Travel

Travel Note

Utilize Groupon!

For almost all of our trips to Vegas, we have booked our hotel through Groupon. With Groupon you get a discounted room rate, and sometimes even a free breakfast buffet or food voucher is included. Sometimes you can add a promo code on at the checkout screen for an even bigger discount. We love Groupon! We recommend looking at this option first. The link below (VIEW) is how to get started.

Travel Note

Where to stay:

We recommend staying on the Las Vegas Strip, anywhere from the middle to the south end. You absolutely have the option to stay in a hotel, resort, or air B&B off of the strip, however you may find yourself Ubering a lot to get to the strip since that is where we will be spending the majority of our time. The link below (VIEW) has a map of the Vegas Strip. We tend to stay at The Flamingo a lot because it is in the middle of the strip and it is a nice hotel that is pretty affordable. Our wedding venue is just past the airport, which is past the south end of the trip, so staying on the south end is a great option for that reason, too.

Travel Note

Beware of Resort Fees!!!

All of the hotels on the Vegas Strip have a resort fee that is not included in the listed price per night. A resort fee is something that they make you pay on top of your nightly fee upon leaving that is usually $35ish per night, and pretty much just covers the use of wifi and housekeeping. It's dumb, but is a good thing to be aware of before booking. So for example, on Groupon or a hotel's website, they will list the hotel for $55 per night. This means it is $55 per night PLUS the $35 resort fee, ultimately making the final price per night $90. We wouldn't want you to learn this the hard way!

Hotel

Our Favorite Hotels

In case you haven't been to Vegas before, there are tons of big name hotels on the strip. Some of them are great, and others are not so great. Our favorite affordable hotels in the mid to south end range include the Luxor, New York New York, the Paris, the Flamingo, and the Linq. Some other really great hotels that are pricier are Mandalay Bay, MGM, Planet Hollywood, Aria, the Bellagio & the Cosmopolitan. We would NOT recommend staying at the Tropicana, Hooters Hotel, or the Excalibur. We have enjoyed staying at the Rio & the Hard Rock Hotel, but those are about a quarter to half of a mile off of the strip. It'd be a quick and easy Uber ride, but you can't walk right out of the hotel and be on the strip like the convenience of the others. Again, we recommend checking out Groupon for hotel deals first. If you're not seeing what you want on there, try booking a package deal with flight and hotel combined, or go to vegas.com and look at their deals. Or, there's always expedia.

Flight

Flight Options

For the Bellingham group - It is great that our airport has two options for us to get to Vegas. One, fly with Alaska, or two, fly with Allegiant. The upside to flying with Alaska is that they don't charge for a carry-on and the planes are newer and have better press about their safety. However, Alaska typically only has late-day options and most of them include a stop or two, so it takes a lot longer to get to Vegas. With Allegiant (we have always flown Allegiant for convenience), there are early morning flights that are nonstop to Vegas. However, they don't have good press about their planes' safety (we've never experienced a problem but you never know) and they charge you for everything (carry-on, seat selection, soda, etc.), although it is typically still a lot cheaper than flying Alaska. You are able to book with Alaska as of right now, but with Allegiant, you'd have to wait to book until mid May (they only book 6 months out).