The California road trip continues! If you haven’t already you can have a peep at our travels up to this point in San Francisco, Yosemite and Sequoia. After 5 nights in the great outdoors and camping in our very limited (but loveable) camepervan Woody, it was time to head to Las Vegas. Quite the contrast! I can’t even TELL you how good the first shower felt, but more on that in just a moment…
The Lowdown
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Length of Stay: 3 Nights
Vital Info: Las Vegas is CRAZY and three nights was definitely enough. Bring double the amount of money you were planning on, it is very expensive!
Where to Stay
We wanted to make our Vegas experience as awesome as possible, so we splashed out a little and booked into the Aria. When we rolled up I was slightly mortified, an array of posh cars and then us in our retro style camper van. LOL. Our room was nothing short of increbile, we paid for an upgrade so that it was extra luxurious with a strip view. The room was very techy, with just about everything controlled from an iPad, which was a novelty which didn’t wear off on me. The bathroom was divine, we had a fancy bath with jets and a shower which served me well after 5 nights in the van. Just be careful NOT to take anything from the mini bar. We got charged $36 for two bottles of water. Yeah, still not over that.
The communal areas of the hotel were also lovely, the casino was just like any other Vegas casino but there were also a zillion restaurants and a mini shopping centre with the likes of Stella McCartney and Gucci. Very fancy.
What to Do
Well, when in Vega$ you gamble, drink, party, eat and catch a few shows. We did mostly this, although I’m pretty tee total these days so I wasn’t drinking alcohol. We spent our first day walking up and down the strip which takes a lot longer than one might expect. Around four hours actually, as we were meandering in and out of the various hotels. The casino’s are all very similar, but our favourites were in the MGM grand and the Cosmopolitan. I became quite the fan of the Roulette machine, that was until my beginners luck ran out and I started to lose. Not so fun then tbh.
We were going to pre-book tickets for Cirque Du Soleil however as we had SO much to plan we never got around to it. Luckily there were loads of tickets still for sale when we got there, we went to see the original show Mystere at the Treasure Island hotel. It was amazing and just absolutely blew mind. How the heck do they do that with their bodies?! I’d definitely recommend catching one of their shows! Our tickets weren’t too expensive either, I think about $70 each and the seats were really great, just a few rows from the front.
We weren’t actually planning on having a pool day in Vegas, but my god it was just SO hot that we were craving the cold water. The pool was actually heated (just what you need in the desert) which was kiiiind of annoying but in 46 degrees you really don’t want to be walking around. We didn’t actually manage to do everything I wanted to in Vegas because of the insane heatwave. We didn’t go to the Neon Graveyard or the Grand Canyon, but to be honest I don’t think it would have been enjoyable and I probably would have passed out.
Once we’d got bored of sitting around the pool we ventured off into the casinos for air conditioning and plenty of cokes. The shops are also a pretty convenient spot for air-con and I couldn’t help but indulge in a tiny bit of retail therapy. There’s a few malls as well as the shops in the hotels, there’s everything from Topshop to Prada!
Where to Eat
Vegas was surprisingly decent for vegan food, who would have thought it? The Happy Cow app came in extremely handy and for our first meal we headed to upscale restaurant Crush in the MGM Grand. We were so buzzing to be fresh and clean that we got a bit ahead of ourselves and enjoyed a $100 dinner. Shame we were counting our quarters by the end of the road trip haha. Anyway, it was fantastic and the vegan menu although small, was absolutely delicious. I had a tofu dish with a side of cauliflower except it was a lot fancier than just your bog standard cauliflower. Very nice indeed!
By day two we realised we couldn’t fund expensive dinners every night so we headed to a few cheaper places such as Nacho Daddy. I know what you’re thinking, sounds kinda tacky? Well, I have to say I’m a BIG fan. The vegan menu was brilliant, the burritos and nachos were enough to make me contemplate going back to Vegas. Oh and Beerhaus wasn’t too bad either, the vegan hot dog was pretty damn good. See photo for evidence.
Although I had a super fun time in Vegas with Charlie, I did have a feeling of “I can’t wait to get out of here. It was strange, I think because we’d spent the past week or so outdoors enjoying nature and all that, Vegas just felt extremely superficial and materialistic. I think 21 year old me would have lapped it up but I’m not into the party scene anymore and I found myself a little disillusioned with it all. I don’t want to end on a downer though as don’t get me wrong it was still a great three nights but I’m not sure I’ll be rushing back just yet. If you’ve ever been to Vegas I’d love to know your thoughts!
