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As you know, one of the best things in life is travel. It can bring you closer to your family, allow you to experience new cultures, and see sites that you only read or dream about.
However, instead of spending thousands of dollars on travel, there are a lot of ways to get travel for significantly less than most people spend.
We can even get our travel for free!
One of the easiest places to travel for free is Las Vegas. Let’s check it out.
Flights
There are many ways to get free or really cheap flights to Vegas. A few of these include having flexible dates, using a budget airline, and using credit card rewards.
Flexible Dates
Since there are so many flights going into Vegas, it is often easy to find really cheap flights to Vegas. Of course, to find cheap flights, sometimes it helps to be flexible with the dates that we are traveling.
As an example, I searched the website Orbitz.com to determine the amount of money that we can save by being flexible. Since I live in Michigan, I searched for a round-trip flight from Detroit to Vegas during the first week in October.
I found that traveling from Thursday to Sunday would cost $333 per person. However, if I changed my travel dates to Tuesday through Saturday, it would only cost $249 per person. It looks like I have just saved $84!
Budget Airlines
To save even more money on our trip to Vegas, it helps to go directly to the website of the airline. As we noticed in the example above, the cheapest nonstop flight to Vegas on Orbitz was $249. We also saw that this flight is through Spirit Airlines.
However, if I go to Spirit’s website, the roundtrip flight drops to $203. Spirit breaks their prices out by day, so you can easily see what the cheapest days to fly are.
This chart shows that it costs $99 to fly to Vegas.
On the way home, it only costs $103.
Besides Spirit, other budget airlines include Frontier and Southwest. Sometimes, a travel website such as Orbitz or Expedia will not include all of the budget airlines, so it pays to look around.
Credit Card Rewards
So far we have only discussed ways to save and get cheap flights to Vegas. However, if we want free flights and travel to vegas, then it helps to look at credit card rewards.
If you are not too familiar with using credit card rewards to help save on travel, definitely check out my beginner’s guide to credit card rewards. This is a really great resource for those who want to find out how to travel for free.
Flying to Las Vegas for free is actually really easy to do using credit card rewards. All that you have to do is get points from United, American, Southwest, or any carrier that offers points from credit cards.
For example, using an United Airlines award chart shows that it will cost 12,500 points plus $5.60 for one way travel to Vegas from Detroit.
Since this is 25,000 points total, I would compare it to the lowest price charged by Spirit, which was $203 and see if it makes sense to spend points or dollars. I would also keep in mind extra fees, such as baggage that would be charged by Spirit. Sometimes, certain credit cards will allow you to check some bags for free.
One great credit card to look into for free travel to Vegas is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. Currently, it offers a bonus of 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points after an initial spend of $4,000. Since these points transfer to United Airlines, they could be used to book two tickets to Las Vegas for free. They could also be redeemed for travel using the Ultimate Rewards portal, where each point is worth 1.25 cents.
Hotels
Free and cheap hotels in Vegas are even easier to get than free flights to Vegas.
Cheap Hotels
As we know, Vegas has thousands of hotel rooms. And most of the time, they are just sitting vacant. Therefore, choosing dates wisely can allow us to book hotels that are on the Strip for less money than we would expect.
An example would be a hotel like Excalibur. Now this probably won’t be the fanciest hotel, even though your kids will absolutely love it, but rates for the first week in October are only $35 per night plus resort fees. Again, if we can be flexible about the dates that we travel to Vegas, we will definitely be able to get the best deal.
Free Hotels
Just like using credit card rewards to book airline tickets, we can also use credit card rewards to book free hotel rooms in Vegas. One great hotel reward program is Hyatt. Not only can you book a hotel like the Hyatt Place in Las Vegas for 8,000 points per night, but you can also book hotels that you may not even associate with Hyatt.
For instance, one of the most high profile hotels on the Las Vegas Strip, the Bellagio, is owned by Hyatt. Many other high end hotels are also owned by Hyatt, such as The Mirage and Aria. All of these hotels can be booked for free by using Hyatt reward points.
Using the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is also good here because these points transfer to Hyatt as well as many other hotel reward programs.
Everything Else
As you probably already know, there are hundreds of things to do in Las Vegas, not even including gambling. One thing that is always awesome is just walking around and exploring the Vegas Strip. Not even including all of the crazy people, here are some of the great things that you could see for free in Las Vegas.
On (or near) the Strip
- See the Bellagio Fountains dance to music.
- Watch the gondolas at the Grand Canal Shoppes.
- See the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty.
- Check out The Chandelier bar at The Cosmopolitan (just don’t get one of their super-expensive drinks there).
- Visit (and play) ar the Pinball Hall of Fame. It’s 10,000 square feet dedicated to pinball games!
- Walk around the campus of UNLV.
- Visit the flamingos at The Flamingo.
- Check out a free circus at Circus Circus.
Off the Strip
Getting off of the Strip is probably even better. Even though most people go to Vegas and only see the Strip, there is a lot of great hiking and one really cool canyon within only a few hours of Las Vegas.
Although it will cost a bit of money to rent a car, driving to the Grand Canyon or Zion National Park are really great options that are only a few hours away from Las Vegas.
Even closer to Las Vegas, you will find Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. Since this is only 20 minutes away from your hotel, it can be a great way to get out and enjoy the scenic beauty of Nevada, while not having to drive too far from the city. The Hoover Dam is another spectacular sight that will take you just 40 miles from Vegas.
Las Vegas for Free?
So … is Las Vegas a trip for you? No matter what, it will probably be a lot more fun if you don’t bring back hundred or thousands of dollars of debt.
Make sure that you let us know about some of the great things that you have done in Las Vegas and some things that we should definitely make sure that we do (regardless of the cost)!
And thanks for reading!
~Nathan
Let’s keep living a great life … with the help of money. So what’s next?
- You can travel for free by using rewards credit cards.
- You can get motivated and get out of debt.
- You can check out the next post or the previous post and continue to learn.
But no matter what you decide to do, let’s leave the ordinary behind and take action today!
2 Comments
PFI
We always meet friends for an annual trip in Vegas. It’s a good cheap destination for everyone and you hit on a lot of our favorite strategies.
Oh, and we love the Pinball Hall of Fame, too!
Life Before Budget
That’s awesome! Vegas gets the reputation of being just for parties, but it’s really for everyone from couples to families. Enjoy your next trip!