Las Vegas Travel Guide| Tips and Tricks to Make your Stay Amazing!
Hey Guys!
Today I am sharing Part 1 of my 2 part travel series! Part 1 is all about Las Vegas and Part 2 is all about my road trip through Nevada, Arizona, and Utah (Read it HERE) with my Husband for our anniversary. I will be sharing where we stayed, ate at, and some tips on how to make your trip the best! Also, don’t forget to sign up for Ebates to get CASH BACK on your hotel, activity and airline bookings! If ou haven’t heard of Ebates, it is an online company that you shop through (not just travel but clothing, beauty etc) and you earn CASH BACK on your purchases straight into your bank account, Paypal, or by check in the mail!If you sign up you get $10 automatically back in addition to what you earn when you make your first purchase! Sign up HERE.
Each year for our anniversary, my Husband and I like to go on a trip so we carve out the time just for us to reconnect and have an adventure! We went to Hawaii on our Honeymoon, rented a cabin for a long weekend for our 1st anniversary, and last year we spent it in Paris! (Check out my Paris Travel Guide HERE). This year we wanted to do something big and explore the US so we decided to fly to Vegas and rent a car and road trip through the west for a week long adventure! We love traveling together and are already planning next year’s trip! (Any suggestions are appreciated).
Since my husband and I are still young and have never experienced Las Vegas before, we thought we might as well see what it is all about. We aren’t big partiers, gamblers or drinkers, but we love to walk around any area we go to and explore and eat good food. This is why we only spent about 1 ½ days in Vegas on our trip (which was plenty of time for us).
Let’s get the pros and cons of Vegas out of the way.
Pros:
-Everything is super close and within walking distance (except the Old Strip)
- So many entertainment options to choose from such as musical acts, comedy shows, acrobatics and more
-All the hotels are open so you can check out all the different architectures inside which I really enjoyed
-So many yummy food options!
-You can drink on the street so to save money I recommend getting what you like to drink at CVS and drinking it while you explore versus spending a lot of money on drinks in restaurants
Cons:
-Vegas is smoky! You can smoke inside the hotels in the casino areas so a lot of the older hotels just stunk (I am very sensitive to smoke)
- It can be really HOT and crowded depending on the time of year you go
-There is currently a lot of construction that can hinder your exploration
So let’s get into what we did. We live in Cleveland and wanted to find a direct flight to Las Vegas since it was only a 3 hour flight. I highly recommend finding a direct flight that way you don’t waste any of your vacation sitting in an airport. We flew Frontier since the flights were inexpensive and had an evening flight. We left Cleveland and arrived in Las Vegas 9:30 pm Vegas time. Since Ohio is 3 hours ahead it felt like 12:30 am. We were tired but since we were leaving Vegas the next day we decided to stay up and explore Vegas at night!
One of the other perks of traveling to Vegas is that the airport is only 15-20 minutes from the strip. So we took one short Lyft ride from the airport to the hotel. It was easy and inexpensive.
Once checked in we went out to see the strip at night. Since we arrived on a Sunday there was barely any people which was awesome. We went to see the water show in front of the Bellagio which didn’t disappoint. I heard that these fountains will be torn down soon to make way for another hotel so if this is true I recommend seeing the foundations next time you are there. The show is every 15-30 minutes depending on the time of day. They also play different songs so don’t worry about seeing the same show back to back. We also walked through a few hotel lobbies and casinos to get a feel of all of the layouts. It was very fun to see everything lit up for the evening.
We then stopped for snacks and drinks at a Walgreens right on the strip and headed back to our hotel for the evening.
The next morning we woke up and headed out for breakfast at Hash House A Go Go. This place was DELICIOUS! I love breakfast food so this place did not disappoint. We were leaving at 3 pm so we decided to do some exploring for the day. The Mirage was very nice and held our bags after we checked out for us so we didn’t have to lug them around Vegas. My Husband and I love to just walk around any place we visit so we decided to walk the entire strip. I HIGHLY recommend wearing comfortable shoes and clothes during the day because it can get hot, cold, or uncomfortable depending on the time of year you go. We went in early October so the morning was freezing but by noon it was warm. It never got really hot which was nice. We decided to stop in at the Coca-Cola store and try Coke products from around the world. This was only $10 and it was delicious and fun! Definitely a family friendly activity. After walking and gambling a bit we decided to check out Top Golf. Top Golf is basically a driving range in the middle of Vegas where you can rent your own private booth and get food and drinks! It was surprisingly inexpensive and my Husband and I had a blast golfing in the middle of a city of hotels! I know there are Top Golfs all over the country so I recommend visiting one if you can.
After Top Golf, we headed back to pick up our rental car from Enterprise for Part 2 of our adventure. (You can check out Part 2 HERE.)
Part 2 is our road tripping adventure but we also returned for another day in Vegas.
We left on a Monday and arrived back to Vegas on a Friday so the atmosphere was definitely different. Friday was more busy and crowded. I wasn’t a fan of this but it was to be expected. Since October is the off season I couldn’t imagine being in Vegas in its prime and when it’s hot. If you don’t mind going during the off season I highly recommend it. Once we returned our rental car to the W hotel Enterprise, we asked them to hold our bags again so we could explore some more. We wanted to walk in all of the hotels we didn’t get to see the first day such as New York New York (my favorite) and the Luxor (my husband’s favorite). Most hotels have a gambling lobby but they also have amazing activities for kids, museums, shows, and restaurants. You will never run out of things to do! There is also a Starbucks every 3 feet which is a bonus!
Whenever we would get tired it was nice to just sit at a table and play slots or table games. We actually won some money which was great! If you are looking for High End shopping I recommend checking out The Shops at Crystals and the Aria. They have all the designer brands such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Prada and the most amazing window displays! Cesar’s Palace also has a high end shopping area inside which looks like you are on the streets of Europe which is amazing!
We then decided to head back to get our suitcases and get to the airport. Another short Lyft ride later and we were there. I recommend getting to the Las Vegas airport early as it can get very busy at the Bag Check and security. You also have to ride a tram to the gates so take that into account as well.
Overall Vegas was a fun experience. I wouldn’t be able to spend a week there I don’t think but I definitely recommend visiting there for a long weekend. If you have any questions let me know down below.
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