September trip - need advice!

[Liroquai]

Planning a trip with my brother in September. He's 26, never been overseas. I'm 23 and have been to Vegas 5 times, although trips prior to the last I've been under 21 so wouldn't call myself a Vegas veteran by any means. This'll be part of his bucks (bachelor) party so I want to go all out and show him the best Vegas has to offer. So a few questions...

Dates

Looking at going sometime in September for 7-ish days. I know LDW is early September - should we aim to be there for this? Or avoid as tables/rooms will no doubt be more expensive? We like EDM but don't care for who's playing as we've seen just about every DJ at Marquee Sydney in the past year. Ideally we'll want to be there the week following LDW but we'd hate it if the clubs were dead.

Also, is September still pool weather? Vegas in early March was a little too cold for me. How does it compare to the July heat (which I loved)?

Hotels

Has anyone "hotel hopped" for a long-ish trip? Last year I stayed at Encore for 12 nights which, while amazing, was too easy to get comfortable and waste entire days in bed. Also found the casino to be totally dead during the week and the crowd a little older. Is it a good idea to stay at 3-4 hotels based on where we plan to do BS? Thinking of something along the lines of this...

Venetian - Wed to Fri
Cosmo - Fri to Sun
MGM - Sun to Wed

For accommodation we are budgeting $3000 which should give us $400-$500 to play with a night. We're completely set on the wraparound terrace for cosmo but not sure about other rooms for Venetian/MGM. The Venetian rooms do look a little outdated though... Palazzo/Bellagio instead?

Clubs

Last year on a Saturday night I had a table at XS which I loved, the next night without a table I absolutely loathed XS. Way too crowded with nowhere to stand let alone dance... So we'll definitely be looking at BS on every night. Keeping in mind there is only two of us however so our budgets for tables won't be huge, $700-$800 on weeknights, $1100-$1200 for Friday/Saturday. I know the obvious answer is to do GA on weeknights to save some money for a better location for the tables on weekends, but we enjoy the table experience so much more and a 1-2 bottle min should do us fine... Premium location isn't that big of an issue but we definitely want to be pretty close to the action. Here's the schedule I'm thinking of...

Wednesday - Surrender or Lavo
Thursday - Tao
Friday - Marquee
Saturday - Light
Sunday - Hakk
Monday - XS

Thoughts?

Thanks all!

[nighthawk06si]

Planning a trip with my brother in September. He's 26, never been overseas. I'm 23 and have been to Vegas 5 times, although trips prior to the last I've been under 21 so wouldn't call myself a Vegas veteran by any means. This'll be part of his bucks (bachelor) party so I want to go all out and show him the best Vegas has to offer. So a few questions...

Dates

Looking at going sometime in September for 7-ish days. I know LDW is early September - should we aim to be there for this? Or avoid as tables/rooms will no doubt be more expensive? We like EDM but don't care for who's playing as we've seen just about every DJ at Marquee Sydney in the past year. Ideally we'll want to be there the week following LDW but we'd hate it if the clubs were dead.

If you have the budget for LDW then i say go for it! But if not then the following weekend will be just as fun and it won't be dead.

Also, is September still pool weather? Vegas in early March was a little too cold for me. How does it compare to the July heat (which I loved)?

pools will still be open at least for another week or two after LDW for sure. It might be just as hot as July heat or a little bit cooler but not like March cold.

Hotels

Has anyone "hotel hopped" for a long-ish trip? Last year I stayed at Encore for 12 nights which, while amazing, was too easy to get comfortable and waste entire days in bed. Also found the casino to be totally dead during the week and the crowd a little older. Is it a good idea to stay at 3-4 hotels based on where we plan to do BS? Thinking of something along the lines of this...

Venetian - Wed to Fri
Cosmo - Fri to Sun
MGM - Sun to Wed

For accommodation we are budgeting $3000 which should give us $400-$500 to play with a night. We're completely set on the wraparound terrace for cosmo but not sure about other rooms for Venetian/MGM. The Venetian rooms do look a little outdated though... Palazzo/Bellagio instead?

Hotel hopping is common but not necessary. It's just to experience some of the hotels available and the different rooms and atmosphere. I personally would just stay at one hotel to beat having to pack up, move around and check in again but if you don't mind then I say go for it, you picked 3 of the newer/nicer hotels.

Venetian is basically the same as Palazzo, a year or two older but I would still recommend Palazzo just for ease of lobby/taxi line to elevators as Venetian is like a maze when you're drunk and I would go with a Bella Suite for your own bed if it's just the two of you. MGM, the Executive Queen Suite is comparable to the Bella Suite at Palazzo, if you just need a bed those days then you could just save money and book a Grand Queen room.

Clubs

Last year on a Saturday night I had a table at XS which I loved, the next night without a table I absolutely loathed XS. Way too crowded with nowhere to stand let alone dance... So we'll definitely be looking at BS on every night. Keeping in mind there is only two of us however so our budgets for tables won't be huge, $700-$800 on weeknights, $1100-$1200 for Friday/Saturday. I know the obvious answer is to do GA on weeknights to save some money for a better location for the tables on weekends, but we enjoy the table experience so much more and a 1-2 bottle min should do us fine... Premium location isn't that big of an issue but we definitely want to be pretty close to the action. Here's the schedule I'm thinking of...

Wednesday - Surrender or Lavo
Thursday - Tao
Friday - Marquee
Saturday - Light
Sunday - Hakk
Monday - XS

Thoughts?

Lineup looks solid but the mins I think would have to be bumped up just a bit. $800-1k weekdays and $1500-2k weekends. Don't forget the pool parties also, so doing G/A might be necessary to budget pool parties too. Those can easily taken care of with chairs (usually $300-500 min for 2 guys).

Thanks all!

answers in bold.
Hope that helps!

[ocam]

My thoughts:
-scrap Lavo for Wednesday. It is hip hop night and not EDM. Think about doing eclipse (new night pool party at Mandalay bay like xs nightswim) or surrender
-tryst over Tao on thurs. you can get bottle deals at tryst like 2moet+2goose for 600. 1 bottle min table at Tao will be crap and near the entrance, away from everything
-rest of your lineup looks solid but will probably change depending on DJs
- add some pools in the mix for sure
- don't jump around too much with hotels. 2 max for that length of stay.
-use the Get Connected forum to join up with other groups so you can get better tables than you would otherwise land with just 2 people. I'll be there over LDW so you can probs join us for some cabanas / tables if we have space

[Liroquai]

Great advice guys, thanks heaps!

tryst over Tao on thurs. you can get bottle deals at tryst like 2moet+2goose for 600.

Only picked Tao as I loved it last year. We went there on our first night and I thought it was a perfect intro to Vegas, want my brother to experience the same thing... although that bottle deal at Tryst sounds too good to pass up. I did BS on a Friday at Tryst last year with a $1k min and was seated near the waterfall, completely out of the action and honestly didn't find it all that fun. I'm guessing the deal will have us seated somewhere similar? Or will a handshake fix things up?

Bella Suite for your own bed if it's just the two of you.

Not to sound too douchey but we love big rooms and would rather spend a bit more on a decent room with a bit of a "wow" factor. I think it's all part of the experience. We're pretty set on a cosmo wraparound and the current pricing of the skyline marquee at MGM is looking like it'll be within our budget... but there's nothing really at Venetian/Palazzo that stands out. All nice but they seem pretty plain/outdated? In saying that though I thought the same of Wynn/Encore until I stepped foot in the room, blew me away. Perhaps something at Caesars or PH instead?

[artedm]

dates:
labor day is monday Sept 2nd so LDW will be 8/30 8/31 9/1 9/2
there is likely to be a fight in vegas on 9/14
9/20-9/21 is third year of iheartradio festival lineup tba

9/27-29 is TomorrowWorld in Georgia-check the lineup-so some vegas DJs might be in Georgia

LDW is like the closing of the summer party but the pools will probably be open till end of September just depending on weather.


Your hotel budget is very high- shouldn't be a probably for LDW.

[nighthawk06si]

Great advice guys, thanks heaps!

tryst over Tao on thurs. you can get bottle deals at tryst like 2moet+2goose for 600.

Only picked Tao as I loved it last year. We went there on our first night and I thought it was a perfect intro to Vegas, want my brother to experience the same thing... although that bottle deal at Tryst sounds too good to pass up. I did BS on a Friday at Tryst last year with a $1k min and was seated near the waterfall, completely out of the action and honestly didn't find it all that fun. I'm guessing the deal will have us seated somewhere similar? Or will a handshake fix things up?

Bella Suite for your own bed if it's just the two of you.

Not to sound too douchey but we love big rooms and would rather spend a bit more on a decent room with a bit of a "wow" factor. I think it's all part of the experience. We're pretty set on a cosmo wraparound and the current pricing of the skyline marquee at MGM is looking like it'll be within our budget... but there's nothing really at Venetian/Palazzo that stands out. All nice but they seem pretty plain/outdated? In saying that though I thought the same of Wynn/Encore until I stepped foot in the room, blew me away. Perhaps something at Caesars or PH instead?

Handshake at tryst will def fix your table location issue. $200 would make a difference for sure.

Perhaps the wynn/encore instead then if Palazzo seems outdated to you. Not sure what other hotel down there would seem appealing to you. If you do PH you could go with a panorama suite or a boulevard suite if it's available.