Cheap Trips to Vegas

Being that I still have a little bit of a party girl left in me, I find it mandatory to hit Vegas at least twice a year.  Usually only for 2 nights, because that’s all I can really handle.   Recently, my hubby and I went for 5 glorious nights, but that sort of time luxury I generally don’t have.   We are gearing up for our second trip of the year, and this time we will only stay 2 nights.   My GO-TO travel sites to find the cheapest trips to Vegas are Southwest Airlines Vacations and Priceline.   Sometimes, I will take a gander onto LastMinute.com, ONLY if I want to plan something within the next 3 weeks, because that is where the best last minute deals are found.   We plan to go in October, and I found many cheap trips to Vegas (all departing from Seattle) in October.   Let me clarify that I am all about getting quality for my money.  Sure, there are lots of cheap dumps in Vegas, but do you really want a scary vacation?   I always pick hotels that have good online reviews!  That being said, here are my picks.  Each vacation package to Vegas includes the flight from Seattle and 2 nights in a hotel:

Travelocity:

My Pick:  Bills Gamblin Hall & Saloon for $347 per person.  Don’t write off Bill’s because of the funny name.  Bill’s receives some of the best hotel reviews in Vegas!!  Bill’s location is EXCELLENT for walking the strip, right accross the street from the Bellagio.  However, I don’t believe Bill’s has a pool, so that is a downside if you must swim.

Southwest Airlines Vacations:

My Pick:   Hilton Grand Vacations Club for $388 per person.   This hotel is right on the north-end of the strip, close to the Las Vegas Convention Center.   Rooms include Studios or 1-2 Bedroom units (which have kitchens).

Priceline:

Taken during our Vegas trip in April 2008

My picks:   Orleans Hotel & Casino for $269 per person.  The Orleans is located a mile from the strip, which is not my preference.  However, you get more bang for your buck, it’s a nice hotel for this price.   The Orleans has a pool, a spa, and one of the largest casinos in Vegas.  ~ OR ~  New York-New York Hotel & Casino for $ 347 per person.  Sure you’ve seen it, as this is one of the big commercial strip resorts.  Good bargain and location with decent reviews.  Nowhere else can you stay at a hotel like this!  It’s not lavish, but it’s fun to stay here.  Want something a little nicer?  They’ve got the nearby Mirage for $396 per person.  Okay, there you have it, my picks for a cheap trip to Vegas!  Now go find a babysitter and bring some disposible cash, you are gonna need it!


 
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My Quest for Cheap Downtown Spokane Hotels.

Spokane Riverfront Park {Photo courtesy of creativecommons.org}

We’re driving over to the IMAX theatre in Riverfront Park, Spokane, to watch The Dark Knight next weekend.   I’ve never been to an IMAX, and I hear that it is something I must experience.   I figure The Dark Knight would be just awesome on IMAX!   My hubby and I are taking our kids to visit some friends, and then we figure we will do some shopping and hit the rest of Riverfront park.  Just a quick little weekend getaway.   First, we’ve got to find a cheap downtown hotel near the IMAX for the night. Comparing Spokane hotels is pretty easy with my little HotelsCombined.com booking widget, because I can compare prices from over 30 different hotel search engines at one time.   To find the cheapest hotel, I always “sort” the hotel selections by price.  When HotelsCombined pulls up a list of Spokane hotels, at the top portion of the screen you see the “sort” field, and you can select “price”.  HotelsCombined will then re-generate the list with the cheapest hotels on top.  Now, I know from horrible first hand experience, that you never want to just stay at the cheapest hotel….(Once I was in Seattle and stayed at such a hotel, which shall remain nameless, and my cab driver was afraid to drop me off, and I could not get a cab to pick me up in the morning!).  So, to avoid putting my family in utter danger, I am much more careful about my hotel selections now.    Start scrolling down the list, paying particular attention to the “star rating”.   Don’t pay too much attention to the hotel names at this point.  If you find a hotel in your price-range with at least 3 stars, you may be onto something.  The next step is to read reviews of that hotel.  This is very important!  Never skip this step when booking a hotel.   The first hotel that strikes my fancy is the Ridpath Hotel in Spokane.  It has 3 stars and the picture looks nice at only $73 a night.   On HotelsCombined, underneath the price there is a little link to the hotel reviews.  (Some hotels have no reviews on HotelsCombined, so you would need to look elsewhere).   I’m in luck, HotelsCombined has 38 reviews of Ridpath Hotel.  Clicking on that, and….ouch!   Not the best review to start off with.  Scrolling down, I see the word “horrible” and “outdated” and several other dispariging remarks.  Okay, moving on.  I hit the back button on my browser, and continue my quest for the perfect cheap hotel near the IMAX in Spokane.  I come across the Ramada Limited Hotel, with 3 user reviews on HotelsCombined.  The reviews are okay, not spectacular, but okay.   I am mainly attracted to the location of the hotel, 2 blocks from Riverfront park in downtown Spokane.  At only $75 per night, that is not bad.  However, I’m not really sold, so I do a little more price surfing.  On Priceline, I find a King room with sofa bed & mini-fridge at the Courtyard By Marriott Spokane Downtown for $129/night.  If you are wondering if that is really a deal, I took a gander on Mariott.com’s site and found that they would have charged me $159/night for the same room.  I also liked the Madison Inn by Riverstone for $95 on Hotels.com.   

Now that I’ve booked our hotel in downtown Spokane.  I’m checking into getting some IMAX tickets online.  The Dark Knight is currently showing 4 times daily.  It is a “special feature”, so I believe it is more expensive than the regular IMAX movies, (ie. the combo attraction ticket won’t work for this one).  However, it looks like the Spokane IMAX does not sell tickets online.  Crossing my fingers that it doesn’t sell out!

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