'Las Vegas' is my number one subject to talk about right now, having just come back from Vegas for the second time in six months I just can't get enough of the place. When people think of Las Vegas, the imagery would usually involve lots of casinos, flashing lights and annoying Americans. Well your not far wrong, however, it is that and a whole lot more.
Las Vegas can be found in the Nevada desert surround by a breath-taking view of picturesque mountains that surround the whole area.
McCarran Airport is the main airport and is less than ten-minute taxi ride from the various hotels along the Strip. For the average taxi ride you can expect to pay between $10-$15 dollars which translated into pounds is approximately £6-£8.
The only airline that flies direct to Vegas at the present time is Virgin and on our first journey to Las Vegas we did fly with Virgin directly, however this time round we flew with NWA and had connecting flights from Minneapolis on the way into Las Vegas and Detroit on the way out of Las Vegas. Personally I preferred to fly with Virgin because the plane was a lot more comfortable, the food was a lot better, the alcohol flowed freely and you had the added advantage of your own video and headset meaning you could watch any film you wanted which was on offer. With NWA there was one television point at the front of the plane and you watched whatever film/programme was playing, if you could see the television that is.
♣ACCOMMODATION♣
Las Vegas has accommodation to suit everyone. From hotels, apartments to bed and breakfasts. The main source of accommodation however are the hotels, and each one of them has their own theme, most of which
can be found along the famous "Strip". When I booked my hotel I sat and looked through all the options on Expedia before finding the hotel for me and it is well worth doing because Expedia does give you the added advantage of being able to do virtual tours of each of the hotels.
♣THE STRIP♣
The Strip is the heart of Vegas and houses a vast and varied variety of hotels. The Strip lights up Las Vegas not only throughout the day but throughout the night, everywhere you turn there are lights twinkling, the sound of coins dropping, machines pinging, people laughing and cheering, fountains whooshing water high into the air and music playing. The only way to describe the view of The Strip is "ohmygodlookatthatandthatandovertherewow" in my opinion. Having been there twice the wow factor is still there.
The hotels on The Strip as I have already said are themed and there are in total 23 hotels which I would say are on the strip, there are many more in the surround area's. Im going to give an insight into the hotels I found the most fascinating to visit:
A two toned Green building is home to the lions with a 45-foot bronze coloured statue of the MGM lion logo on the outside. Once inside the MGM Grand this hotel is enormous, so big that it houses an indoor South African lion sanctuary with two lionesses and their cubs. Also situated within the MGM is the world famous Grand Garden Arena, which is home to boxing and tennis, matches.
This hotel offers 5034 rooms which shows the enormity of the MGM Grand, with a 6 acres of coconut gardens and swimming pools and a river which is a quarter of a mile long you will not find yourself becoming bored anytime soon.
The Manhattan skyline, totally breathtaking to look at, fronts New York New York; this hotel has its very replica's of the Statue of Liberty and Brooklyn Bridge. The one major attraction being that there is a rollercoaster on the roof of this hotel known as the Manhattan Express, this rollercoaster is 144 feet off the ground and reaches speeds of up to 67 miles per hour.
●▪The Mirage●▪
The Mirage is Polynesian themed and is the base for Roy and Siegfried's Secret Garden, home to lions, tigers and dolphins to name but a few. As you walk into The Mirage hotel you can see the white tigers within their temperature controlled habitat on show for the entire world to see, it is said that the background to this habitat is white so the tigers can blend into the background and feel secure.
During the evening (every 15 minutes), the Mirage has an erupting volcano but throughout the day the ground reverberates frequently with the distant rumblings as a reminder to all visitors that the volcano is on the premises!
●▪The Bellagio●▪
The Bellagio looks expensive (and phenomenal) to look at and indeed it is just that, costing well over $1billion to build the Bellagio is home to the famous dancing fountains which feature in Oceans Eleven, however the film does the fountains no justice whatsoever. The Bellagio Fountains span an incredible one-quarter of a mile across the lake outside the hotel and they literally dance to music and shoot water up to 240 feet in the air. During my recent visit to Vegas the music of choice was Celine Dion's "My Heart will go on" and to see the fountains in action is totally incredible and had me mesmerised everytime.
And finally my favourite hotel of them all:
●▪The Aladdin●▪ - Having already written a review about the Aladdin I won't write anything more about it here, but please do go and read that review.
All of the Hotels along the Strip provide shows and entertainment during the evening and it was impossible for us to see them all during out trip. Booking is imperative for any of the show and you can expect to pay between $30-$50 per ticket and depending on what show it is, the cost of the ticket may be more expensive.
♥SHOPPING♥
In Las Vegas you don't even have to leave your hotel to be able to go shopping at a designer boutique, a GAP store or what became known as a tat shop, which is where you buy anything and everything with the words "Las Vegas" emblazoned upon it.
Going along the Strip you can find the M&M shop, not surprisingly selling everything imaginable relating to M&M's (not Eminem) and just along the road there is the Coca Cola shop and once again it is impossible not to buy something with the image of the famous Coca Cola bear imprinted on it.
- The Las Vegas Outlet Centre - Housing around eleven shops all dedicated to 'The Home',
- Fashion Outlets of Las Vegas - This mall has more than 100 shops and houses big names such as Coach (I want a coach bag), Escada, Burberry and Versace to name a few,
- Las Vegas Premium Outlets - With 150 shops this Mall with labels such as Dolce and Gabbana, Eddie Bauer, Ralph Lauren, Guess and many more.
♥GETTING MARRIED♥
Other than gambling, the next best thing to do in Vegas is get married - which is exactly what I did there on Christmas day to Steve whose alter-ego is Badger_Boy.
Getting married in Vegas is extremely easy all you need to do is visit Wedding Licence Bureau on Third Street where you will have to complete a form and show some sort of photograph ID before handing over $55. Once you have the license you are free to get married within Las Vegas, if you fail to get the license you will not be able to get married.
I had already booked my Wedding Chapel in advance so I didn't have the added complication of trying to find somewhere to get married. However, there are a lot of companies who hang around outside the License Bureau trying to offer you a wedding package should you need them.
You can generally have any kind of wedding you want, at the chapel in which Steve and I married there was an option to have a drive thru wedding, just like a drive thru Mcdonalds, except you get married that way with the vicar hanging out of the drive thru window. The marriage is also legal here in the UK.
If you want more information on getting married in Las Vegas then visit http://www.vivalasvegasweddings.com
♥STILL WANT MORE?♥
If you think you have managed to visit every hotel, eat in every restaurant, play on every roller coaster, view every free show and watch every other show and you still have time to do something else, once again there is a huge array of activities to occupy your time.
There are plenty of opportunities to visit the Grand Canyon and the Hoover Dam either by road or by air in a helicopter. There are a lot of street vendor's offering these trips with a discount so be sure to look around before you decide which trip to purchase. You can also fly over the Las Vegas Strip in a helicopter. For any trips of this kind you will be looking to pay between $100-$150 per person.
There is also the Guinness World of Records museum, which houses over 5,000 square feet of exhibits from the longest fingernails to the most piercing's. Not something I visited but having read about it in a brochure it does sound very intriguing.
Freemont Street - The Freemont Street Experience is 5 blocks of what is described as 'thrills and spills' in the heart of Las Vegas. Down town Las Vegas has some of the rougher areas where you wouldn't want to be left alone in the dark, but Freemont Street under Viva Vision, which is a 90 foot overhead screen which displays some of the most amazing imagery and light shows to be seen in Las Vegas.
You will also find countless bars and restaurants along with slot machines and casino's all under one place. http://www.vegasexperience.com/
Madame Tussards can also be found in Las Vegas where you can see over 100 wax work models of celebrities past and present, situated near The Venetian hotel you would pay around $22 as an entrance fee.
Basically there is just so much to do and see in Las Vegas and even though I have visited twice within the last year, I still haven't seen and experienced everything there is to do and I still want to go back for more.
Las Vegas is sleazy in parts, people hang around the sidewalks handing out business card type cards to everyone with pictures and phone numbers of strippers, pornography magazines are also available free at along the sidewalk for people to pick up and take with them (a great present for your little brother).
For me Las Vegas is the place to visit, it is somewhere I cannot get enough of, it is somewhere I can't wait to get too and it is also somewhere I hate having to leave.
For any other details, hotel information, things to do etc… then the best website to use is http://www.vegas.com.
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Hotel - 3801 Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas, NV 89109, USA, 3801 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, Nevada, NV 89109, United States of America - 2 Stars - 1878 Rooms
NH Hotels, the hotel chain leader in Europe, with more than 300 hotels in 20 countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Enter into our web site and find the best available tariff at all times
Jul 5th, 2005
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