Category: Las Vegas

Visiting Las Vegas, visiting Nevada, Nevada, sightseeing in Las Vegas, travel journal of my trip to Las Vegas, travel diary of my trip to Las Vegas, things to do in Las Vegas, what to see in Las Vegas, travelling to Las Vegas, city break in Las Vegas, short break in Las Vegas

Viva Las Vegas

Spending time in the party capital when you don’t like to party!

Las Vegas was never high up on my list of places to visit. But visit I have – 4 times now – and I’m pretty sure I’ll return again at some point. My reason for booking my first trip out to Las Vegas was for my friend’s wedding. She had long been a huge fan of the city and had said she would one day get married there ever since I’d known her and long before she met her husband to be!

As our taxi drove out of McCarran airport and around the back of the Strip towards our Circus Circus hotel, I can’t say I was immediately impressed and I wondered how I was going to fill 3 full days in a city of casinos, bars and clubs when I don’t gamble or drink! But as I found out on that visit and subsequent visits, first impressions can be wrong and there’s a lot more to Vegas than that. So why go to the party capital of the World if you don’t like to party?!

The Hotels

It would be strange in any other city, but in Vegas, the themed hotels that line Las Vegas Boulevard, or ‘the Strip’ as it’s often referred to, are one of the city’s main attractions and you can easily spend days just wandering along the strip, exploring these. You can literally – as I’ve found out more than once – lose yourself in these huge complexes.

Take a trip around the World and see France, Italy, Egypt… without leaving the city. In the Venetian, you can visit replicas of the Sistine Chapel’s painted ceiling and a miniature version of the city of Venice where you can even ride a gondola along the canal; see replicas of classic Roman sculptures in Caesar’s Palace; walk through the streets of Manhattan at the New York New York hotel and see a mini-Sphinx at the Luxur. See flamingos hanging out in the gardens at the Flamingo hotel or clowns and acrobats performing at Circus Circus. And it doesn’t matter where you are staying – while I’d never just wander into a 4 or 5-star hotel I’m not staying at in any other city, in Vegas, all the hotel casinos, shops, food courts etc are open to all visitors, not just residents.

The Bright Lights

One of the main reasons I wasn’t immediately enamoured with Vegas was that my first sighting of the Strip was in daylight hours. Wandering down the busy strip in the 40 degree heat is not particularly fun. But after a few hours, when the sun had gone down, the lights had all come on and it had cooled down to a more bearable heat, it looked and felt like a different, much more magical, place and I started to enjoy it a lot more. The Strip at night is just one of those things that has to be seen to be appreciated but the whole atmosphere of the city shifts when the sun goes down!

The Views

For a birds eye view of the Strip, in daylight hours or all lit up at nights, there are a few options, the most expensive of which is to take a helicopter ride over the Strip while its all lit up. But if you’re not a fan of helicopters or your funds don’t quite run to that then another good bet is one of the Strip’s two observation decks. At Paris hotel, there is an observation deck at the top of its ‘Eiffel Tower’. It’s situated right in the middle of the Strip and across from the Bellagio meaning that if you time it right, it is possible to watch the Bellagio Fountain show from up there.

View from the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel

Further along the Strip is the tallest building in Vegas, the Stratosphere, with it’s indoor observation deck with floor to ceiling windows to look out of or the outdoor rooftop, also home to the thrill rides mentioned below.

Views from the Stratosphere

The newest option for views over the Strip is the High Roller, a huge Ferris Wheel outside the Linq hotel. Here you ride in a pod with other visitors – or for a bit more money, you can hire a private pod with a bar – and enjoy the views as you slowly circle up to the top and back down to ground level.

Hint: It’s worth looking out for coupons and promo codes to cut the prices of all these attractions before going to the box office or booking on line!

The Big Shows

I never saw a show the first time I visited Vegas, there just wasn’t time any of the three nights I was there, but I was certainly aware of them with the huge billboards adorning the hotels everywhere. And I’ve made up for it since, seeing a Cirque du Soleil show, Britney’s Piece of Me show and the Backstreet Boys’ during their Planet Hollywood residency on my subsequent visits!

There’s always plenty to choose from and something for everyone from mind-boggling magic shows to the Cirque shows’ gasp-inducing acrobatic displays to chart-topping musicians or top class tribute acts. If you’re not too fussy, a lot of the show tickets can be bought at discounted prices on the day at TKTs booths and it’s even worth turning up at the box office for the show you have in mind and enquiring as we got our Britney tickets, to stand right in the front pit down by the stage, on the day of the gig for less than they’d have been in advance online seeing as we didn’t have to pay as much in processing/ delivery fees etc in person.

One of the Cirque du Soleil shows on the Strip

The Free Shows

The Volcano erupting outside the Mirage Hotel

If you’ve not got the time or the money to see one of the big shows then there’s plenty of free ‘shows’ along the strip that shouldn’t be missed. Head to the Mirage Hotel to see the huge volcano outside erupt every hour, pop to the shopping complex at Caesars Palace to see Atlantis, a moving statue show or go to the Bellagio for, probably the most well-known of these free shows, the Dancing Fountains.

If you’re downtown, the Fremont Street Experience offers free live music and a laser show most nights.

The Thrill Rides

Rides in Circus Circus hotel
The Rollercoaster running through New York New York hotel

If non-stop thrills are your thing, Vegas has plenty but they don’t come cheap! The New York New York hotel is home to one of my favourite roller coasters ever. You board inside the hotel but soon find yourself outside whizzing around the famous Manhattan skyline! If one roller coaster isn’t enough then head further up the Strip to Circus Circus hotel which is home to an amusement park with rollercoasters, family rides and other thrill rides. And if you’re feeling really brave, catch the elevator to the top of the Stratosphere Hotel to ride it’s three thrill rides 350m above the Strip!! Definitely not for the faint-hearted!!

Rides at the top of the Stratosphere

The Shops

The Hershey’s store

Las Vegas is home to no end of shopping malls and outlets. Pretty much all the hotels have a shopping mall attached and if it’s too hot to walk along the Strip to your destination, many of these link up so you can walk from hotel to hotel without ever having to go outside! Most of the malls are home to a range of stores from well-known high street stores to mid-range stores to high end designer stores. Themed stores like the M&M’s store, the Hershey’s store and the Coca Cola store are always fun to look around and there’s no end of shops offering Vegas souvenirs. If you’re looking for a bargain then catch a bus or taxi to one of the Outlet Malls just outside of the main city.

The Museums

Few people would say the were heading to Vegas to check out it’s museums but actually, the city has some really great ones! The Neon Museum, or Neon Junkyard as it’s sometimes known, is one of y favourites. Situated near the downtown area of Vegas this museum is host to many of the retired signs from old Vegas hotels. Tours can be taken throughout the day but at night, some of the signs are switched on so you can see exactly how they once looked!

Another museum worth visiting in downtown Vegas is the Mob Museum. This museum tracks the rise and fall of the Mob in Las Vegas and its surrounds and is a really interesting way to spend a couple of hours.

Retired signs at the Neon Museum

If it’s art you’re after, then the Gallery of Fine Art at the Bellagio Hotel, right on the Strip is a good call. TheBellagio is not the only hotel to contain a museum, visit the Luxor to find an exhibition of artefacts from the ill-fated Titanic or The Venetian to find good old Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum.

The Old Town

While most visitors choose to stay in a hotel on the main Vegas Strip, staying Downtown in ‘Old’ Vegas can be a much cheaper option and even if you don’t stay there, it is definitely worth catching the Deuce bus there a few hours. As well as they already mentioned Mob and Neon Museum, downtown is home to some of Vegas’ most famous hotels such as the Golden Nugget as well as tourist attraction The Fremont Experience. Fremont Street is the main street that runs through the downtown area and most nights there’s live entertainment and a free laser show beamed hourly onto the street’s ‘roof’.

If you’re feeling adventurous then you can fly down Fremont Street on the SlotZilla Zipline!

The National Parks

While the city of Las Vegas itself offers plenty to keep you entertained, it’s also a great base to reach some of the USA’s top National Parks from. The most popular to visit from Vegas is the Grand Canyon and if you don’t want to hire a car and drive yourself there, tour companies offer plenty of options from all day coach trips to scenic flights there and back.

Grand Canyon views

If you want somewhere a bit different or to explore a bit further then Utah’s Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks are also in easy reach along with Death Valley National Park in California. Again, there’s plenty of tour companies offering guided tours out to these parks if you don’t want to drive yourself.

Bryce Canyon National Park

If it’s the great outdoors you’re after, there’s many opportunities closer to Vegas – hiking at Red Rock Canyon or hiking, biking and boating at Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

There’s plenty of other entertainment opportunities in Las Vegas which I’ve not mentioned and if nothing else, the city is just one of those places that just has to be seen! So, even if partying and gambling is not your thing, the Vegas is definitely still worth a visit!

Southern BLT Day 1-4: Hollywood, San Diego and Las Vegas

My first small group tour travel experience – Part 1

The start of a 3-week road trip across America with 10 strangers!

Getting ready for the Oscars – red carpet lining Hollywood Blvd

Within minutes of meeting my companions for the next 3 weeks (you can read my previous blog on this here), we were all climbing into our mini-bus and being driven by our tour guide across the city to our first stop – Hollywood. Conversations in the bus at this point mainly consisted of the “What’s your name again?”, “Where did you say you’re from again?” kind and when we were dropped off and given an hour to wander around Hollywood Boulevard, we drifted into smaller groups – the 2 Swedish girls sticking together, the 20-something guys grouping up and then those of us that didn’t fit any other group wandering off together too. Hollywood was setting up for the weekend’s big Oscar Ceremony which, having been to the Walk of Fame many times before, made the stop a bit more exciting for me as we saw the preparations going on and watched through the fence as reporters broadcast from the red carpet already running down the middle of the road to the Kodak Theater.

Oscar preparations outside the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood

Once we were all back at the bus, we made one more quick hop off and on stop nearby to get a photo of the Hollywood sign from Beachwood Canyon before settling in for the 2 hour drive to San Diego. Lunch was at a truck stop just outside the city with a choice of fast food options (most of us tried Wendy’s!) and then it was off to drop our things at our hostel in the Gaslamp District. Like me, this was to be the first hostel experience for most of the group. We were allocated two 6-bed dorms to share between us, there were plenty of bathrooms along the corridor and breakfast was provided in the morning. Our room overlooked the main street in the Gaslamp Quarter, where all the bars were so we had loud music pumping through the walls until the early hours of the morning but it was only for 2 nights and our next stop would be a hotel in Vegas.

The Hollywood sign
Paddling in the sea on Mission Beach

After we had settled, we met back at the bus and were taken to Mission Beach for the afternoon. Despite it being February, the weather was a balmy 20 degrees and we wandered along the sands chatting and getting to know each other a bit more before returning to the city for our first group dinner at Bepe di Bucco’s family dining restaurant. That night, we split into those who wanted to go partying and those who didn’t with some of us opting instead to keep out of the bars and get frozen yoghurt instead as we planned to be up early the next day for a trip to the zoo.

  • Mission Beach
  • Italian food at Beppe di Buca
  • Frozen yoghurt!

What we did on our free day was completely up to us but with the suggestions being SeaWorld or San Diego Zoo, most of the group was keen on going to the zoo so our tour guide offered to drive us there and then we could make our own way back. Only 2 of the group – the two Swedish girls who were mainly keeping themselves to themselves at this point – decided to stay in the city and do their own bit of sightseeing. The zoo was huge, so much so that we lost one group member at one point which was a good point to decide we should all swap numbers and start a Whatsapp group! After spending most for the day there, we walked through Balboa Park and back to the hostel. Our tour guide suggested a seafood place for dinner but with none of the group too keen in that idea, we ended up in Hooters which, if nothing else, was cheaper!

It was a very early start the next morning to begin our drive to Las Vegas and most of us slept in the bus. Lunch was at a bizarre Greek-style diner in Baker, California, opposite the World’s Largest Thermometer(!) before continuing to our destination.

  • The World’s largest thermometre
  • The Mad Greek Diner
  • View from the bus en route to Vegas
Watch my Trek America adventures in Hollywood and San Diego
Our seemingly luxurious hotel room at Bally’s!

After 2 nights in a hostel, our room at Bally’s Casino seemed like luxury and I was surprised we were in a hotel on the Strip and in such a good location, expecting to be Downtown from reading other Trekkers’ experiences online. With hotel rooms being for 2, the two Swedish girls shared a room, I shared with the other solo girl (we’d already become good friends at this point – 2 days can seem a lot longer when you’re spending all that time in someone’s company!) and then the guys paired up, taking it in turns to have a room to themselves with there being an odd number of them.

We had the rest of the afternoon as free time but were to be back early evening for our included Party Bus activity. As my roommate and I had decided we’d like to see Britney play the following night, we headed straight to the Planet Hollywood box office to acquire some tickets before joining the others strolling through some of the hotels on the strip. Then it was all round to our tour guide’s room for some group-bonding drinking games and Chinese food before we piled onto our private Vegas Party bus. The bus drives up and down the strip while music blasts out and the inside is like a mini-dance club.

Downtown Vegas

Unimpressed by the very clubby music, one of the group asked if he could instead plug in his iPhone and we instead sang and danced along to cheesy 90s pop tracks from the Spice Girls and 5ive and tunes from Disney’s Frozen. The bus made a stop Downtown in time for us to catch the hourly laser show at Fremont Street and then at the Welcome to Vegas sign for us to get photos before dropping us off at the Bellagio to watch the penultimate dancing fountain show of the night. We loved this so much we decided to wait 15 minutes to watch the final show of the night too before following our tour guide to her favourite karaoke bar at Ellis Island Casino just behind Bally’s.

The Bellagio Founains

The next morning we split into 2 groups – those of us who had returned to our hotel at a reasonable time and were up to spend the day exploring Vegas, and those who were sleeping it off! By the time we met with the rest of the group later that afternoon, we had already had a huge Denny’s breakfast, took a gondola ride at the Venetian hotel, and got lost in Circus Circus. We were joined by a few more group members at the top of the Stratosphere where we screamed our way through the 3 rides sat on top of the tallest building in the Strip.

  • Gondola ride through the Venetian hotel
  • Walking to the Stratosphere
  • View from the top
  • On the rides at the top of the Stratosphere
Britney!

That evening, we all went off to see various shows and for me that meant the chance to see Britney’s Piece Of Me show, something I’d wanted to do since it was announced so I was ecstatic to discover she was playing on our free evening in the city. We’d managed to get our hands on pit tickets so were up close, especially when Britney came out along the catwalk and the show was every bit as amazing as I’d hoped. After, we met up with a few other group members for a late night ride on the High Roller Ferris Wheel to see the bright lights of Vegas from above.

  • Boarding the High Roller
  • Views over Vegas

I’d been to Vegas a few times before this trip but never experienced it quite like this. Being in a group tour situation was already taking me out of my comfort zone – drinking games, party buses, late night karaoke bars, none of these things were how I’d usually spend my time on holiday – and yet I was loving every minute and really enjoying the company of this eclectic band of individuals.

4 days in and things were going great but I should know by now to expect the unexpected…

Watch my Trek America adventures in Las Vegas

My Trek America Experience Part 2

My first solo travel adventure

Going it alone