Day 1
Afternoon
Renew your vows, Elvis style
An Elvis-themed vow renewal ceremony and celebrations.
The excitement of Las Vegas hits even before your plane has landed. From the air you see the city rising out of the desert, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Then the famous hotels come into view – the New York New York, the Luxor – and your excitement mounts.
We planned our first trip to Las Vegas around a significant wedding anniversary. Rather than mark the occasion in a traditional way, we decided to renew our wedding vows in Vegas. Close friends who had married just a couple of weeks before us, decided to join us and turn it into a double celebration.
So this is the honest version of how we planned the trip, what worked, and what we’d tell anyone heading out to Las Vegas for the first time. Where a topic deserves a proper deep dive, such as, the resort hotels, the Grand Canyon or the famous neon signs, then I’ll point you to our relevant full guides.
If you only take a few things from this guide, make them these:
Pick your dates around weather and price: Spring and Autumn are the sweet spots.
Three to four days is plenty of time for a first visit.
Budget for both the hotel room and the relevant resort fees, which are a significant additional cost.
Make bookings early for any key activities you want to do, as popular ones do sell out.
Only book one main activity for each day and leave the rest of the time to be spontaneous.
Make a point of leaving the hotels. Trust me, it's easy to get stuck inside them!
Heat – the single biggest factor to consider is the heat. Summers in the desert are brutal, with temperatures regularly climbing past 40°C, making a wander along The Strip uncomfortable and hard going; although everywhere indoors has air conditioning.
Spring (March to May) and Autumn (September to November) are far more comfortable for sightseeing and would be our suggestion for a first visit.
Price – yes, price matters too. Weekends are busier and dearer, so if your dates are flexible, a midweek stay can provide you with savings on your hotel room. Check for big events or conventions in the city on your dates, for example, the Las Vegas Grand Prix (Formula 1), as these events push hotel prices up across the whole city.
Three to four days is plenty of time for a first trip to Las Vegas. We had three full days and barely scratched the surface of what’s on offer. However three days was long enough to see the highlights, do one big activity each day, and still have time to relax. Much longer than that and, unless you’re a serious gambler or clubber, you may find the constant noise and lights start to wear on you. Vegas is intense, and a shorter, well-planned trip often beats a long, aimless one.
Flights land at Harry Reid International Airport, which sits close to the southern end of The Strip. Most first-timers base themselves on, or near, The Strip so they are close to the main sights.
Walking times – a word of caution on exploring by foot as distances are deceptive. The hotels are so large that it takes ages to move around within each hotel, and to move from one hotel to the next. In addition, occasionally the pavement runs out and sends you across the road via footbridges, and back again. Places might look close on the map, but it will undoubtedly take you longer to walk the distance.
The Deuce – The Deuce is a bus which runs up and down The Strip, operating like a Hop-on-Hop-off service. Alternatively, ride shares and taxis are easy to come by.
Allow more travel time than you think you'll need, as it takes longer to move around Las Vegas than you'd think.
The big resort hotels follow a very similar formula, so where you stay matters less than you’d think. Pick the theme of hotel you like the look of, check where it sits on The Strip for the things you want to do, and factor into your budget the Resort Fee, which is a mandatory daily charge on top of your room rate.
We stayed at The Palazzo at The Venetian and used hotel reward points to keep the cost down. For the full picture on choosing a hotel, what resort fees actually cost, and how to avoid them, see our guide to Las Vegas Resort Hotels.
A trip to Las Vegas can get expensive quickly, so a little honesty up front goes a long way, especially with friends. Here’s how we kept ours under control.
Have the money conversation early: Before you book, agree roughly how much everyone wants to spend on the trip. It's a slightly awkward chat, but it saves a lot of tension later.
Track shared spending as you go: We use the Tricount App to keep tabs on who has paid for what. A useful tip: set up the group with just one person from each couple or family in it, which keeps the final settling-up simple.
Remember the extras: On top of the room, budget for resort fees and often separate parking charges. Our resort hotels guide breaks down the current numbers.
They say ‘you never truly know someone until you’ve travelled with them’, and even solid couples can get tetchy when they’re displaced, jet-lagged and tired. The same goes for friends. Different routines around when you get up, when you eat and how much you want to cram in can quietly cause friction.
So choose your travelling companions carefully, and be alert to those differences so you can work around them. Our travel companions were tried and tested, so no worries there.
When it comes to the actual planning, a different approach works better with friends than with family. Left to my own devices I’ll happily build a whole itinerary with something for everyone, but you can’t really do that for other people without treading on toes. Instead:
Set your priorities together: Hold a Zoom call to plan together (helpful if you don't live in the same city) and set up a shared OneDrive or Google Doc which you can all edit. Talking the trip through, even virtually, is far easier than by text or email.
Divide and conquer: Once you've agreed the priorities, split the bookings between you. It shares the workload and stops any one person taking over.
Sort your top priority first: Our top priority was the Vow renewal, so that was the first element we researched and booked.
The options for things to do and places to eat in Las Vegas are endless, so you have to be careful not to cram too much in.
Our strategy was simple – book one big activity each day, and leave the rest of the time free for pool lounging, hotel wandering and being spontaneous. It made for a well-balanced trip rather than an exhausting one.
Here’s roughly how our three days looked, which works well as a first-timer template.
A relaxed way to see the best of the city, one memorable outing at a time.
An Elvis-themed vow renewal ceremony and celebrations.
A sunset flight to the Grand Canyon with a champagne landing on the canyon floor.
See the old Las Vegas signs at the outdoor Neon Boneyard.
Book one main activity per day, and leave the rest of the time free for the pool, shopping, and being spontaneous.
Fill the time around your main activities with spontaneous activities that probably wouldn’t have made an obvious Vegas list – watching a Rugby World Cup match in the Ri Ra Irish Bar at Mandalay Bay, make a quick stop at The Westgate (formerly the International, where Elvis had his residency) to see the Elvis statue and memorabilia, explore the other hotels, watch the Bellagio fountains, and walk The Strip at night to take in the lights.
If you’re looking for some trip inspiration, here are the highlights from our Las Vegas trip with friends, each with a full guide:
The Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and the High Roller wheel are all easy additions if you have an extra day.
In closing
Las Vegas is a man-made playground where you can experience as much, or as little, as you like. If you don't arrive with a plan your time may get swallowed up in your hotel, and you'll miss the restof the city. But with a bit of planning, an honest budget and a couple of days out in the fresh air, it makes for a truly memorable trip. Our visit to Las Vegas was tame by some people's standards, but it matched exactly what we were looking for, and it was no less enjoyable for it.
See you next time Vegas.
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Your step-by-step framework for stress-free, unforgettable trips — from first idea to final itinerary.
Your step-by-step framework for stress-free, unforgettable trips — from first idea to final itinerary.
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