This year is no different; though we know a few basic things:
Where we will fly into: Las Vegas{thank you westjet for having cheap, direct flights from Vic!}
What we will be renting: SUV {spoiled hubby, won't stand for anything smaller}. Story on wonderful 'coincidences' on our trips to come on another blog, will include how we got this years rental for way less than advertised anywhere on the web!
Our first 2 nights: Already booked a sweet condo just off the strip with full kitchen, 2 bedrooms, free wi-fi, parking and only $50 a night.
Thats it.....that is all we have planned!
Flights were taken care of by visa points, car rental and first 2 nights already paid for.
The sites we use while on holiday:
http://www.hotwire.com/ - great site, but once we booked through here and got a 5 star resort just down the road from the white house BUT no free parking, no free breakfast, no free wi-fi and NO pool - the fav four we look for in every place we stay!
http://www.priceline.com/ - this is a good site because you can actually SEE what you are booking unless you 'name your own price', which then works alot like hotwire. But we have stayed in some sweet places for cheap.
http://www.wyndham-vacations.com/ - this site has 5 star rentals all over the place, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't.
http://www.hotels.com/ - new favorite website....the deals aren't as great as hotwire but it gives WAY more detail to where you will be staying and huge sets of reviews from other travelors, which i love.
Want to hear something funny? There have been nights where we will find a sweet hotel, I go in to see what the rate is that i can get out of them {never ever take their first offer, and be ready to walk}, while chris is on the laptop hooked up to their wi-fi outside in the parking lot looking up that exact hotel on a place like priceline or even their own hotel website and we have found better deals online out in their parking lot than they give me face to face!
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ - this site is on my favorites toolbar. Any activity, any place we stay or any potential plans we have are always run through this site. Reviews are always taken as a grain of sand, but you can often get a good feel.
I love the art of the deal....i love going after what i want {top 4: breakfast, parking, wi-fi, pool}, especially when it comes to where my family sleeps, plays and spend time together because at this stage of the game with young kids - we need space, we need a pool and we love wi-fi for our own sanity to feel connected.
A major aspect of our holidays are from some amazing family who own timeshares throughout the country that we can check out at any time to see if there are any units available on bonus time {when owners aren't occupying the units, we can use them for basically the cost of the housekeeping fee}. Thank you Mike and Susan...love you.
So...we are open to adventure, to see where the road takes us, for a change of scenery, for an In N Out Burger, to see some wonderful cousins that we haven't seen in way too long down in california but mostly we are excited to go make some wicked memories as a family!!
The countdown is ON! So cheers to sleeping in closets and all over the place!!
