June 6, 2006
 
Las Vegas Residents Like Chicago for Fun
 
By Brendan Buhler
Las Vegas Sun
 
Las Vegas, NV (SHNS) -- Las Vegans may live in one of the country's favorite places to vacation, but where do we -- presumably savvy and inured to tourist traps -- take our summer fun?
 
Somewhere cool, perhaps, or someplace with water?
 
According to one online travel firm, Orbitz, they go to Chicago. Chicago?
 
Maria Lilibeth Ruiz, marketing director for Las Vegas' Travel and Cruises American Express, doesn't think so:
 
"When you ask me, I'm thinking of vacation as more of a go and have fun type thing I mean, Chicago, that's usually to visit friends and family. But as a vacation, my goodness, there's so many other places to go."
 
Of course, Orbitz's list of Las Vegans' travel destinations is not holy writ. Different travel Web sites have different rates and deals in different cities, and online customers often shop among several, says Ed Serrano, who runs the family travel site LasVegasKids.com.
 
It may be that Las Vegans who want to go to Chicago are choosing Orbitz because it offers cheaper flights there than the other sites. And Orbitz's list, in which Los Angeles comes in second, is only for people traveling by plane.
 
The folks at AAA Nevada say their list of the top car-trip destinations suggests Las Vegans are a more nature-loving lot, with the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park taking its top two spots.
 
Because no travel agencies release customer totals, there's no way to combine their lists into one master. At best, they can give snapshots of different sets of Las Vegas travelers.
 
For instance, Ruiz's agency mainly offers cruises and specializes in marketing to families and retirees. So her list of the top four long-distance getaways for Las Vegans starts with Hawaiian cruises, followed by Mexican, European and Alaskan cruises.
 
Ruiz says that drivers who book through her agency like California: Disneyland, San Diego or, since the movie "Sideways," the wine countries of either Napa Valley or Santa Barbara.
 
"You've got a combination of beautiful scenery and, at the same time, drinking wine," she says. "That's more for couples than families, though." Southern California is also a favorite spot with Serrano's Las Vegas customers. It's close, he says, it has beaches and a large percentage of Las Vegans used to live there.
 
So maybe the home-sweet-home theory explains Chicago?
 
Well, not quite. According to the most recent (2004) list of out-of-state driver's licenses exchanged at the DMV, only 4 percent of people migrating to Las Vegas are from Illinois -- less than New York, Arizona and Florida. Contact Brendan Buhler at buhler@lasvegassun.com.
 
Distributed by Scripps-McClatchy Western Service, www.scrippsnews.com.
 
Editor’s Note: As a notorious fan of vacationing in Chicago, where I once upon a time lived and worked, I find nothing unusual about vacationing in Chicago, especially if you’re experiencing 115 degree heat that isn’t all that dry anymore in Vegas (Yes, I’ve been there in the summer and it’s HOT:
 
Like Hell with freeways). Chicago has water aplenty, on the shores of a lake almost as big as the state of West Virginia. It has excellent public transportation and unparalleled trail and air connections. (Trains no longer go to Las Vegas and the airport is a nightmare). Nearing the end of my commercial: Chicago has so much to do and see it’s almost like another country, borrowing a slogan from Texas.
 
--David M. Kinchen, whose next trip to Chicago will be by Amtrak in July.