After a grueling 11 hours transit from the Grand Canyon, we were relived to finally have arrived in Las Vegas. Whilst we were looking for some rest and relaxation, that is the farthest thing from what we found. But then again, what do you expect, its Las Vegas for Gods sake. But that isn't entirely true though, while you can have a wicked time partying, you do tend to hit a wall after the fourth day in a row (exactly what happened to us). It is this point in time when you have the opportunity to find some seriously cheap luxury accommodation and spend a couple of days relaxing and enjoy the sights of the Vegas strip, taking a break from the inside of that bar or casino. And that's exactly what we did.
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| The first hotel we stayed at was New York New York which had a giant roller coaster running through it, but more on that later. |
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| Not bad for only $50 a night |
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| As it was our first day in Vegas we had to gamble a little bit, and check out our first win! And don't worry, we didn't spend it all at once. |
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| The fancy strip of shops inside the Bellagio Hotel |
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| The Bellagio |
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| Our first proper night in Vegas wouldn't be complete without a buffet. Turns out this was the most average and most expensive buffet we had during our stay. Though it was nice, most of the other buffets were cheaper than this one (MGM Grand buffet) |
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| After our buffet we decided to go to Brad Garrett's Comedy Club. Now the man himself wasn't there but we saw some pretty good comedians nonetheless. |
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| As it turns out we actually bought the cheapest tickets available which meant we were right up the back, but as we got there a bit earlier and they upgraded us to the very front row right! Even with a table can you believe it! So the moral of the story is, its definitely worth going to shows early in Vegas. |
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| A shot of the Grand MGM Grand (probably didn't need that first Grand). |
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| Excalibur Hotel, this looks cool but is now one of the oldest hotels in the strip. Mind you it does look a bit dated inside now, but for $32 a night you can't really complain. |
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| See folks we went from $4 to $10.50...... not too bad hey?? |
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| After two nights at NY NY we moved on to the Luxor which was two hotels over down the strip. We ended up having to wait ages for our room to be ready but we got a $20 drink voucher so we can't complain to much. We were happy little Vegemite's, happy as can be. |
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| A quick glimpse inside the Planet Hollywood Casino. |
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| The Bellagio water show, still all these years on, one of the coolest things to see in Vegas (despite seeing the jackpot sign when on a slot machine). |
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| 44 ounce Heineken, if you would like to know how many milliliters that is you will have to Google it. All I knew was it was delicious and only $9. |
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| The most delicious daiquiri ever! |
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| We are moving up in the world, if you recall, that is a gain of $1.50 over the last big win! |
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| As it turns out it was worth waiting for our room, as this was the view we were greeted with on the 27th (3rd from the top). What made it even better was the fact we had a Las Vegas strip facing room. The pictures don't do it justice but it was spectacular. |
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| Another buffet (Kristian's plate of course due to the wide variety of food you can see). This buffet was at the Rio hotel which we stupidly decided to walk to one night because it didn't look that far away..... but boy it was very far away, approximately 33 minutes wlak away to be exact. |
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| On our (I lost count of the nights), we decided to see another show, This time it was called Absinthe and it was one of the most highly recommended alternative shows in Vegas. It was costly but damn was it worth it. So much so this was the only photo we got of it because we were absolutely mesmerised throughout the entire performance. But to give you an idea, it was dirty comedy cross circque du soleil (or something like it), mixed with 110% awesome. |
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| More of the Bellagio water fountains, they were awesome. |
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| The outside of the Luxor, and the light protruding from the top that is visible from space. |
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| One of the Sphinx shooting light out of is head (not really, it was out of the Luxor itself, but of course you knew that). |
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| Our room was on the 27th floor of the pyramid as mentioned which gave us a pretty cool view down to the lobby and the shops outside our door. |
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| Our room in the Luxor (after we'd been shopping of course, as you can see by the state of the room) |
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| Just another cool shot from inside the Luxor. If you can imagine, we were right up the very top of the pyramid. |
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So it was time to move on from the Luxor up to the other end of the strip, to Treasure Island that is.
The photo above is our view of the Palazzo & Venetian Hotels from our room. Funnily enough, we managed to sweet talk our way into awesome rooms with views, and as you can see it was pretty nice from the Treasure Island room. As it turns out this was the highest non-smoking floor in the hotel, which also overlooked the strip. |
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| Whats behind the view, our room at Treasure Island |
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| The Wynn hotel and Casino, I was mesmerised by the look of this hotel, it is just stunning. |
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| The outside of Treasure Island. Turns out they have permanently closed the sinking pirate ship out the front which Lauren was very disappointed about. |
So that was half of our Vegas trip, and because we moved around a lot we got to experience the best that most of the main hotels and casinos had to offer (including their discount books for staying with them!). So hold out for part two when we stay in the Venetian, which amazingly only features suites and no standard rooms; let me just say it was amazing. Full stop.
So until then, hope everyone's well and we will see you all in just under a month!
Kristian & Lauren.
