge onto those who I know are going soon.
FLIGHTS:
We flew with Allegiant out of Kalispell, this worked fantastic for us cause we had to drive south anyways to drop the kiddos off. Flying with Allegiant can be cheap or stupid expensive, and thanks to my friend Nicole she showed me the ropes! Watch for seat sales, we scored $49 seat sales. That didn't give us prime days to go but I'm fruggle and so I was okay not going on a weekend. We left on a Sunday and returned on a Thursday. DONT book your seat, it'll ask you to book your seats - thats an extra $50. They'll most likely sit you next to each other if they don't, they let you find two open seats next to each other and move. DON'T pack heavy, DO one suitcase for both of you and no carry ons. OR DO 2 carry ons and not a big suitcases. They charge $50 for a suitcase and $25 for each carry one, I took a huge purse so we'd have everything we'd need for flying. Each person is allowed one personal item, so you could just do 2 big back packs for free. Take a sweater, we found the flights really cold! TOTAL: $265 (round trip for 2 +tax)
HOTEL:
We booked through Expedia when they had their "Vegas days'' and got a premier suite with Stratosphere for $47/night. The rooms were clean and modern, and we had a good view. The down fall was we were at the end of the strip, plus side it was less busy. We had free access to the tower and the pool was good, but nothing crazy fancy but we did only pay $47night.Also a Denny's and iHop are right next door. TOTAL: $198 ( 4 nights + resort fee (all hotels on the strip have this)
FOOD:
Dave and I chose our holiday to be relaxing, not jammed packed. We wanted to sleep in and do our days very casual. So we mostly only ate 2 meals a day, because we'd sleep in and be lazy in the mornings. So we'd brunch it around 10:30/11am and do an earlier supper at like 5pm. We weren't trying to be cheap about it,we just found we weren't all that hungry very often. Its amazing how much less you eat without kids constantly wanting to snack around you. We never had huge fancy dinners, thats just us tho - we aren't huge foodies. So our meals were usually $30 or less for both of us. Theres lots of buffets on the strip that are suppose to be quite good for $20/person. TOTAL: $250
ATTRACTIONS:
The summer shows were just ending the week before we got there and the fall/winter shows would be starting in a week or two after we left, we were disappointed about that. I mean come on, we missed Britney Spears - Dave was quite distraught. We did have a few things we still wanted to do tho, Dave really wanted to do Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur. We bought our tickets the day of on the strip, there are a few little box offices right on the strip that sell tickets for half off. They sell for almost every show down there at those - great way to save! So tickets were $95 and that included our dinners. It was way better then I expected, to be honest I thought it was gonna be quite lame and was unimpressed when I found out we were eating barbarian style. I ended up thoroughly enjoying the show and the food. We did the Mandalay Bay Aquarium and it was fantastic, its$18/person. We also did the High Roller at the Linq- $25/person for a 30 minute ride on the observatory wheel. It was neat to see Vegas from a different view and its the tallest in the world 560ft.
FREE- we did lots of free things: The Ballagio does great fountains day and night, The Mirage does an awesome volcano show at night (starting 8pm), Carlos bakery in the Venetian ( CAKE BOSS!!), the Stratosphere tower, the pool at the hotel and lots of entertainment on the strip at night. We saw a really fun group of guys break dancing and jumping over people and awesome music. We love to just explore and Dave and I almost went into every hotel to explore, we walked 16 miles in the few days we were there. TOTAL: $181 ($36 aquarium + $50 high roller + $95 tournament of kings)
SHUTTLE:
There's a shuttle from the airport to your hotel and it'll pick you back up for $20/person. There's a shuttle on the strip for $20 for 3 days instead of $8/day. The earlier you go in the day the faster it is to get down town, since we were at the end of the strip we did find we spent a good amount of time on the shuttles. About 90 minutes a day on the shuttle. There is a monorail that's $8 a day more that we want to try next time, way faster! TOTAL: $80 Way cheaper then renting a car and paying for parking.
TOTAL OF VEGAS TRIP: $974
Other tips ( and again we aren't seasoned travellers so this might be common sense for some):
- Use a backpack for drinks and snacks during the day and the flights. We took a giant purse and it got super annoying.
- Pack comfy shoes, you walk A LOT.
- Scope everything out the first day that you want to do for the rest of your trip. Ex: the mirage show is at 8pm each night and every half hour. So you can plan your shuttle rides accordingly. The fountain shows get packed up fast and so go a little early.
- Buy your tickets at the half price booths first thing in the morning, cause you will have to go down and exchange them and pick your seats at whatever hotel the shows at. The sooner the better the seats.
- Don't talk to people on the street, you can get suckered into a lot of things. We did NOT learn that the hard way, we just know a few people who have got sucked into time share tours that end up taking up your whole morning or afternoon (3-4 hours). If they are offering cheap tickets to shows, there's a catch to it. And I'm sure others got suckered into a lot worse.
- And not everything you do in Vegas stays in Vegas, be smart.... HAHA!
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