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Travel: Our Las Vegas Sten!

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Hey everyone!

I’m FINALLY getting a chance to sit down and write a post all about our Vegas experience!

Since I got back, I have been so busy with wedding plans and general life. I had lots of exciting things happening like my wedding dress fittings, food tastings with our parents, amongst lots of other wedding related topics which I will be tell you all about in another blog post over on the wedding blog.

So, Vegas… 🙂 WHERE do I start? Pure and utter madness.

I suppose I should start by filling you in on how the Vegas idea first came about.

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For those of you who follow me on social media (@sosueme_ie), you will know that on most weekends, Dylan’s pals and my girls usually all head out together. Over the last 5 years or so, my girlfriends and Dylan’s mates have all become one big group to be honest, and every time we go out, we’re almost always together and we have the best laughs and times together.

So one night last year, while we were watching the McGregor fight in our house that was happening in Vegas, one of the lads turned around and said. “Jesus lads, we should all go to Vegas for the hen and stag as one big group, imagine the carnage”

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Straight away, we all got really excited about the idea. Most of the group, myself included had never been to Vegas, so we all thought it would be a great idea to have one big trip to Vegas as a gang and just go wild, and that’s exactly what we did.

The following week, we got planning our Vegas adventure. We decided we would all go together as a group for 5 nights, and arranged it so that during that time, the lads would have their own pool day and night out, and the girls would have the same for the hen and stag, but we would also have some group nights out and pool days throughout the week as well.

The next step was to get booking Vegas.

Due to the sheer size of the group – there was about 14 in total – and because we were booking 9 months in advance, we wanted to book through a travel agent so that we could organise payment instalments and have a point of contact if anyone in the group had any questions.

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One of the girls mentioned she had used Budget Travel USA in the past and found them brilliant, so my chief bridesmaid Sara looked after that and got in touch with them. Our point of contact in Budget Travel USA was a wonderful lady called Sinead Devine who was a dream to work with. We told Sinead we wanted the trip to be affordable, nothing extortionate, and she came back to us with a quote of about €900 each for return flights with American Airlines and 5 night’s accommodation in the MGM Hotel.

Vegas isn’t cheap so this was a brilliant deal in our opinion.

A lot of people were also asking me about the route we flew. We flew with American Airlines from Dublin to Charlotte, North Carolina, where there was a 4 hour layover which actually worked out to be perfect.

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We had left Dublin so early that morning that everyone pretty much spent the first leg of the flight asleep! By the time we got to Charlotte though, the life was back in us so we had a few drinks  – the lads went to one bar and the girls went to another and we had so much fun!! It was the best laugh!

It really got everyone in good spirits so in the end we didn’t mind the layover one bit!

From Charlotte, we then flew to Vegas and arrived into there at 7pm their time. We had left Dublin that morning at 7am and we got to Vegas at 7pm American time, which was perfect!

So now for the run-down of the activity!

My chief bridesmaid, Sara, had organised a limo to pick up the girls at the airport, and the lads had also organised one for them.

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We booked our limos with Presidential Limousines which is a well-known company and one I would recommend if you are thinking of going to Vegas with a gang of girls and want to make it extra memorable. The girl’s limo worked out at about $40 dollars a head, but that fee also included a return trip back to the airport on our final day after we checked out of the hotel.

We got into the limo and right from the off, it was so much fun. The music was pounding, everyone was giddy and it had such an exciting Vegas vibe to it!

Our driver brought us to a liquor store so we could pick up some drinks to enjoy in our rooms while getting ready to head out. This is a good way of saving money because Vegas ain’t cheap!

After that, it was straight to the hotel where we checked in and got unpacked.

That night was one of our group nights so we arranged for another limo to collect us all at 10pm.

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One of Dylan’s mates, Paul, arranged for the limo driver to take us to The Strip and see all the Vegas landmarks! This was so much fun and I highly recommend it.

We stopped off for pictures at ‘New York New York’, ‘Paris’, The Bellagio Fountains, the infamous Las Vegas sign … all the different well-known landmarks for pictures.

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That limo ride was such a laugh!

We enjoyed our drinks in the limo while we were going from one landmark to the next and the music was also pumping the whole time. I have to say, it was by far the best way to kick off a trip!

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Friday was the girls pool day which we had booked in advance. I did a little research on the pool parties and when I announced I was going to Vegas, lots of you guys Snapchatted me to let me know the different hotspots there, which was a big help!

The most frequently mentioned pool party in the Snapchats was Encore Beach Club.

My chief Bridesmaid Sara set about organising that for the day and we ended up booking a lilypad, which is a white bed with an umbrella by the pool. We booked it with a spend, so that included our food and drinks for the day.

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The price for this though depends on factors like group numbers, the time of year you’re there, and your requirements when there.

The lads booked their pool day at Wet Republic and then later gate-crashed our pool party! I would highly recommend Encore Beach. Even the lads preferred Encore to Wet Republic.

The atmosphere was buzzing, the DJ (Diplo) was brilliant, but it was such an unbelievable experience overall. Thanks so much to those on Snapchat who recommended it!

That night, no one went out… surprise surprise haha. We were wrecked! I think everyone just went to bed on Friday night and got some proper sleep in.

On Saturday morning, we all went for breakfast together and for the day itself we decided to go the MGM pool party where they had a DJ playing. This pool party is free if you’re a hotel resident, so if you’re heading to Vegas and you’re staying in the MGM, be sure to check out their pool party. Definitely worth checking out.

The food there was also amazing! I had the Caprese sandwich, which was so good and the girls had sushi which they adored.

The food there is just A1, so is the atmosphere, music and craic.

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On Saturday night, the guys and the girls had separate nights out. The guys went to Hakkasan Nightclub where Tiesto was playing, while we went to Tao Restaurant and then on to the Marquee Nightclub to see Dash Berlin perform.

We had pre-booked Tao for 8pm and oh my God, that place is all kinds of amazing. When I said on social media that I was going there, lots of you messaged me to say how incredible a place it is. You were so right! To give you an idea of the kind of vibe it has, it’s really dark there and has the most buzzing atmosphere! It’s such a class place. I would highly recommend it if you’re planning on venturing to Vegas. It’s about 70 dollars a head but that’s for both food and drink. And the food was to die for!!

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After Tao, we went on to Marquee, which we also pre-booked. We had booked the bachelorette deal. If you’re going to Vegas for your hen, look out for bachelorette deals in the clubs as most will have a package deal you can avail of. Marquee had Dash Berlin playing and he was absolutely amazing. We just danced the night away! This was actually the night I wore the white dress you guys loved! 🙂

On Sunday, there were a few sore heads and tired faces so we took it fairly easy!

Monday was sadly our last day so on Monday night we went to Hakkasan for an amazing dinner, and then on Marquee because the lads wanted to see Dash Berlin play.

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Our flight back the following morning was also with American Airlines. I have to say they were so nice to fly with. Their economy seats are nice, big leather seats and the staff were so helpful and accommodating.

Overall, Vegas was just an absolutely amazing experience.

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If you want to tick somewhere off the bucket list, I would highly recommend you start there!

It is costly, I’m not going to deny that, but if you pre-book places and know your spend, you should be able to budget well.

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If you want to go to clubs there, you don’t have to go with added expenses like table service.

In fact, girls get free entry into most places, but what I will say is that the nightclubs are absolutely packed, so if you like to sit down, then you would need to pre-book a table, definitely.

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Some of you were asking me if I would recommend a joint hen and stag. Absolutely!

I don’t think any member of our gang returned home without their sides physically sore from laughing! It was just so much craic, I think we spent most of our time laughing. The memories from that trip are going to be the kind we will be talking about twenty years from now! It also brought our full wedding party closer together and I’m sure I’ll hear some Vegas stories in the lads speeches on the big day! Ha.

For me, it was amazing to experience such an incredible trip with our friends but above all, with my soul mate, the man I’m about to marry!

x

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