Waking Up in Vegas (with snacks)
February 1, 2018 12:16 PM   Subscribe

I'm going to Las Vegas for an extended ladies' weekend with some friends next month. We're staying in multiple hotels because we were able to get some free nights different places and also just for the fun of seeing a few different places. I'm in charge of snacks and drinks and I'm looking for ideas on how to best handle the storage and transportation of these items during the trip.

We'll be there for five days and I'll have a car. Assume I can go to Costco/ grocery store before I drive to Vegas. I am able to procure a cooler and/or bins, baskets or whatever storage makes sense. Right now requested snacks include fruit, kind bars, nuts, and chips. Requested drinks include bottled water, juice, vodka, and champagne. I'm sure I would come up with something on my own, but I'd appreciate your help coming up with the best way to keep these items in my car, then get them to the hotel room each night, then back to my car, etc, etc. There must be a better way then just lugging a giant cooler around, right?
posted by shesbookish to Travel & Transportation (5 answers total)
 
Lug smaller coolers around?

If you can park in covered parking, some of these items will be fine in a regular tote bag or suitcase.

If it's going to be an issue to keep things cool on the drive, go to Costco after you get to Las Vegas.
posted by yohko at 12:20 PM on February 1, 2018


Best answer: In my experience (having both driven to Vegas and also having purchased snacks for many a film crew, who get hangry if not well fed), novelty is a big part of a pleasant snacking experience. Encountering a few new types of snack every day is far preferable to snacking out of a stockpile of 20 things that were packed for the week.

So my vote would be, as much as possible, to spend your budget on the road, buying interesting snacks as you go, rather than purchasing items in advance. This also allows you to better guess what kind of food people will find appealing on a given day (which depends on variables like the weather, what else you've eaten recently, hangover status, etc).

Nobody wants to root around in a cooler for 3-day old carrot sticks... but everyone will be thrilled at a cool, fresh tub of pineapple chunks you just bought 10 minutes ago, or ice cream bars on a hot afternoon.

That said, you do want to keep water and some easy snacks handy in the car- and exactly what you mentioned is great- kind bars, dried fruit, nuts, pre-washed apples, chips.

For other drinks, you could ask the desk staff at each hotel to freeze a few water bottles overnight for you at each stop, to keep your drinks coolers full.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 1:11 PM on February 1, 2018 [5 favorites]


1. Request hotel rooms with mini-fridges. Store the heavy drinks in the rooms of whomever is hosting that evening's drinks. That way you only transport once. Or whoever is hosting the drinks that night gets the cooler to bring them to the room.
2. Rolling coolers are a thing.
posted by HeyAllie at 1:18 PM on February 1, 2018 [1 favorite]


Amazon prime?
posted by oceano at 4:24 PM on February 1, 2018


If you can buy (expensive) or borrow a YETI cooler they do indeed keep things very cold for an extended time. I have had my cooler in the car in the desert and it kept ice for 3 days, being opened frequently. Just be sure to have it cold before putting your things in (which should be cold going in), these type of coolers don't have a lot of room inside though.

Ideas for shlepping stuff around:
Wheeled cooler
Luggage cart
Folding grocery cart (seniors love these, maybe an older relative already has one)
Folding wagon
Dog crate dolly

You can carry the cooler and box(es) of the non-cooled snacks at once. Or leave the cooler in the car and just take the boxes to the room.

You might pickup some large "fancy" plastic bowls from the $dollar store and have one for each room/hotel for each nights snacks. I do this for my Mom in the nursing home, she has fresh fruit that I refill, she has it on her tray table and can share with friends that visit her.
posted by IpsoFacto at 12:09 PM on February 2, 2018


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