So in a weeks time, my husband and I planned a family trip to Las Vegas. Unfortunately we waited too long to book our hotel. Prices beginning under $20 a night for hotels disappeared like water in the desert. A couple of days before we planned to leave, we booked at a hotel that was pet friendly and claiming location just outside the Las Vegas strip. Well, Henderson, Nevada is not JUST outside the strip. It's about 30 minuets away! The hotel itself wasn't bad, but it wasn't what we wanted, so hot and tired with two kids and two dogs* we moved to plan B. We drove to my mom's house and regrouped in an attempt to locate a decent rate on the strip the same day we are supposed to check in. "Impossible!" you say? We decided to see what William Shatner could do for us. Using our mobile phones we began searching Priceline for hotels on the strip. To our dismay, many of the hotels were sold-out. It seemed our vacation was coming to a close before it had even begun. Suddenly we spotted The Rio all suites hotel for $48 a night. A 4 star hotel just off the strip for $48 a night? Can't be! I called The Rio directly to find their rate to be over $100 a night. When I told them what I found on Priceline they simply said, "then you need to book it from them." So we did. My husband, skeptical at what we were getting ourselves into, halfheartedly complained on our drive over. He worried our room would smell like vomit and the hotel would be decrepit. I assured him that I'd been inside The Rio before and I remembered it being a nice place. Our fears continued when it took a half hour to valet our car and another half hour to check into our room. But once we walked into our room, our fears melted and relaxation set in. Our room smelled clean, which in Vegas is difficult to do even in the non-smoking rooms as cigarette smoke travels stealthily. We had two queen beds, a desk, a couch, coffee table, and TV. The bathroom was large with two sinks: one inside the toilet area, and one outside. The room was a beautiful thing! Then there was the pool....several of them to be exact. The main pool, where most of the families seemed to be located, had a beautiful, white sandy beach leading into the pool where several waterfalls cascaded over the swimmers. My daughter's face lit up at the site; she could hardly contain herself long enough to be sun-screened. Several other pools were located on the site, also with waterfalls, but they didn't have a beach. Tranquil spas were inset all around the property for enjoyment, but it was just too darn hot for that!
Thanks to Priceline, our vacation was saved! We stayed at a beautiful resort where we relaxed, swam, stuffed our faces at the buffet, and my husband and I even received half-off the featured show: Penn & Teller. William Shatner, thanks for saving us, we'll never book with anybody else ever again.
*The Rio is NOT a dog friendly hotel. We boarded our dogs at a friendly animal hospital . They took good care of them!
