Las Vegas… Solo! Lodging
Las Vegas from New York - September 4-7, 2025
TOTAL COST OF TRIP: $826.19
Flights: $125.15 (between NY & LV)
Hotel: $168.94
Food: $176.66
Entertainment: $209
Gambling (Entertainment Extended): $50
Local Transportation (including airport transfer): $96.44
I’ll go into each of the above topics in separate posts. Let’s see how that goes.
LODGING
This trip started with a promotion to stay at a Hilton Grand Vacations property for three nights for $168.94. The catch was that I had to go to a sales pitch and the risk was that I could end up an “owner” with monthly and annual bills to pay. It felt like a good deal when I booked it. The place would hopefully be nicer than what I’d ordinarily book. And my hope was that a “free” hotel would lure a friend or two to Vegas with me. Unfortunately, the timing didn’t work out for anyone. So I went solo!
I arrived at Las Vegas Airport and found a local bus to get to my hotel. $2 and about 45 minutes.
Although it was less than a ten minute walk from the bus or monorail, I didn’t get a great first impression of the hotel area. There weren’t many people walking around. Buildings were far apart. There were a lot of parking lots and empty lots to walk through. And at night it was darker than you think of Vegas being.
I stayed at Hilton Grand Vacations Paradise. My check-in time was 3 p.m., but when I arrived at 11 a.m., they handed me a couple bottles of water and my room key and I went right in.
The room was great! I could walk from area to area, in a circle, and get back where I started. Kitchenette, bathroom, separate area with a giant tub, bedroom with desk, living room, dining table, and back to the kitchenette.
Everything was comfortable. My window looked out onto the pool area. And the tub! I loved the tub. I took several bubble baths over the weekend.
This trip was reserved before I had a whole bunch of work lined up, so the result was a little different than what I’d originally envisioned. I spent a lot of time from check-in Thursday to check-out Sunday in that room, working on my computer. I moved around between the dining table, the living area, and the desk in the bedroom. And once in a while I took a bath or went down to the pool and hot tub for a soak.
One embarrassing thing regarding the room… I tried to make coffee. It was a full sized 12 cup coffee machine. There was no coffee pot. It was very concerning that I didn’t know where the coffee was going to go. I asked for a pot. The hotel staff had no idea what I was talking about. It was like I was speaking a different language.
I gave up for a while and got a coffee at the on-location Starbucks/market.
When I was ready to tackle my issue again, the hotel sent up someone from Housekeeping with a new coffee machine. She really didn’t speak my language - she had no English. But she is the only one who helped me figure out what was going on.
Ok. This is probably very normal to people who stay in a lot of hotels. I don’t stay in many… And when I do, they often have mini coffee machines with little pots. This machine had a section in the bottom to put water in. Then it made coffee into the top half of the machine. Then you used your cup to dispense whatever amount you wanted at a time.
It makes a lot of sense. And it took me far too long to grasp. When I finally understood, I apologized profusely to Housekeeping. And we laughed.
Coffee was a big part of my weekend. Once it was made, I found a pitcher in the kitchen and filled it up. Then I got ice from the machine down the hall and I had iced coffee all weekend. I even re-used my plastic cup from Starbucks when I wanted to take coffee to go throughout my stay.
The only other issue I had at the hotel was that the soda machine ate my $2. I got it back from the front desk and then got my Diet Coke from a machine on a different floor. No problem.
THE SALES PITCH
On Friday morning, I went to the sales presentation for Hilton Grand Vacations. Twenty-something years ago I had attended a timeshare presentation. So I already knew how good it could sound in that environment. I was prepared to say no, but unprepared for how caught up in it I still got. I love vacation. I love knowing I have a trip to look forward to. I loved the idea of staying in more apartment-style locations. Aside from the considerable cost, I was also saved by the fact that I like flexibility and don’t want to be tied to a specific brand or locations. And I didn’t want my pre-paid vacations to depend on availability.
The offer I got was $60,000 for ownership at the lowest level. They would “give” me 5000 points per year, which could be 2-3 weeks in a studio, (or way less depending on level and location). And to get me to sign TODAY, they threw in 10,000 points immediately plus a free cruise.
I managed to say no.
They then pitched $1795 for 7-8 nights in one of a list of specific properties. For doing that, my ownership offer would be available for 18 months if I changed my mind. That’s way more than I would ordinarily spend on hotel. And none of the locations were places I already planned on going to in the next couple years. Hawaii WAS tempting. But I would have been more tempted by Japan.
On top of all of that, I didn’t like the location of the Vegas property I was staying at. What if the others were similar?
So I left all the offers. And I enjoyed my three nights in a comfortable room alone in Vegas.
