Check out the Cosmopolitan. It's a great hotel with fantastic rooms, especially if you get a Premium View room with a view of the Bellagio fountains. We were lucky enough to get a free upgrade, but I don't think it's usual for them to upgrade FOC. The room is 620 sq ft with a 110 sq ft balcony. There is a kitchenette with dishwasher, coffee maker, etc but you have to pay for the coffee provided unless you bring your own.

Not great rates booking direct, apart from the odd night free. However check out http://www.ba.com , http://www.lowcostusa.co.uk , http://www.booking.com , http://www.quickrooms.com They all had rates considerably less than booking with the hotel earlier this year.

The earliest we have been is 21 April. It was nippy first thing then warmed up enough in the afternoon to sit out in a sheltered spot.

Watch that your dates don't clash with the NAB convention which usually has 135,000 attendees. It doesn't seem to be listed yet.

http://www.lvcva.com/meetings/convention-calendar.jsp

http://www.lasvegastourism.com/conventions_apr.htm

luci

It looks as though NAB is middle of April in 2012, 14-19th which is well after our dates but yes, definitely need to keep an eye on conference season.

Shame we haven't got some spare funds kicking about as 31st March, £462pp to LV indirect with Delta/KLM seems a good price and would allow us to really splurge on the hotel........definitely going to consider the Cosmopolitan and many others. As I said on the 2011 thread, our friends are currently staying at Aria and we are just the tiniest bit jealous.

We are not expecting major temps in early April and to be honest it will make a nice change not to sweat out a number of t-shirts like in June-August.

I just want to get something booked but need to hit Majorca first and then when back from there, should be full steam ahead.

Roll on....

BA and Virgin have sales at the moment, but only until 31 March next year. Sign up for email alerts from http://www.kayak.co.uk to keep a track of prices.

The Aria was good, but wasn't a patch on the Cosmopolitan. It was quite similar to the Bellagio if you have stayed there. The room was much smaller, was pure luxury and you could control everything from opening the curtains and sheers to setting the aircon and TV from the remote. However the Cosmo room was twice the size with a lounge, bedroom, massive bathroom with jacuzzi bath and the huge balcony. There was enough seats between the room and the balcony for 15 people.

luci

Ju - If you hold out on flights until next year, check out Virgins January sale. I normally always book our flights then, it's about as good as Virgin gets to be honest.

No idea what we'll be doing next year. My redundancy is on course for end of November this year so it will really depend on what happens job wise for me. If I get can into a similar role, as long as I'm earning at least 50% of what I earn now, then I'm sure we'll try to go to Vegas again in September/October. We do want to move house as well if all goes well job wise so it could be a busy year!

What it does mean though is we've been saving real hard for Vegas 2011, so we are going to have a good bankroll to have a really good time!

Cheers,

TC

I notice Virgin are kicking around £590 at the moment, fly out 31st March back on the 5th April. Coming back the next day (Friday) is another £160+ per person. Ideally I would like a minimum of 6 nights, possibly 7 nights but it interferes with my Wife's football (she is a Norwich fan and complaining that she only gets 19 home games from her season ticket as opposed to 23 games because of being in the Premiership!!!).

I think with Spain in September and mine and my Wife's birthday before the new year, we will be leaving the flight purchase until the new year but I'll keep an eye out just in case there is a mega deal. I did notice one day recently Delta had returns to LV from London for £462pp which is very good but arrival flight time was poor, getting into LV at 9pm+ at night. It would make a nice change to arrive in LV at a decent time in the afternoon so we get most of a day there.

I am still tempted to fly Continental to boost the One Plus miles but in fairness we are two US trips of miles away from a free flight so it isn't the be all and end all.

As for hotels, I am determined not to be swayed by a great MGM rate. Stayed there three times on the trot now and know every single square inch of he place......

Ha ha 2012 already...oh well it probably won't be long really!!!

We've not booked for 2011, too far out even for flights yet because we tend to go in September each year. I guess we will probably do the same next year. I am tempted though to try a wee 3/4 night cruise from LA or San Diego as part of the trip though. Would need to see what's available though when we look at our flights.

Hi all 1st post Im planning to go to Vegas next year for my 40th never been before never even been to the states. Unfortunately my Birthday falls at the beginning of July so i realize its not the best time to go because of the heat but no choice really.

Just want to know who do you guys book flights with? best i can find so fa is about £850 return direct with Virgin or BA through Expedia. Any tips?

Hi and welcome to HT!

You can get an idea of flight price on http://www.kayak.co.uk and can sign up to receive daily or weekly email alerts of prices.

BA and Virgin have sales which end today so their prices will rise tomorrow, both go non-stop from LHR and LGW. It is much cheaper to go with a connection.

luci

Thanks Luci for the reply your suggestion was very helpfull

Well Vegas planning is still ongoing, my Wife has asked for the time off around Easter which will enable me to use very little annual leave as my Uni gives us two extra days on top of Easter weekend but her Boss has dropped an email round to all staff saying annual leave around public holidays needs to be administered fairly, so he has put a deadline on requests of 1st October and we should hear something soon afterwards. Quite annoying, especially as I saw a Norwich - Vegas flight via Amsterdam and Minneapolis (I think) for £475pp a few weeks back which although leaving Norwich at 06:15 (that flight wakes me up every day!) it did arrive in Vegas mid afternoon which really did appeal. To be honest, I am keen to go from Norwich if at all possible but to get to Vegas at a decent hour we really do need that first flight of the day to Amsterdam and to connect to the mid morning flights leaving Amsterdam for the USA. We have threatened to do it on so many occasions so perhaps 2012 will be the year!

Plan is 7 nights but I am trying to tempt my Wife with a 10'er. We really do need to do some house stuff next year so we are thinking Vegas might be the only 'big' holiday in 2012 although there is talk of South America still. I think it's ambitious. Therefore a 10 day trip will make it all worthwhile and I would probably head up to Zion NP as well which is somewhere I've always wanted to visit. Hotel choice will be decided on who is higher in their respective leagues at the time of booking (that's Norwich and Ipswich btw) but to be honest we pretty much always agree on everything anyway, so Mirage is looking a favourite and maybe a City Center property. We shall see.....for now, I've just booked a £74pp 5 night stay in the Algarve for my November birthday so it's all good!
Ju

We've gone via Amsterdam before and arrived mid-afternoon, but by 7pm we were in bed we we were getting delirious with tiredness, then awake from midnight unable to get back to sleep.

We actually prefer to fly down to LHR and get the non-stop BA flight, even though it is more expensive, which arrives just before 7pm. By the time we have cleared immigration we are usually at the hotel around 8pm. Freshen up, out for something to eat and a quick gamble and we can manage to stay up until 11 or 12 o'clock then sleep till a decent time like 5am.

Hope your wife gets the holidays she has asked for.

luci

Laughing at the funny sleep patterns. It's not funny at the time though, know it well....lying there trying to get back to sleep and no matter how tired you are it is impossible!

We once did a direct Airtours flight out of Manchester and it got in at about 2pm, pretty much the same as Luci says!! I think you would need to go out and stay out for quite a while. That said, this year we stayed up till 11 or so, and I still woke up about 2am. Unbelievable. We were in Walmart for 7am, and that was me being patient ha ha.

We seem to have conquered the travel day to USA on recent visits and have managed to do quite a lot on arrival day before hitting the sack around 10-11pm. I was reading all the Seattle leaflets at 10.30pm this year and didn't feel at all tired but I think this was just a freak occurance. In saying that on recent visits we haven't woken up at all during the night until about 6am, so perhaps we have conquered it after all.

If we were to do an indirect from London to get to Vegas at a reasonable time it would mean probably getting up at 5am, but we can pretty much get up then in Norwich and still make the 6:15am flight to Amsterdam as we live 5 minutes from the airport. Whether the two connections would drain us I'm not sure but timewise it's going to be similar to going from London but without all the hassle of travelling down the night before. Of course a better option would be travel down to London the night before and then a direct to Vegas, which would leave at a far more reasonable time from London and afford a lay in but price as it so often does, will dictate in the end.

Would love another trip to LV (would be our 3rd) but finances might not allow , however if we could sneak a week or so which month out of the following would be cheapest flights & accommodation- June, July or August.
Thanks,
Mark.

I think June for the flights and possibly July for rooms as visitor numbers drop due to the high temperatures.

luci

Having been in both June and August I would say flights would be cheaper in June and hotels would be a steal in August but very expensive to fly at that time. July would be similar to August I would say.

I had 6 nights in August 2008 staying at the MGM and paid $49 S-T and $109 on the Friday which was a bargain. In terms of hotel there is some serious value to be had at this time of the year, such a shame flights are often through the roof.

£400pp returns to Vegas on our dates at the end of March beginning of April, £439 Continental which would be preferred as in their flying program and flight times rock but absolutely nothing I can do at the moment. How frustrating

Just had a look in case there were good prices from Glasgow for June or September next year but unfortunately not.

Looking more likely to be 24th March for 7 nights for us now as I think my Wife will definitely be able to get that week off. It will mean a Sunday arrival back in the UK, then 3 (tough) days at work trying to stay awake and then I get 6 days off for Easter. So recovery time will be welcome and only 5 days of annual leave needed.

I was very tempted by Vdara last week especially at some of the prices quoted (£648pp for 7 nights including flights) but I'm just not sure about a non-casino hotel although non smoking does suit us. I'm also a bit put off by the lack of dining, not necessarily restaurant wise but also light bites. I'm also getting very confused by the reviews and the distances involved between Vdara and other properties, some say 3-4 minutes to Aria or Bellagio, others are saying 15mins+! Which is it!

Budget currently stands at £1k for flights and £500 for 7 nights accommodation so I think I have got some room for manouvre if packages are going to come in around the Vdara price of £1300, although of course there will be a resort fee on top of that. Mirage is definitely high on the list, as are some properties we have stayed in before but I think we'll pass on our old fave the MGM this time as I know this hotel better than most employees.