US Vacation Part 1 - Las Vegas

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I had been to Las Vegas in 2018 to attend a conference and had a fair idea of the city and some tourist attractions nearby. With that background, we decided to include that as part of our vacation.

But one mistake we did was to assume the weather (to be on the warmer side) and went prepared with that assumption.

My wife and my 9yo daughter accompanied me on the trip. We took a flight from Burbank to Las Vegas. Weather began to play its part right from there. There were very strong winds and that caused a lot of turbulence in the flight. It was like an aerial roller coaster ride before we somehow managed to land safely.

We had booked Hotel Sahara which is located on the northern end of the main strip. The hotel was huge as most hotels in the strip but we did not find anything thematic or special in that hotel unlike other hotels like Venetian, New York etc. However, the hotel had a monorail station inside and it was the beginning point of the monorail. This was one very useful aspect to travel across the strip.

Very soon, we realized that the warm clothing we had got was not enough. It was rather interesting that warm jackets, gloves, warm caps etc were not available in the clothing shops on the strip, which gave me an impression that most travelers don't look for such clothes in Las Vegas. Went on to buy few warm clothes in some local shop.

My daughter was not very eager to walk long distances, so we opted for the daily pass in monorail (I think $15 per person) which is a good option if you're making at least 3-4 trips on the strip over the day. The trains are quite frequent and stop at most of the important hotels on the strip. Most places were 5-10 mins off the train route.

Among the strip hotels, we explored a few :

Paris and New York had nice settings resembling the city attractions like Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty etc. The streets within also resemble the city. Good shopping and food options as well.

Venetian was very nice to see, very architectural. Bellagio fountain was a must-see as well as the Volcano show at the Horse Shoe.

We took a bus trip to West Rim of the Grand Canyon with a phot stop at Hoover Dam. Again, the weather took us by surprise, actually most people. Most people ended up shivering the entire day in the biting cold. But the West Rim tour was good, the bus tour is a good option for people who want to do a quick one. In the West Rim, I felt the view in Guana point was much better than the Eagle point. It was worth than spending time in the queue to go on to the skywalk at Eagle Point.

After coming back to LV, we went to Fremont (old Las Vegas). That was quite an experience. A street filled with vibrant people, the roof covered with huge LED screens. Lot of performances, lighting and food in that street.

Before wrapping up our Las Vegas tour, we went on a bus trip to Antelope Canyon. We went to the X Antelope section. The cave like formations and the interesting colors and patterns formed by the light in those formations was worth the travel. On the way back, we visited the Horseshoe formation which is also a good photogenic spot.

Before boarding the flight back to Burbank, we visited the Las Vegas sign which seemed to be a hype. Nowadays, that sign is displayed in many places along the strip itself.

In all, Las Vegas trip was a combination of natural beauty and fabulous hotels on the strip.

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