Las Vegas - general pre-booking advice

SiD the Turtle

SiD the Turtle

SiD the Turtle

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So a few mates of mine and myself are all planning to go to Las Vegas in October. I haven't been though a quick search on here for previous threads on hotels and a skim through of Trip Advisor gives me some starting points but are there any gotchas that I should be aware of when choosing where to stay, who to fly with etc?

For example one of the chaps I work with advised a hotel in the middle of the strip to reduce walking distances.
 
make sure your hotel bookings are cancellable in case better rates come up later

watch out for "resort fees" which can add up to $25 per night

there is a room tax of 12% on the rate

more than 2 people in a room attracts a surcharge

rates are much higher on weekend nights ( especially Saturday )

if you want more help let me know amounts of folks per room and budget



Flights - all are much of a muchness, just comes down to whether you are prepared to accept a connection for a cheaper flight
 
Cheers Rotty, I had a feeling you'd be the first to reply!

So it's three guys in total, we're trying to get a fourth mate to make up the numbers but it's proving difficult. Budget per person (including flights) is about £800-£1000 each. I'm happy with connections as to be honest I might go mad if I'm stuck in a plane for the whole journey.
 
yeah, if you're booking through Expedia or the like, beware of the room capacity as I used to work for them and a usual base rate per room is per one guest only.
 
I'm hoping your budget doesn't include the spending money, otherwise you aren't going to have much to do :p

Can't add much more to Rotty's comments, alothough if you are happy to go with a two leg flight watch the connection times when you book - the cheapest flights have a tendency to leave you with a 7hr stopover in JFK/Atlanta, whereas an extra £10 or so can shrink that to 2 or 3 hours.

Resorts in the middle of the strip tend to be more expensive for fairly obvious reasons, so if you want cheaper hotels you may have to put up with the walking. To be honest I've never found it to be too much of an issue, it's good fun to wander along the strip and just see the sights. I'd leave off looking at the hotels at the north end though (Hilton, Stratosphere, Sahara, Circus Circus etc) as they are way out on a limb.

Try not to go during American public holidays - the resorts instantly add a "holiday tax" of approx $1 per drink etc. Plus you will have to put up with drunk merkin college kids all weekend.
 
SiD the Turtle said:
Cheers Rotty, I had a feeling you'd be the first to reply!

So it's three guys in total, we're trying to get a fourth mate to make up the numbers but it's proving difficult. Budget per person (including flights) is about £800-£1000 each. I'm happy with connections as to be honest I might go mad if I'm stuck in a plane for the whole journey.
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your flight will look at about £400-450 with a connection and £500-550 direct

if 3 of you share a room 2 will share a bed if you don't go for a suite

go for a 1 bedroom suite at the Platinum, you can get one with 2 beds in bedroom and sofa bed in living room

how long you going for ?
 
Goliath said:
Try not to go during American public holidays - the resorts instantly add a "holiday tax" of approx $1 per drink etc. Plus you will have to put up with drunk merkin college kids all weekend.
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I was there Labor Day this year absolutely full of ****ers, tbh most Saturday nights are getting that way
 
Looking for going Saturday to Saturday or Sunday so hopefully plenty of time to do the obvious tourist stuff and to get out and about.

A suite might be a sound idea to fit all three of us in as I'd rather not be sharing my bed with another bloke :eek:

Edit: for everyone to get time off we're pretty fixed as going Saturday 9th October. Just realised that'd mean we'd be there for Columbus Day, though I don't know how highly that ranks on the American holiday calendar.
 
SiD the Turtle said:
Looking for going Saturday to Saturday or Sunday so hopefully plenty of time to do the obvious tourist stuff and to get out and about.

A suite might be a sound idea to fit all three of us in as I'd rather not be sharing my bed with another bloke :eek:
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Suite for 3 at Platinum will set you back £100 a night max for all of you, it is 10 mins walk to centre of strip

so you are looking at £650-£750 each for flight and hotel

then you need your spends, you can do Vegas on many different budgets, if you wanted to do it on £500 each that would be possibile and it would be just as easy to spend 2 grand each :p
 
Cheers Rotty I'll do some Googling.

Spending money I guess will depend on what we do out there. One of the guys is contemplating a visit to the Grand Canyon, but I'm not sure if it'll just be a massive expensive tourist trap despite it's natural epic-ness. I on the other hand, being the peace loving Brit, would like to try things like going to a gun range, or perhaps seeing a show or two, as well as the obvious gambling.
 
Hmm struggling to find online places that will fit three single adults in one room/suite. Most offer two queen beds or one king, so the prices go up if we split into two rooms.
 
SiD the Turtle said:
Hmm struggling to find online places that will fit three single adults in one room/suite. Most offer two queen beds or one king, so the prices go up if we split into two rooms.
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As I say look at the Platinum as they are suites, get one with 2 Queen beds in bedroom as there is a double sofa bed in living room
 
We found that friday and saturday nights the place got infested with eejits.

Looking forward to going back again this year though
 
Ev0 said:
We found that friday and saturday nights the place got infested with eejits.
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Very much so

we are usually there over 2 weekends on each trip

we spend one weekend on Fremont away from them and the other we go to Town Square ( wehere locals go for night out ) one night and to a nice restaurant the other
 
Rotty said:
As I say look at the Platinum as they are suites, get one with 2 Queen beds in bedroom as there is a double sofa bed in living room
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The Platinum is almost ideal, the price is right and it'd fit us all in but both the chaps I'm going with want a really nice pool to relax by when we're not out and about- the Platinum's pool looks pretty 'generic'.

One of the guys who has been before and stayed at the Mandalay Bay recommends its pool at least.

Any other hotels you know off the top of your head that would fit three people? I'm probably going to ring round later today and find out myself regardless.

Cheers.
 
SiD the Turtle said:
The Platinum is almost ideal, the price is right and it'd fit us all in but both the chaps I'm going with want a really nice pool to relax by when we're not out and about- the Platinum's pool looks pretty 'generic'.

One of the guys who has been before and stayed at the Mandalay Bay recommends its pool at least.

Any other hotels you know off the top of your head that would fit three people? I'm probably going to ring round later today and find out myself regardless.

Cheers.
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the pool is not flash but very comfortable

Mandalay bay is nice hotel and pool but the location is poor, too far out for my liking
 
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