No idea about Santa Monica so will leave other to post in that topic.

If you use the Search facility there are loads of previous topics about Vegas such as restaurants, hotels and shows.

luci

Were going to try the outback steakhouse on next visit, theres quite a few along the strip in variuos locations, may be of interest to you.. not sure if anyone on here has eaten there & what they thought? You can view there menu on there website..

whats the dress code like over there? will i need to bring shoes as well as trainers I presume?

Well we lived in trainers the whole holiday!! we dont really do dressing up & never got turned away anywhere.. but perhaps depends on where you go & some places may have dress codes?

Hey,

Just read through the thread. I'm happy to see so many Vegas fans here. I went for the first time last year and am about to book to go back for either four or five (leaning towards five, tbh) nights over New Year. Flights are around £530-£560 from what I've seen, which is a hell of a lot more than what we paid last year but that's the World today, I guess.

Just thought I'd ask a couple of questions from the experts... The best deal for flights I've seen seems to be on netflights.com. Expedia keeps giving me false info when I look into the flights (quotes one price then increases it by £150 when I try to book) and whilst the price at lowcostholidays.com is pretty good they seem determined to force me to make a 45 minute stop somewhere. Now I've never done a stop in the States, but 45 minutes to clear passport control and get to the plane seems optimistic to me. I had a 1hr 20 min stop-over at Gatwick recently and that was pushing it. So other than those three websites is there anywhere else that you recommend I check before I book?

Then there's accomodation. I stayed at the Mirage last time, which I liked, but with flights having gone up and us likely to spend a fair bit of cash whilst we're there as it's New Year, we're trying to keep to a £250-£300 budget each for accomodation (two twin beds) which rules out the top-end hotels. Luxor looks a tempting option. Hard Rock, Imperial Palace, Riviera, Excalibur, The Palms, Harrahs, and Ballys are also possible. Would any of these be recommended by yourselves or is there somewhere else within reach of the Strip which we should consider?

Thanks for your help.

Hi Beefy,

Netflights are pretty good, I've used them myself loads of times. Virgin actually start their sale in late December but it may be a little late for you unless you can hang on until last minute....but then of course there may not be any seats left!! I booked my flights for my trip thats coming up back in late December last year and got a reasonable deal.

45 mins for a turnaround isn't much at all and I wouldn't be comfortable doing that!!

B.A. had a sale on recently, I'm not sure if it's still on now? An alternative to direct flights is to go to L.A.
I did that a couple of years back and saved I think it was £600 on flights by flying in to LAX, then booked onward flights with Southwest airlines for about £90 return. It's only a 45 min flight from LA to Vegas. There are so many flights as well that you can give yourself a couple of hours at LAX to have a bite to eat and freshen up before getting on again, no rush.

Hotel wise - Your cheaper options of the ones you mention are Imperial Palace (very cheap) and Excalibur. Personally I'd steer clear of Hard Rock (too far off strip), Riviera (Old and not very nice), Palms (too far off strip). Ballys is a little better than Harrahs in my opinion. You may also like to consider Bills, Monte Carlo and Tropicana who have remodelled some of their rooms recently.

Imperial Palace is fine if you just want somewhere to sleep. The rooms are very standard but are clean and comfortable. The bonus is, it's very central.

If you're not bothered about staying on strip....then I would recommend the Orleans, it's a nice place and is normally very cheap.

Cheers,

TC

Ok, time to update my itinerary, have a few more things booked now, am really excited about this trip so can't help but share it....!!

On arrival we now have a stretch limo booked to go to the Signature, got to arrive in style!!

Friday - Dinner at Mon Ami Gabi
Saturday - Dinner at Maggiano's
Sunday - Big fat juicy fillet steak at Gallaghers in NYNY
Monday - Dinner at the Top of the World restaurant (Stratosphere)
Tuesday - Pick up car for 3 days - Going shopping at the Outlets today, then In n' Out burger for lunch!
Wednesday - Doing the Zip lines at Bootleg Canyon in Boulder City and then Jet skiing on Lake Mead
Thursday - Dinner at MiX Restaurant at the top of THEHotel
Friday - Duran Duran in concert at the 'Joint' in Hard Rock hotel
Saturday - Dinner at Le Cirque restaurant in Bellagio followed by going to see 'O'
Monday - Finally booked to see 'Legends' after threatening to see it for years!
Wednesday - Dinner at Eiffel Tower restaurant in Paris
Thursday - Stretch limo back to the airport

Lots of gambling in between, and hopefully a decent win!

Cheers

TC

Hi Beefy and welcome to HT!

£530-560 is actually a very good price for flights to Vegas and if I could get that, I'd snap them up. However it is cheaper to travel November to March than at other times of year.

Sign up for alerts from http://www.kayak.co.uk and they will send you a daily email of flight prices. However I would check BA and Virgin who both have sales at the moment. The BA one ends on 20 September, not sure when the Virgin one ends.

Not sure if you will manage over New Year on your budget as NYE is the most expensive night of the year in Vegas. The Imperial Palace is OK, nothing flash and basic rooms. I would also consider the Excalibur.

Check out http://www.smartervegas.com for offers.

luci

Itinerary's looking good TC! You can check http://www.legendsinconcert.com to see who will be appearing when you go. We have seen it several times as the cast changes all the time.

Would appreciate your opinion on Top of the World once you've been. We've considered it seeing as you can get a restaurant.com cert for it, but have read mixed reviews.

luci

Hi Luci,

We've eaten at Top of the World before. We liked it. Food was nice, it was a bit expensive but not outrageous. I had booked the table by calling them direct and asked for a window table - there are two rings of tables, an outer ring that are all by the window, and an inner ring which don't have such a good view obviously. (still good but not as good)! I also asked what time would be best as I wanted dusk and night, to see the best of both worlds. The guy was really helpful and advised the best time to see sunset etc. It's by no means the best restaurant in Vegas but when you factor in the views, it makes it a bit special. You just need to try to ensure you get a window table.

Cheers,

TC

Thanks for that. How is the food compared to Alize or Mon Ami Gabi?

luci

You going this Friday Teecee?

Alize is the best, by some distance.

Top of the World is better than MAG, again, in my opinion

Boro - Unfortunately not mate, I have a couple of weeks to wait yet

Cheers,

TC

Thanks again. We've never been to the Stratosphere, never mind the restaurant, as it seems to be in a bit of a wilderness. Still not convinced that the restaurant is worth the trek there.

luci

Thanks Luci & TeeCee,

There's actually a flight I just found on Kayak for £407 which is extremely cheap. Just one stop as well (would rather fly direct of course). That's extremely helpful.

We're pretty confident we can get something in our hotel budget. A twin room at Luxor for five nights is going at about $820 inc. taxes so that would fit within our £300 each budget. We can stretch to more without too much bother but would rather spend that money over New Year than on a room which we'll be in for five hours out of ever 24.

Which date and airline is that for? £407 is extremely cheap so make sure it doesn't have a long layover or strange times. I've seen layovers of more than 24 hours on some routes offered.

luci

There were a couple of flights with only a brief stop-over (14hr total flight from London) but they've gone now and all that's left is the ones which take 24hrs or more. Can't be dealing with that (although overnight in New York was tempting). Will spend a bit more and get better flights.

Has anyone got any experience of Luxor? It looks almost suspiciously cheap in comparison with others around that area. It's one of the few hotels on the Strip I didn't look inside last time I was there.

Well, last night was kind of interesting/weird/fun.....

We went over to the Westin to use their pool as ours was closed all day for a function. We could see them setting up a wedding, but we googled and saw there was a wedding show on at the hotel in the afternoon, so thought it was maybe just a set up for that - catwalk or something.

Well we went downstairs to Stir for happy hour drinks, and there were some people sitting around for a 'function' and a couple of times someone came in and said apologies for the delay etc. Then they said everyone who was sitting there was also welcome to attend the function and shortly someone came over to us and explained they were from tv channel a&e and were looking for some extras. We signed a form, and then popped up to the room for a quick change - we could see that the actual guests were dressed nicely etc.

Turns out it was a reality show for wedding proposals. The 'bride' was outside wearing a wedding dress. She's a local wedding planner and her partner was on his way with a cake which he thought he was delivering for another wedding. So he arrived, she was hiding behind us all and then walked through and proposed. He was told to go off and think about it for an hour. Meanwhile we were supplied with unlimited free drinks and canapes. Then we all got sat down for 'the wedding' and then she came up first, then him. But he said 'not now and not like this' so had decided not to do it. The girl's 7 year old daughter was crying really hard. It looked real, but she could have been a good young actress...who knows. Then they served a buffet dinner, and more drinks, then cut the wedding cake and passed it out. It finished around midnight, and we had a great time talking to the guests, some of whiche were 'extras' from the hotel, others claimed to be friends of bride or groom.

Fun time anyway, whether is was a real situation or just a total set up I don't know. I guess the tv company paid for it all.

That sounds pretty crazy.

So I booked my flight yesterday. I was supposed to be waiting until the 25th as that is when a friend of mine gets paid as he can't afford to book his flight before payday but I've been keeping an eye on flights and saw a couple of bargains yesterday which I just couldn't pass up. Now flying a day earlier than planned, so 28th December, I managed to get a return for £427. That's one stop both ways, a couple of hours at Minneapolis on the way out and then 13 hours at JFK on the way back. I adore New York and have friends there and land at 5.30am so will basically get the whole day in Manhatten presuming I'm able to leave the airport which I'm sure I will be.

I actually found an even cheaper return, for £403 with ebookers, which had only a couple of hour connection but the day in New York really appeals to me. Just enough time to get in, get up the Rockafellar Centre, meet a friend for lunch and then have a couple of hours shopping in Macys. Can't wait.

Since booking I've read some negative feedback about the company I found the flights on (holidaygenie) but I've checked on Delta's website and I'm booked in with them on the flights I wanted so touch wood everything seems fine.