Weekend Trips
Weekend packages are great ways to create a mini-vacation and are commonly offered in major gambling destinations like Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and Tunica, Mississippi. A typical package includes airfare, two hotel nights, show tickets, and sometimes match play or “lucky bucks” coupons for gambling. Other discounts, such as two-for-one meals, also might be included.
Casinos usually offer the best weekend deals during the off-season, or “shoulder” season — the weeks leading up to peak season — for gambling destinations. In Las Vegas, July, August, and December are usually the slowest months for casinos, so they'll offer deep discounts on packages to entice visitors. You may have to book these specials several months in advance to get the best deal, and it never hurts to shop around for bargains.
Finding a Good Package
Many casinos advertise their packages on their Web sites, so surfing the Internet is a good place to start your search. Travel agents also have a wide range of special offers at their disposal. Planning your trip as far in advance as possible generally will net you better deals; for the most part, the lower the price, the faster the special will sell out.
Be sure to ask about restrictions and conditions before booking your package. Some require that reservations be canceled forty-eight or even seventy-two hours in advance in order to be eligible for a full refund; others might charge a cancellation fee. Packages that include airfare might be completely nonrefundable. If you're traveling alone, you might have to pay a premium over the stated rate, because most hotel deals are based on double-occupancy.
With packages, you can't get comped for your hotel room because it is already included — usually at greatly reduced cost — in your package. However, you still can qualify for other comps through your gambling. The advantage is that you don't have to limit your playing to one casino in order to get a great room rate.
The Midweek “Weekend”
You can save even more money if you can take your weekend trip in the middle of the week. Throughout the hotel industry, room rates typically are cheaper Sunday through Thursday, and this is true for the casino hotels as well. During the off-season, or shoulder season, it isn't uncommon to find hotel rooms in Las Vegas for as little as $25 to $40 a night during the week, and even higher-priced rooms usually carry midweek discounts.
Although it used to be common for airlines to require a Saturday-night stay for their cheapest fares, that restriction seems to be fading. In general, it's still cheaper to fly on Thursdays and Sundays, although you might have to shop around to get the best deal. If you like to look for deals on the Internet, keep in mind that two of the big low-fare airlines, Southwest and JetBlue, do not advertise their fares on the major discount airfare Web sites like Travelocity.com and Orbitz.com. To check the fares for these airlines, you'll have to go through a travel agent or to their Web sites.
