Sounds OK to me Lesley, especially for September as flights are dearer then than when we go. However I have no experience of booking for that time of year.

I love looking for deals, but it's a pain waiting for them to come out. We have the 2 weekends booked at the IP for April/May. I was hoping to book PH for the 5 nights in between, but the only offer I've seen was quite expensive with a couple of the nights allegedly sold out. Then I was hoping for a deal on the Venetian or the Bellagio for the last 2 nights.

Just saw an offer for the Bellagio for the 5 nights at $169/179 so I have booked it while waiting for other offers to come out. I really just wanted a couple of nights at a high end place.

Can't say I've ever seen any deals for the Platinum so perhaps the rate you've seen is as good as it gets.

luci

Lesley was it cheaper with Expedia than on Platinum own web site ?I've been on both and found Plat better but maybe depends when you want to go.

Hi Luci

I really like the look of Platinum, so if there's no deals come up then won't do any harm to book that one in advance. Plus the Orleans is allowing a saturday arrival, which can often be a problem. Plus, the remaining 5 nights will be sun-thurs night (going home friday) - so they will be easier to grab a bargain on - hopefully.

The rate you have on Bellagio is perfectly acceptable, should nothing better come up! We got it for $149 a few years back but then there was only $1.60 to the pound so you are probably getting better value. Won't do any harm to keep shopping around though! TI actually have reasonable rates for the summer in parts. I would consider that for my last 5 nights as we quite like it. Like you, the idea is that we would finish up in style! lol!

Hi oap

I can't actually look up the expedia site for hotels only - the page doesn't load for me - strange! However it was as a package, so basically I am getting it for just under £200 added to the flight price. This is due to discount for booking together plus £50 off I get through my workplace. This is on packages only (even only partial hotel packages), so this may be making it worthwhile! If you can be bothered checking it on expedia for me 11-14 sept (3 nts) I will know what I'm saving. It's coming up £81, £96, £96 on hotels.com total £306 inc tax. This might well be a good deal - I'm off to try travelsupermarket now to see.

Just checked Expedia for you and it's the same - £81, £96, £96 total £306.

luci

Travelsupermarket is showing £92 per night for Platinum for those dates. Total 287. This is tempting for me to book the expedia package now!!!

Just realised that Expedia and hotels.com can't count! £81 + £96 + £96 = £273, not £306 as they are showing!

luci

Hi Luci - that's the tax

Oh, I thought the tax was only added as an extra when you booked with the hotel. I would have expected it to be included with the likes of Expedia.

luci

nah...added every time they want to make it look cheaper than it is it seems!

I've just booked my flights for two weeks starting 14th September and it came out at £546 each with Virgin, so the flights sound good (if direct).

I seriously looked at the Platinum last Sept. but they had such good deals for MGM/Signature that I didn't bother. I suppose it's one of those decisions where you either get it booked now and know you're sorted, or do the usual waiting around for the deals to come in.

TC

Hi Tee Cee. Not direct but from Glasgow, which is slightly more of a problem as it's only Continental (expensive) now and US Airways. American Airlines no longer fly from Glasgow, so I guess availability is scarcer now.

I like the idea of the balcony at Platinum, plus the pool looks good, and it's handy for Metro Pizza in Ellis Island. Might have to see if I can trade some ACG coupons and get some more free drinks at EI....although they're pretty cheap anyway, and cocktail service good - so what am I thinking on!!??

Only the Platinum section of our stay would be fixed, others open to finding offers, although Orleans would be Sat arrival, and we want to stay there anyway and hire a car - and maybe day trip over to san francisco by plane if available/cheap.

Lesley,

Southwest now fly Las Vegas to San Francisco and with some forward planning can be as little as $44 each way. Another option is to fly into Oakland and use BART to downtown San Fran.

With an early flight out and early evening flight back, with some effort you can do an awful lot in San Francisco in one day.

Your Vegas prices sound good btw.

J

Teecee,

Good prices for Virgin flights to Vegas. We were looking at the same dates as you last year and the best we could find was £675+ direct with Virgin.

In the end we took advantage of a £365 return per person to LA and then just booked a cheapo Southwest flight to LV. It meant getting into LV about 3 hrs later but the savings were substantial.

Thanks jwhiting. Can you tell me more about Bart...didn't realise there was more than one airport to fly into....what about transport from San Fran airport too - anyone?

http://www.bart.gov/

It's a very simple website to use. Basically the BART (Bay area rapid transport) is a great way of getting to San Francisco downtown from either San Francisco International, or Oakland International.

Up until last year Southwest only flew in and out of Oakland but with huge fanfares they announced they were returning to SF after many years and this now gives the traveller some options.

Both journeys to San Francisco downtown will take about 25mins - 30mins depending on schedules. The stop we used was Civic Center, so you put in either airport into the journey planner and arrive at Civic Center and it will give you the schedules for any specific day.

From Civic Center we hopped on a bus to our hotel. The local transportation in SF is the best in the world if you ask me. Very easy to use.

We actually used BART all the way from the Richmond stop to San Francisco as we had got the train from Sacramento.

Just for comparison, BART fares each way are $5.15pp whereas a shared taxi van will cost $12-$17pp, or a taxi for yourself of $25-$37. Also the journey from SFO particularly can be horrendous. My Brother took a shared taxi and it took 2 hours with all the drop offs at hotels.

One thing to note is that BART is based in the international teminal and if you fly in from LV you will either need to walk or get the free airtrain. Maximum walking times are 15mins depending on what terminal you fly in and out of, but it can be as short as 5mins.

When in SF get the one day travelcard for transportation on all local transportation INCLUDING cable cars. With a single cable car journey being $5 (in 2006 when we were last there) the travelcard was a bargain. Remember also there are two cable car lines, the very popular and scenic journey from Union Square to Fishermans Wharf but also the California line which really makes you appreciate just how hilly the city is.

If you have any further questions let me know. I think a one day trip to San Francisco is easily doable from LV using flights.

Thanks very much - very informative. If we decide to do that I'll be asking for more info from you!!!

Thanks!

jwhiting - Yeah, I thought those prices for Virgin were pretty good, it may be because they tend to have a bit of a sale in January I suppose. The stopover flights always seem to be over £400 to Vegas now so it makes sense to pay that bit more and go direct I guess.

Just gutted Maxjet folded!

TC

Hi TeeCee - I was thinking about you when I read about Maxjet. Hope you never had anything booked with them at the time.

Wish I could get something direct from Glasgow - well except mytravel in July with a 15kg baggage allowance - I won't even bother considering that lol

Do you have any hotels booked yet TeeCee? Or any plans on where you want to stay. I guess you're going to say MGM or Signature - but you do hotel hop, don't you???

Hi Lesley,

Thankfully I didn't have anything booked with Maxjet but a guy I used to work with did, think he got his money back from his credit card company though.

I haven't booked any hotels yet. To be honest, because we're very flexible where we stay (pretty much anywhere on strip), I'm happy to leave it very late and just try to get a bargain.
You're right though, I think out of choice we will definitely try to stay at the MGM and/or Signature again this year, especially if they do a room for £35 a night like last year. I'd love to try the Venetian but I can't believe it would be much better than the MGM but it will cost £70+ a night more.......that eats into my gambling money!!
We do tend to stay at a couple of hotels each trip to keep things fresh, our only real 'need' as such is a decent pool area as we tend to laze around the pool during the day (it stops me gambling ).
How's the pool area at Planet Hollywood, do you know? Am a bit tempted by PH.

Cheers TC