So lets start with flights; these can be more than the rest of your holiday combined! There are a couple of ways to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to transatlantic flights
Direct vs Stop overs
This is a tricky one and the first question you need to ask yourself is How much is my time worth? If all you want is to spend the least amount of ££££ possible then it doesn't matter how long you will spend in Dallas Fort Worth airport on the way there (and back!) as you could save your self hundreds of pounds - but I did it twice and will never do it again; here's why...
The way out there is fine, you are in holiday mode and its an adventure; if its a long stopover you could even venture out to see the city that you are laying over in. On the way back, however, it is a different kettle of fish; you are tired and all you want to do is go home; if you enjoy Vegas as much as I do then the post holiday blues kick in as soon as you are at Mccarran airport, so prolonging the time you spend getting home is not a positive one.
Also bear in mind that US airports aren't like Gatwick or Heathrow; even the big ones are more like Luton at best (1 Duty Free shop a bar and a coffee shop. Oh and an SBarro which are the scum of the earth imho...)
If I search flights on a site like Expedia (find it here - this is not a sponsored link, I have linked it as I like this site; more on that in another post) , here's the difference in prices I get (please note this is for illustration purposes only and what you find when you search may differ greatly);
Cheapest Direct flight £809 with Virgin
Total journey time out = 10hr 45
Total journey time back = 10hr
Cheapest 1 stop flight £591 American Airlines
Total journey time out = 15hr 30
Total journey time back = 14hr 50
So as you can see the layovers save you £200pp in this example but add 9 hours to your journey time. This is a decision only you can make in terms of time vs money
Isn't there another way?
Well, actually, there may well be; a friend of mine, that is in Vegas as I type, swears by getting the cheapest Direct flight to the closest town he can and then driving from there.
For example: LA is a 5 hour drive to Vegas - you could spend a night in LA if you wanted to and it does mean you have the car; depending on what you want from your time in Vegas this could be a good thing or a waste of time. I would suggest you make your mind up on that point once you have decided what you want to do there including how you will be seeing the Grand Canyon (that post will be coming very soon)
This would also apply from other cities / towns - use Google maps and a flight search site to try a few out.
Again just for illustration if we used the same dates as the example above then flying into LAX and renting a car the cheapest Direct with basic car is £718
The same into Phoenix, Arizona (PHX, just over 5hrs drive) is £620
And finally - buy your flight & hotel together from one of the many sites that do it (Last Minute, and Expedia to name just two). All of the above direct vs. in-direct flights still applies but you will probably find that the total price is only slightly more than (or even the same) as just the flight prices alone.
My next blog will be on the Las Vegas area and hotels and Where to stay, so check back for that very soon...
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[A point for you to note as you search airlines; at the time of writing this blog ONLY Virgin and BA fly direct to Las Vegas (airport code LAS). But it does look like AA and Iberia (both part of BA now) may be coming to the party too...]
