In October 2015, Ariel Khawaja travelled to Cozumel, , to say “I do” before a group of 55 wedding guests. Three years later she corralled her two best friends to stand beside her in as she said two other magic words: “I don’t.”
Anchoring the trip around a Drake concert, the 28-year-old, who works in real estate, filled her week with gambling, clubbing at the ritzy 1 OAK, partying poolside at Wet Republic—a day club at the MGM Grand—and otherwise recharging. “Las Vegas is fun all the time, but when you’re there for your divorce, you’re really free,” says Khawaja, who lives in Houston. “I didn’t pay to have a pity party — I wanted to relax and enjoy time with my friends after the hell I had been through.”
If the “Hangover” film franchise cemented Las Vegas’s reputation as the ultimate bachelor-party town, Khawaja and other fun-loving travellers are helping establish it as the opposite: the perfect destination for a divorce party. Often an exultant multiday escapade, these vacations celebrate — not mourn — the ending of a marriage.
Adam Clough first heard about the concept 10 years ago but says it’s taken off more recently. He once helped a guest fete his divorce in the company of his former groomsmen. “People started telling us that they want a fresh start,” says Clough, the executive director of social sales and concierge operations for MGM Resorts, which has 12 properties along the Strip. “At first we thought, Well this is different. But people come to Vegas for celebrations, so in a way it makes sense.”
Some venues have fully embraced their only-in-Vegas-ness by marketing specifically to the divorce-party crowd. For instance, the Just Divorced package ($499) at Machine Guns Vegas, a self-described “luxury gun range,” encourages divorcées to take a machine gun to their wedding dress and marriage certificate while wearing a black “Just Divorced” sash.
Strip clubs are also a popular choice. “Your spirits will be insanely lifted by the time you leave,” jokes Lindsay Feldman, the director of brand marketing for Crazy Horse 3, an upscale gentlemen’s club that’s hosted high-profile celebrity for Colt Johnson and Larissa Dos Santos Lima, the formerly married stars of TLC’s 90 Day Fiancé, as well as actress and media personality Courtney Stodden.
“Divorces are obviously very sensitive, but they’re also symbolic of freedom, and these parties are about the ‘power divorce.’” Feldman says. “They’re about making everybody really happy and excited. They’re about celebrating in a dynamic atmosphere with people who love you.” The confident, sexed-up atmosphere drives home another unalienable truth: Las Vegas is one of the best places on Earth to be single.
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