Las Vegas is a unique town in many ways and I will not even attempt to describe it. Instead, I will share some tips that might be useful to All-You-Can-Jet travelers, both, those who have been to Vegas before and first timers.
Airport & transportation. Unless you have a limo waiting for you your options are: 1) taxi – $15-$30 2) airport shuttle – $6 one way, $12 round trip (just follow airport signs to find it). If your hotel is closer to downtown (further away from the airport) and you travel alone shuttle is the way to go.
Where to stay. I suggested Paris in one of my earlier posts, but if you want something more affordable and don’t mind being 10 min walk away from the center of it all check out Luxor, it seems to always have some kind of promotion and can be quite a bargain. It’s also conveniently located right next to Mandalay Bay which has a number of great restaurant and one of the best Sportsbooks (if that’s your thing).
When to go. Not this weekend! There is a highly anticipated boxing match at MGM on Saturday night so all MGM-Mirage properties (and likely others) will be booked solid.
What to do. See one of the Cirque du Soleil shows! Just by asking you can get “buy one ticket, get 2nd for $25″ deal, 25% discount buy booking online, or you can (and really should) register with the MGM-Mirage Player’s Club and use your card to buy tickets to KA using their 2-for-1 deal (available at MGM box office only)!
Random. Oxygen bars are everywhere. Massage is now offered to table players at MGM ($2/min while you play!). All-you-can-eat buffets are so 2008, $20-30 all-you-can-eat deals are all the rage. The monstrous construction project that is City Center (next to Bellagio) will cost MGM-Mirage 8 billion (!) dollars (they had to sell Treasure Island to finish the project), it’s scheduled to open in December 2009.
After visiting all the usual places – The Groves, Farmers Market next to it and West Hollywood yesterday I headed to relax at Venice Beach today. It’s about a 40-min drive from Hollywood and is totally worth the trip if you are ever in Los Angeles for more than a day. Surfing was definetely on today. 
Marijuana is now legal for medical use in California and you can see signs for it everywhere, but this sign I thought was a bit of reality (it’s very accessible): 
I lived in Los Angeles for 6 months in 2003 and never had a chance to check out the beautiful Venice Canals. It’s hard to describe, so here are some pictures.
For refreshments before or after a day at the beach I recommend Lemonade for delicious fresh made lemonades or Intelligentsia for great coffee, both on Abbot Kinney Blvd.
On Saturday my friend took me to see Pike Place Market near the waterfront – a charming place that you could spend your entire day at, definitely a must-see place in Seattle.
We stopped by to get our coffee at THE very first Starbucks! To my disappointment they didn’t have decaff coffee either hot or iced (it needed to be brewed) which makes me wonder if anyone ever asks for it.
My friend insisted I get more of the sky into my photos as a proof that Seattle was in fact sunny and didn’t have a single cloud in the sky that day.
While at the market, stop by the fish market section where fish that’s ordered is being thrown over the counter for packing, just keep your distance! Just a staircase away is the Seattle waterfront where you can get your fish-n-chips, steamers and watch huge ferries come to/from Bainbridge Island that you can see in the distance.
I was pleasantly surprised to arrive to sunny Seattle from a cold, rainy New York yesterday. Seattle airport signs weren’t too friendly, but transportation options were great: 1) courtesy pick ups from most hotels in the area 2) buses that can take you anywhere for under $2.75. I was planning to visit a friend in Redmond and staying in Bellevue, so an easy 45-min ride with a view of the beautiful Lake Washington from the highway and a friendly bus driver was just perfect.
Today is another gorgeous day in Seattle and I am looking forward to a scenic train ride to Portland this afternoon, it’s a 3-hour $28 ride on Amtrak. I am also hoping to meet Seth Miller in Portland this evening which would be my first meetup with another All-You-Can-Jet traveler during a trip, very exciting day.
Big thanks to Derek, the supervisor at JetBlue’s T5 for printing me a boarding pass past check-in time. I guess I looked like a woman on a mission when I said “I can make it to the gate!” so he was convinced.
I got quoted in an article on Time.com! Just a small blurb, but pretty excited. I am also relieved that I wasn’t referred to as a nutjob, crazy, insane and it wasn’t implied that I am taking it “a bit too far.”
Lilia Tovbin, a New York City technology manager, has booked a 10-day, six-city trip on the $599 pass, but will have to fly from Seattle to Portland, and Long Beach to Phoenix, on another airline since JetBlue doesn’t service those routes. “It’s a little bit hard,” she says.
Unable to decide between various destinations and flight options for my last weekend trip I decided to start checking hotels and nearby attractions. It didn’t take long to stumble on a charming hotel with a picture perfect beach on the french side of St. Maarten. I am spending 2 days there with a book and my Palm Pre from which I plan to post updates on Twitter with photos that will make you wish you were there.
I had also added another stop to my West Coast trip – Sacramento, CA. I plan to take a (longer) scenic drive around Lake Tahoe to Reno, NV. I remember Lake Tahoe as one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen and wanted to go back for a while.
So here is a summary of my travel plans with All-You-Can-Jet Pass so far:
- Countries Visited: 3
- Cities Visited: 11 *
- Days Traveling: 17 **
- Vacation Days Used: 8
- Friends & Family Visits: 5
* 1-2 nights in each city, no flying in-out on the same day
** including a couple of red eye flights
What is a perfect companion to my All-You-Can-Jet pass? Hotels.com Welcome Rewards offer – stay 10 nights, get 1 night free. The best part about it is that the free night is good for any property up to USD400 in value! That really is a nice deal.
In my post a couple of days ago I suggested Vegas as a place to fly to for a day because it’s easy to get to from most airports, but I would like to make a correction of sort. That suggestion was for folks who have visited the sin city before. If you have never been to Vegas then you should stay for a day or two or the weekend!
Here are some tips for getting the best out of Vegas on your FIRST trip:
- Hotels. Go to casinos web sites and sign up to receive their emails with promotions. The rates promoted in newsletters will generally be better than those promoted on a web site. For first-timers I would recommend Paris – it’s perfectly situated in the middle of it all and walking distance to most places you will want to check out. You will love being across the street from the best free show in Vegas – Fountains of Bellagio.
- Entertainment. See #1. Those same newsletters will contain special rates on shows. If you only plan to see one show in Vegas then see Bellagio’s “O”, it has been rated the best show in Vegas for many years.
- Food. Easy. Whether you are a foodie, wine connaisseur or a fan of all-you-can-eat buffet Vegas has it all and you will not need to make reservations before the trip even at the fanciest restaurants.
If you have been to Vegas before then how about flying in for lunch/dinner one of the weekends in September and meeting other AYCJ travelers? Leave a comment with your date suggestion!
Even before Joe and Clark posted a press release about their mission to travel for 31 consecutive days with 12 hours in each city there were tweets about other ambitious trips, for example @WanderngAramean’s JFK-PSE-JFK-LAS-LGB-PDX-LGB-ORD-JFK-SJU-JFK between 10pm Friday and 10am Monday (that’s 10 flights in 60 hours!).
I will admit the idea of doing 30 flights in 30 days was the first thing that came to my mind when I learned about the promotion and then I used JetBlue’s Where We Jet tool. Lets just say seeing the routes was sobering.
I salute the brave and look forward to seeing how the #12hrs experiment plays out.
Planning a trip to multiple destinations abroad turned out to be harder than I thought and here are some reasons:
- Safety. U.S. Department of State’s web site has a travel warning for Colombia and in Dominican Republic tourists are advised to “maintain a low profile to avoid becoming victims of violence or crime”. I haven’t canceled my flight to SDQ yet, but booked a backup flight in case I change my mind.
- Flight schedule. Most destinations either will not have a direct flight from your city or have only 1 flight per day often cutting into your stay and fun time. So if you want to go to any of the International destinations during the weekends book your flights ASAP! I had already seen “no flights available on this day” for a couple of places. I would say you can forget about flying out and back on the same day unless you live in Orlando, FL.
- Connections. It’s almost impossible to fly from one country to another without coming back to the US.
I hope these tips help those who are still considering getting the pass and looking for more info about international travel. If you don’t have much vacation time or don’t want to spend $599 you can still either join a friend with a pass or book your own trip as prices aren’t bad when you plan for dates more than a month away – you can fly to a few places in the Caribbeans from New York for less than $300 (and <$150 from Orlando).
It appears I misunderstood the restriction I mentioned in my first post about the 1 city per day limit. The customer service rep told me that you can book multiple flights on the same day, just not for exact same route (to reserve different travel times). So you could fly somewhere in the morning and come back the same day. If you wonder what destination works best for a trip like that I suggest Las Vegas as most cities will have a lot of flights available per day so you could easily find a morning and an evening flight. Just imagine telling your friends that you “flew out to Vegas for lunch/dinner/show” 
