Back from Vegas and Ready for Deals

Got back from a quick trip to Vegas where my wife had a conference to attend. Since our dates weren't flexible, it was a bit limited on the deals we could get, but there were deals to be had nonetheless.

We used Travelocity to find airfares and the best deal was one that used different airlines for the flights coming and going. I think that's something we couldn't have arranged ourselves by going directly through the airlines' websites.

Hotels.com gave us a nice deal with our hotel stay. They had a selection of hotels where the third night was free. But what was extremely nice about that is that it wasn't that the cheapest night was free, it was that the third night was free. So while our room for Thursday night came to about $68 before taxes, our $148 Saturday night room was free! Very nice indeed.

Also found a nice deal on a rental car, using a coupon code from one of the sites that comes up when you enter 'coupons' in a google search. It was a code that offered 40% off Avis rates that you could find on their website, and the total ended up coming down to $16 per day (plus taxes and fees). The representative at the rental counter wondered how we got the rate, remarking it was even less than employees pay. Even with all the fees and taxes, the final total was not much more than two roundtrips by taxi might have cost, and certainly less than it would have cost my wife to go back and forth to the conference from the hotel where we stayed.

While in Vegas, I kept my eye open for deals, coupons books and other offers -- I stayed away from any of the timeshare promoters who offer freebies if you'll listen to their sales pitches. But there were lots of other deals around to make the trip more enjoyable. There are spots along the Strip where you can pick up tickets for that evening's shows at discounts of 25% to 50% -- and in one of the coupon books you can pick up in distribution boxes along the street, there was a coupon to save $2.00 off the $5.00 service charge. So my wife and I were able to get two seats to a show for barely more than one ticket might have cost at the box office.

Going into some of the casinos, particularly the less elaborate ones, there always seemed to be coupons to pick up for some great discounts. Some of them require you to join the casino's Player's Club while others are just offers they have available to attract people. At Casino Royale they had coupons for Buy-One-Get-One-Free $1.00 Margaritas if you joined their club. They also had freebie coupons anyone could pick up for a for Buy-One-Get-One-Free Ice Cream at Baskin Robbins. Bill's Casino had 99¢ margaritas on sale (no club membership needed). The street coupon books had discounts on meals and shows, like $5.00 off a $20.00 meal at Planet Hollywood Restaurant (which strangely enough isn't at the Planet Hollywood Casino -- it's in the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace).

The Strip is also filled with those free sights that are fun to experience that don't cost a dime, such as the Bellagio's dancing water display, the Sirens of TI show, the Lions at MGM and others. It's also fun to walk around and see the Eiffel Tower at the Paris and stroll a bit further and see the Statue of Liberty at New York New York.

Let's just say that Las Vegas is one of those places you can find lots to do while stretching your dollars to get more than you'd expect for the money. The more flexibility you have when planning your trip the better your chance to score big savings (i.e. if you can book a trip well in advance around dates that airfares are best; midweek hotel prices are way less than weekends). But whenever you go, there are ways to still have a great time and save a bit along the way.