Travel Planning - Vegas

Lacy and I are both so excited to be heading out to Vegas this weekend!  With our husbands.  It's kind of a tradition that we began at last year's Spring Break, when we were all just dating.  We joked a countless number of times about getting married in Vegas chapels.  Six months later, we were all married.  But not in Vegas chapels.  How life surprises us sometimes!  But anyway, travel.

When it comes to traveling, I'm a planner.  I read recently (I think on Cup of Jo) that the anticipation and planning of travel brings nearly more joy than often the actual trip itself brings!  Now, I'm not on board 100% with that statement, but I sure do find that travel research brightens up my day.

So much so that I find it almost impossible for me to not be planning SOME kind of trip, pretty much all the time.  It's a sickness.  A lovely, lovely sickness.  That I don't plan on curing any time soon.

My favorite place to start for any trip planning is Expedia.  They consistently have the cheapest flights, lowest fees, and largest amount of options, at least that I've ever found.  I don't believe I've ever booked a flight without Expedia.  And that's saying something, because I've been on quite a few flights in the past five years.  If you have a site you've found that's better, let me know!


TravelZoo is my second favorite secret travel weapon.  You have to sign up with a TravelZoo account in order to see their site, and that's not a bad thing!  I've never received spam email through TravelZoo.  Only good things here.  I receive a once a week email called the Top 20.

 
It's a list of current killer travel deals.  It's rare that I get to take advantage of these deals, but it makes for a perfect few minutes of wanderlusting every Wednesday morning.

And I actually found a perfect deal for a Vegas hotel for us this weekend!  At a place I've been dying to stay at for years, by the way.  At nearly 50% off the normal price!  What I'm saying is, sign up for TravelZoo.

Nextly on my planning list, what to do while we're there!  For me, what restaurants to eat at is just as important as what sites we'll see.  I like to look at TripAdvisor for both of these.  They have extensive lists of restaurants, hotels, things to do, what to see.... and all are rated by the vast community at that site.

And without TripAdvisor, how would I have ever found out about this hiliarious "theme park" called Dig This; where you get to go and control heavy equipment and "re-live our sandbox days."  It's apparently the #1 attraction in Vegas!  I thought I'd seen everything in Vegas, but I'd never heard of this.  And now I really want to check it out.

Among their top-rated restaurants in Vegas, many are a bit too pricey to consider.  But one place is called Crepe Expectations.  With a price of $6-12 and a location nearby our hotel, it definitely got added to the list.  (And yes, I do use Notepad.  Its basic format, and ease of saving to Dropbox so I can always have the file on my phone, makes my life easy.)

Lastly, I follow quite a few people on Reader.  And if any of them live nearby, or have traveled to, the destination I'm headed to, I like to take their notes.  Like this:

Lottie + Doof found an incredible used book store, Amber Unicorn Books, and it was also added to the list!

All of that being said, I use all my plans as guidelines, and I have no problem throwing everything out the window in the name of exploring and spontaneity!  The thrill of travel is finding something you never expected and doing it with the ones you love (even if that happens to be yourself--yes, I do recommend solo trips!)

Happy Travel everyone!  And wish us fun and luck in Vegas!

P.S.  I hope this doesn't read too much like a commercial!  None of the people at these sites know anything about our little blog here.  I just like them.