Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2015

blindman

BA have a Sale on

Look closely to see if they are real savings though.

FT are saying the Ex Dub Business class are good value

gamboller

A friend is over in Vegas from Jan 1st and planning on driving to Grand Canyon and staying 2 nights? any suggestions on lodgings? They had looked at desert rose inn and lodgings??

John259

Lodging in Williams (on I-40) can be significantly less costly than in the park or in Tusayan, and won't need to be pre-booked long in advance. It's about 60 miles each way from Williams to the park, on a good quality paved fairly flat and fairly straight two-lane road. Flagstaff is another good lodging option for the Grand Canyon, but it's further east from Las Vegas along I-40.

(BTW, the only Desert Rose Inn that Google Maps knows about is in Bluff near Monument Valley, about 225 miles from the Grand Canyon - map https://goo.gl/maps/YLWzQx14imv )

ferf1223

we thought staying in the park at the rim was worth the extra cost - it was so great to walk out of our room and be right there. We had a bit of a canyon view from our window as well which was a bit special. We stayed at Thunderbird Lodge. We did book in April for an October stay, though...so availability at short notice may be questionable and you would likely have to call about cancellations.

The food in the park, at least the restaurant we visited (at Bright Angel Lodge, I think) was...less than impressive...if we did it again we would probably go out of the park to eat.

nvh

gamboller wrote: »

A friend is over in Vegas from Jan 1st and planning on driving to Grand Canyon and staying 2 nights? any suggestions on lodgings? They had looked at desert rose inn and lodgings??

I second ferfs suggestions of staying in the park, though somewhere with a good heating system is highly recommended as temps drop to around -20c at night IIRC we stayed in the Bright Angel 'cabins' in September, and had to have the fire on at night so definitely would not recommend staying in them as they do not keep heat in so well.

Would also suggest that they be prepared for snow on the roads affecting journey times, take blankets and ensure they have food / drink in the car etc - usual common sense stuff I guess

This page would probably be useful to them (has info on phone numbers for road closures etc), though I would suspect they keep main roads as clear as possible, when we went there in December once, the place was covered in a surprisingly quick amount of time:
http://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/weather-condition.htm


(oh, and of course Merry Christmas to you all )

John259

nvh wrote: »

I second ferfs suggestions of staying in the park

Fair enough. I was just pointing out that there are alternative options.

nvh

John259 wrote: »

Fair enough. I was just pointing out that there are alternative options.

It was nothing critical, just voicing opinion - you and the original poster are more than welcome to choose and do whatever you wish :cool: there are too many unknown factors for either of us to be 'right'

iltisman

Just been on Excaliburs Web site to look at prices. They have wrecked what was a good site now it is clunky and terrible colors . I had to leave the website it was giving me eye strain. I think they have "improved" all the MGM web sites .

pebblesmax

iltisman wrote: »

Just been on Excaliburs Web site to look at prices. They have wrecked what was a good site now it is clunky and terrible colors . I had to leave the website it was giving me eye strain. I think they have "improved" all the MGM web sites .

Sounds about right for MGM websites. They seem to be the worst available anywhere.

ferf1223

hope everyone has a lovely Christmas and thanks, secretmachines, for running the thread this year!