If you haven’t made plans for the Memorial Day Weekend, now would be a good time to start thinking about it. You have more of both motive and means this year, considering that Osama is no longer with us and neither is the recession.

Graves at Arlington, Memorial Day

Here’s a few places where you can get some pretty sweet Memorial Day Weekend hotel deals.

Orlando – The Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek is offering Memorial Day Weekend rates starting at $159 per night and the Waldorf Astoria has a $199 per night package.

The kicker is that for every two nights booked with either of them, you will receive a free Walt Disney World one-day one-park ticket.

The AAA four diamond Hilton Orlando has a $139 Memorial Day Weekend package for its facebook fans. The “Making Memories on Memorial Day” package includes deluxe accommodations as well as breakfast and dinner for two daily.

Guests who mention they are Facebook fans at check-in will receive extras like a s’mores kit for use at the outside fire pits, free in-room movie with a bucket of popcorn and liter of soda or a drink voucher for use at a hotel bar.

Las Vegas – Start here, and you’ll find some great Sin City hotel deals for between May 27-30, starting from $24.50. If you’re not in the mood to scrape the bottom of the barrel, there are nice (and new) hotels offering rates well below $100 for the dates in question, including Caesars Palace, Stratosphere, Rumor and Circus Circus.

New York – The Mandarin Oriental New York has an “Extra Fun Day Away” package with a complimentary night after a two-night stay this Memorial Day weekend.

Note that New York also has a well attended Fleet Week (May 25 – June 1) to contend with, and discounted hotel rooms will be hard to come by. But you can save a lot of big bucks here on NYC hotel deals for the Memorial Day Weekend.

Also, the Omni Berkshire Place in New York has a Memorial Day package with 30% off on regular rates. Actually, Omni Hotels & Resorts is offering 30% off on all their hotels and resorts. Well, not exactly… it’s 10 percent off on a one night stay, 20 percent off on a two night stay and 30 percent off on a three night stay.

Travel Ticker – Oahu hotels near Waikiki Beach from $65; Vegas hotels on the strip from $55. Cancun hotels are on offer from $119; Seattle from $129 and Los Angeles from $139.

Expedia – Memorial Day special rates, with Vegas starting from $45 and Orlando from $25. Even if you want to splurge on a better hotel in Orlando, that won’t cost you more than $120 or so.

Hotels.com – 30% off Memorial Day sale, with New York hotels from $132, Chicago starting from $65 and San Antonio from $71.

Photo – public domain (source)

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The Vegas Strip is going to the dogs. TheHotel at Mandalay Bay says it has dog-friendly suites on its 22nd floor, specially kitted out with eco-friendly food and water bowls for Fido. They’ll even welcome you with tasty treats and doggy relief bags.

Pet-friendly hotel - THEHotel at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas

For the discerning doggy, there are special options. Fido’s in-room dining menu, for example, includes a Backyard Delight consisting of hamburger, potatoes, zucchini, carrots, apples, parsley and ground turmeric.

For those who feel like stretching their legs, Barking Lot Lane is just steps away near the west entrance of THEhotel. Owners can walk Fido themselves, or call in the Concierge if required. Upto two dogs weighing 100 pounds combined are allowed, and should be on a leash when outside the room.

The 43 story all-suite TheHotel has 1,117 one-bedroom suites with plasma television, high-speed internet and wet bars in-room. They have a billiards lounge, lobby bar, coffee bar and café.

The hotel is part of the Mandalay Bay resort, which has 4,752 rooms and suites and a whole lot more including a 11 acre tropical pool with real sand and poolside gaming.

But for those only interested in pet-friendly hotels, here’s the top 10 Las Vegas hotels where guests are allowed to walk on all fours and bark (just to be clear – this refers to dogs and not drunk casino revelers).

1. TheHotel at Mandalay Bay
2. The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
3. Four Seasons
4. Caesars Palace
5. Paris Las Vegas
6. Planet Hollywood
7. Harrah’s
8. Flamingo
9. Bally’s
10. Rio

Expect to pay anywhere between $25-50 per day per dog and an additional fee if pet-sitting or dog-walking services are required.

Photos courtesy Mandalay Bay

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Boutique hotels are not usually what I look for when searching for a place to stay in Las Vegas. I had the opportunity to change my opinion of staying off the strip and in a small, boutique hotel when I was there for a friend’s wedding. The wedding took place at Rumor Vegas, an off-the-strip, all-suite hotel with 150 newly-renovated rooms. Rumor Hotel opened in mid-2010 after completely renovating from the old St. Tropez Hotel directly across the street from the main casino entrance of the Hard Rock Hotel.

Rumor Vegas Outdoor Seating

Read More »

The $3.9 billion Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas with 2,995 rooms opens its doors to the public on Dec 15, with a grand launch party scheduled for New Year’s Eve.

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas

Anything new in Sincity has to be bigger and different from everyone else. And so it is with the Cosmopolitan, an extravagant resort sandwiched between the Bellagio and CityCenter. When guests arrive in the lobby, they are greeted by eight massive video columns to change the setting.

The lavish luxury here is only the beginning, and there’ll be jaw-dropping experiences like the 3-story Chandelier Bar with floor-to-ceiling windows and a view of the strip set in the middle of the gaming floor. It’s essentially a bar tucked into a giant chandelier made up of 2 million crystals.

Unlike other Las Vegas resorts, this one doesn’t have restaurants sprinkled all over the place. Instead, it has a kind of restaurant neighborhood on level 3, with 14 restaurants including a nondescript pizza joint and a posh Greek restaurant.

Also, there’s a certain libertarian touch to the arrangements, in that everyone can do what they want without getting in anyone else’s way – Their video ad gets it just right with the tagline – “Just the Right Amount of Wrong.” People who don’t want to gamble never have to see the slots.

The three pool areas have the usual cabanas and poolside facilities, but each of these pool areas also caters to a different set of guests – The Boulevard Pool sits 100 feet above the Strip and has a terrace stage that can easily accommodate 2500 to 3000 people for concerts and such. The Bamboo pool is a more private area, with a canyon-like feel to it.

The Day Club Pool has dual functions – it is a lounge pool by day and a part of the Marquee Nightclub after the sun goes down. The 60,000 sq ft Marquee is scheduled to open on New Year’s Eve, and it will be the largest nightclub in Vegas, which is no mean achievement.

The Cosmopolitan, like most every other casino resort in Vegas, offers everything from a gigantic gaming floor to branded shopping, art installations and artists in residence, a spa, and entertainment venues. But the single most defining aspect of the Cosmopolitan are the rooms.

2,200 of the rooms have a 6 ft deep terrace spanning the entire length of the room, offering sweeping views of the Strip. A sliding glass door allows guests access to the terrace and the hotel has been thoughtful enough to turn it into extra space by offering furnishings in the terrace too. Read More »