Donna
Very Valuable Member
  
Age : 46
Joined : 12 Oct 2006
Posts : 1351
|  Subject: Been to Vegas?  Sun 13 Apr 2008, 4:53 am | |
| | Has anyone been to Vegas?My son and I were talking of trying to do a vacation of just family,,no kids,,I mentioned,,Florida or Vegas,,since none of us have done Vegas,,,,thats the destination! It wouldnt be till next year,,but could anyone give me tips/hints on a vacation there,,,best time to go,,places to try,places to avoid etc.Thanks friend,,,planning ahead always helps me stay frugal on so many things so i can splurge on others! |
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mmg2681
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Age : 27
Joined : 13 Oct 2006
Posts : 753
Localisation : Newton Falls, OH
| | Subject: Re: Been to Vegas? Sun 13 Apr 2008, 6:39 am | |
| My mother and I went to Vegas (my first time) 2 years ago in May (Mother's Day, actually).
May was a PERFECT time to go for us. It was warm, but not too hot. Actually, it DID hit 100 when we went there, but it wasnt an unbearable heat. It was comfortable.
One great thing with Vegas is that there is alot of stuff to do for FREE.
The downfall with Vegas is that the buffets are pretty expensive (on average, $15/person).
Do you plan on staying IN Vegas or a place outside of Vegas and drive? My recommendation is to stay in Vegas. Traffic is horrible. Plus, the bus and tram system is great.
Mom and I booked our vacation nearly a year in advance. We paid $440/person for our flight and hotel. We chose a hotel that had free shuttle from the airport as well as a continental breakfast. It was a little off of the strip; however, they had a free shuttle every hour to the strip (which was only about 2 miles away: we walked it one night).
The hotels are absolutely amazing.
I think it was the Bellagio that had this beautiful flower garden inside. We spent many hours in there looking around.
Or maybe the Bellagio was the one that had the blown glass - that was amazing too.
One place had a butterfly conservatory in it - so much fun. I've got some really great pictures, I will have to find the disk and send you some.
One of them has the tigers that you can stand and watch (white ones), the M&M Factory was alot of fun, and walking the stores was a blast.
Mom and I went on a Gondola Ride at the Venitian - a blast.
The stores in the Venitian were WAY over-priced, but really nice to look at.
We went to the wax museum - kind of creepy, but interesting. When you walk out of it, you find yourself staring at people thinking they are wax figures!!!!
You have to also go to "Old Las Vegas" at night to see the light show. And there are parades all the time up there.
Mom always wanted to go to a kareoke (spelling?) bar, so we went, and it was a lot of fun. We bought some drinks (well, she was drinking Coke, I had a couple of drinks), but it was like having a concert for $10. They go until all hours of the morning.
Back to food (because I'm starving, and that's all I can think of right now), we ate as much as we could at the continental breakfast in the morning, and then ate lunch/dinner at around 3 in the afternoon. If we got hungry in between, we got an ice cream cone or a little snack in between. And we had snacks at the hotel.
We went for 3 days, and to be honest, that is plenty of time in Vegas. One good part is that I am very frugal when it came to gambling. I gave myself $20/day. I ended up coming home with almost as much as I went with. Mom nearly ran out a day before we left, but won big and went home with about as much as she came with as well.
There are things you can do like helicopter rides and bus rides to the Grand Canyon, but those are several hundred dollars a person. We were looking for a frugal vacation, and that's exactly what we got.
I will try to find those pictures for you and send them on over.
Let us know what you find!
~M
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"It is not how much money you make - it is how you spend it."
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