How long will you be in Vegas? If it's only a very short time I would say stay on the strip and travel from there. If it's a few days, then Downtown may be OK, but apart from the Golden Nugget, the quality of hotels is far superior on the strip. You may be better off going for the Gold Coast or Orleans as an in between choice. Both have free shuttles to the strip, but are a little way off so are cheaper.

There is a wealth of recent information on Vegas on threads below, so my advice would be to make that your first port of call.

If it is your first visit to Vegas then you MUST stay on the strip. Don't be put off by prices at the moment, nine times out of ten you will find far better deals booking direct with the hotel and a lot closer to your departure. For a May holiday I would seriously start looking at deals around March time. As long as there are no major conventions on during your dates, you will be able to find some awesome deals, even more so if you can somehow make your Vegas dates fall between a Sunday to Thursday. Just 6 weeks ago I managed to get the MGM Grand for $69 a night (it was even $49 at one point but they soon sold out), and other regular contributors to this forum have also got bargains (Lesley got a Celebrity Spa Suite at the MGM for $89 I think, maybe $99), so there are good offers out there.

Use this link to assist your search http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/travel-deals/704925?start=0 and if you need any assistance just let us know, someone will be able to help.

jwhiting wrote:

There is a wealth of recent information on Vegas on threads below, so my advice would be to make that your first port of call.

Absolutely!

Pippy

Thanks for the advice, im actually going to be staying in vegas three nights on my outward trip to san fran and four nights returning. So its going to be 7 nights split. I suppose for a first trip here you really do have to experiance the strip, i just had the impression you would need to book early so maybe leaving it till closer to travelling might be better. Im going to be staying between a sunday and thursday so that appears to be the right times. Thanks again.

The general consensus of opinion on all Vegas forums/threads is that it is a good option to get a hotel deal booked early BUT, and I stress that but, make sure the booking is cancellable because you will often find better rates nearer the time. If however, you feel you can hold out until March time then do that, but at the same time, just cross check your dates with any major Vegas conventions that could be taking place. I know there is a huge convention early in January which has meant hotel rooms are at a premium, let alone at a good rate but I am unsure regarding May.

If you decide to make a booking now (and a lot of people do this for peace of mind) then I would book direct with the hotels listed on the Fat Wallet thread above. That way they will take a deposit of one night stay only, which is totally refundable if you cancel that rate and find a better one. Even if it is the same hotel they will happily let you cancel the more expensive rate and book you the lower rate. It is one of the great quirks of Vegas hotel bookings, a one off if you like.

Keep us updated with your plans and if you need any further help let us know

Thanks
I was tending to book early for peace of mind hence starting comparing prices now. I suppose the thing is taking a bit of a gamble by leaving it later as who really knows what the rate will be? I will try to find out if there are any conventions in may, if im not sure i,ll probably go with the early booking for that peace of mind. Im looking at two hotels at the moment the excalibur and the luxor. A workfriend has a mate who is a travel agent and shes going to give me a couple of prices so at least i can compare. Have just checked there is a convention on during my stay.

I think you will find a few people may try and tempt you away from the Luxor and the Excalibur (me included) but as it is your first ever visit I don't think it is so much of an issue as you will be spending vast amounts of times at other properties anyway just taking in the various attractions.

The Luxor and Excalibur are lower end properties but still pretty amazing sights to behold. Personally I would opt for a Widescreen Tower Room at the Excalibur, these are very nice and comparable with a lot of standard rooms in other (far more expensive) properties. The Luxor is in the middle of some extensive renovations to try and get away from the Egyptian theme, but come next May I would expect a lot of that to be complete. The Pyramid rooms are quite small, but still bigger compared to a lot of UK hotels. I would say as well that it is a travel "must do" to stay in the Luxor Pyramid at some point in your lifetime so that could be an option, although the Luxor Tower rooms are bigger!!!!

Try and check out the MGM Grand as well. Huge hotel, very nice and often available for good rates. Best of luck.

Yes i will check out the MGM grand, cheers.

check when you go in May, its Labour day or something near the end and the hotel prices shot up, as we found to our cost

Last monday (I think) in May is Memorial Day, first Monday in September is Labor Day.

If price is important check out the Tropicana as well. We drove in for 4 nights last year from Tucson AZ and got a great deal there. We have stayed at NY-NY, Ceasers and Aladin before and were not looking forward to the Trop from the reviews we had heard but it was very cheap so we thought we would give it a go. We were very supprised with the rooms (cheapest garden rooms) they were way better than we expected for the money and very clean. Its not the lap of luxury but how much time are you going to spend in the room anyway??

Graham & Kathy