Las Vegas 2007 bargain hunt + tips

ferf1223

one of our favorite pictures - view from our room at Bellagio (I booked 1 night there as a surprise for my husband - he thought we were staying at The Orleans. )



Thought I had a shot of the fountains in action from the room's view - but they're all video.

bella123

An excellent site to book las vegas hols is https://www.bargainholidays.com.

photome

bella123 wrote: »

An excellent site to book las vegas hols is https://www.bargainholidays.com.

Seems that site isnt working for me at the moment, but is it really better than booking flights and hotels sperately using all the tips from this site.

I have never been on a package to vegas because i have always found I can do it cheaper independently

photome

ferf1223 wrote: »

one of our favorite pictures - view from our room at Bellagio (I booked 1 night there as a surprise for my husband - he thought we were staying at The Orleans. )



Thought I had a shot of the fountains in action from the room's view - but they're all video.

If you look carefully you can see me looking back at you from my room in the Paris lol

patrickbateman

Booked for 5 days in vegas in July at Excalibur (first time visitor).

Want to do Statesphere, Grand Canyon, Star Trek Exhibition, Freemont Street. Some shows etc but not sure which?

Any advice on eating out, good shows, getting 2 for 1 coupons, tipping etc would be very much appreciated!

Many Thanks

PandaPants_2

There are half price ticket places where you can get tickets for shows that night. We saw Gregory Popovich's animal theatre! It was fantastic, he has trained cats to do all kind of things! :rotfl:

Grand Canyon is a fair distance, we hired a car (carhire 3000 have great deals) and went ourselves on Route 66. Great day out, and there is a Flintstones "theme park" that HAS to be seen to be believed! :rotfl:

Eating out is usually best to hit the buffets, Excalibur do a great breakfast, all you can eat for $10. We ahd to go back to bed to rest on our first morning! There are coupons all over the place, in the little free tourist magazines or you can print them off websites, just google las vegas coupons.

You will love it, as far as im concerned Vegas is the BEST place to go in teh whole world!!!!

trets77

patrickbateman wrote: »

Booked for 5 days in vegas in July at Excalibur (first time visitor).

Want to do Statesphere, Grand Canyon, Star Trek Exhibition, Freemont Street. Some shows etc but not sure which?

Any advice on eating out, good shows, getting 2 for 1 coupons, tipping etc would be very much appreciated!

Many Thanks

Helicopter is the best way to do Grand Canyon from Vegas if you ask me.budget on £200 -£250 per person . expensive but very worth it .

Your choice of eating out is only limted to what you can afford.if you can think of it you can get it in Vegas.
Buffets are a excellent choice for a bit of everything. pretty much all the casinos have one. of the ones i have been too Mirage and Rio were best.

buffets at Bellagio ,Paris and espically Alladin/ Planet Hollywood get the most praise .have seen some very poor reviews of the Excalibur buffet so avoided it, it's impossible to try all the places that get rave reviews , without wasting time at the ones that get slated

i,m hoping to also try the Most expensive Buffet in town next vist The Seafood Buffet at the Rio .

as has been mentioned before check out https://www.tix4tonite.com and http://www.tickets2nite.com/ for half price tickets for that day. best bet is to hit both in the strech betwen Planet Hollywood and MGM so you can compare deals. we saw some brilliant shows using these outlets .the one i most recommend though will be very difficult to get half price....BLUE MAN GROUP .

Pick up every free magazine you see they are packed with good info and Coupons . Monorail stations , hotel Lobby and Taxis are some places you will find them.

great photo by the way ferf !!:T :T

You will love it, as far as im concerned Vegas is the BEST place to go in teh whole world!!!!

it sure is !!!

ferf1223

bella123 wrote: »

An excellent site to book las vegas hols is https://www.bargainholidays.com.

It seems to only want to show me holidays which include Las Vegas along with another US city - so 3 or 4 nights in Vegas, and 3 or 4 nights somewhere else...they seemed expensive, and it said that rooms would be allocated later (didn't show me what Vegas hotel it would be).

Add that up and it makes me a bit nervous!

Like photome - have always had better luck booking everythng myself...but then again, I never wait for last minute deals.

ferf1223

patrickbateman wrote: »

Booked for 5 days in vegas in July at Excalibur (first time visitor).

Want to do Statesphere, Grand Canyon, Star Trek Exhibition, Freemont Street. Some shows etc but not sure which?

Any advice on eating out, good shows, getting 2 for 1 coupons, tipping etc would be very much appreciated!

Many Thanks

The 1/2 price ticket booths mentioned usually do have tickets for the Star Trek exibit at the Hilton - I think you may even be able to buy those a day in advance at the 1/2 price booths.

Tipping is a raging debate, but here's what we do (I am American, btw) but most of those who work in tippable jobs do not make minimum wage - so it is important for them to get tips to make a living and yes, some do very well out of it, but not many people would do some of these jobs:

Bellmen who bring your bags to your room - $2/bag at least.

Sit Down Meals - 20% standard, more if we had awesome service, less if we had less than awesome service (and if the waitress refils our soft drinks regularly, that's about all it takes to make us happy)

Buffets - $1-$2 each for the waitress bringing our drinks

Valet - $2 on drop off and $2 on pick up (some people say just tip on pick-up, though)

Maid - $5 day (gets you all kinds of extra goodies some places and they have one of the worst jobs in the world)

Taxi guy who calls a taxi over to you at the door - $1 (somewhat begrudgingly, but they are usually nice)

Taxi driver - usually 15%-20% of the fare or whatever is easiest ($8 - give him a $10, $15 - give him a $20 and keep the change)

Drinks/cocktail waitresses - $1/drink minimum - if you want her to keep them coming, give her a $5 and she'll likely look after you (though still tip $1/drink after)

Bartenders - same as drinks waitresses

stoneman

Wow Ferf, I want to look after you myself!!!!:D
I am American too BTW. As far as tips goes. Restaurants 15% MAX (when did that go up from 10% ) When you have your bags looked after by bellboys, a good idea is to give the one who takes them out of the car $1 per bag, and the same for the guy who gets them to your room, as you can feel pretty awkward not tipping the first guy.
Drinks, yes it's a good idea to give a good tip to start with, then when you ask for a drink you can say "make it a good one". NEVER tip the vallet on drop-off, I have never in my life seen anyone do that, and I have been to Vegas more than 30 times!! Maids $3 per day is enough to get you service.
If you observe the taxi lines now, you will see that most do not tip the door opener. Don't know about taxis as we alway hire a car. Silly not to really, as if you don't, you miss out on so much more that Vegas has to offer.
Remember this is a moneysaving forum, not a "lets show how much money we can splash around, when we don't have to" one. :rolleyes:
A good buy is the American Casino guide, loads of money off buffets, match play, and freebies for joining players clubs. We get ours from Borders when we get there. Have a look on Borders site as sometimes they have discount vouchers for buying books. got a 40% off one earlier this year, bought 4 copies of the ACG!!!