Living in Los Angeles always makes Vegas an option for a quick weekend getaway. To be honest, does anyone really want to stay in Vegas longer than a weekend?
For anyone this is the normal cadence of a trip to Vegas, you have the excitement and anticipation of Friday, on Saturday the partying/gambling and other debauchery and normally on Sunday you just can’t get out of there fast enough recovering from the hangover, lack of sleep or the loss of money. 
If you are no longer twenty-something or can’t handle that weekend, this is a great alternative for a more epicurean weekend. We went over President’s Day weekend to see how to do the luxury Vegas experience without breaking the bank, and we found some great ways to live it up even if you aren’t a whale. The easiest way to make Vegas a deal from the beginning is to book flights off peak. Normally when I’ve gone from Friday-Sunday, the tickets average $200 round trip from LAX, definitely not a bargain. For the long weekend, we decided to go Saturday and return Monday and saved over $100 on Southwest. 
If you can fly to Vegas for the $71/round trip, it’s amazingly easy justifying the trip. This isn’t attractive for a regular weekend but for any holiday weekend, I would check this option out. We left Saturday at 2PM and the one drag was leaving Monday at 7am but for Vegas it was great. Getting home that early gives you the whole day to detox and get ready for the short work week. Once we booked our flights we started looking at room rates for our favorite hotels. The price on Friday night was over $200 for most 4-5 star hotels (Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, Palazzo, Wynn, etc.) but once we decided to come on Saturday night, the cost dropped by $40 on Saturday night and over $100 for Sunday night. 
We called the Palazzo and worked with their reservation agent they helped us book a better rate than the website price and we immediately started planning the fun part of our weekend. We also found that sites such as Expedia, Orbitz and Hotels.com were very competitive if you don’t want to go through the hassle of talking with the reservation agent and hunt for deals. So now that we booked our flight and hotel we decided that we would rent a car to get us around. As much as we love not to worry about drinking and driving, we hate Las Vegas cab drivers even more. There is not a more maddening experience than getting in a cab where they want to take you for an extended ride and expect to get a big tip for this service. 
If you are not planning to go out hard, we highly recommend renting a car. It’s easy, cheap and helps you avoid the crazy cab lines at the airport and the hotels. We booked our mid-size car through Avis for $35/day. Now the downside of renting the car is dropping it off on the way to the airport. The rental cars for McCarran are not attached to the Terminal and adds another 20 minutes to your return trip. The shuttle to take you to the Terminal is prompt, and you don’t wait for more than 10 minutes but if you like to cut it close at the airport, keep this in mind. 
Once we picked up our car we headed to the Palazzo for check-in. The Palazzo is my favorite of the high-end hotels in Vegas. Each suite has a sunken living room, comfortable bed and large bathroom that are larger than the rooms at the Wynn and Bellagio. The service is always prompt and attentive which contrasts with Aria, which has great rooms but terrible service. We booked dinner at Postrio, Wolfgang Puck’s contemporary, casual restaurant that sits in St. Mark’s Square in the Shoppes at the Venetian. We’ve gone a few times to Postrio, and we’ve never disappointed. The highlights include the spaghetti with meatballs, corn chowder, lobster club and … We received a 20% off coupon from MLife Magazine, the lifestyle magazine for MGM’s new affinity program. 
After dinner we headed out to Lavo, as guests of the Palazzo there was no cover, and we enjoyed some drinks while the thumping of club music filled the air. Sunday we started off with a great brunch at our favorite brunch spot in Vegas – Cafe 6 @ Palms Place Hotel. Now Cafe 6 is off-strip but totally worth the drive/cab ride over to the world of the Maloofs. Palms Place is the condo-hotel sister property of the Palms but has a very different vibe. 
While many tourists will rave about the brunch buffets at the Wynn and Bellagio are what you expect from a Vegas buffet, long rows of dishes sitting under heat lamps and a few carving stations, nothing wrong with that but for me, it just isn’t appealing anymore. At Cafe 6, they do a great job of making the buffet experience feel more refined. Cafe 6 presents its food 2 ways the first is a made to order bar for sushi, crispy spicy tuna, paninis, crepes, peel and eat shrimp, smoothie bar pastries. Secondly, you can order off their a la carte menu as well, and that features variations on eggs benedict, pizzas, and southern comfort food such as pulled pork, fried chicken and waffles and pigs in blankets. 
Now all the items are good, nothing overwhelmingly great or bad but all consistently better than what you would find at any of the other buffets around town for the same price. The piece de resistance is their dessert-- the junk food platter. In many ways, Vegas is a place to be a grown up kid, and this platter is the perfect way to channel your inner child. The platter features a big pink ball of cotton candy, rice krispy treats, their take on a Hostess cup cake, and other fun items. Finally, you can grab some candy from jars at the hostess bar on your way out to top off a great and fun brunch. Now across the hall is the Drift Spa @ Palms Place and this is the best place to spend the rest of your day after a great meal. 
Drift Spa has held some great promotions from Sunday – Thursday and lucky enough for us the long weekend allowed us to take advantage of their promotion. The promotion that we took advantage of was the $200 for 2 (50) minute treatments for $200/person. Why is this a great deal? The cost for a normal 50-minute procedure costs $135 and you save per treatment. Also, Drift Spa takes SpaFinder gift certificates which we had purchased from Costco at a 20% discount. So in total, we saved $220. We chose to get facials and massages. The treatments were a great way to relax and spend a cold winter day. 
While we enjoyed the treatments, the real reason we love the Drift Spa is that of the co-ed Hammam. Drift Spa’s Hammam is unique in Vegas in that it offers a great co-ed space so that you can spend time with your significant other. We spend the afternoon between the Hammam and our treatments; it was the most relaxing afternoon I’ve ever had in Vegas. Now as hard is it is to leave the Spa we had an early dinner reservation at Joel Robuchon’s Atelier in the MGM Grand, and that’s probably the only reason why would ever leave. Before 6:30PM l’Atelier has a 3 course $45 Prix-fix that is heralded as one of Las Vegas’ best dining deals and we agree. 
The normal meal is an $85 5-course Prix-fix that is also well worth it but to get a sub-$50 3 course meal from Joel Robuchon is a feat. The bread and butter alone feel like it’s worth it. After indulging this meal, we still had time to go back to Drift and spend one more hour in the Hammam to help digest. Finally after walking around and checking out the new Cosmopolitan we called it a night and headed back to the Palazzo. The next morning we had an early wake-up call and headed back to LA more refreshed than any other trip to Vegas.
Learn More Here: 48 Hours Or Less – Las Vegas – Living The Luxury Life On A Budget
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