Vegas Baby Vegas
Christmas 2013 saw us seeking some sunshine, and with subsidised flights and hotels Las Vegas is always worth a look. The desert almost guarantees temperatures in the 60's throughout winter, shops and restaurants are open throughout so it's an easy decision.
We booked a standard room at Mandalay Bay on the South end of the strip (far from the madding crowd) and it turned out to be an excellent choice. There are some minor difficulties involved with staying in Las Vegas casino hotels, if you self park (instead of valet parking) you are pushed a long way out from the hotel through a myriad of connection tunnels/ramps and poor signage.
When you finally find your way in, the hotel is almost as difficult to navigate with poor signage and a rat run of walkways through the casino floor to reach reception. I confess my first thought was how to evacuate in a fire, I can't help but think that these places are a significant disaster waiting to happen (not aided by the fact that smoking is still permitted in all of the casinos)
But, signage and long drags to the car park aside, vegas hotels are an incredible sight. Most have over 3000 rooms with shops, casinos, restaurants and side shows each one is a significant 'business'
We booked a standard room at Mandalay Bay on the South end of the strip (far from the madding crowd) and it turned out to be an excellent choice. There are some minor difficulties involved with staying in Las Vegas casino hotels, if you self park (instead of valet parking) you are pushed a long way out from the hotel through a myriad of connection tunnels/ramps and poor signage.
When you finally find your way in, the hotel is almost as difficult to navigate with poor signage and a rat run of walkways through the casino floor to reach reception. I confess my first thought was how to evacuate in a fire, I can't help but think that these places are a significant disaster waiting to happen (not aided by the fact that smoking is still permitted in all of the casinos)
But, signage and long drags to the car park aside, vegas hotels are an incredible sight. Most have over 3000 rooms with shops, casinos, restaurants and side shows each one is a significant 'business'
Our room was great and with a reasonable view from the floor to ceiling windows it was a nice quiet haven from the melee below where we could sit and have a drink in peace whilst watching the world go by.
At night the view from the window was pretty sweet with the lights of the city stretching away across the desert, vegas is a place that definitely looks better by night!!
On our first night in the Casio Sarah decided she wanted to play blackjack, less than 2 minutes later and $50.00 lighter she decided she didn't like the game at all!!
Personally I liked to have a few bucks in the slots though I tire of that pretty quickly it's OK for a bit of fun as long as you are prepared to lose your money. There are plenty of slots to choose from, I even tried one that was $20.00 per spin....wtf
We covered miles on the strip walking, shopping, eating and drinking going in and out of hotels and casinos (though we never actually spent any money in any casino except in Mandalay Bay) Casinos aren't our thing but they are a spectacle worthy of a visit just to be blown away by the level of grotesque wonder. The Venetian for instance has gondola rides on an internal canal through the shops........
The Bellagio has its dancing fountains with the theme from Titanic blaring out across the lake as water jets twist and turn at varying heights in time with the music, the viewing promenade is also home to street entertainers of all kinds and it's worth putting up with the show to see them in action.
New York New York has just about everything including a roller coaster that has a constant supply of screaming girls sat on it (or so it seems)
The MGM Grand has the lion outside, and a good number of real lions inside. It also has the first station on the monorail inside it so you may see plenty of it if you don't like to walk.
The new Aria in the centre of town still looks like an artists rendition of itself but does have a pretty decent english pub with nice food and a fair selection of european beers. Not to mention the most expensive shops in town too!!
Paris has, as you would expect, an Eiffel Tower which really comes into its own at night but offers little by day (or maybe it's just outshone by its neighbours)
Caesars Palace is absolutely enormous even by Vegas standards but one of the most impressive features are the long curved escalators that whisk you from one floor of shopping to another all within a pseudo Roman environment littered with frescoes, statues and even chariots.
The Luxor has its sphinx and glass pyramid along with many other statues and a significant obelisk that you walk through as you pass by on South Las Vegas Boulevard.
The gallery below shows the remainder of our Vegas shots with captions for those wishing to see more. (click an image to begin a scroll through gallery or just click the ones you want to see individually. Use the directional arrows on your keyboard for easy scrolling.)