What was the Actual Cost of a resort in Las Vegas? Couple weeks ago, I shared about our trip pre-travel. I talked about how I had set a budget, our flight and hotel costs and the overall budget of $1348 for the entire trip. Now is for me to share the actual cost of staying at a resort in Las Vegas- complete with my insights and blunders.
Budget at a Glance
- Hotel in Vegas: $388 + fees and tax
- Flights + Carryon: $234
- Food Budget: $300
- Recreation/Travel Budget: $300
The Actual Cost of Las Vegas
Resort Hotel in Vegas: $564
$388 prepaid to Costco, + $176 for Resort Tax and a Resort Fee, I had estimated that it would be an additional $144 ($39/night but there was a $5.22 nightly Resort Fee)
Flights + Carryon: $234

Actual Food/Drink Cost: $334
What I did not account for was the tax, the tips, and the fact that we were on The Strip. I am not sure why that slipped my mind- being on The Strip automatically made meals more expensive than off The Strip. Even if we tried to save money by eating elsewhere and taking a Lyft, that adds to the price of the meal and so you might as well stay on The Strip.
June 6: $62 (dinner menu items, taxes, tips)

June 7: Exploring on The Strip Day 1
- Hard Rock Cafe for “breakfast and lunch” $49 (menu items + tax and tips)
- $9 water bottles- We walked The Strip and forgot our water bottle! It was 95 degrees out, we couldn’t walk The Strip without water
- Slice of Vegas in Mandala Shoppes $24- 12″ pepperoni pizza Every casino hotel has a Shoppes section- or a few share 1-2 Shoppes. There are places to buy overpriced clothing, food, and do activities. For the money and atmosphere, I do recommend this place. We got great food and it was a short walk through the hotel/casino.
- Auntie Ann’s Hot Pretzels $6.49 for a cup of pretzel bites. After all the walking we did that day (10 miles!) I really wanted those soft, buttery hot pretzels.

June 8- Pool Day
- I ate hot cereal in our room with my coffee, Kyler waited for lunch at the pool
- Mandala Bay Pool- $51 Menu Items + Taxes + Tips
- Ri Ra Pub $18.69 “Fancy spinach salad” to go, tax and tip
- Market in Mandala Bay- $13 for whatever Kyler got. There are ZERO price tags! in that place so we had no way of budgeting!
June 9- Exploring on The Strip Day 2
- Starbucks Coffee $6 and had a couple bites of Kyler’s donuts as we walked 😉 The k-pod coffee maker was ruining my coffee- made it taste so acidic. So I folded and bought coffee.
- Krispie Kreme Donuts– $$6.50- as you can tell, Kyler doesn’t eat very healthy
- Chipotle $4.71 for a healthy taco with several sources of protein for me. Taco + Taxes
- Slice of Vegas– $49- 2 individual dishes + Taxes/Tips We were sooo hungry after a day of walking The Strip

June 10- Airport
- Starbucks coffee +egg sandwich at Mandala Bay $15.39
- Airport lunch for Kyler: $17
Actual Recreation/Travel Cost: $335
- M&Ms store $16 for a cup of mixed M&Ms, we paid cash with Kyler’s tip money. The place is really cool- 4 floors like a museum, merchandise and an entire wall of M&Ms to choose from!
Hilarious Moment- We’re riding an escalator in the store and Kyler is holding his M&Ms cup as he says “This is a tourist trap for kids,”
- Lyft Ride to and from the Airport and 1 ride from the Cosmopolitan back to Mandala Bay (actually got me almost 6% cash back with my Chase card) $49 total for 2 rides, our ride from the Cosmo got canceled so we got it for free… would have been $12
- Monorail $10 to get from our end of the Strip to the other side
- $20 Slots Machine… Kyler wanted to both try it and see the look of absolute boredom as as I tapped the button to roll the slot machine
- Mandala Bay Aquarium $40 awesome and worth the money!
- Mandala Bay Pool $200 Included unlimited free water bottles, an attendant, taxes and reserved chairs
- Hat- I forgot my hat so we got me one with cash at American Eagle

Final Cost of a Resort in Las Vegas
The final cost of our trip to Vegas was $1468- so we only went over $120! Not bad for randomly deciding to eat hot pretzels, start buying Starbucks, buying a hat and M&Ms candy; and for not being certain of the additional costs of staying at a Resort. I think my biggest blunder about budgeting for the costs of staying at a resort (especially a newer resort) were taxes and tips. We don’t have sales taxes here in Montana and I guess I take that for granted sometimes. However, the actual cost for our budget earned us about $35 in cash back.
Up Next: Free Things to do in Las Vegas!

And there is a great way to do it for way cheaper! Check out this other blogger’s article about how she spent 3 days in Vegas for only $300. The key differences between our posts is that we opted to splurge on a hotel (she stayed at the Flamingo and that costs less than the hotel Ky picked). We also did a pool day this time around, there are 2 of us, and we stayed 1 day longer than she did, and she magically was able to book a cheaper flight than us because we’re out in Montana. But still! Kuddos to her!
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