Originally, we weren’t entirely sure where we should spend our honeymoon, all we knew was that lying on a beach doing nothing for two weeks didn’t really appeal.
But we landed on Las Vegas for one leg of the trip and, when we told people, the reaction was almost universally positive, being a mix of jealousy and excitement. However, anyone who had been before neglected to mention, or maybe we just accepted as face value and moved on, a few things to be wary of….
Money
Las Vegas as a first-timer is expensive. Yes we stayed on the Strip which will up the cost but I don’t think we were properly prepared for how much the week (more on that, later) would cost. Beer is pretty expensive, being between $14 and $18 for a large can (a little more than a pint for £10-£15). Food varies wildly depending on where you go. Even here in the UK you’ll be fortunate to get a main meal for £10, but starting prices for main meals were around $18 and we didn’t feel that the choice for this end of the scale was all that wide. Our favourite meal was a $22 rib-eye steak at our New York New York hotel, but this was clearly a meal deal and anything comparable here or elsewhere was much much more.
And the price of the meal was then plus tax, plus tip. We never really understood why all the prices were excluding tax, presumably it’s how the tax system is administered, but you have to factor that in and then add a tip. Standard practice would be 20% of the pre-tax bill, which for me was a steep place to start, especially when the service you receive is no better, and often worse, than you would get in a pub in the UK, where you may not tip at all. Say what you like about Wetherspoons, but they have some good food and really good service in some pubs, and there is no obligation to leave a tip!
We navigated our way through the week by clocking on to the various happy hours that bars and restaurants operated, but the savings were not as great as you might think.
But there are free things to occupy your time too - there's the Bellagio fountain show every evening, with a show every 15 minutes from about 8pm. The Mirage does a volcano show every evening, on the hour, also from about 8pm. The Flamingo has actual flamingos! Walk through the casino to the wildlife sanctuary and there is a whole host of wildlife. Probably just not quite enough to fill a week of activity, but a bit of research and the attractions are out there.
And all that before you’ve even hit the casino floor (see below).
Heat
Las Vegas is in Nevada, the driest state in the USA and mostly made up of desert. To think it won’t be hot is at best naïve, bordering on stupid. But when it’s 25C in the morning and tops out at 37C it can really sap
your energy. Despite this, it can get almost chilly in some rooms of the hotels/casinos, such as restaurants, but while you’re outside you really try to keep to the shade. But inside or out, shorts and t-shirts are the outfit of choice – just remember the sunscreen!
Distance
Our stretch of “The Strip” that we were willing to explore on foot pretty much started at Mandalay Bay, headed north passed our hotel and ended at the Wynn/Encore – a stretch of little over two miles. That’s about 45 minutes walking for the average person and would be a little less for us under normal circumstances. But Las Vegas isn’t a normal circumstance. Not only is it hot, it is very, very busy. It’s also not a straight line, despite what the map would suggest.
On arrival we saw that the road crossings were footbridges, with an escalator either side. Disgusted at the lengths Americans would go to save walking, we refused to use the escalators… for about 12 hours. Early morning of day two, as tourists left their hotels in search of the sites, entertainment and breakfast, the footpaths were getting busy, the sun was getting hot and the energy levels were already depleting. As you walk down the Strip, you may not be crossing the side streets at the point it meets Las Vegas Boulevard, but may need a slight detour up a sideroad or through a casino or shopping mall. These little detours and the up-and-down of the footbridges saps energy and adds time and distance to any casual stroll and a 45-minute walk can easily take double or even longer! And that’s assuming we head straight for our destination, which we rarely did due to the multitude of distractions.
There is a bus that lets you bypass all these issues, and it’s supposed to run every 15-20 minutes. On one occasion we waited over half an hour before giving up and walking. “It’s further than you think!”, warned one woman at the stop as we gathered our bits and set off. And it was far, but looking back down the Strip there was still no sign of the bus some 20 minutes later. But, if you’re willing to wait, it’s pretty good value, being $8 for 24 hours (or the less good value of $6 for two hours).
Gambling
Who comes to Las Vegas and doesn’t gamble? Even my pensioner parents played the slot machines on their way through to Los Angeles one holiday, although my dad played under duress, being entirely unimpressed by the whole affair.
But we intended to gamble and win big! Although the expectation was to gamble and lose it all, but at least enjoy the experience.
Armed with a couple of hundred dollars between us, we wanted to hit the casino floors with some idea of what we were doing. A (relatively recent) guidebook suggested that hotels provided lessons on how the different games worked. We were fairly comfortable with blackjack and roulette, had little or no faith in our poker faces, but were fascinated by craps as it always sounds the most fun – someone blows on the dice for luck, someone else rolls the dice, everyone at the table cheers! BUT WHY?? It turns out that our hotel didn’t do these guides and, according to the concierge, he didn’t know if any hotels did anymore and that YouTube would be our best bet (pun intended) to learning any new games.
Being timid gamblers, we started on the virtual tables where the minimum stakes were generally lower and I could lose my money without the judgement or ridicule of others. And these were fun – I found I could make $20 last a little while on the virtual roulette (though never got offered a free drink for my troubles so I’m convinced that bit is a myth!). In reality we were never going to “win back the cost of the wedding” – we’d be lucky to win the cost of our dinner!
But as the week wore on I really wanted to get on the tables with an actual croupier, but the roulette rules differed to those of the virtual games – on the virtual I could put 50cents here and there up to the minimum stake (of $3 to $5), but on the table it was $2 chips on the numbers only, up to the minimum stake of $20. Or else you could play $20 a time on the red/black, odd/even games. I guess if you’re going to utilise an actual person in your gambling, the stakes (or rather the cost) has to make it worthwhile to the casino.
I managed a couple of hands of blackjack which did not end well (I think it’s the quickest I’ve lost money since my wallet was stolen in 2003). I also played the roulette table which afforded me slightly more minutes of nervous excitement, although on this occasion my number did come up so I banked my winnings and ran for the hills. (The winnings were soon safely deposited in another casino.)
I’m sure people come here with much larger gambling budgets than we did, but if you want to play the actual tables, up your budget, or lower your playing time.
Time
We booked 5 nights and, with an evening arrival flight and a midnight departure flight, this gave us a little over five full days to experience the sights and sounds of Las Vegas. Even taking in downtown Las Vegas, we felt this was too long.
We had a rough plan of what we wanted to do but wanted to leave enough time to soak it up and take it all in. This is probably the one thing I regret about this trip. If we’d set a bit more of an itinerary (organised fun!) we could have moved a day and half from Las Vegas to St Lucia and been more the happier for it. But we didn’t know how the week was going to pan out or how easy it was to get around, and hindsight is a wonderful thing!
By the end of the week I was finding it all a little tiresome. Fully aware as to how quickly the gambling fund would disappear if just went at it, we tried to string out the gambling over the week. The sights are impressive but it can be a tiring day and once you’ve seen some of the sites it’s difficult to get up the enthusiasm to go back and see them again (I’m looking at you, Atlantis, in Caesar’s Palace).
With better planning (and some hindsight), you can have a great time in Vegas with just three of four days, and not feel like you’ve missed out.
Where to stay
We stayed at the New York New York hotel, which is near the southern end of the Strip – there are only three more casinos (about a mile and a half!) before you get to the “Fabulous Las Vegas” sign. Downtown is about 5 miles north of us, which is not walkable (see above!).
As first-timers we wanted to be right on the strip, and we had about two miles of glamorous Las Vegas hotels and casinos at our immediate disposal. For our first time, I think we got this right, even though it made the rest of the trip more pricey. If we went back I’d definitely either stay well away from the Strip, or in Downtown. The food and the casinos all appeared much more reasonable here and you’re still only a 15-minute bus ride from the glitz of the Strip to take in a show or pick out the bits that we didn’t have time for or just weren’t fussed about the first time around.
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