I can’t believe we did it!
My mom is always the one who loves to surprise people… she’ll fly to where they are, show up and she’s such a pro. I love that woman. So, me and my sister thought, “hey, why not take this opportunity to surprise HER for a change!”
So, we flew out to Las Vegas to surprise my mom and two of her sisters (and a friend of theirs). It was AMAZING! Not just because of going to Las Vegas, but the memories that were made were priceless. It was so much fun and made us all incredibly happy.
If you ever want to surprise someone on a trip, be sure that they will be excited to see you! LOL
Planning a Trip to Las Vegas
As a confession, my sister and I have always really depended on our mom to take care of travelling. She’s just good at it and she LOVES to do it…. so when it came to us planning it on our own…. we had to put our big girl pants on and adopted the phrase…
“What would mom do?” (WWMD)
There were a few things that played into our planning.
First, we reached out to the friend (J) that was going with them and had her be our middle man for information. She is the one who made this all possible, from knowing where they would be to figuring out what they were going to be doing as far as shows so we could get tickets as well beforehand.
Another great benefit with talking to J was that she had the hotel information and she was able to get a room for our time there.
Our Steps to Plan a Trip to Las Vegas
This is what we did and things went pretty smoothly, but keep in mind there may be little tweaks here and there if you are going to plan the way we did.
The Steps to Plan Our Trip:
- Check Expedia.com for dates and flights and times
- Choose best for 2 adults, along with carry-on luggage and transportation (we opted out of that)
- Plan how to get to airport (my husband), how to get from airport (we would pay for cab when we get there)
- Talk with J on when/where we need to be at what time to surprise them
- (optional) Let bank know be out of town on those dates
- (optional) Plan “home life” maintenance for animals, plants, mail, etc
Once this was done, we were set to pack and get ready for our trip.
Pre-Plan Before Our Trip:
- Get singles for tipping (have at least $30-40 for tipping drinks, transportation, eating, room service, etc)
- Plan outfits for every day, including multi-purpose items
- Put all amenities into travel-size containers
- Pack dirty laundry bags and extra undergarments
- Have all identification in close-on-body location (like a fanny pack)
- Print out boarding passes and make sure we have them electronically on our phones
The Day of Our Trip:
- Have boarding passes and make sure we have them electronically on our phones
- Get to the airport 2 hours early (5 am was not fun, but that’s what we needed for our 7am flight)
- Check in and get carry-on luggage weighed & tagged
- Arrive in Las Vegas, get luggage, change, bathroom, and freshen up
- Get shuttle transportation to hotel (we just went outside and there was a shuttle that we could pay for, but you could also do Uber, Lyft, etc as they are all available. **don’t forget to tip drivers that help with luggage!
- Get to hotel and text with J where we were to surprise them!
This is the moment they saw us! So priceless. Our mom is the one on the right and the 2 other ladies are her sisters (our aunts).
We cried. We laughed.
It was overjoyous.
It was one of the few times my mom has ever been truly surprised.
Map of Las Vegas (The Strip and Downtown)
One thing I would strongly suggest is having a map of Las Vegas as well as the original downtown area if you want to go there.
What is the strip vs downtown?
If you’ve never visited Las Vegas before, you might have heard people talk about “the strip” or “downtown” and be confused. Here’s a simple breakdown to understand which is what.
The Las Vegas strip is the main street called Las Vegas Blvd, where all the big hotels are and the monorail runs along.
Downtown Las Vegas is the old main drag on Fremont Street (north end of the Las Vegas strip) where you might remember from old movies, the big lit up cowboy, the Rat Pack, etc.
I’ve included 2 different maps of Las Vegas strip and downtown (Fremont Street) below:
- One of the strip plus downtown (updated to include the Sphere)
- and the other just of the monorail along the strip only.
Map of Las Vegas strip and downtown (Fremont Street)
Map of Las Vegas strip monorail (Las Vegas Blvd)
Good luck and have a great time on your vacation!
~~ As always friends, take care, be kind to yourself and others, and always keep learning to be better and do better.
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