Travelling the USA | Las Vegas, NV
- Simon-Peter Lincoln
- Sep 17, 2016
- 9 min read
As a budget traveller, Vegas isn't the place you really want to be going; however, the city itself needs to be seen and there is so much to be experienced. Las Vegas is always going to be expensive, no matter when you go, so it's up to us to try and find the cheapest way around it whilst still seeing what needs to be seen and doing the things that need to be done.
Sunday 11th September
After a full day of travelling through Austin, we ordered a car and headed over to the Austin-Bergstrom airport to catch our flight to Vegas. Due to it being the anniversary of 9/11, I half expected a weird ambience in the terminal, however it was lovely to see that everyone was going about as normal. Although its a sad thing to remember, we cannot live in fear of what may or may not happen, my thoughts and prayers go to the families of all who were lost or injured 15 years ago. We managed to make our way to the gate, dropped our bags and decided to go on the hunt for some food; after a 5 minute walk, we found an Amy's Ice Cream parlour... prayers answered! I opted for the dark chocolate and cheesecake with marshmallows and hot fudge syrup, it was well worth the $7(ish) I paid for it. We bought drinks and headed back to our seats before having to board the plane. I was seated next to two lovely ladies who were off to Las Vegas to see their families and I explained our trip to them, they were stunned to know how much of the USA we were seeing on our adventure.
As you fly over Las Vegas, the first thing you notice is the bright lights; we flew in at night and everything was lit up... we knew we were in the City of Lights, Viva Las Vegas. We landed safely and as soon as I got out of the plane, there were slot machines everywhere. I can imagine a lot of people have lost their vaction fund before they've left the airport. We headed over to baggage claim, where there seemed to be a confusion with where our bags where coming from. Eventually we managed to find them, but they came from the Honolulu carousel(?). After ordering a Lyft, we headed to Circus Circus, where we'd be staying the duration of our stay. Driving through Vegas was surreal, seeing all the lights made me feel like a child wanting to run to the next exciting thing. We hit the hotel and headed straight to our bedroom as we'd had a super long day.
Monday 12th September
Today we decided to stay in and have a bit of a lay in before heading out. So after all the girls where ready, we left the hotel and onto the Las Vegas Strip. This is everything you've ever seen on TV: bright lights, huge fountains and ads everywhere! It was completely bizzare, but wonderful at the same time. We headed through the Wynn hotel and casino to check out the floral carousel and the beautiful indoor gardens and checked out the canals in the Venetian; we walked further up the strip and checked out the other hotels before decinding that we were starving and needed to get food. As we are all balling on a budget, we shot into the local Denny's and ordered up some grub. I ordered the Chicken Philly Melt and it was incredible; usually I'm not a fan of mushrooms but I made an exception and it was a great decision. It only cost me about $11, but then again I just ordered a tap water with it.
On the way back to the hotel we decided to buy some drinks for the night; this turned out to be a lot cheaper than I thought, $25 for 1.75l of pineapple vodka. We bought that and some lemonade and ambled back to the hotel room to get in the pool. This didn't last very long as the wind was so heavy that it made the water cold! We went back to the hotel room to get ready for the night and have a few drinks. As we were all uni students at some point, we tried to figure out some games we could play, before landing on a name game that I played at MMU (you say the name of a well-known person/character, and the person next to you has to say a name starting with the first letter of the previous surname; alliterated names mean your have to go backwards). This got us well on our way, and after we all got ready we headed out onto the strip. After making our way back through the Wynn, we settled in the casino of the Venetian where we met a lovely group of guys who we hanged with for a while. It was a short lived night (none of us could afford anything) but enjoyable; we stayed here for an hour or so before shooting back to the hotel for a much needed sleep.
Tuesday 13th September
After the drinks from the night before, the girls were feeling a little bit fragile but surprisingly I was feeling mega fresh and just wanted food really. We woke up pretty late and decided to have another chilled out day to see more of the strip and the attractions it has to offer. Leaving the hotel about 1pm, we headed straight for food and directly back to Denny's. I was so tempted to order the same thing as the day before, but decided to try something new and went for the Spicy Sriracha Burger. Although it wasn't as good as the philly chicken, it was still awesome, also a man in the street gave us a coupon book so we got 20% the bill, which made my order come to under $10. Bargain.
Even though it was incredibly warm, the wind was so strong that it was cooling everything down but it made it hard to walk down the strip as it was against us. A few of our friends from camp were staying in the Mirage hotel and casino, so we headed that way to see them. As we got there the guys we were meeting were sat by their pool and we sat with them for a while and we chatted about our travels; they were all quite hungover from free drinks the night before. We agreed to meet them at the Bellagio that night to see the famous fountain show and we headed on our way to see the top end of the strip. After we made our way up to the famous hotels at the top (Ceasar's Palace, Bellagio, etc.), we made the long trek back to the hotel for a bit of relaxing and to get ready to see the water show. Before we actually left, we decided to go and see the Grand Canyon tomorrow, so we booked a car online and headed out.
As we got to the Bellagio, we messaged the guys we were supposed to meeting but they were busy with other things so we never met them; however, we stayed for two of the water shows and it was incredible. I'd seen this on TV before, so it was interesting to see in real life and I'm so glad that I did. I just assumed they played the same songs over and over, but they change every 15 minutes, so we got to see two completely different shows. This is a Las Vegas staple and everyone who goes should go an see this at least once, I couldn't help but think of the genius behind the fountains, it must've taken so long to do. We headed back to the hotel as we had to be up early in the morning.
Wednesday 14th September
It was a bright and early wake up this morning as we had to get our things together and get to the airport to pick up our rental car for the grandest of all canyons. We packed our backpacks with cameras, chargers and some money, ordered a Lyft and made our way to Las Vegas McCarren. Arriving at the car rental booths, we were told the car was going to be a lot more expensive than we had originally thought, which we didn't really understand but we carried on anyways; this was the start of our 4.5hr journey to the Grand Canyon. As we left the airport, we decided to head to the local Wal-mart to stock up on drinks and food for the day as we knew the prices in the park were going to be extortionate. After grabbing what we needed, we gathered back at the car, made a sandwich and headed off on our adventure.
On the way, we decided to stop at the Hoover Dam. I was amazed by this incredible structure and it's crazy to think that the power that this generates, powers the whole of Las Vegas (I was wondering how they did it). We didn't stay here very long, just long enough to grab some photos, take in the atmosphere and head back. From here it was another 3 hours to the Canyon South Rim. We'd heard that the South Rim is the best one and the West Rim is apparently too expensive. Eventually we made it to our stop and paid the £30 entry fee before driving through the forests towards the actual canyon. (The forests were bizzare to me as I expected the Grand Canyon to be all desert). We parked up, made another sandwich and hopped on a shuttle to take us to the first lookout point, the Kaibab trail. Arriving there I was stunned at the sheer beauty of the place, amazed at God's creation. The bottom of the canyon looked almost fake, like a painting, however the drops were terrifying! We grabbed as many photos as our memory would let us and we made our way around the different lookout points on the shuttle bus. At the 3rd one, I could've stayed there all day; I was content just admiring the magnificent view, also the raptors were circling the drop below us and it was amazing. There are a few hikes in the South Rim of the canyon, so if you're going to do it, I would give yourself the whole day, maybe even camp at the park(?). We only stayed for a couple of hours as Emma (she drove the car) was tired and wanted to make the drive back while she was still relatively awake. I would definitely recommend going to the South Rim, for the $30 you get up to 7 days at the park, so if I ever went again, I'd probably stay for a few days and camp out on the grounds of the national park.
We started our 4.5 hour drive back, however this time it seemed to take longer, I suppose we were all super tired after the long day and the early morning. On the way back and while we still had the car, we decided to go and visit the famous 'Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas' sign. This is something everyone should do, however I'll add that it's a little bit of an anticlimax. I don't know what I was expecting, but it is what it is... a big sign, beit somewhat smaller and higher than I expected. I don't to put anyone off, it's up to everyone to experience these things, this is just my opinion. After spending the best part of 5 minutes here, we got back in the car and headed back to the airport to drop it off. I had a bit of a shock when checking my account, especially with the car funds coming out, but we moved on and grabbed a Lyft back to the hotel to sleep.
Thursday 15th September
Today we decided to have a small lie in (there a reoccuring pattern here), but still had to get up around 9:30am as our checkout was at 11am. I groggily got out of bed, packed up my stuff and we headed downstairs to give our bags to the front desk to hold for us. As it was a super hot day, we'd put on our swimming costumes and we made our way to the pool, but not before checking out the circus. The hotel is famed for having a great circus and we sat and watched a solo trapeze artist do some incredible things on the high trapeze; I was mesmerized by the skill and strength it took to do the act. Even if you're not staying in the Circus Circus hotel, I'd recommend going to the hotel and watching the circus there; the best part is that it's free! For the next couple of hours, we stayed by the pool, swimming and sunbathing before deciding we were hungry, so we left and headed to Denny's (again!). I love Denny's as you get huge portions of awesome food for such a little amount of money; I got the Prime Rib Philly for less than $10 (with another 20% off voucher.
From here we headed back to the hotel to grab our bags, we ordered another Lyft and made our way to the airport. The lines for customs were pretty long, but we eventually made our way through and made it to our flight to San Francisco.
I'm glad I went to Las Vegas, however I don't think I'll be going back in the near future at any time. Unless you have a ton of money and have a knack for gambling, Vegas is a pretty redundant place and there isn't a lot to do. We tried to do as much free stuff as we could, but the main things cost so much money to do and budget travellers can't really afford that side of things. I appreciate the idea of Vegas and I can see the appeal (I'm a sucker for bright lights) but I don't think it's for me just yet. Although, I don't want to put people off, it is definitely a place where everyone should see; a lot of it is mesmerising and very beautiful.
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