Las Vegas-Part 1

Ok, let's take a little break from all the beach vacations and head to another one of my favorite places to visit (besides Disney World) and that is Las Vegas!

Patrick and I love Vegas so much that we even spent this past Valentines day there :) I know that everyone has their own way they 'do Vegas' so I am just going to let you know a little bit about my travels to the adult theme park of the west, LAS VEGAS!

I suggest, when planning your trip to vegas to plan for about 3-4 days only. If you are a long vacationer (like myself), and your thinking "wow that doesn't sound like enough time," well I promise it is. The thing about Vegas is it is truly a 24 hour town. For us central time goers, we gain 2 hours and so the days seem never ending which leads for a lot more time to fit everything in! Plus, you can drink on the street...CRAZY!

First thing first, places to stay! Depending on what your agenda is for going to Vegas, you may or may not be spending a lot of time at your hotel. If your planning on 72 hours of Texas Hold'em, Craps, Roulette (my drug of choice), or any other sins to be had in Vegas, then save your money for the tables and choose one of the more mid-low priced rang hotels. Twice, I have gone to Vegas for only 24 hours and we literally never got a hotel room!

Planet Hollywood, Casino, Peep Show at P.H.

I stayed at Planet Hollywood a few years ago right when it was switching from The Aladian to P.H. It was surprisingly a very hip and nice hotel and casino. It is a mid-priced hotel and I feel like when picking a place to stay in Vegas it is all about location, location. Planet Hollywood (aka P.H.) has a great location! It is located right next to the Paris and almost right across the street from the Belliago. It is what I would say, about in the middle of the strip. I would recommend, if your young (twenties, thirties) to stay at the P.H. It defiantly has a young feel and most of the people that stay there are pretty young, although when I stayed there it was with my mom and some family friends and they seemed to be fine with the crowd. Their casino is not one of my favs but it does the job for some quick games. They do have $10 tables for Roulette (I'm just saying...) which is nice but most of the more budget casinos offer that as well. P.H. has GREAT shopping at Miracle Mile, if you are trying to find something to do while your man is glued to the slot machines.

This dancer in the show was our favorite so we took a picture with her

On one of my more recent trips to Vegas, for my cousin's 21st birthday, we decided to go see Holly Madison's show (one of Huge Heffner's girlfriends from the TV show Girls Next Door) Peep Show. Just like the title says, it is a las vegas 'peep show' where the girls are topless or mostly topless. Needless to say, I am not mature enough for the 'peep show' aspect and my friend, Lauren and I, giggled throughout the entire show. I will say this, it was a really good show. Great singing, dancing and awesome costumes. It is set to a 'fairy tale' theme where they do little 'acts' for each fairy tale: Little Bo Peep, Goldy Locks, Little Red Riding Hood and so on...

Treasure Island

Speaking of my trip to Vegas for my cousin's birthday, we all stayed at Treasure Island. I had never stayed at T.I. or at this end of the strip before. I was very pleasantly surprised by the whole experience! T.I. does not look that nice from the street but I was very impressed with the rooms. The pool area and casino need a bit of a face lift but the location of the casino is great! As most of the casinos do, T.I has Mystere a Cirque du Soleil show. If you have never seen any Cirque du Soleil (and I can not believe there are any people out there that have yet to see one...) then you MUST see O (will talk about this later...) while in Vegas. I have never seen the show at T.I but I'm sure it is amazing, they all are. T.I is located right across the street from the Wynn and Palazzo and next door to Caesars! Can't get much better than that. After staying at T.I., I decided that this was my favorite location on the strip. There is so much to do and you are so close to all the great casinos (my opinion) and T.I is SOOOO reasonably priced!!!!

For the nicer end hotels, I have stayed at the Mandalay and the Wynn. The two hotels are so different from each other and obviously I have not stayed in that many nice hotels while in Vegas.

Mandalay Bay, lobby, aquarium, pool area

I stayed at Mandalay Bay the very first time I ever went to Vegas. It is very nice but it is so far down the strip (the very end) that you feel a little removed from all the 'action'. M.B. has a lot of fun activities for kids to enjoy, a big aquarium, sharks tanks and a large pool area with a huge wave pool. Located inside the casino is the House of Blues. If you have never gone to the H.O.B gospel brunch on Sunday mornings, then you are missing out! Mandalay is located right next to the Luxor and there is a tram that can take you over to the Luxor and Excaliber. I would recomend this casino if you are bringing kids or anyone under 21 or if you are looking for a nice relaxing weekend in the sun.

The Wynn

And now for the crowing jewel, The Wynn. Words can not even begin to express how amazing this casino is. I hate even calling it a casino because I feel it is SO much more. Where to even begin, the Wynn is the nicest hotel on the strip. Some people will argue that the Bellaigo is nicer, I have never stayed there but I just can't imagine anything being nicer than the wynn.

The rooms are amazing! We stayed at the Wynn over this past valentines day, and we upgraded our room (since it was a special weekend we decided to splurge) for only $50 a night and got floor to celling windows with a view overlooking the golf course. It was gorgeous and you absolutely forget your in vegas surrounded by 3 foot long margaritas and perpetual cigarette smoke (the only negative about vegas for me). Not only does the wynn have amazing shopping (hello 2 Chanel stores), 5 star dining, a golf course right on site and now Garth Brooks!!!! For us Texan 'foke', some people have Sweet Home Alabama as their un-offical state song well we have Friends and Low Places (I mean how many times have you ended your night at a bar belting that song out!) When we went in February, P and I didnt see Garth but my sis in law and friends did. They had the time of their lives and some crazy things along the way that made Garth that much worth it. P and I are heading back with our friends in June and we will finally get to see Garth (i havent seen him since I was about 8 at Texas Stadium!) I will go into more details about what the wynn has in later posts...

The view from our room

Our room, its a terrible pic but our room is reflected in the windows

Ok so I know there are SO many hotels/casinos that I did not mention but like I said in the begining, I am only going to talk about the Vegas that 'I know' which means places I have stayed. Hopefully there will be many more vegas trips to come so I can explore some new places for you. Encore here I come in June!