Awesome Things to Do While in Las Vegas

For my birthday this year babycakes & I decided to pay Las Vegas a first time visit; and what better way to celebrate the last year of my 20s!
Going to Vegas in January did not sound like the best idea, besides isn’t Vegas about crazy hot weather, crazy hot parties, crazy wild drinking and gambling?! Of course it is, but maybe not quite in January. This is my Las Vegas, first time experience, in a nutshell.

4 Days 3 Nights in Las Vegas

• Early flight to LAS from JFK
• Arrival at LAS…wait did I just see Slot machines at the Airport. Nah, my eyes are seeing things…let’s go claim our luggage…
• Huh, more Slot machines. Does anyone have a quarter?! Ok, NO, let’s keep walking, we have plenty more to see.
• Inexpensive shuttle service through Showtime Tours right outside the airport, thank goodness we didn’t purchase the shuttle service through Orbitz.
• Arrival at the Bellagio, wow, how beautiful! Even though check in wasn’t until 3pm, our room was ready before 3pm, that was a plus!
• How do we get to our room again?! Where’s that Bellagio Hotel Map when you need one?!
• After making a left at the bar, and passing the slot machines and blackjack tables, we finally found the elevators to the rooms.
• Bellagio = Amazing! The décor, the bathroom, the king size bed, it was all great!

So after getting settled in the room, we decided to get back outside and explore some of the Las Vegas Strip. First of, it rained for 2 days straight, I wish I knew rain was in town, because this was the type of rain you could’ve used rainboots for, but I wasn’t going to let that ruin our day, we made the best of it regardless.

Ok, so the Bellagio is perfectly situated in what I would call the middle of the Las Vegas Strip!

To the right of the Bellagio are New York, New York, Excalibur, Tropicana, MGM Grand, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, Monte Carlo, Aria, etc…

To the left of the Bellagio you have Caesar’s Palace, Ballys, Harrahs, Treasure Island, Venetian, Mirage, Palazzo, Wynn, Encore, Trump…

and further down the strip you’ll find the Stratosphere, Sahara, Circus Circus, and Fremont/Downtown Las Vegas hotels such as Golden Nugget, etc…

Across from the Bellagio you’ll find Paris, and Planet Hollywood hotel. (I’ve only mentioned a few, there are many many more hotels, but these are the ones that I can remember off the top of my head and that pop out the most when you go out there.

So we started on our right and paid a visit to some of the hotels on that side first. MGM Grand is ridiculously big! The casino is huge! I need to go back there so I can win that damn M6 car they have there. Such a beauty!

Anyways, moving on, crossing the bridge to the New York, New York hotel, with a roller coaster ride right outside and a replica of the Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty, this hotel looks fun, but a little too New York for me, lol, I guess mission accomplished.

The first night was tough to stay up all night, my body was still on NY time that I couldn’t hang. I wanted to eat and knock out and that’s what we did. Room Service and bed!

Day 2 was more adventurous, we had booked Grand Canyon/Hoover Dam tour packages for that day and away we went. Up bright and early, 6am pick up, we were on our way out of Nevada into Arizona to see the Hoover Dam and up to the Grand Canyon right after.

The bus tour was good, they played a documentary about the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon and on our way back a movie about Las Vegas. Very informational/educational, makes you appreciate visiting the state of Nevada even more.

The rain was still coming down hard, and as we were on our way to the Grand Canyon and up those steep mountains the heavy rain turned into heavy snow, and it was absolutely beautiful! We knew by now we weren’t going to be able to see the Grand Canyon completely and make it all the way to the top.

The people planning to do the Skywalk and/or helicopter rides weren’t going to be doing that either. We pretty much were on the “let’s enjoy this while we can, because in a few minutes, we’ll have to turn around”.

The bus made a pit stop to see if the roads were clear enough to continue, bus driver made a few calls and it was a no go. Zero visibility = NO Grand Canyon! = Full refunds for everyone. YAY!

So even though we didn’t get to see the entire Grand Canyon and the Skywalk, etc… we got to see Hoover Dam and the snow in the mountains and other cool stuff, and still get a FULL refund. I liked this tour!

Hoover Dam/Grand Canyon Tour from Arie Rich on Vimeo.

Later in the evening we got lost in the Forum Shops at Caesar Palace, eventually made our way out and around the other hotels on that side of the strip and we checked out a celebrity car showroom at the Palazzo.

Day 3 was my Birthday! No more rain! YES! The Sun was out, the sky was clear, it was a beautiful day! Lots planned!

We started with a nice breakfast buffet at the Wynn, (highly recommended), then a bus ride down the strip towards Downtown Las Vegas, The Deuce Bus – $3 one way, $7 all day. Quick stop at the Stratosphere, where they have cool rides at the very top of the building right where the needle is pointing. I was too punk to get on any of them, maybe next time.

Back to the Bellagio to get pampered at the Spa, where couples massages waited for us. The Bellagio Spa is HIGHLY recommended.

We also stopped by Mandalay Bay and checked out the Shark Reef Aquarium, beautiful hotel, cool aquarium.

Check out my Shark Reef Aquarium video below or by clicking here:

Shark Reef Aquarium from Arie Rich on Vimeo.
Shark Reef Aquarium at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas.

A few suggestions when booking your vacation package to Las Vegas:

• Book through Orbitz. They usually have great deals and packages.
• Unless you like to spend money and stuff, don’t add the shuttle service for $15/pp one way through Orbitz. It is cheaper to get a shuttle at the airport $6/pp or $12/pp round-trip.
• Get off the Strip sometimes, go explore, try the Grand Canyon/Hoover Dam Tours, do the Skywalk, or the Helicopter ride, go see the Shark Reef Aquarium at the Mandalay Bay.
• Have the breakfast buffet at the Wynn at least once.

That’s it for now. I hope you enjoyed my review. If you’ve been to Las Vegas and have any great suggestions on where to stay or what to do, please share in the comment section.