We'll let Mike Attisano, author of the travel guide Simplifying Las Vegas, tackle this one. His e-book is available on Kindle http://www.amazon.com/Simplifying-Vegas-Travel-Guide and as a pdf at www.simplifyinglasvegas.com.
This may seem like a simple question, but the answer is pretty complex.
First, it depends on how close you live to Las Vegas. If, for example, you're traveling from southern California, you have many options in terms of attractive packages and last-minute deals from a variety of travel Web sites. And depending on how often you go to Sin City, you could get offers directly from casinos for discounted or free rooms, packages with show tickets, and the like, to draw you in.
That’s why it’s so important to sign up for players clubs. Once you’re on casinos' mailing and e-mail lists, you’ll start getting offers from them, especially these days, when casinos are marketing hard.
For those of us who don’t qualify for the perks that come from earning a lot of comps through gambling, we have to book our trips the old-fashioned way. And by "old-fashioned," I mean surfing the Web. But before you run to your computer to book the trip, you’ll need to ask yourself some questions first:
* When do I want to go? If you don’t like crowds and higher rates, avoid major holidays and huge conventions, like the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January.
* How long do I want to stay? Sunday through Thursday rates are better, so consider that instead of a traditional Saturday to Saturday vacation.
* Where do I want to stay? Lots of people want to be in the center of the action -- on the Strip. But don’t forget that the casinos downtown are centrally located, and they almost always have great rates. Locals casinos are another possibility, and many of them have free shuttles to the Strip.
* What can I afford? In addition to transportation to, from, and around, room, food, entertainment, and gambling, don’t forget to budget for little things like tips (Vegas thrives on them), souvenirs, gifts, and splurges.
OK, so now you’ve done the fun part: figuring what type of trip you want. Booking your trip is a little trickier, but here are a few tips.
First, if you’re not flying to Vegas and just need a room to rest your head, you have some great resources at your fingertips:
* If you're a Las Vegas Advisor subscriber, your first stop should be the Room Rate Survey, which identifies the least expensive rooms for the next three months.
* You can also try travelaxe.com, which includes a free software package you can download to search hotel prices from different travel Web sites. It’s easy to use and yes, it’s really free.
* Some hotel-casino Web sites include an option where you can enter a code for a discounted room rate. You can find some of these codes at www.currentcodes.com for places ranging from the inexpensive (Circus Circus and Excalibur) and mid-range (the Mirage and New York-New York) to yowza (Bellagio and Mandalay Bay).
* If you're flying to Las Vegas, book your trip way ahead of time, six months to a year in advance, to get the best rates. And unless you’re getting your hotel for free, it often pays to book your hotel and flight together to save money. I’ve tried many times to see if I could get a better deal booking the room and flight separately, but have never been able to do it.
Some great meta travel search engines, like Sidestep.com, do the legwork for you by scanning a majority of the traditional travel sites, such as Orbitz, Hotwire, and Priceline. But if you want to get the best deal, you'll need to poke around a few different sites to see the going rates. First, I look at any sites the meta search engines don’t cover, like Travelocity
