The City that Never Sleeps

We left Hoover Dam and continued our journey. Forty-five minutes later...we arrived at our final destination...Las Vegas, NV, on July 8th, 2004. It was interesting to note that on this last leg of the journey, I expected the moutains to give way to open desert again...but that never happend.

Surrounded by moutains...we found our destination...Las Vegas. We ended up navigating to Las Vegas Blvd., via the north side of town, versus arrival via the south end of the strip. This caused us to entirely miss the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. I scratched my head and questioned for a moment, if we were really in the "Oaisis in the Desert" that we had seen so often via the Discovery Channel on TV.

Instead of booking one hotel, I had pre-booked our 8-day stay at Las Vegas at six different hotels: Circus Circus, Stratosphere, Aladdin, Luxor, MGM, and Excalibur. I figured this would allow us to sample the various hotels as well as explore different parts of the strip as we moved from hotel to hotel. Something to be aware of is that although the hotel entrances from the strip appear to be small, once you get inside, the hotels are very, VERY large. Many (actually ALL the hotels we stayed in) had indoor shopping malls that went on and on. Pretty much all of them had parking in the back that was litterally 1/2 to 1 1/2 miles away from the actual hotel itself...so be prepared for long walks to your car once you do manage to secure a hotel room.

Sampling hotels was pretty cool, but I would not recommend it, as we found ourselves in a constant state of "moving" while we were in Las Vegas. If you are looking for the best deal in Las Vegas, I would recommend booking your stay at the Luxor. This Ancient-Egypt themed hotel offered luxury at a very affordable price. The Luxor is located near the southern end of the strip, which is somewhat close to many of the attractions, which tend to be located along the central and south end of the strip. We also experienced our best buffet here, as well as at the Excalibur. Most of the food in Vegas was good, but during our stay, the best bang for the buck was at Luxor and Excalibur. Meals ran $12.95 - $19.95 or so per person, and while prices were higher than we expected, the quality of the food was definitely beyond "buffet" quality...so the food was definitely worth the price...and then some.

Speaking of food, would you believe there were 57 Thai restaurants throughout Las Vegas? I felt right at home, eating Radnah, Chicken Red Curry, and sharing my wife's favorite dish, Pad Thai, at the House of Thai Restaurant, which was located on a side road near the Circus Circus and the Sahara Hotels. It was interesting for me to navigate the Vegas strip and not feel like a minority as most of the casino staff, as well as many of the visitors were of Asian or hispanic decent. There were even two full-blown Chinese television channels on the TV system at the Luxor. Many of the hotel all-you-can-eat buffets featured fairly good sized Mexican and Chinese, as well as American dishes.

We did the standard tourist thing of walking the strip, checking out various displays/attractions, such as the spectacular water fountain dance at the Bellagio (the fountains dance to a different song every 30 minutes), visiting Downtown Fremont Street at night (a different light show comes on every hour or so), and checking out the various casinos. BTW, as a slot player who normally wins, I don't recommend gambling at Vegas. You will definitely lose. During our entire 8-day stay, I didn't see anyone hit a "major" jackpot of more than $200. My own personal best was winning $10 - $15 or so...but never a major hit. Lesson learned...do not spend much money on the slots at Las Vegas.

The Las Vegas mono-rail opened on Thursday, just shortly before we left. Unfortunately, we didn't have a chance to ride it, but it looks to be a great means of traveling throughout "The Strip." Walking the entire strip is a bit far, so we didn't see some "key" things, such as Treasure Island's sea battle (unless you count watching it from our car as we drove by), but for the most part, we saw many of the "must see" things that were located along the strip.

.

.