Thanks everybody for your help!

We have booked flights and (most of the) hotels (many were already full or filling up quickly!)

Two more questions:

1) rental car. We just need a mid-size car for the 10 days in Nevada, Arizona and Utah. (LAS - LAS) There are so many car rental companies and the choice is overwhelming - does a "consolidator" website for car rental exist just as for air tickets? We don't have any loyalty to a car rental company - any reliable company is good for us.
2) Choice of hotels in Las vegas is also overwhelming. We just need a decent bed for the night for our first/last nights in the area - any recommendations?

Thanks again for all replies!

Are you certain of your travel plans???

You could use kayak to check out rates.

Use Hotwire to prepay for your rental.

Try and stick with larger brands...avis, hertz, dollar, Alamo, national, thrifty, budget.

With budget they restrict use to only California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona.


You can make a reservation now, just done prepay, then watch for better prices to come up....then book if something cheaper come up. For 10 days expect it to be around $30/day plus taxes.

For some cheaper rates you could look off airport rental locations.

As for hotel stays...in your reservation of flights..what days did you do it for?

Las Vegas strip hotels charge high on Friday and Saturday night stays and lower Sunday-thursday stays.

To bookend your trip, stay at one on the strip like MGM, Excalibur, Luxor, etc. in that area.

If you arrive on say a Friday or Saturday look to stay off strip at a hotel outside of the strip in Vegas...much cheaper.

The wave lottery link

https://www.blm.gov/az/paria/index.cfm?usearea=CB

It's $5 for June it must be submitted by February 28 for lottery on march 1.

You select three dates to try and get access to it.

Consider the $5 a donation.

I almost always find that Avis, using AWD A074800 beats anything Kayak ever offers. Alamo in Las Vegas is also decent, in my experience, and usually has good rates.

You might also consider trying http://www.autoslash.com/ both to see what they can come up with and/or to track a rental you've made somewhere else.

My favorite is the Hilton Garden Inn south strip (it's actually away from the strip, less crazy therefore. Has very nice staff and an airport shuttle. Taking your car back the night before, getting the shuttle back to the hotel, and then using the shuttle to get to the airport in the morning can save some stress):
http://hiltongardeninn3.hilton.com/e...IGI/index.html

Before I forget......with the rental cars.....

In Vegas the recently built a new car rental facility so it may not be on maps/GPS you have. Last year I rented out of there and when I returned the car the rental location wasnt all that obvious because of poor signage.

It looks like a large parking garage but coming from the strip you may pass the entrance before realize you past it so you have to circle back.