*Updated as of January 20, 2019*
Mike and I are able to go on as many vacations as we do by taking several weekend trips in between our annual week-long vacations. We live the rest of our 52 weekends per year to the maximum adventure level because we’re constantly on the prowl for good deals. This is how we traveled to Vegas on the strip for a weekend for only $100.
When we notice that we have a month coming up with not too much going on, we start checking our go-to sites for quick and easy trips, and because we live in Scottsdale, Arizona, those short getaways usually include snowboarding trips to the mountains, beach weekends in California, a short escape to Mexico, and the crazy fun weekends in VEGAS!
Las Vegas is only a 4 1/2 hour drive from our house, so we don’t have to worry about booking flights, making it an easy last minute trip. Mike and I love going to Vegas as long as we experience:
- Shows
- Buffets
- Daytime Activities
- Gambling
- Dancing
This post will focus on the weekend that, for only $50 per person, we hit everything on our list and more! That being said, this weekend getaway took quite a bit of planning and a little bit of luck.
We are constantly checking our go-to sites for great deals, so, what are our go-to websites for Vegas deals?? Groupon, myVEGAS, and M life!
Most of you have used or heard of Groupon, which is essentially an online coupon store, but myVEGASis a lesser-known tool. myVEGAS is actually an app, not a standalone website, that syncs to the player’s Facebook and can be played on a mobile device or a computer. Through the Facebook app or mobile app, the user plays free slots and earns rewards, hence its slogan, “Play Free Slots. Get Real Rewards.” The longer playtime, the bigger the rewards.
This is a legitimate game that is partnered with M life Rewards and MGM Resorts that Mike and I use ALL the time for our Vegas travels. I don’t recommend spending actual money on this game because it’s not necessary to earn rewards!
The myVEGAS rewards include anything from a buy-one-get-one-free beer coupon to comped buffet passes to a five day Royal Caribbean cruise, with the most expensive reward being a Facetime interview with the one and only Shaquille O’Neal! I really don’t think it’s likely to receive enough loyalty coins during Shaq’s lifetime to actually purchase that reward… Which brings me to my next tip on myVEGAS, you earn loyalty coins by playing free slots. These loyalty coins are used to purchase the myVEGAS rewards.
Here are a couple screenshots from the myVEGAS app:
Because myVEGAS is partnered through M life, which is the rewards program for MGM Resorts, we also recommend signing up for a free M life account. We don’t often use the M life site for booking hotels or shows, but it is necessary to have an account to redeem myVEGAS rewards. In addition, M life members have several benefits, such as restaurant discounts, VIP access to certain events, and exclusive rewards.
When we are looking through the websites listed above for deals, Mike and I always check myVEGAS before Groupon or M life because the rewards are free, while Groupon and M life usually require spending money. We also check for weeks or months in advance to see if a comped room reward becomes available on myVEGAS before booking a room elsewhere.
Now that you know what we use to get our deals, here is how we used those sites to have our $100 Vegas weekend! I organized our expenses by category below and explained in detail what we spent for each category. Scroll down for the details!
1. The room – FREE
As we were checking the available myVEGAS rewards, we saw a comped room at Circus Circus for 6,000 loyalty coins. This is a SMOKIN’ deal for a free room. First of all, free rooms rarely are available through myVEGAS. Second, this deal was available during the weekends (many myVEGAS rewards are only available during the weekdays). Third, to put this deal in perspective, a 2-for-1 Starbucks drink costs 2,500 loyalty coins. So, we got a free room for slightly more loyalty coins than two free Starbucks drinks… We each purchased one comped night at Circus Circus for 6,000 loyalty coins and booked the room about two months in advance. This left us plenty of time to continue racking up loyalty coins on myVEGAS and keep an eye out for other potential deals.
2. The shows/entertainment – $100
LOVE – $100: During this trip, we used myVEGAS to purchase a companion ticket, which is a buy-one-get-one-free ticket, to the Cirque de Solei Show, The Beatles – LOVE, at the Mirage. LOVE is our favorite show that we have seen in Vegas so far, and we were so happy that we got amazing tickets for the two of us for only $100 total.
Siegfried and Roy’s Secret Garden & Dolphin Habitat – FREE: Again, we used myVEGAS to purchase two free tickets to the Secret Garden at the Mirage. This was such a fun and unique experience! I never would have thought of seeing dolphins and tigers during our stay, but it was definitely worth it (worth the time, since it was free!)
We purchased this reward while we were already at the Mirage scheduling our dinner reservations and looking for something different to do. Spending part of the day outside in the Secret Garden fit perfectly. I highly recommend this experience if you have kids or if you want to enjoy the outdoors on a beautiful day!
Adventure Dome in Circus Circus – FREE: We used myVEGAS to purchase two free ride tickets at Circus Circus since we were staying there. We played laser tag right before we went home for the weekend and Mike came out the champion! We had fierce competition even though the next oldest opponent was about 15 years younger than we were. We also had so much fun playing in the adult-only area of Circus Circus, and it’s safe to say my luck with pool did not improve while we were in Vegas…
Clubs – Hyde in Bellagio – FREE: Vegas can be overwhelming the first time you visit thanks to the numerous vendors on the strip trying to “sell” free entry into bars or clubs. As long as you aren’t set on seeing a specific performer or going to a specific location, you usually don’t need to pay to get into a club if you go before the rush. I usually use Twitter to gain entrance into clubs.
I tweet as I am on my way to Vegas something like “So excited! Vegas bound for the weekend!! #Bellagio #Mirage #Vegas #LasVegas #VivaVegas #VegasBound.” It takes only a couple hours for a few different club promoters to tweet me back with their phone numbers and an offer for free entrance into a club. I text a few of the promoters to see what they have to offer, but I only follow up with the free offers!
During our $100 weekend, this was exactly how I got free entrance into Hyde for me, Mike, and another couple with unlimited champagne and vodka for the ladies! We had to show up before 12:00 a.m. to be on the list, and it was the perfect end to the night. We danced and drank champagne while overlooking the Bellagio fountains and Paris’s beautiful Eiffel Tower!
Sometimes, my Twitter connections don’t have the best offers, so the other way I get free club entrance is by wandering around hotels during the day. There are several club promoters inside the hotels that work specifically for the clubs for that hotel location. So, if you want to go to Hyde but don’t want to publicly tweet about it, you can try wandering around the Bellagio and waiting for someone to approach you with free club entrance! One more tip… it is MUCH easier to get entrance if you have a minimum of a 50/50 girl to guy ratio!
3. Food and Drink – $63
Breakfast – Circus Circus breakfast buffet – FREE: We used myVEGAS to redeem two breakfast buffet passes to Circus Circus. It isn’t the most extravagant buffet on the strip, but we had an amazing and free breakfast to start the day.
Lunch – Ketchup Premium Burger Bar – $13: We used Groupon to spend $11 for a $20 voucher to Ketchup Premium Burger Bar, which is located in the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood Resort. This was a fun, casual burger bar with spiked milkshakes and a wide variety of burgers and ketchup flavors! We weren’t that hungry since we had a buffet that morning, so we split a meal and ordered a spiked milkshake, which made it easy to stay close to the $20 voucher price!
Dinner – Le Village Buffet at Paris – $50 This is by far our favorite buffet in Vegas. The prime rib is truly the best we’ve ever had and the crepes are amazing. The buffet looks like you’re eating in a little cafe on the streets of Paris. We’ve now been here at least 5 times, and it’s great each time! It typically has a Groupon available to make it about $50 for two people. TIP: Use Ebates and wait until Groupon has a promo code for restaurants to save even more!
Drinking – FREE!: Not only did we get free champagne and vodka from Hyde at the Bellagio, but we also got as much alcohol as we wanted by gambling since the casinos in Vegas provide free alcohol for you while you are gambling (this is not the case for casinos in many other states)!
Mike is not a gambler, but he enjoys the occasional penny slots, so we hang out at penny slots until we get a free cocktail or two. The servers are much more attentive if you are gambling at the tables rather than the penny slots, but we don’t mind the wait! It’s cheap entertainment! You should tip your server at least a dollar when you get your drink – don’t be too cheap when it comes to human kindness! ?
4. Gambling – $100 in winnings! (this is where the luck came in)
Circus Circus – $100 winnings!!! When we arrived at Circus Circus, we quickly realized the reason we got such an amazing deal on our hotel was that it was the grand reopening of the main tower in Circus Circus… meaning the hotel had a ton of promotions and newly renovated rooms!
One of the promotions included free gambling tutorials and Freeplay casino chips when you sign up for the Circus Circus rewards program. This was the best thing that could have happened to us since, as you know from my last blog, Mike is in finance, so gambling really isn’t something he’d advise, but even he can’t resist gambling with Freeplay money! Circus Circus gave us each $60 in Freeplay money when we arrived at the hotel. The catch is that the Freeplay money can’t be redeemed for cash, however, the winnings from the Freeplay money can be redeemed!
We spent the morning after breakfast partaking in a craps tutorial. The craps dealer taught a group of eight of us how to play the game and how to bet to maximize your chances of winning. Craps is a pretty confusing game if you’ve never played, so this was educational and fun for us! We ended up playing craps and blackjack for most of the day with our Freeplay money.
In the end, we ended up winning $100 in real money after spending all our Freeplay money!
4. Transportation – $60
Las Vegas Monorail – $20: We used myVEGAS to redeem a buy-one-get-one-free 48-hour unlimited Monorail pass. This was necessary since we stayed in Circus Circus (at the end of the strip), but we spent our time everywhere else around the strip.
We love taking the monorail… it is the fastest and cheapest way to explore the strip. I took a cab in Vegas one time when I was 18 and didn’t know any better… it cost $50 and took more than 45 minutes to go halfway down the strip. I’m sure it would be cheaper now with Uber and Lyft, but it would still take just as long! The Monorail skips the traffic and you can take it as much as you want without worrying about spending money on transportation. We have also seen the most beautiful sunsets while riding on the monorail!
Gas – $40: It only cost us $40 worth of gas to drive round trip from Scottsdale, Arizona to Las Vegas, Arizona!
Now you know how we did Vegas for $100! Our weekends aren’t always that cheap in Vegas, but we got a little lucky this trip. We planned carefully and were always on the lookout for great deals.
Do you think you can experience Vegas for only $100?? Challenge yourself to experience Rich Living with Less Spending by using our helpful tips. Let us know if you have any unique tips of your own that you use in Vegas ? ! We love finding new ways to save money. Keep an eye out for our next blog, which will focus on our Rich Living, Less Spending vacation to Roatán, Honduras!
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