TR for 4 nights in Vegas is below (LONG, obviously!!) , beginning and end of a trip touring California (will probably do a TR for the whole schedule on the main California board later, if anyone%26#39;s interested!). Got loads of info from this board when i was planning, so hopefully something here will help someone else out.
TR - Flamingo, Holiday Inn, Grand Canyon tour, Maxjet.Flights - Maxjet from London Stansted to Vegas. Perfectly to time both ends, can%26#39;t recommend this highly enough as a fantastic start to the holiday. Felt REALLY spoiled from the time we arrived at the private lounge (and how silly did we feel with our Pret bags when we saw all the food on offer) to the end of the flight. Best way i can describe it is like 10 hours on your own comfy sofa watching films etc, only with someone bringing you (excellent) food and drink on tap. Only 2 tiny whinges - no lounge in Vegas which really did make a difference to how irritable we all were by boarding (90 mins of high volume Mexicana announcements / blokes on mobiles / screaming kids anyone?!) and i managed to ';luck'; out in both directions with the one selfish @)*%26amp; who MUST have his seat absolutely horizontal for the WHOLE flight sat in front of me - even with a 60'; seat pitch this means squashed feet and difficulty getting out to the bathroom!
Arrived about 4pm vegas time, straight out to the bus stop for the car rental shuttle. Bus arrived within a couple of minutes and took straight off even tho we were the only ones on board - same thing coming back, really fast and efficient. Long line and slow service at Dollar to collect the car, but other half was very happy to get a Mustang convertible rather than the promised Sebring.
First 2 nights were at the Holiday Inn express. I was worried about aircraft noise based on some recent reports, but heard literally nothing from inside the room - maybe they change route depending on the wind direction, i don%26#39;t know. HI was excellent for the money ($120) – very comfortable bed, nice bathroom, quiet, perfectly adequate breakfast if you didn’t want the full buffet blowout (pastries, fruit, yoghurt, waffles, bagels etc) and a great warm pool which nobody ever seemed to use except us, which was also open until midnight. And, no lines for anything (check in / out / pool / breakfast) and pleasant, friendly staff.
It took us a while to figure out the Strip, first night we parked at TI and ended up walking too far and nearly falling asleep in our supper (jet lag and all). Ate at the Venetian Grand Lux café, absolutely gorgeous food and only two or three times more than we could ever have eaten in one sitting.
Day 2 – dropped the car at the Stratosphere with the idea of going up the tower to get a bit orientated from the view. TIP – it’s about $10 to just visit the viewing area, but for only around $20 you can have a very nice brunch in the restaurant up there, so I had lobster ravioli whilst checking out the Strip! Also went to the Breathe oxygen bar in the Strat’s shopping area, for about $20 we got a lie down on massage bed, oxygen treatment and back / neck massage which made us forget we’d ever seen a plane. Highly recommended post-flight experience.
In the evening, we used the complimentary shuttle from the hotel to the Mandalay Bay, which looked like a beautiful place. Also wandered around the Luxor, which I thought didn’t match up to the amazing exterior, Excalibur and New York New York, which were just okay. Ate supper in America at NYNY – pretty underwhelmed, there was a bit of a mismatch between menu descriptions and what arrived – for example, one of the dishes apparently came with chargrilled pineapple, nothing of that description on the plate and when we queried it, we were brought a bowl of tinned pineapple chunks (cold). Nice.
The following morning we headed off for LA, returning 12 days later to check into the Flamingo. Interesting contrast – ages sitting in traffic on the strip, and ages standing in line to check in (no apology offered at the desk). Half the pool was off limits because of a corporate function (desk clerk “well, people do pay a lot of money to hire it” – obviously all us guests are there for free so don’t need to use the facilities) and the rest was crammed full. Pool closed at 7pm so no nice post-dinner dip then. In fact, we never used the pool at all as it was so busy and loud.
We’d booked into a GO room and were offered an upgrade to the top floor with Strip view for about $20 extra, which we took. Both the room and the view were terrific – especially loved being able to open the drapes using a switch by the bed, so you can switch your view of neon / sunshine on and off! The bed itself was super comfortable, although putting a nine lightbulb fixture right above the bed was a seriously strange touch, presumably only to be used by those seeking that “operating theatre” experience. Aircon was efficient and quiet, though it did seem to deliver a whiff of cigarette smoke along with the air once in a while, especially at night.
The next day started badly – long hot walk up to MGM to see the lions, only to find they were closed all week for renovation, followed by forking out monorail and cab fees to sample some really average and overpriced food at Café Babareeba – made a special trip to try it due to previous recommendations, and it was utterly rubbish.
The afternoon, though, was for our helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon, and was fantastic. We took the Grand Celebration tour with Papillon plus the add on trip over the strip coming back, and it was excellent – very professionally run. We were picked up in a limo, (though this did involve a tedious circular trip to a couple of other hotels to collect others, during which time we passed the airport twice where we were going to end up!), given drinks / snacks at the airport checkin and straight into the helicopter. DO THIS TRIP if you’re in Vegas if you possibly can – scrape together the cash somehow, how else could you spend $280 that you’ll remember for the rest of your life?!. The flight was spectacular, and although my partner suffers from vertigo / height phobia and I can get motion sickness in a lift, we were both fine with the helicopter. The feeling of flying vertically up a cliff face, or down into a gulley, is just incredible. We flew out via Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam, then landed within the Canyon itself, and had about half an hour to sip champagne / eat / take photos. It didn’t feel nearly enough! The flight back took a different route, looking out for wild horses, bighorn cattle etc, and then in via a circuit of the strip.
Dinner was the prime rib / top sirloin $15 special at Bill’s, very tasty and incredible value.
Then, the gambling bit. Neither of us gamble at all, or are really very interested in it, but it seemed rude not to when in Vegas. I spent time on various slot machines of different types, and found them totally boring – sorry slot fans, but it’s just like being a lab rat sitting there pressing the button, and I ended up maxing out my bet amounts all the time thinking that I was going to lose all the money anyway so might as well do it quickly and get on to something more interesting instead! Obviously I’m missing the gene, or something. That night, boyfriend decided to have a go on the blackjack tables. This was much more fun – at least there’s a small degree of skill involved, and it’s more sociable at the tables than sitting at a machine. He played from about 10.30pm to 3am and came out about $30 up overall, plus a disturbing number of free apple martinis consumed while playing. He was happy, I was happy that we weren’t remortgaging the house, that’ll do.
The final day, we just had time for the lunch buffet at TI before heading to the airport. This was the first buffet we tried, and I wished I’d done it sooner – the variety and quality of the food was excellent – sushi, American barbeque, salads made to order, pasta, Chinese etc, followed by an amazing range of desserts including gorgeous panna cotta, fruit tarts, loads of icecream flavours and ( I particularly liked this bit) candy floss which we took out with us. And again, all for $15 – that’s ridiculous. In the UK you’d pay that for a grotty sandwich and a can of coke.
Final tip – seems very obvious now, but we took a while to figure it: all hotels have multiple entrances on to the strip. Use them to walk through the hotel in the nice cool airconditioning and out the other end, thereby doubling the distance you can walk before you turn into a huge exhausted sweatball.
TR - Flamingo, Holiday Inn, Grand Canyon tour, Maxjet.Great TR.
Will definately do the Breathe Oxygen bar for flight recovery. Top tip.
Sounds like a fun trip. enjoyed your TR. I agree with you about the TI buffet. I am thinking of trying the helicopter ride in Nov--
I have some questions about your helicopter tour--
Did you prebook or book while in LV?
How long were the flights to/from the Grand Canyon?
How many people in your helicopter?
How many seats (approx) are in the helicopter?
After looking at the Papillon website your looks like the tour for me. Thanks for the info.
I have some questions about your helicopter tour--
Did you prebook or book while in LV?
How long were the flights to/from the Grand Canyon?
How many people in your helicopter?
How many seats (approx) are in the helicopter?
After looking at the Papillon website your looks like the tour for me. Thanks for the info.
very nice and informative tr . thanks for sharing k4 :)
Hi Tripfun
I pre booked the trip about 3 months ago, and didn%26#39;t see any evidence that we could have got it cheaper by waiting - we might not have got the day / time that we wanted though, as they were pretty busy. I%26#39;d say book ahead.
Time wise, this is going to sound dumb but it%26#39;s a bit of a blur - i think we were out of the hotel for about 4hrs, quite a bit of faffing around with transfers at each end, and 1/2 hr at the canyon. So i guess the flights were around an hour each way, although it feels MUCH quicker.
There were 6 passenger seats in the copter we went in, 2 upfront next to the pilot and four behind. They pre-allocate seats by weight (you get weighed during checkin, so no point fibbing!!) to make sure it%26#39;s balanced, so you don%26#39;t get to choose where you sit. I would have rather been up front but it was not to be, and i have to say the view is excellent wherever you sit.
We actually had two couples plus the pilot in ours, other groups did have six. Having a ';well built'; rugby player boyfriend probably helps your chances of a smaller group, as it%26#39;s all done on weight!!
fun fun fun...thanks for sharing...Slotto
Thanks K4 for the TR. Great tips - I will definately try Breathe and really ocnsidering my options for the heli tour. Thanks again.
Very nice TR, thank you.
Sorry some of the eateries weren%26#39;t up to expectations, and really sorry MGM had closed the lions for renovations.
But really glad the Grand Canyon Heli ride was an experience for a lifetime!
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