Las Vegas, Nevada, aka Sin City, What.A.Place. I’ve been to Las Vegas multiple times as a young child. My father’s twin brother lived in Phoenix, Arizona for most of my childhood and my parents and my Uncle and Aunt would fly to Las Vegas yearly to visit with each other. So naturally, my parents would fly out to Vegas with all three children and our babysitter so they could have a weekend of fun. Now that I’m older, I totally get it haha. Vegas as a child is definitely different than being there when you are an adult. M and I decided to go for a long weekend two years ago (2017)—WOW, does not feel that long ago. Anyway, we had four days in Sin City and a road trip because M had a conference and I decided to tag along. We went the first week/weekend of November and the weather was still warm-ish.
We stayed at the Bellagio Resort and Casino all three nights (Wed-Sat) and took a red-eye home on Saturday at midnight. Since this was my first time being in Vegas as an “adult,” I was pretty excited. When we landed, we Ubered right to our hotel (we landed around 7pm). The Bellagio was of course packed, and we had a non-smoking room (if you know me, this was my only request). Smoke kills me (I know it does literally, but figuratively too!). I hate it. And gals, I know you feel me when I say “nooooobody likes going to bed smelling like smoke and having that stench in your hair…BLAH). Okay off my rant. Anyway, the room was “non-smoking” but not to sound dramatic, but I still wish I had an air purifier in the room. Other than that, the hotel was great. M and I strongly enjoy playing craps, so we played a lot of craps at the Bellagio (we like that casino best). They had their fall decor up, so below are some of the pictures of inside the Bellagio during the fall time.
If you guys have not seen the fountain show at the Bellagio in Vegas, I say it’s quite an amazing show…and Oceans 11 does NOT do it justice 😉 it’s a must see attraction if you are in Vegas. According to google:
- WEEKDAY: fountain shows run every 30 minutes from 3pm-8pm. Shows every 15 minutes from 8pm-midnight.
- SATURDAY/HOLIDAYS: half hour fountain shows from noon-8pm. Shows every 15 minutes from 8pm-midnight.
- SUNDAY: half hour fountain shows starting at 11am to 7pm.
I had a lot of down time due to M being in conferences a majority of the day. During that time I hung out by the pool (a little chilly to be IN the pool, but I read by it and drank coffee). Explored the surrounding areas, other hotels nearby and the shops inside the Bellagio. SJP has one of her shoe stores inside the Bellagio, it was magical.
M and I later explored the different hotels and gambled at different casinos on the Las Vegas “Strip.” We also saw the Cirque Du Soleil “O” Show. Let me tell ya, those performers HAVE. TALENT. It was a great show, I would highly recommend it while you are there.
We then spontaneously rented a car from the Las Vegas airport and took a mini road trip to the Grand Canyon. The ride from the Bellagio to the Grand Canyon is only 2 hours and 15 minutes..or so. Not a bad trip at all. The ride is very scenic with nature and went pretty fast. When entering the Grand Canyon, you do lose cell service, so just a helpful tip: download directions prior to this point because you’re out in the middle of nowhere, in a rental car, on a gravel road with nothing to see but mountains. KINDA SCARY FOLKS. But, we got through it. Luckily, our great memory lead us back to the path we needed when we were finished at the Grand Canyon. While there, we parked on the Grand Canyon property and were loaded into a bus to ride up to the famous Grand Canyon Skywalk. When you load onto the bus, you can also choose to do a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon…I was torn between the safety of that, so we decided to do bus instead. Which we were more than happy with. As I’m sure you have heard on the news from time to time, there are no precautions or safety nets/ropes to keep your happy ass from falling into the Grand Canyon. People freakishly got so close to the edge of the canyon it truly made me gasp for them. M and I got as close as we wanted and took all the pictures.
The Skywalk was an experience. The SkyWalk is an all glass walk way that hangs 70 feet over the Grand Canyon, according to Wikipedia (correct me if I’m wrong pleeease!). You are not allowed to bring your phone on the ledge with you or any personal belongings. This truly makes the experience more magical if you ask me. You are in the moment, in your thoughts, knowing you can drop 700-800 feet to your death if the glass breaks. IT’S GREAT. Haha, but no really, it is a definitely a must-do if you are at the Grand Canyon. There is a gift shop and a restaurant on your way out of the Skywalk. We then loaded the bus and headed back to our car. Below are some pics from or wonderful experience at the Grand Canyon.
On our road trip back to Las Vegas, we decided to see one more landmark on the way back. The Hoover Dam! It was a beautiful day and the Hoover Dam is only 45 minutes away from Las Vegas (on the way to/from the Grand Canyon). The Hoover Dam is located in Clark County, Nevada. Below are some pictures from our brief Hoover Dam experience. There is a Hoover Dam tour where I believe you can tour the dam from below, but we were not interested in that and wanted to get back to Vegas.
We also explored “Old Las Vegas” which is supposedly the old “Las Vegas Strip” before the new/current one was developed. We drove there as it was about a 20 minute ride from the Bellagio. We could’ve ubered, but we had the car from our day trip from the Grand Canyon so we figured “why not?” The Old Las Vegas is called “Fremont Street.” Some people love this experience, while others do not. We were personally not huge fans of Fremont Street. I KNOW, I KNOW, some people will disagree with me. But, this strip did not feel as safe as the Las Vegas downtown strip and personally felt more like a carnival. A lot of people, a lot of trash on the ground, too many entertainers on the street you could barely walk and the restaurants/casinos did not appear clean. Some like this kind of experience, for me…I could not wait to shower afterwards.
As you all know, I love to go anywhere at any moment in time. The casinos served us well in Vegas and the hotel, road trip and exploring were amazing. The only down fall of this vacation was the cigarette smoke of Vegas. If there was any way to get rid of cigarette/cigar smoke in casinos/hotels in Vegas, I’d happily return and love every second of it. Now that I know what to expect and to not pack leather pants that are not easy to clean/get cigarette smoke out of…I’ll be more prepared to go back in the future 🙂
*If I remember correctly (because we went on this trip prior to me blogging about our life/travels haha), we bought all of our excursions on this trip via groupon. Aaaand maybe Expedia too.*
—Have you been to Vegas? What was your favorite/least favorite thing about it? What shows should we try next time? Let me know in the comments below!
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—As always, please do not duplicate photos as all photos on this post are my own. Thanks!
XO
