The Grand Canyon is an amazing place to visit. The problem may be, that you don’t want to plan an entire trip around the Grand Canyon. What if you were visiting Las Vegas, and spent one of your days visiting the Grand Canyon? What if you didn’t have to do the drive yourself?

This is exactly what we did, the first time we were in Las Vegas. We spent one of the days doing a bus tour like one offered by the Grand Canyon Tour Company.

It’s a great deal. Usually for under $200.00 for 2 people, they will pick you up on the Las Vegas Strip early in the morning, give you breakfast, take you to see the Hoover Dam (albeit a short visit!), give you a buffet lunch, and take you to the Grand Canyon. You won’t get back to your hotel until late at night (as it’s a long drive each way…) but it’s worth it!

They also offer other tours, such as a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon, so you’ll have to see which is the perfect tour for you. Either way, it’s an easy way to get to see the amazing Grand Canyon, without having to do the long drive yourself, and you can still spend the rest of your trip in Las Vegas. I am so glad that we did this tour, and would definitely do it again.

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• Grand Canyon SkyWalk set to open in March
• Palazzo Las Vegas
• The Wynn Doesn’t Sit Still…La Reve, Encore, and more
• Indian Echo Caverns
• Free things you shouldn’t miss on the Vegas Strip

Just last week, the Trump International Hotel and Tower Las Vegas opened! If you’re looking to go to Las Vegas soon, and want to stay there, you can get a good deal through Orbitz.

They have a Sizzlin’ Hot Vegas Sale going on right now where you can get $50.00 off when you book a qualifying vacation package for travel between March 24 and August 31, 2008. You have to book by May 18th to get this deal.

You can also get a $25.00 resort credit & 3rd night free at Trump International Hotel and Tower Las Vegas, so that could be a pretty great deal!

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• Free Disney Dining Plan is Back!
• Las Vegas Deals with Southwest Airlines
• FREE Disney Dining – Great Deal
• Las Vegas – $75 Off Hotels
• Universal Studios Orlando – Free Park Tickets

Looking to go to Las Vegas but don’t want to spend a fortune? Southwest has some great deals for Las Vegas vacations.

Code MAR60 can get you $60.00 off of any 2 night or more package now through March 20th. You can also get up to $90.00 off if you use that same code and stay at least 3 nights at the MGM Mirage.

This is a great way to have a fun vacation without having to spend a lot.

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• United Vacations – Up to 35% Off
• New Hotel Open in Las Vegas
• Cheap Mexico Vacations
• Excalibur, Las Vegas
• Home Exchanges – Less Expensive Way to Travel

If you book your trip to Las Vegas, Nevada now through February 21st, 2008, you can get $75.00 off your hotel when you travel through July 31st, 2008. If you were planning on going to Las Vegas, this is a great way to cut costs on your trip. We recommend staying on the Las Vegas Strip, so you won’t need a rental car, and can just walk everywhere you want to go. You’ll get a good workout, but you’ll be able to walk to many of the hotels and casinos that you will want to visit during your trip.

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• Palazzo Las Vegas
• Excalibur, Las Vegas
• Free things you shouldn’t miss on the Vegas Strip
• Grand Canyon as a Day Trip from Las Vegas
• Getting great prices using Kayak.com

By now you’ve most likely heard about the fire at the Monte Carlo on the Las Vegas Strip on Friday morning. They were very lucky in that it was fully contained in a short time, and that most of the damage was on the outside of the building.

The bad news is that while they originally thought they could at least open up the casino that night, they found that the fire officials won’t let them reopen until the exterior facade has either been removed or secured. Basically, they are worried about pieces falling down onto the ground and potentially hurting someone. So, until this is taken care of, the entire casino must stay closed.

On a good note, this past Friday and Saturday customers were allowed to go to their rooms to get their belongings. Unfortunately, they must now stay at other hotels!

Hopefully they will be able to get everything fixed quickly so they can reopen. I’m sure a lot of people can’t wait until they do so!

They still don’t know what caused the fire, but will be looking into it.

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• Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, and More – For Less
• Deciding Which Week to take your Trip
• Where will I travel this year?
• The New York Times Travel Show – This Weekend!
• Palazzo Las Vegas

The Palazzo is the newest Hotel/Casino on the strip, and is having it’s Grand Opening the weekend of January 17th-19th. This hotel is adjacent to the Venetian, and is also owned by the same company.Every room is a suite, and from looking at the pictures on their website, they look incredible! You will have many choices of what type of suite you would like to stay in, ranging from luxury suites, fortuna suites, and even concierge suites.  Of course, note that this is obviously a luxury hotel…so if you’re looking for a budget vacation, stay somewhere else, but be sure to visit!
If you’re looking for some good food, there will be plenty of new restaurants for you to enjoy with 14 different restaurants to choose from at opening. Wolfgang Puck and Emeril Lagasse will each have restaurants here, as well as a French steakhouse, sushi, and even a Grand Lux Cafe.

If you’re looking for entertainment, starting in April they will be showing “Jersey Boys”, a show currently on Broadway that tells the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. I saw this in NYC, and thought it was great!

If you’re looking to shop, this will also be a great place to go. They will have around 60 different shops including a Barney New York, the first on the Las Vegas Strip. Even better, their stores will be connected to The Grand Canal Shoppes of the Venetian, which also has some really nice stores. So you will be able to shop 2 hotels worth of stores at once.

So for those that love Las Vegas, and enjoy going to all of the hotels, casinos, restaurants, and shows on the Las Vegas Strip, be prepared to check out one more!

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• Grand Canyon as a Day Trip from Las Vegas
• Free things you shouldn’t miss on the Vegas Strip
• Excalibur, Las Vegas
• Las Vegas – $75 Off Hotels
• The Stardust is no more…

The Wynn in Las Vegas, Nevada does not sit still!  They keep making amazing changes, to give you new entertainment to see while visiting Vegas.  Just the other day I mentioned how Spamalot is now open, and only a few days later, on April 5th, La Reve just reopened.  A little over a month ago, La Reve (which had been open since the Wynn first opened), closed in order to make a few updates to the theater.  The entire showroom has been completely refurnished, but even more amazing is that about 500 seats were removed from the theater.  This means you have an even more intimate viewing of the show, and can enjoy it even more with bigger, more comfortable seats as well as other changes that were made.

Of course, the shows aren’t all that have been changing at the Wynn.  They are still working on Encore at Wynn, which will be a separate building than Wynn, but they will be connected.  It will have a casino, suites, restaurants, retail shops, and meeting and conference spaces.  Encore at Wynn is scheduled to open in November or December of 2008. 

But Encore isn’t the last thing planned.  The Wynn has a large amount of land that was the Wynn Golf Course, but will be redeveloped in the future. 

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• Spamalot at Wynn, Las Vegas
• Universal Studios Hollywood
• Monsters Inc. Attraction Not Ready
• The Flower Fields – Amazing!
• New Monorail for Disneyland

Spamalot has just opened at Wynn, Las Vegas on March 31st.  It took over the theater that had belonged to Avenue Q up until last year when declining ticket sales forced the show to close. 

One of the stars of Spamalot is John O’Hurley, who is probably best known for his role as J. Peterman on Seinfeld.  Other cast members include Nikki Crawford, Harry Bouvy, Justin Brill, Anthony Crane, Randal Keith, Edward Staudenmayer, and Steven Strafford.  The writers are Eric Idle (of Monty Python fame), and John Du Prez.  With that kind of cast and writers, it has to be great.  Spamalot has already received awards from it’s Broadway location, and now hopes to do well with the Las Vegas crowd. 

One of the biggest differences between the two is that the Broadway version is 2 hours and 20 minutes, while the Las Vegas version is only 90 minutes.  With so much to do in Las Vegas, it seems people don’t want too long of a show, and don’t want an intermission.

While we have not gotten a chance to see it yet, it should be a lot of fun!

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• Palazzo Las Vegas
• Free things you shouldn’t miss on the Vegas Strip
• The Wynn Doesn’t Sit Still…La Reve, Encore, and more
• Las Vegas – $75 Off Hotels
• New Hotel Open in Las Vegas

The Stardust on the Las Vegas Strip was imploded, after having closed on November 1st.  You can see a video of the implosion at that link.  Boyd Gaming will be replacing the Stardust with Echelon Place.  Construction will start soon, and they will open in 2010.  It will include not only 5,300 hotel rooms in four hotels, but also a concert venue, casino, and shopping mall.  The four hotels will be Echelon, Shangri-La, Delano, and Mondrian.  If you’re interested in keeping up with what is going on at Echelon Place, here is their web site, although we will keep you updated with anything interesting we hear.

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• Nickelodeon Universe – Coming Soon to The Mall of America
• Monte Carlo – Fire
• Free things you shouldn’t miss on the Vegas Strip
• Go for the Gusto Reviews
• MyPoints.com – Get money towards your travel!

Another hotel that we will most likely never see built has been given to Clark County for approval. Christopher Milam (the developer) wants to build the tallest building in the world, at 1,888 feet. He wants to build it where the old Wet & Wild used to be, on the strip. Of course, many complain that it is too tall since it is so close to an airport, and would cause issues. Even the tallest LV hotels are less then 700 feet, so we’ll see what happens with this plan! Read more about his plans.

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• Grand Canyon SkyWalk set to open in March
• Think you’ve seen everything?
• Flight Delays – How To Find Out Ahead of Time
• Payard Chocolate Clock – Caesars Palace
• Planning a group trip?