NBA All-Sar Weekend in Vegas
Now, you’ve got three options and I’ll explain those to you in just a moment. First, let me start by saying that this is the ULTIMATE girlfriends or just the boys trip. As I always stress when talking or writing about budget travel, one room to every group of four is the common sense approach for travelers on a budget.
So you’ve decided that you want to go. The first thing that you need to do is decide which days you’re arriving and leaving and then book a room. Today. Most of the internet travel sites like Expedia, Travelocity will not let you book that far in advance. The key is to go to the actual hotel or hotel chain’s website. Starwood/Sheraton is great. You can reserve your room(s) without paying a deposit. You do have to guarantee the room with a credit card, but, for some locations, they don’t hold any funds or charge a deposit to the card. So you could book a room today and if you realize later that you can’t pull this trip off, just cancel, within the proper time and guidelines set forth by the hotel’s cancellation policy. You have nothing to lose.
Now all you have to do is decide on one of the three options.
Going All The Way. Now this option could definitely be fun. It’s the all-inclusive option. This is really for the ultimate sports, in particular basketball, lover. Going all the way means you’re trying to be at all of the events. You wanna be at the Rookie Challenge, the Three Point and Slam Dunk competitions, and the All-Star Game. Whew! Within this option you have a couple of pricing options. To get close to the action for all three, you’re looking at about $10,000.00 in ticket prices. But if you can swing it, be my guest. Now add the cost of hotel, which, if you want to be close to the action, will run you anywhere from $600-$1100 for three nights. If you split the cost among four, you may end up spending about $200-$250 for your hotel stay. Then you have to think about transportation. I live in Birmingham, AL. So a flight to Vegas is going to cost about $400.00. And if you want to get around while you’re there, you could probably rent a car for the weekend for about $100-$120. You could also split that four ways, though, and pay about $30 a piece. And keep in mind that this is Vegas. Who goes to Vegas without spending money? I’ll say you could get away with $1000. So for the ultimate All-Star weekend experience, we’re talking about $12,000 minimum. Now, you could skimp on the tickets and maybe save on half of your ticket budget. Still, it’s at least a $6000 trip.
Straddling The Fence. Okay. I know this bunch well. You like basketball. You love the all-stars. You even voted a hundred time just so your favorite guard could make the starting line up, which he did. You want to be in Vegas. You even want to see some action on the court, but just enough to say you were there. Hey, I’m there with you. If you’re like me, you don’t even have to see the All-Star Game live. So go to the Rookie Challence. Go to the Three Point and Slam Dunk competitions. Or sacrifice both of these and see the game. The point is just pick one. Either way you’re going to see a lot of great players showcase their talent. And you’ll save a fortune. On the same premise as above, just narrowing it down to one event you could save $4000 if you choose the game only (great seats, of course), $7000 if you choose the Three Point/Slam Dunk only, and about $9000 if you choose the Rookie Challenge only. This could mean the difference between a $12000 trip and a $3000 trip.
K.I.S.S Keep It Simple Silly. This is for the people who aren’t really basketball fans at all, but like to have a good time. There’s going to be plenty to do in the city. You won’t even miss the basketball-related activities. You could probably pull this one of with $2000-$3000 dollars and still have a great time.
If the numbers still seem kind of big to you, break them up into installments and work on them. Maybe a second job is in order. It may seem like a lot, but we sacrifice for the things we want. And if you’ve never taken a trip like this before, it may be worth to have to time of your life. An extra $500 per month for 10 months is $5000. That ought to knock a dent in your trip expenses.
There is no doubt that next year’s All-Star weekend is going to be hot. If you start planning now, you can pull it off. I hope to see you there!
