Las Vegas thread and MSE guide 2009

pebblesmax

The Bellagio Fountains

Milestone, we go twice a year for at least two weeks every time. It was our 9th or 10th trip before we got around to doing the Grand Canyon. There is so much to see and do it will blow your socks off. One thing for certain, you won't be bored.

The top 10 guide to Las Vegas has a few lists of things you might like to do, and you can pick it up quite cheaply. I paid £2.99 for it at our local supermarket.

mcfisco

Has anyone successfully used the Alamo kiosk at LAS with a UK licence?
I read somewhere that they have upgraded them recently & they're OK for UK renters

I'm trying to avoid the queues as much as possible so I've registered with their 'Direct Road' thing but I'm not entirely sure it will save a great deal of time.

trets77

The Bellagio Fountains

jaxxs wrote: »

Hi

Looking to book my first Las Vegas Trip , looking at either
Luxor , Planet Hollywood , MGM grand or NY NY
Any suggestions or advice ??? :beer:

tough one this , and it will come down to personal preference if they are priced about the same .

if you want a smaller ( only a few 1000 rooms ) Casino , then NY NY is a good choice and easy to navigate . we very much enjoyed our stay there .

Planet Hollywood tick's a lot of boxes and has best location of the casinos you list . not stayed there ( yet) but it would be the one i would pick from that list .

ferf1223

The Bellagio Fountains

dawnylou wrote: »

Hi
We were thinking about using our cards too but do you think there will fees applied by the card issuer for using it abroad? I am scared in case they bang a load of charges on! :rotfl:

Different cards have different fees - maybe check here to see how your card measures up?

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/overseas-card-charges
It shows credit cards first, then debit cards.

Note that Nationwide is changing shortly.

And the main article here:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money

diavolina

The Secret Garden

ferf1223 wrote: »

I'm not sure why you do not want to withdraw cash in Vegas? I assume that you have cards that are kind to an overseas traveller in terms of charges/exchange rate for purchases made in the US?

Unfortunately not. I have an HSBC credit card and OH has a RBS one, so not on the cards from hell list but not the cheapest either. We're actually going to get a pre-paid card to take with us so that we have a set amount to spend, and then only resort to credit cards if we run out of money (which hopefully shouldn't happen as we've budgeted a lot of spending money). So that's why I don't want to withdraw cash over there.

I suppose really the only thing we'll need cash for is tips then, the etc was just to cover anything else I might need it for but I can't actually think of anything. It actually didn't occur to me that we can tip in restaurants on the card so that's one less thing we'll need it for.

Triker

The Bellagio Fountains

Myself and OH both got the Fairfx Prepaid card for when we were in the US. I t works extremely well for us and we can also use it as a savings account, loading money on to it each month before we go away.

We also took some dollars for sundries like snacks at drinks at the airports and tips, and icecreams and donuts and magazines and chocolate.:D

ferf1223

The Bellagio Fountains

Triker wrote: »

Myself and OH both got the Fairfx Prepaid card for when we were in the US. I t works extremely well for us and we can also use it as a savings account, loading money on to it each month before we go away.

I may be missing something, but cannot work out how that is better than something like the Nationwide Flex Account even after their upcoming charges come into place? Since Nationwide gives the bank rate of exchange - which is higher than the rate the Fairfax card gives- (and currently has no charges for withdrawals) it seems unbeatable. We only use ours for holiday and could transfer funds to the account each month if we wanted (though we don't as we wouldn't earn interest on the balance).

nvh

The Bellagio Fountains

i bought a fairfx card last year ferf...

before the current 'global' financial crisis, i wouldn't have considered it, however it has given us the following benefits

1) we know exactly where we are positioned 'financially'... ie. doesn't matter about what happens with the exchange rate - we know you have X amount of dollars on that card that we can use...

2) it's allowed us to buy small amounts of cash in at exchange rates that can be considered fantastic compared to now (ie. we bought cash in last year at a rate of 1.7 etc)

you can do this with travellers cheques and cash no doubt but the money is held securely on the card (pin numbered etc), and you can buy in whatever quantities you want, whenever you want, you can monitor your cash online, and take the cash out whenever you want ($1 ATM surcharge?) etc

Triker

The Bellagio Fountains

ferf1223 wrote: »

I may be missing something, but cannot work out how that is better than something like the Nationwide Flex Account even after their upcoming charges come into place? Since Nationwide gives the bank rate of exchange - which is higher than the rate the Fairfax card gives- (and currently has no charges for withdrawals) it seems unbeatable. We only use ours for holiday and could transfer funds to the account each month if we wanted (though we don't as we wouldn't earn interest on the balance).

Well to be frank, it was really easy to apply and get one.

For me, it works because its really simple to use and I got my head around sorting all transfers online. I had no inclination to open a Nationwide account, I wanted something, quick, efficient and easy....plus at the time I wasn't sure I'd get another account due to my credit record and I didn't have time to faff with all the id checks that come with opening an official building society account.

It works for us.;):D

ferf1223

The Bellagio Fountains

nvh wrote: »

i bought a fairfx card last year ferf...

before the current 'global' financial crisis, i wouldn't have considered it, however it has given us the following benefits

Thanks for the info - I hadn't considered that you're actually loading the card with dollars as opposed to pounds to be withdrawn later in dollars (at the then prevailing rate)...so from that perspective I can see the potential value. We normally take a good chunk in cash (with the remainder put in our Nationwide account shortly before we go) but only exchange relatively close to our trip...but with something like this I could see it making sense to add funds to a card like this when the exchange rate is looking good, even if a trip isn't coming up very soon. Interesting!