As soon as we got back from our last Vegas jaunt in Sept, we thought hmmm, we've still got loadsa dollars left, It'd be a pity to exchange em back, so mite as well put 'em to good use and book another trip hehe, plus I won 2 $100 tickets to see the platters/drifters/coasters on the free-pull house bandit, a flimsy excuse I know but its good enuf for me :), so after a few months of talking and deciding we settled on April again. This time there's 6 of us (4 with Laddies alias's), namely PowerToBurn, MrChinnery, 4kingriver & myself (WinBase), along with my missus Sue and her m8 Lynne. Quite a few others have expressed an interest but as yet no firm bookings.

The following paragraphs are details of our travel plans and a few ideas that I think may help anyone who's interested in going, however i'm no big expert on Vegas and what are the best deals, I can only speak for how we feel and what works for us.

The Itinery for 4 of us is leaving Manchester on the 25th April on the 10.15 MyTravel MYT035 direct flight, which arrives 1pm local Vegas time, taking summat like 11hrs in the air. We depart Vegas on The 2nd May Around 2.15pm on MYT034, getting back in Manchester around 8.30am. We booked Our holiday this time with Biyee travel (www.biyee.com) who are part of the Freedom travel group, based in Manchester Tel: 0870 242 4933, and dealt with a very nice girl called Kirby, and are once again staying at the Sahara (http://www.saharavegas.com/) at a cost of £625 each, which doesn't include airport transfers or in-flight meals (I aint paying £20 for that garbage, and u will probably get one anyway coz they don't tend to know who actually paid in advance lol), but it's upto you !!!

As far as airport transfers go, the last 2 times have been a bit of a PIA, coz after you land, you don't want the hassle of finding the shuttle pickup in a strange airport or having to ring someone describing exactly where u, are then waiting for em to arrive, and then stopping off at other hotels on the way until u get to yours. This time were just gunna either jump in a limo/cab/shuttle on arrival coz its basically the same price, less hassle and quicker.

We also never take out travel insurance coz we have an annual policy for the family that covers all holidays (UK and abroad) for 4 or us for £109 per year, and as we have a load of holidays this works out much more cost effective.

MrC and 4king are leaving on the 18th April and staying for 2 weeks at the Mardis Gras, having got a superb deal which they booked on www.skytravel.co.uk, and for £585 includes 14 nights, taxes, transfer and direct flights, a very good deal indeed. They booked this using special offer code 9763 but I don't know if it's still current.

It's fair to say that if u aint bothered about staying in a strip hotel/named accommodation, can put up with a 2-stage flight transferring in Atlanta/Philly/Chicago etc, especially from London airports, you can get some absolutely cracking deals by web searches/teletext etc, but for us we like the easier option even if it costs a tad more and luv the Sahara for many reasons, For example I could have got exactly the same holiday www.expedia.co.uk (a very good site for info and costs) with a transfer flight for £530.

I have also found through numerous web searches and checking stuff out, that I couldn't get any better deals by trying to book the hotel and flights separately. There's no substitute for web searches/looking on teletext etc if u really wanna drive the price down, and an afternoons hassle can save a lot of dough. I used http://www.americas4u.com/ on our last trip which mite be worth checking also.

so in a brief summary:

So that's a few things to think of

GLA