Am I the only who is replacing Vegas for Florida lately?

I have over 1200 nights in Vegas under my belt. I can't help but notice that in the last two years I have chosen Florida over Vegas lately. Gambling was never much of a draw for me except as a way to supplement paying for the cost of my trip. I have been thinking about the reasons for the change and here are my reasons:

1. Resort fees....Of course resort fees are everywhere almost but the $15/night at the Quad is more than I've paid in the past to stay there! Long live the Tez and Terribles...err the Silver Sevens.

2. Higher airfare to Vegas and cheap airfare to Florida. I recently booked a trip to MIA for $120 round trip out of IND (or CMH) on American. Also Allegiant Airlines is easily available to me out of LEX, Rickenbacker (little Columbus), Huntington WV, and soon CVG.

3. The lowest cruise prices I have ever seen during dead times and/or hurricane season. Costa Concordia etc. and many new cruise ship arrivals has dropped cruise attendance while increasing capacity which has lowered fares and single supplements.

4. Vegas rental car taxes have skyrocketed out of control.

5. Florida has warmer weather in the winter and of course the allure of the Atlantic Ocean!

6. It's become tougher than ever to coupon grind in Vegas but fairly easy in S. Florida at least for new signups (which I am).

I still love Vegas but recently did the math and found that I can have a great time for less in certain parts of Florida. I realize that I am very frugal and more sensitive to price then most people but I'm wondering if I'm the only one exploring???

I'm not exploring elsewhere, but that's at least somewhat because I don't live that far away from Las Vegas (I live in Los Angeles which is 280 Miles away), and a LV vacation is inexpensive enough for me.

I have enough stuff in LV including friends, family and if need be other activities to keep me occupied even when I don't play (I'm there more for play than anything else -- although while I'm there I do get about and see people as well).

RecVPPlayer

I don't agree with much here.

1. Even with resort fees factored in, Las Vegas hotels remain significantly less expensive than comparable hotels in Florida resort areas like Miami Beach, Disneyworld, and Clearwater. WAY less expensive.

2. Las Vegas is a key city for low-fare leaders Southwest, Spirit, and Allegiant. While they will always be exceptions and anomalies, I don't think many cities have reliably lower airfares than Las Vegas.

3. Florida cruises are not comparable, might as well compare Las Vegas to a ski resort.

4. Vegas car rental taxes are not high, when compared to other American cities. Go rent a car in Boston, New York, Chicago, Miami, or Seattle, you'll see. Plus, if you're on a comped room,, you're not paying a room tax. You do feel obliged to help pay for all the costs you imposed on a town when you visit, right? (Police, fire, public works etc.) Beyond sales tax and potential room taxes, Las Vegas collects very few taxes directly from visitors.

5. No denying that Las Vegas lacks the Atlantic Ocean.

6. Coupon grinding in Florida is superior to what's possible in Las Vegas? You can't be serious.

Florida definitely offers some things that Las Vegas doesn't. But I can't see it being a consistently less expensive for a comparable vacation.

Glad to see Chilcoot's mind is open as always....Geez

Oh man this sounds awesome! $120 from IND to MIA. 2 questions: what good coupons are their in Florida, any good slot rebates? also is there sports betting in Florida, that's one area Nevada seems to still have a monopoly.

So Chilcoot disagrees and gives point by point explanation of his disagreement, and that means he has a closed mind?

1200 nights is like 30 nights a year for 40 years straight! That alone is pretty incredible! I can't say that I like the Florida humidity, thunderstorms or hurricanes. Plus you'd need a rental car. I go to Vegas and never get a rental and see everything I want to see with monorail, cabs, limos or bus tours.

Kimbaed: I base my opinion on Chilcoot's current post and previous posts. My thread was about comparing Florida against Las Vegas.

1.Resort fees: He never address my claim that the Quad fee of $15 is higher the hotel rate itself during off peak dates. I also go on to name Las Vegas resorts that still offer value. This resort fee did not exist a few years ago and is a major new cost factor if your trying to stay on the Strip.

2.Chilcoot tells me I'm wrong on air fare but fails to back up his claim with any empirical evidence. He goes on to name Allegiant which has no Vegas service near me. The furthest East Allegiant Air serves is South Bend IN, Grand Rapids, MI or Peoria, IL. Again way too far to go to catch a plane. Spirit Airlines comes a little closer with Detroit MI and Latrobe/Pittsburgh but most people think a 4 hour drive each way is too far. Southwest is in the area and at times can be reasonable but no where near my point of $120 round trip.

3.Chilcoot claims I can't compare Florida cruise ships to Las Vegas and then goes on about a ski resort. Last time I checked cruise ships have casinos, rooms, and gourmet meals. But since Chilcoot says they are not comparable then he must be right. This is an excellent example of a closed mind that just wants to argue and not debate.

4. My thread is about comparing Florida to Las Vegas. I don't recall Boston, New York, Chicago, or Seattle being in Florida. Las Vegas taxes on rental cars are high when considering percentage of rental price. When your position is weak just change the subject.

5. OK

6.My point is for new sign ups which I have exhausted in Las Vegas. I also bought a slot play coupon $50 for $25 ($23.75 with discount) for my uncomparable Norwegian cruise ship. The ACG has lots of Florida coupons.
My tone reflects Chilcoot's tone. This was meant to be a light hearted discussion and not condescending (might as well compare Las Vegas to a Ski Resort).

My record is 61 nights in a calendar year which I have done twice. Even with my recent splitting of destinations I still have been hitting Vegas for over 30 nights virtually every year. I also have been using public transportation in lieu of a rental car in Las Vegas a lot more lately.

I'm going to break format and just make a few points, all without making personal attacks.

Resort fees suck, no question. But even with resort fees factored in, hotels in Las Vegas are less expensive than comparable hotels in Florida. A LOT less expensive. Basically, what resort fees do is allow the hotel to artificially claim their rates are lower than they actually are. It's a dirty, deceptive trick, one that the Nevada legislature should ban because it does hurt Nevada's reputation, but they're easy for knowledgable travelers like LVA readers to account for.

Allegiant flies much further east than slabow wrote, as far as Bangor, ME and Portsmouth, NH, and has nonstop service to Las Vegas from as far east as Plattsburgh, NY.

I have no doubt that individuals can get occasionally get great fares to Florida. I'm not claiming otherwise. I am merely claiming that great fares are also frequently available to Las Vegas, a city that has lots of flights from throughout the country on America's leading low-cost airlines. On this page alone I'm seeing roundtrip fares to Las Vegas of $110 (Austin), $148 (Baltimore), $98 (Dallas), and $78 (Minneapolis), among many others.

What Las Vegas offers through its hotels simply isn't comparable to what Florida offers through its cruise ships. Very different products.

It may well be true that rental car taxes, as a percentage of the overall price of renting a car, are higher in Las Vegas than in many other locations. But so what? Vegas rates are really low. At bottom, I find that renting a car for a week in Las Vegas is almost always cheaper than renting that same car most anywhere else. (And less necessary, too.) As a customer, what I care about is the bottom line price, not how much the rental company gets and how much the local government gets.

Nothing in Florida compares with the signup bonuses, freeplay, and matchplay opportunities that Las Vegas' hotels and bars offer.

I like Florida too. I just don't find it a good substitute for Las Vegas, and specifically disagree that it's superior to Las Vegas in most of the criteria listed at the beginning of this thread.