Hi and welcome to HT!

Which airport would you be flying from?

Flights to Vegas in September seem to be quite expensive at the moment. I would suggest pricing a package using Expedia or Lastminute.com to get an idea of prices. Then go to http://www.netflights.com , http://www.opodo.com and http://www.kakay.co.uk to see how much flight only would be. Then you will see what you have left if you were to book the hotel direct.

You can get an idea of the deals available on hotels in THIS TOPIC

The MGM or Planet Hollywood might suit you. Paris is a really nice hotel and very central, but there are rarely any offers for it.

I read on another forum that someone got married at the Wynn, which is one of the best hotels in Vegas, for around $500.

You could email the wedding planners of the various hotels via their websites for ideas and prices.

luci

Hia were planning on flying from Gatwick but were flexible where we fly from, I have just started looking through flight prices and I noticed they are expensive now as when i looked a month or so ago it was £300 cheaper but didnt have the money then (typical hey!) I will try the sites you suggested.

I have managed to get a good price on the Mgm grand $520 for the week which I think is reasonable, do you know if this hotel is a nice one?

Thanks
Kazxx

Yes the MGM is a solid hotel with good sized rooms. You can read our reviews by clicking on Hotel Reviews at the top of the page.

Where did you get that price from?

luci

Have you tried the link on the hotels thread on this forum for MGM Grand? There's a $39 rate midweek. Not sure what week you're planning on going, we're going 3-18th, they have it most of our first week but then around the 14th the rate is high for some reason. I wonder if there's a fight on at MGM around then.

Have you tried Mytravel for a flight? Luggage is fairly low, but they do fly to Vegas from Manchester and maybe London and you might get a cheap flight. Might not though, but worth checking, and maybe they allow upgrades to luggage.

Planet Hollywood were quite notorious for giving free upgrades ($20 trick too), so that might be worth checking out, getting married is a good excuse for an upgrade! Also, I'm sure that's where Elvis and Priscilla got married back when it was the old Aladdin???

Maybe you could have dinner at the top of the Strat? The Strat is in the general vicinity of many of the wedding chapels, there's lots up that end of the strip, so it would be handy for those. Maybe stay elsewhere though, I agree on that. Does your budget include the wedding itself?

lesley74 wrote:

Have you tried the link on the hotels thread on this forum for MGM Grand? There's a $39 rate midweek.

Lesley

Kaz wouldn't qualify for this rate as it's for Player's Club members only and she hasn't been to Vegas before.

luci

I think you can signup online for the players club for MGM......so it may be poss?

TC

That's true.

I've just checked the dates for that offer and the weekend nights are quite expensive at $180 Friday and $200 Saturday which pretty much wipes out the savings on the other days.

luci

Hi all thanks for your replies, we have had a real good research into what will be best for us and now we have come up with flying to LA then hiring a car maybe stay there for a couple of days and head to vegas for 4 days then back to LA the day before we fly back, all sounds busy but fun!

The flights iv managed to get £1068 including car hire, i got a price from the excaliber hotel in one of the new upgraded wide screen rooms and its $320 for the 4 nights but im a little apprehensive as i cant find many reviews on this hotel, so if theres anyone looking through this that knows what its like I would appreciate anyones opinions. The budget does not include the wedding thats all extra on top but were really sure its gonna be ontop of the stratosphere as that suits us as a couple.

We have been trying to do some research on LA hotels, does anyone have any advise on any good hotels in the area based where we can do a few things whilst were there!

I will check out the Planet Hollywood hotel see what rates they are, I went into a travel agent today and they suggested not booking hotel in Vegas just turn up and get a room from where we fancy at the time but i not so sure about that, has anyone done this themselves?

Thanks for all your help we really appreciate it.
Kazxxx

kazzie5 wrote:

I went into a travel agent today and they suggested not booking hotel in Vegas just turn up and get a room from where we fancy at the time but i not so sure about that, has anyone done this themselves?

Kazxxx

That is just about the worst piece of advice I have ever read on Vegas. I hope the rest of their advice is more reliable.

If you turn up on spec you will pay rack rate and NO-ONE pays rack rate in Vegas. It would be about 3 times the price you could get on an offer. There are various offers that come out and I post the ones I find in the topic I linked to earlier.

Also, do you really want to traipse round umpteen hotels trying to get a decent deal?

The Excalibur is a budget hotel although it is one of the better ones. $320 for 4 nights is steep though. I have seen it for as little as $22-24 a night. There is a resort fee os $9.95 a night on top of that which gives you internet and gym access.

With THIS OFFER your dates are $281 total plus resort fee and tax of 12%.

If you book direct with the hotel rather than a third party like Expedia, you only pay the first night's deposit up front and can cancel up to 72 hours before arrival and get a full refund if you find a better offer.

Re the included car hire, bear in mind that you will have to pay for insurance on top of that and that can work out more expensive than just booking the car hire and insurance yourself.

luci

Thanks Lucie I just clicked on that deal and think I will book that in the next day or so, I did wonder if the advise given re getting a room when we get to vegas was a good idea! Just one question I notice the resort fee includes free long distance calls does this mean I can call back to the UK for free?

Do you think re the car hire that we would be ok to get a car once we get there in the airport rather than pre booking it.

Thanks
Kazxx

I think the free long distance calls means within the US. It is normally free local and 800 calls so long distance calls is unusual.

No harm in emailing the hotel to clarify, but I doubt it means overseas calls.

Again, don't leave the car hire until you get there or you will be at their mercy. Suggested companies are http://www.ch3000.com and http://www.netflights.com

You can pay all the insurances up front including a tank of fuel and an additional driver. Just be firm once you get there and don't agree to any additional insurance.

luci

Thanks I did think it would be too good to be true being free calls to the Uk would end up costing the hotels a fortune hey!

As for car hire I agree I think its too much of a gamble doing it when we get there, we have checked out the sites you suggested and these seem reasonable prices but all say in the small print that they do a debit card check which is no problem as we will have the money in the account but one thing that worries us it does a credit check on you and we have had to go bankrupt recently so does this mean that we can't hire a car in USA?

Thanks
Kaz xx

They won't do a credit check. They don't do that for US customers and certainly won't for overseas customers. They don't have access to UK credit reports, for one thing. Also, as far as I can remember, even US residents aren't required to provide their social security number... but I admit, I can't remember for sure as it has been a while since I've rented a car. Either way, I can't see how your UK bankruptcy would prevent you from hiring a car outside of the UK (I'm not even sure it would prevent it INSIDE the UK, would it?).

On another note, and I apologize if I am speaking out of turn and this isn't meant to cause offence, but I would be extremely upset if I wasn't able to see my child get married... and even more upset if I didn't even know he/she was getting married. Again, I don't mean to cause offence... it's obviously your decision. I just wanted to give you something to think about.

If you do decide to go ahead with it, I hope you have a great time.

Hi greyejectbutton im not offended by what you say my mum does know we are getting married she is the only person that does though and the reason we are doing it this way is because this is both of our second marriages (had the big white weddings first time round) my partner has no family at all and my parents have split up (very bitter about each other as well!) so having a wedding involving family would just be one big nightmare and we would not enjoy our day at all due to being nervous about what will happen with the parents mixing. I know it should not be like that and they should grow up for my sake but im afraid thats the way it is with them. Hopefully now you can understand why we are doing it this way, we are just doing it our way just the two of us with no one causing any stress what so ever.

Thanks for the info re: the hire car.

Kaz

Thanks for that, Kazzie. You really didn't have to explain yourself... like I said, it's totally your decision. I can understand your reasons. It sounds like it would be more hassle than it's worth to have everyone else involved!

It's my second marriage next year so I do understand.