Travel Planning A Trip To Las Vegas With Friends

On reaching a significant Wedding Anniversary, my other half and I started thinking about ways to celebrate in style. As our original wedding was very traditional and family orientated ‘back in the day’, we decided that it might be good to do something different to mark the occasion and floated the idea of organising a trip to Las Vegas to renew wedding vows. Close friends who had got married just a few weeks before us decided to make it a double celebration, so Viva Las Vegas!

Know your ‘enemy’ before you book!

They say that you never truly know someone until you have been away on a trip or holiday with them. Even the most solid of couples can get tetchy with each other when they are displaced and out of normal routines or jet-lagged and tired, and you may see a side of your travelling companion that surprises you.

The same goes for friends – even the most long standing of friendships can be tested on an overseas trip where household differences in routine (what time you get up, when eat, how long you stay up, whether you need a power nap) and motivation (what you want to see and do) can be highlighted. So, choose your travelling companions carefully and be alert to those differences, so that you can work around them. Luckily our travelling companions to Las Vegas were tried and tested, so we had no worries there.

Establish the priorities for your trip to Las Vegas

Once we had booked our flights from the UK (paid for with British Airways using AMEX Companion Vouchers and Avois points) and secured hotel accommodation at The Palazzo Hotel for our trip to Las Vegas, then we turned our thoughts to how we could spend our time in this exciting city.

As the original purpose of the trip was for both couples to renew wedding vows in Las Vegas, then this was our top priority and therefore the first thing we researched and booked.

If you are able to set some priorities for your trip to Las Vegas then this will help focus your plans and ensure that you get the most out of visit. Also, if you realise that your priorities are different to those of your travelling companions then you can address this in your itinerary (or rethink whether they are the best companions for this particular trip!).

Divide and conquer with your planning to-do List

As I write a blog focussed on travel planning, it is perhaps no surprise that I can be a bit of a control freak about the itinerary and plans. If planning a trip for my family, then I will pull the whole itinerary together, making sure to include ‘something for everyone’. However, you can’t really do this when you’re travelling with friends (without annoying people anyway) and so a different approach is required.

For our trip to Las Vegas, we organised a Zoom call for planning purposes (we didn’t live in the same city as our travelling companions) so that both couples could make suggestions about what they would like to do. Then we decided to divide between us the activities and restaurants to be booked, so as to share the load and involve everyone.

Don’t be tempted to over-schedule activities

The options for things to do and places to eat in Las Vegas are endless and because we only had 3 days to explore we had to be mindful not to over-schedule. Our strategy was therefore to book one big activity each day and leave the rest of the time free for hotel mooching, pool time and being spontaneous.

What activities did we include in our trip to Las Vegas?

Prioritised activities:

• Day one – Vow renewal ceremony and celebrations;
• Day two – Helicopter flight to the Grand Canyon with Maverick Helicopters;
• Day three – Visit to the Neon Museum to see the old Las Vegas signs [link to BLOG].

Additional activities enjoyed on our trip to Las Vegas:

• Watching a rugby World Cup match in the Ri Ra Irish Bar at the Mandalay Hotel (run by a distant family member) and enjoying a chilled out, entertaining couple of hours which probably wouldn’t have made it onto the obvious Las Vegas schedule
• Making a quick stop at The Westgate Hotel, previously the International Hotel where Elvis had his Las Vegas Residency – there is a statue of Elvis and some memorabilia in the foyer
• Exploring the Venetian Hotel shopping area and gondolas
• Exploring Caesar’s Palace shopping and Nero’s bar
• Watching the fountains outside the Bellagio Hotel and looking at the flower display in the Bellagio Atrium (a seasonal ‘Fall’ toadstool display), followed by beers on the outdoor Beer Hall patio at the Paris Hotel
• Walking The Strip at night to take in the sights and bright lights of the hotels and bars
• Wandering around the gambling floor of our hotel, placing some small-fry bets and watching people multitask in the Sports bars – sitting at the bar, having a drink, and a cigar, watching sport on the TV screens, whilst placing bets on the panels in front of them (quite a skill!)
• Chilling by the hotel pool and enjoying silly expensive cocktails.

NOTE – When putting your itinerary together, do not underestimate just how large the hotels are and how time just evaporates when you are trying to get from A and B. I had no idea when we booked that the hotels were such an all-encompassing experience.

Final thoughts on our trip to Las Vegas with friends

Our plans all made for a very memorable and well-balanced trip to Las Vegas, but we have barely scratched the surface of this incredible place.

Our trip to Las Vegas was tame by some Las Vegas standards, but no less enjoyable. The city is a man-made playground where you can access as much or as little as you like. It was great to have explored Las Vegas with friends and to have made amazing memories on our special occasion.

Thank you so much for reading my blog, I hope you found it useful?

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Enjoy your travels!