Las Vegas, NV

I know people say “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas“, but I am here to tell you about my recent trip to Sin City.

Let’s start at the beginning, with the flight. I am an East coast girl and this is the farthest West I have ever been. I am a nervous flyer and this flight was long! I tried to catch some sleep on the plane but as soon as I was in that area between wake and sleep, dreaming about driving a car on a bumpy highway saying “wow, this road is bumpy”, I immediately snapped my eyes open. Remembering where I was, that this was no highway, it was turbulence thousands of feet in the sky. I know this is a common thing, like I said I am a nervous flyer, I don’t fly a lot. Other than that little bit of turbulence, the flight was smooth. I was in total awe of the snow capped mountains visible from the plane. I hadn’t even touched ground in the Midwest/West and I was already in love from 30,000 feet.

Once we landed in Las Vegas, my group and I got a cab from the airport to our hotel. There were tons of cabs in line waiting outside the airport, so if you are worried about getting a ride, there will be cabs. We piled into this minivan with our backpacks and this older gentleman, who was our cab driver, was asking us general questions about what we were doing in Vegas, typical small talk conversation. Then, he says if you do an internet search on me, I am actually famous. He says go to Google and type in “best cab driver ever”. So, of course we had to look him up and wouldn’t you know it, there he is. He is known for singing in his cab. He then asked us if we wanted him to sing for us, of course we said yes. My husband’s grandmother was in the front passenger seat of this cab, I wish I could have gotten her reaction to all of this.

We stayed on the Strip at the Paris Hotel & Casino and it was absolutely beautiful! It was right across the street from the Bellagio where the iconic water fountain show is. The water show happens every 15 minutes starting at 7pm each night and every 30 minutes during the day time. Week days, the show starts at 3pm and weekends it starts at noon. Each hotel/casino is like one city block, or at least it felt that way. You could literally get lost inside these places, that’s how big they are. Each hotel had a whole shopping and food area. There were all kinds of stores in every hotel. The hotel next-door was Planet Hollywood, and there was a whole mall in there!

When trying to get from hotel to hotel, there are pedestrian bridges over most of the busy streets. I timed it one day when we were walking from the Bellagio to the Paris and back to the Bellagio (we were going to Old Vegas and some of us girls wanted to change, which is why we went back and forth), the whole trip took 30 minutes even though it was across the street. Be prepared to walk. If walking isn’t an option, you could definitely get a cab. There were designated spots at every hotel for cab pickups and drop-offs. On the Strip, you can only get cabs at designated pick up and drop off locations.

Since I mentioned visiting Old Vegas, let me tell you how cool that was! Old Vegas is Downtown and is what Las Vegas was before the Strip with all the big fancy hotels. The hotels and casinos are smaller in Old Vegas. Fremont Street was wild! There was so much to see it was hard to take it all in. Here is a link to a site that gives you a ton of information about all the things to see and do on Fremont Street. There is a giant screen over most of the street that changes colors, designs, and pictures. There is also a zip-line that goes above the street. This is something I did with my sister-in-law and her boyfriend. There are two different options for zip lining, a sitting version and a laying down superman version. The sitting option (about $50/rider) is cheaper than laying down (about $70/rider), but laying down sounded cooler and it was a longer ride. With both rides, you do get free photos to download if you want! We opted for the laying down ride. One thing I will say about this, make sure you have time. We had a 7pm ride and we climbed the stairs at 6:45 and the workers said we could not enter the stairs until the set reservation time. We waited at the bottom of the stairs and went back up at 7 on the dot. It still took a while to get harnessed up and waiting for groups to gather before going in the elevator to the top. Since we were a group of three, we were told to wait to see if there were any single riders (the zip line went four at a time). We had to wait for an hour! If you’re booking this experience, definitely something to keep in mind, it can take awhile and it’s easier to go with 4 people. Overall, this was super fun and something totally wild. If you are interested in learning more about this and booking this experience, here is the link to the website.

I know you all may be wondering, did I win in Vegas? I will say, I am not a gambler. Before this trip, I had only ever gambled at a casino twice and other than that the occasional scratch off lottery ticket on my birthday. But, when in Vegas, I decided to give it a shot. I set aside some money to play with. I learned real quick that slots were not my thing. While it was fun for the few moments it lasted, I didn’t win there. For the first day, I watched family members play different table games trying to get an understanding of how to play. Even watching was entertaining. In Old Vegas, I sat at one blackjack table for hours. Literal hours! I was having so much fun. I wasn’t betting a whole lot, just a little over the minimum. Overall, I think I left a little under than what I started with, which isn’t too bad for someone who has no idea what they’re doing, in my opinion anyway.

There are so many other things to see and do besides gambling. One of the top things on my list of things to see was a real cactus, outside of a garden store, living in the wild. One morning while walking the Strip I saw a whole bunch of them in large rocky planters on the sidewalk. I know it’s not really “in the wild”, but it’s close enough. Another thing I wanted to see was 7 Magic Mountains, which is just a bunch of painted rocks stacked on top of each other in the middle of the desert. Unfortunately, that excursion didn’t happen. There just wasn’t enough time to fit everything in. There are tours that will take you out to different places. One I was looking at was the Hoover Dam and 7 Magic Mountains.

Inside the Bellagio, there is the Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, this was beautiful! The setup changes with the seasons. I didn’t do much research into when the best time to visit was, but I walked through around 8 or 9 at night and you could barely walk without bumping into someone. The set up was really pretty though. The pictures below show the Spring theme they did. All the flowers in these photos are real! You can even reserve the table inside the garden to eat brunch or dinner!

Farther up the Strip, the Venetian Hotel also had some cool things to see and do. This hotel has Venice, Italy vibes. There is a gondola ride you can take that goes inside and outside the hotel. The line for this was pretty long so we didn’t do the ride. Like every hotel, it had shops and restaurants inside One thing that was pretty cool, was that inside every hotel, the ceilings had the sky painted on them to make it seem like you were outside. Below are some pictures from the Venetian.

One of the things my husband wanted to do was go to In & Out for burgers. We don’t have this where we are from so it was on our list of places to go. We each got a burger and we shared fries. It was pretty good for what it was, definitely hit the spot. After leaving In & Out, my husband and I went to I Love Sugar. This place was wild! The first floor had tons of candy to buy and extra large candy items like gummy bears. The second floor was a martini bar. Naturally, we had to try a martini. The menu had regular size martinis and ginormous size martinis. The big ones, as you can imagine, were expensive and we weren’t sure if we were going to like it, so we went with the regular size ones.

Let’s talk about what the weather was like. When I visited, it was early April. The temps were in the high 70s, low 80s during the day and low 70s at night. I wasn’t sure how to pack when I was looking at the weather a few days before the trip. I brought 2 pairs of jeans, 2 pairs of shorts, 2 t-shirts, 2 tank tops, a long sleeve shirt, a black dress, and a zip up hoodie and it turned out to be perfect. During the day it was hot, but inside the hotels and casinos it was chilly with the air conditioning. I usually never go anywhere without a hoodie because I know I get cold easily. I didn’t end up needing or wearing the dress I brought, but I know if I didn’t pack it, I would have needed it.

Some things you should consider if you’re planning a trip to Vegas:

• Sunscreen – Even though you might be inside a lot, walking the Strip does take longer than you might think. Some hotels will also have pool parties! I saw this on a list of things to do, we didn’t do this, but it sounded fun. If you’re planning any excursions out to the desert it will also be a good thing to have.
• Good walking shoes – You will be walking a lot. Whether it’s outside on the Strip or inside the casinos and hotels. Make sure you have comfortable shoes you can walk around in for long periods of time.
• Pack at least one nice outfit – Plan to pack at least one nice/fancy outfit in case you decide to go to a show or out to a fancy dinner. Some of the fancier restaurants had a dress code, meaning things like no jeans or sneakers.
• Set a certain amount of money aside for gambling. As soon as this trip was booked, I set aside some money that was only reserved for gambling. If I went through it all, then that was it. This is a good way to make sure you are sticking to your budget (if you are following one).
• If you’re gambling, drinks are free – I did not know this. As I said earlier, I am not a gambler nor have I spent much time in a casino, so I had no idea about this. There may be a time limit you have to spend at the machine or table to get a free drink, but learn from my mistake and take the free drink if you’re gambling. Drinks can be expensive!
• There’s more to do than gamble – There were so many things to see and do. There were stands offering different excursions to various places like the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon. There is also skydiving or the Skyjump at the Strat if you’re an adrenaline junkie!

If you’re planning a trip to Sin City, there will be so much to see and do, but remember to relax and have fun too. If there is something you didn’t get to do, it just means you can plan another trip! There is literally so much to experience here I know I didn’t even cover half of it. I hope you enjoyed reading about my trip and find some of these tips helpful in your adventures.

Check out the video below from my TikTok to recap the trip!