Vegas Trip Information for anyone looking to go this year.

[Marky147]

Basic Lowdown on resorts

The cheapovegas site is handy to get a look at each resort, what they offer etc.

http://www.cheapovegas.com/index.php

Here are maps of the 2 main areas of interest to the tourists.

Downtown

http://www.cheapovegas.com/vegas_map.php?map=downtown

The Strip

http://www.cheapovegas.com/vegas_map.php?map=strip


There is a map for offstrip too but you can't check out any of the properties on the site only see where they are in relation to others.

http://www.cheapovegas.com/vegas_map.php?map=offstrip


FLIGHTS

Virgin

Virgin fly from Manchester and Gatwick so giving an ideal point for you guys way oop there to fly direct too.

http://www.virgin-atlantic.com

London Gatwick - Vegas - Daily as below

1125am-1410pm

1640pm-1030am (overnight flight)


Manchester - Vegas - Thursday and Sunday at the times below

1235pm-1450pm

1720pm-1105am (overnight flight)


Thomas Cook

Direct flight from Manchester which leaves on Wednesdays and Sundays

Manchester - Las Vegas

www.thomascook.com

Will probably be of interest to the Scots that the 23rd-30th June flight picks up and stops in Glasgow on the way home.



British Airways

BA also run a daily direct service from Heathrow with a more poker player orientated flight time.

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/globalgateway.jsp/global/public/en_

It gives you almost an extra day in Vegas as you don't have to leave for the airport until around 6pm, the downside is that's when the fun normally starts


1640pm-1910pm

2110pm-1455pm (overnight flight)



For those that don't mind indirect flights and want to save a few quid, just use the Skyscanner link below by plugging your dates in to get every flight leaving throughout that day.



Flights and Packages

www.skyscanner.net

Will give you the best price on flights available in different varieties, both direct and with stops as filtered by you. Easy to use and will make sure you don't see yourself off with price.


www.ebookers.com

www.expedia.co.uk

www.lowcostusa.co.uk

www.trivago.co.uk

You can often find a good value 'Flight & Hotel' package using the above sites. I generally book separately myself as I like to split my trip between hotels. That said you can book a hotel for only part of the trip with Expedia.



ESTA Travel Authorisation

Everyone who goes to the states now needs to fill in an ESTA travel authorisation prior to going. The cost is $14 through the official site and link below so you can't get tucked up by the fraudulent ones all over the net.

Visa forms are gone on flights now so we only have to fill in the customs ones that everyone does.

Regardless we have to do the ESTA so here is the link


https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/esta.html?_flowExecutionKey=_c70D6A6A8-9366-B800-EFFA-FAC75E294E8F_boost9887F0-63C6-2389-5C2A-730D695608D1


Hotels


I've stayed most of the strip hotels for varying periods between a couple days and a few weeks so have an idea about most. I can only give you my thoughts and obviously this will depend on the individual as one mans trash is another mans treasure

www.harrahs.com

Harrahs own the majority of the strip and have hotels at every budget level.

You also will not find their rooms any cheaper on an outside website and if you do they'll match it. I've listed their properties in price order generally.

Until this year were free of resort fees, but since March 1st have been charging as below

Quad (IP) $10 p/night
Harrahs   $18 p/night
Ballys $15 p/night
Flamingo  $18 p/night
Rio (off strip) $18 p/night
Planet Hollywood $20 p/night
Paris $20 p/night
Caesars $25 p/night
Nobu $25 p/night

I've stayed at IP, Harrahs, Rio, Ballys, PHo and Caesars

Quad when it was the IP was one of my favourite casinos to drink in or play hammered for laughs, I only stayed there once and whilst I wouldn't again it's very cheap. If you think Premier Inn and paying the same price for the best location on the strip you're somewhere close.

Harrahs I only stayed at once for one night so didn't get to see much of the casino, Carnaval Court is great fun when you're strip crawling, or drink driving a scooter as the case maybe and again location is good.

Rio is out of the way so not really worth considering unless you're grinding the WSOP imo.

Ballys is again ideal, the rooms are very big and you're opposite the Bellagio so great location once again. You're paying a little more though and the casino isn't all that for action so only if the price is right for me.

Planet Hollywood is the perfect party casino, lively with lots of scantily dressed women poledancing or even dealing. A little more expensive but if you're sharing it's not all that bad and you have one of the liveliest resorts on the strip.

Rooms are good quality with big bathrooms and the only downside I would say is they can be a little dark. When you're only there to sleep it's hardly a dealbreaker though and the food choices are good.

Caesars Palace is the flagship property and I stayed there for a week in 2009 in the Augustus Tower. Rooms in the Augustus are very nice and I believe both Palace & the new Octavius are of similar quality.

They also have the new 'Nobu Hotel' inside, priced alongside Mandarin Oriental and only for the real ballers!

Nice property but is a bit aloof for what it is, kind of thinks it's on a par with the Wynn/Palazzo/Bellagio when it's not really on that level. I have noticed that it's pricing is way over what it should be for the property it is imo.


My fave resort is the Palazzo, love the rooms in Palazzo and the restaurants are incredible. Some people don't like the casino as much but I don't punt on table games all that much so it's all the same to me.

Wynn is great and you wake up feeling like a lottery winner in that place... The only trouble is to stay there you also need to be one unless you snag a deal.


You also have the Cosmopolitan which hasn't been open long for the higher end market too. Of late it's been getting some bad press on the customer service side of things which is inevitable I'm guessing when the numbers coming through are as high as in Vegas.

Bellagio is a great property as well and they have recently remodeled all their rooms to get them up to date. The videos on youtube look pretty nice and the apparent Jersey Shore invasion of clientele at the Wynn probably won't have done it any harm in the eyes of those looking for a more relaxed Vegas experience.

Next door to this you have the City Center

http://www.citycenter.com/

Inside you have the Aria, Vdara and Mandarin Oriental.

I don't know much about the resorts as I've not been in, but they're pretty highly rated and I know the Aria has one of the best card rooms.


Some sites you can use to book your hotels, obviously you can use Expedia, ebookers etc. for hotels only too as well.


www.ebookers.com.

www.expedia.co.uk

www.lowcostusa.co.uk

www.trivago.co.uk

Those are a couple but I also think your best bet is to go to Smartervegas or Fatwallet and look up the deals first.

Smartervegas really is the business and by entering the date you want a hotel from it will bring up all promos available to you in each hotel at the time.

Best bet is to check the hotel website for the price and then match it against it once you have gone through smartervegas to see how much you save.

Fatwallet isn't as busy for promos but occasionally it chucks up a beauty so is worth checking.

www.smartervegas.com

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/travel-discussion/1036400/?start=0


Another alternative if you like a punt is priceline where you can put an offer in on a room at a * level you like and see what you get.

www.priceline.com

Not something I'd do as I like to know where I'm going before I book, for those that want to start the gambling early you can save some money.



Cheap Bites

Ellis Island: One block off the strip (Behind Ballys I believe). Basically it does steaks/bbq pizzas and all similar types of stuff. They have a steak special for $7.99 which includes sides, potatoes and a beer. The Microbrewery sells draughts at $1.75 a pop too WHACK!

Food courts: There are food courts all over Vegas with a variety of foods available. Chinese, Burgers, Mexican, Pizza and just about anything else. Situated both in casinos and along the strip.

Peppermill Lounge: Another diner on the strip located near to the Wynn. Big portions and open 24hrs I'm pretty sure.

Grand Lux Cafe: The nut lower price food venue!! They have one of these in both the Palazzo and Venetian. Lots of variety and big portions.

Hash House A GoGo: Diner style place located in the IP big portions not big prices.

Earl of Sandwich: Rolls/Sandwiches etc. most importantly drunks are persona grata and 24hrs (inside Planet Hollywood)


POKER

All Festivals

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoMaiIIMBl1zdDhxMUs2V3hxTUdKLTJrTGVtb3NqWnc#gid=0



WSOP

http://www.wsop.com/tournaments/



Venetian DSE

http://www.venetian.com/uploadedFiles/The_Venetian/Gaming/Deep_Stack_Extravaganza/DSE_III_2013_Schedule_v20130311.pdf



Grand Poker Series @ Golden Nugget

http://goldennugget.com/lasvegas/pdf/gps.pdf



Binions Classic

http://www.binions.com/gaming/poker_classic.php



Caesars Megastack

http://www.caesarspalace.com/content/dam/clv/Gaming/Tournaments/CLV-MegaStack-2013-Final.pdf



Wynn Classic

http://www.wynnpoker.com/wynn_classic13.cfm

[TightEnd]

thanks

Stickied.

[shipitonetime]

Been to vegas before but this guide still looks v useful tytyty!

[Longy]

Awesome stuff Marky!

Last time I went to the US (Late August) they had done away with the forms on the flights, all you have to do is fill out a customs one which even the yanks have to.

Also Earl of Sandwich for a cheap snack ftw.

[outragous76]

Incred work mark

I'd def add earl of sandwich @ ph into the OP as longy says! Sad to say its my first stop every Vegas trip

[doubleup]

Flights - Thomas Cook still do the old "Airtours" flight direct from Manchester (although stops at Glasgow a few times in the year).  So Virgin don't have a complete monopoly.

[Rotty]

500 quid for food and drink  I wish

[Marky147]

About time they ditched those forms, only been about 3/4 years

Not sure how I forgot to add in EoS after staying at PHo this year too....

Added in Airtours/Thomas Cook details

500 quid for food and drink  I wish

Yeah I do too, that was for guys I know that were talking about a minimum spend if they ate buffet etc.

[Simon Galloway]

£500/week  ~ $100 a day.

Comp dollars help for cafe-type grub and a few $1 drinks while playing (or pretending to play) can also keep the X's down.

But a proper meal is $100 without trying, and nights out on the lash are $100 before you blink.

For players on a strict budget, drop the fancy meals, nightclubs and titty bars hoover up the freebies and comps and you can definitely do it for less.

I struggle to understand players that nail down the X's that hard tho when they are playing 5 or 6 WSOP events.

[Woodsey]

Wow spooky, I was thinking of doing something similar for hotel rooms but with a different angle. I go on other travel forums and one of the things we always do is give a quick review but also take pics of the rooms to post for others to see. You sometimes get some people coming on and saying some place is shite despite your recommendation, this way people can see what the room looks like for themselves with realistic pics (rather than grimming hotel website pics) and make a decision themselves about it based on the price they are being offered. If others can do the same and take pics when they go we can get a good database of pics.

So this trip, and in fact the last 3 or so trips I stayed at the Flamingo. I like the Flamingo for a few reasons, the location is perfect on centre strip, there isn't a big trek between your room and the front door of the casino like many places, the poker room is usually adequate for most sessions but there is 3 other decent rooms within a 10 minute walk (Caesars and Bellagio of note) and a few more within 15-20 mins (Venetian of note). Whilst there is no fine dining in the hotel there is at least half a dozen places to get something decent to eat, none of which are particularly expensive.

Also I like the rooms I think they are good value for money, although I do also normally get comped for at least part of my stay now I am a regular customer.

The rooms I normally stay in are not the basic deluxe rooms, they are the 'GO' rooms. I was going to stay in a deluxe room this last trip because with comps the room charge for the whole week would only have been $150, but when I got they they offered me an upgrade for $10 per night so it was no decision really.

You have all the usual amenities plus 42 inch telly, I-pod cable so you can play your own music through the system. The only thing that tilts me about this place (and in fact just about every Vegas hotel) is having to pay for WIFI which is a bit annoying. In fact the poker room has a random wifi connection from elsewhere you can pic up and use but shhhhhhh 

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[Marky147]

Haha yeah you look on the sites and a 350sq foot room looks like a massive suite

I see they've just remodelled a bunch of rooms too in the Flamingo 'Fab' rooms they're called and come out a bit cheaper than the  Go ones. Looking on the site they seem very similarly furnished to the Go rooms so not sure what they're like exactly.

[Woodsey]

Haha yeah you look on the sites and a 350sq foot room looks like a massive suite

I see they've just remodelled a bunch of rooms too in the Flamingo 'Fab' rooms they're called and come out a bit cheaper than the  Go ones. Looking on the site they seem very similarly furnished to the Go rooms so not sure what they're like exactly.

Yeah saw that too, looks like they will probably be ok.

[ForthThistle]

Awesome information...

24 of us going in September need 13 rooms.

Anybody know the best way to get the best room rates???

mostly couples going so a decent room is required.

Thanks.

[Marky147]

Wouldn't have a clue about booking a bunch of rooms in one place. I guess you could look for a deal you think is suitable online and then call the resort asking if they could do a deal on a block booking of 13rooms?

[Delboy]

Awesome information...

24 of us going in September need 13 rooms.

Anybody know the best way to get the best room rates???

mostly couples going so a decent room is required.

Thanks.

Have a chat with Curlage on the APAT forum. He sorted great rates for us at Harrahs and Caesars this past November through his contacts.