Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Wherein I ask you guys for help and opinions


My best friend of 17+ years is getting married in October. (Hi, Natalie!) As the maid of honor, I've been trying to plan a fun bachelorette weekend in August for six girls and for under $500 each. We don't want to do the stereotypical dinner and strip club, and Atlantic City is definitely out of the question. To stay in Manhattan for the weekend and have spa treatments will run us each about $400 after you calculate meals and other expenses, which is kinda silly considering we all LIVE in New York. We've been looking into destinations outside of New York with a $500 budget, and here's what I've come up with:

Palm Springs, CA. It'll be 110 degrees, but we can stay in a 2-bedroom villa with a kitchen, which will cut down on meal expenses. Fun things to do include outlet shopping, desert parks, a ski lift to the top of mountain where they may be snow, and a huge resort pool.

New Orleans, LA. Hotel and airfare seem to be under $400 per person, but NOLA is notoriously expensive. By the end of the weekend, we'd be well over our budget.

Miami, FL. I sort of feel like this is been-there-done-that territory. While we can get down to Miami for very little, hotels are expensive and so it the nightlife. And really, why go to Miami if you're not gonna partake in the nightlife?

Cruise. A cruise always sounds good in theory because package deals keep costs down. But what they don't tell you about cruises is all the extra fees, port taxes, and expenses [read: alcohol] that go along with the trip. Yes, your accommodations and meals are included in the price, but what about the flight to whatever city the ship leaves from? And the one-night hotel stay in said city the night prior to departure? And all the DRINKING we plan on doing?

Here's where you guys come in. I've gotten comments from readers all over the U.S., so I know y'all are from more places then just New York and San Diego. What are YOUR suggestions for this bachelorette weekend? How do you feel about the places I suggested? Do you have any advice? Can you suggest any other fun places to relax? All you need to know: 6 girls, Friday-Monday any weekend after August 1st up until Labor Day weekend, limit $500 per person. No outdoorsy type activities, please.

Thoughts? Comments? Concerns? Rants? Any suggestions and advice would be most helpful! Thank you!

4 comments:

Red said...

Can you bring your own booze aboard the cruise ship?

What about Chicago? Awesome city, not too expensive, cute guys and nice weather that time of the year.

Sabrina said...

Minneapolis in the hizzouse! (Im seriously just kidding.)

I love Palm Springs, great place to visit... HOT in the summer though! But still a nice place to visit anytime.
I used to live in New Hampshire and there were some nice B&Bs and spas there. Portland Maine is seriously a great city too. Artsy and laid back, lots of young people, lots to do and see. Great food!

Good Luck!

Z-Man said...

Flights and hotels are real cheap to Vegas but that's overdone. Montreal is nice in the summer (read: not uber-freezing) and if you drive (just over 5 hrs), gas and tolls round trip from nyc is under $100.

Meg said...

I'd need to think about your list a bit more, but I can tell you this...I have some friends who use Priceline for Name Your Price hotels and have found it works very, very well. They always stay at swanky hotels for half the price. I'm about to do it for a trip back home in June, so I'll let you know how it worked for me. But they've been happy.