Aug 2, 2007
Orlando vs. Las Vegas -- Which is cheapest?
If you've been to Las Vegas lately, you've experienced the sharp rise in prices for lodgings and meals in that city. With nationwide conventions happening there for weeks on end, the hotels of that city are often fully booked and expensive to get. The same for meals. With some Las Vegas hotels currently earning more money from their restaurants than their casinos, the old policy of pricing meals as loss leaders has been jettisoned; the food of Sin City is increasingly pricey.
So which is the better choice for budget-minded vacationers -- Las Vegas or Orlando? I say Orlando. The bargains in packages that combine airfare, hotel and car rental, and the recent competitive ticket prices at Universal Florida, have created new opportunities for cost-conscious families.
The bargains begin with an Orlando offering from the Florida-based eLeisure Link (tel. 888/801-8808; www.eleisurelink.com): a remarkable $499 per person for round-trip air from New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Hartford, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Providence or Washington, D.C. (with cheap add-ons from everywhere else), a two-bedroom suite with mini-kitchen at the Nickelodeon Family Suites Resort (kids get their own, entertainment-filled bedroom and water park-style playground), and a five-day mid-sized car rental with unlimited mileage, all based on a family of four traveling together. Add to that the recent admissions price of $86 per person for a full week at the theme parks of Universal Studios, and you have a record low price for a weeklong family vacation. While first-timers to Orlando will undoubtedly prefer devoting their week to the Disney theme parks, repeat visitors seem to be well satisfied with the more contemporary attractions of Universal, whose two theme parks -- a TV-oriented Universal Studios Florida and a movie-and-comic-strip themed Islands of Adventure -- provide the basis for several days of enjoyable entertainment.
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So which is the better choice for budget-minded vacationers -- Las Vegas or Orlando? I say Orlando. The bargains in packages that combine airfare, hotel and car rental, and the recent competitive ticket prices at Universal Florida, have created new opportunities for cost-conscious families.
The bargains begin with an Orlando offering from the Florida-based eLeisure Link (tel. 888/801-8808; www.eleisurelink.com): a remarkable $499 per person for round-trip air from New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Hartford, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Providence or Washington, D.C. (with cheap add-ons from everywhere else), a two-bedroom suite with mini-kitchen at the Nickelodeon Family Suites Resort (kids get their own, entertainment-filled bedroom and water park-style playground), and a five-day mid-sized car rental with unlimited mileage, all based on a family of four traveling together. Add to that the recent admissions price of $86 per person for a full week at the theme parks of Universal Studios, and you have a record low price for a weeklong family vacation. While first-timers to Orlando will undoubtedly prefer devoting their week to the Disney theme parks, repeat visitors seem to be well satisfied with the more contemporary attractions of Universal, whose two theme parks -- a TV-oriented Universal Studios Florida and a movie-and-comic-strip themed Islands of Adventure -- provide the basis for several days of enjoyable entertainment.
Write and read comments about this post.
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
