Las Vegas- Memorial Day Weekend Honeymoon

Las Vegas is absolutely my favourite place! See a brief history here.

My husband was not really too bothered about visiting Las Vegas but I was really set on going there at some point. We only had a week after we got married to enjoy a honeymoon before I returned to work after half term (I was a teacher at the time). So we decided that we would have 5 nights in Las Vegas. Our stay happened to coincide with Memorial Day Weekend which meant that there were extra events happening during our stay.

We got married on a Friday and then left for Las Vegas on the Saturday morning. This worked out really well as it meant that we did not have to clear anything away after the wedding and could stay in our bubble a little longer… lucky us!

We spent the day travelling from the UK to Vegas. When we got there we checked into our hotel, The Linq, I loved this hotel! The location is absolutely perfect as it is in the centre of the strip, it’s reasonably priced, the decor is pleasant and there is a promenade with restaurants, bars and amazing ice cream! What’s not to like?

In Las Vegas regardless of which hotel you stay in, you can still walk into all of the other hotels. The hotels here are crazy! Caesars Palace contains a mall (if you go here do watch the Fall of Atlantis show at Caesars Forum Shops), New York, New York has rollercoasters, Mandalay Bay has a beach, The Mirage has a zoo. Each hotel has theatres as they all have daily shows (a huge variety, so something for everyone), many of them also have nightclubs in them along with many restaurants.

I’ve spoken to people before who have been caught out when they have arrived at their hotel and been asked for a hefty deposit, so if you are visiting the states be aware that paying a deposit on arrival is common in hotels across the whole of USA.

We did not need any food the first evening as we had been stuffed during the flight, with staff constantly bringing food round and my husband and I being unable to say no to any of it! That evening we headed to Drai’s to see the Weeknd perform during his residency. The club was absolutely packed. There is no seating unless you pay out a fortune for a table. We each ordered a Malibu and coke and a bottle of water. This came to over £50! Wow! Scott asked if I wanted another drink… no thanks, I’ll just wait for this ice to melt! The performance was great and the buzz in the club was amazing.

Now, let’s talk about food.

If you are a burger fan then absolutely most definitely visit Guy Fieri’s restaurant (the Mac-N-Cheese Burger is amazing). This restaurant was in our hotel, there was a queue but it was certainly worth the wait. We also visited Hash House A Go Go in our hotel. The food was cheap and ginormous! Quality was not amazing in my personal opinion but as a late night bite to eat it hits the spot. This restaurant has also appeared on the TV show “Man V. Food”.

On the promenade next to our hotel there is a restaurant named Off The Strip, we popped in here for dinner one evening. I don’t recall what my husband had but I had ribs. My ribs did come out a little cold but the staff could not have been friendlier and got me a new rack right away which were very tasty!

Cake, cake, cake! If you love cake you will love Carlo’s Bakery (if you’ve seen Cake Boss on TV you will know what I’m talking about). Las Vegas was where we had our the first ever Carlo’s, this bakery is based in The Venetian hotel which was only a couple hotels down from ours. I ended up visiting here each morning to grab cakes and pastries for us. The hot chocolate was amazing! It was quite pleasant sitting in the hotel next to the replica of The Grand Canal drinking hot chocolate early in the morning when there were not so many people about.

 

Ghirardelli’s on the promenade did the best ice cream sundaes! We probably visited here a bit too often. We did not try the milkshakes or hot chocolate here but we did get round to trying milkshake at Ghirardelli’s in Hollywood, see my upcoming post on our mini Californian road trip.

One night which was really pleasant was one in which we discovered the most amazing ice cream cookie sandwiches. Frustratingly, I cannot remember the name but it was pretty much opposite the Bellagio (if I find the name I will update this post).  They have a wide array of cookies to choose from (the sugar cookie was my particular favourite) and a large variety of ice creams, made with different chocolates from around the world, I loved the Venezuelan. We bought these and then headed across the road to watch the fountains at the Bellagio. This was lovely. It is definitely worth seeing them in the evening.

By the end of our trip we just wanted some food that was a little bit healthy and not covered in cheese! Therefore, we visited Gordon Ramsay’s Pub and Grill at Caesars Palace. This is an English style restaurant. I did feel that this was very overpriced for what it was. It tasted nice but I don’t feel it was worth it.

I know that many people do visit all you can eat buffet restaurants in Las Vegas and I have heard that they are very good and amazing value for money. Unfortunately, we did not get the chance to experience this ourselves. There’s always next time.

During our visit we saw our first Cirque du Soleil show, ‘O’ at the Bellagio. This was spectacular. The floor lowered to reveal a pool of water in which the performers performed, the stage then rose again with the water disappearing. This happened numerous times throughout the performance. This was very clever and absolutely mesmerising to watch. Click here to see the official trailer.  There are loads of Cirque du Soleil shows in Las Vegas, each with a different theme. There are of course many other shows in Las Vegas, such magic shows (I would love to see Penn and Teller), Rat Pack, Burlesque and so on.

We knew that if we were going to Las Vegas that we absolutely had to see the Grand Canyon. You can get a bus to see what is apparently a better viewing of it. However, the bus tour is a full day trip and we did not want to spend a full day doing this. Therefore, we decided to get a helicopter ride to see it- I cannot remember the company name but we booked it through Viator, where there is a huge range. This was around £850 for the two of us. This included a limousine to and from the helicopter departure point. A champagne picnic at the bottom of the Canyon with a flight over the strip at twilight on our return- this was my favourite part of the excursion as you really got to see the strip all lit up. When I go back I would not go to see the same part of the Grand Canyon again but would definitely do a helicopter ride over the strip again, especially in the evening.

During our stay there were lots of pool parties taking place, we decided to go to one at Encore Beach Club which had David Guetta djing. You can pay a fee to keep your belongings in a safe place, which I would definitely advise as you will be in the pool and won’t want to be watching your bag the whole time. This event was quite busy but was a really good experience. If there is a group of you going it might be worth you hiring a cabana, this does not work out too expensive for a group but for two people it’s not really worth it. There were people from the balcony ‘making it rain’ with dollars. Most people were not phased by this but there were the odd few that were going absolutely crazy grabbing notes like they were on the final of The Chrystal Maze! Overall, this was a fun day, we did not spend the whole day and evening there but for a couple of hours it was cool.

My husband, being him, did not pack his swim shorts, despite the pool party being booked before we even left the UK! Which meant that we were then trapsing around shops trying to find some on the morning of the pool party , and resulted in him paying double what he would have at home. Pretty much opposite Wynn Resort and next to Treasure Island, there is a mall that did have some Memorial Day weekend sales on whilst we were there. There is also a shopping complex a bus ride from the strip where you can find Levi jeans etc at great prices. This picture was at the shopping complex on our last day… hence the pouting faces.

How could we go to Las Vegas and not visit Fremont Street? We did have a little confusion getting there but this was soon resolved. I have heard lots of people mention how cool Fremont Street is. However, I must admit, we were not fans of the place. It felt as though there was no air, there’s so much cigarette smoke. There were street performers, some of them were quite good. Overall though I thought it felt dingy. There is a zipwire which goes over Fremont Street. We thought about doing this but did not enquire until after we had finished looking around and there was a long wait so we gave this a miss.

Before we left home I had decided that I wanted to see the Bodies exhibition and the Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, both at the Luxor. However, as soon as we got to the hotel we felt hounded by staff trying to sell us timeshares, buffet tickets and just generally tickets for things that we did not want. This happened the whole time we walked through the casino. Therefore, we just decided to leave without visiting the exhibitions, which was a shame. I did not find the staff as intense as this in the other hotels.

One morning we thought that we would explore Siegfried & Roys Secret Garden at The Mirage. There is a zoo and also a dolphin show there. I did not like this at all. The animals didn’t seem too happy and looked as though they were pacing up and down frantically. This made us feel uncomfortable so we did not stay long and would not go there again.

Okay so now for what everyone thinks of when it comes to Las Vegas… Casinos! They are everywhere. No matter what time of day you go into one, 7am, 3pm, 9pm, 2am they look exactly the same, the lights are bright and there are people gambling. We did have a couple of games of black jack and roulette. We are not high ballers and when I was up by $40 I decided to walk away. We did not have any drinks in the casinos but you are entitled to free drinks whilst you play (you would need to tip the wait staff). I know that some people use the slot machines which can cost very little per go and they then receive free drinks whilst playing these.

The infamous Las Vegas sign! To be completely honest this was a bit of a let down, it is neither grand nor spectacular in my opinion. However, it is still an iconic must see photo spot when visiting. We got our taxi driver to make a quick stop here on our way back to the airport.

The one thing I will say about Las Vegas is that it does require a lot of walking. Our feet were burning literally the whole time that we were there. It’s good to have a plan as even just walking a hotel or two in the wrong direction is a lot of walking. There is a monorail named the Deuce and there are busses and of course taxi’s, so it’s not necessary to walk EVERYWHERE.

I know that many people would not visit with kids as it’s perhaps not the place that you would think of as being kid friendly. I would definitely take kids in the future. Although they obviously can’t go into the casinos or nightclubs and there are shows that they couldn’t go to, there is a lot there that they can do. There is a pirate show outside of Treasure Island. All of the hotels have pools (opening times depend on time of year). There are cool things to see at each hotel and things to do e.g. gondola ride, rollercoaster (age dependant), there are children’s museums, a shark reef aquarium at Mandalay Bay, Adventuredome (amusement park in Circus Circus), as well as age appropriate shows. Again, there can be a lot of walking so plan out your itinerary.  Also be aware that there are signs and cards advertising prostitutes… although I am not sure if kids would even notice this with so much going on.

Must Buys: Ghirardelli’s chocolates, we didn’t bring any home but I did regret this! Basically, any dessert or ice cream on the strip, We did not have a bad one!

Wish List: During our stay I really wanted to do a twilight kayak trip which ended with you surrounding a camp fire toasting s’mores. Unfortunately, this tour is seasonal and did not start until June and our visit was the end of May. I would definitely love to do this.

Fun Fact: I have read that in Sin City there is a law prohibiting full nudity in strip clubs that sell alcohol. Some have their performers only topless so that they can sell alcohol and some give up alcohol in favour of full nudity! I found this law surprising for Las Vegas.