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Re: 1st time to Vegas - any recs
What is your budget for a hotel?
What kind of food do you like?
What kinds of shows do you like?
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I love the Palazzo, gorgeous hotel with huge rooms that are actually suites. Also like the Wynn and Encore, both are a class act (love the Wynn pools), and the Signature MGM is a great non-gaming, non-smoking hotel with really nice suites, plus you get pool privileges at the MGM Grand as well.
The Sunday Champagne Brunch at Le Buffet in the Paris hotel is incredible, a must! Dos Caminos (in Palazzo) has awesome authentic Mexican food and great ambiance. Try the Frozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity 3 at Caesar's, yum! The piano bar in NYNY is lots of fun and the VooDoo Lounge at the top of the Rio is a fave.
TIP: Bring comfy shoes to walk the strip, you'll need them...
Have fun!
We like staying at The Venetian, but have also had a good experience at The MGM in their suites. Do NOT stay in their West Wing area... have had some friends stay in that section of the hotel and they were disappointed.
Jersey Boys is an excellent show and Crazy Horse was a fun little burlesque show. Love dreamsicles from La Salsa Cantina, gambling at the Paris, and dinner at Nine Fine Irishmen.
Love is friendship on fire!
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1. Comfortable, broken-in walking shoes. This is the best advice you're going to get. Save the strappy little sandals and fuckme-pumps for dinner and a show. Nobody in Vegas is going to care what's on your feet besides you.
2. Don't kill yourselves trying to see and do everything. Vegas isn't going anywhere; you can always go back.
3. Plan one touristy thing and one meal per day. Play the rest by ear.
4. Be prepared to walk. A lot. More than you can possibly imagine.
5. Keep saying to yourself, "Just because I can see it doesn't mean I can walk to it." This is especially good advice for when you're standing on the corner of the Strip and Flamingo Road looking towards the Palms and the Rio and discussing how it doesn't look that far and you could probably just walk it no problem.
6. Just ignore the porn slappers. You don't have to take their cards and you won't hurt their feelings if you walk past them without giving them a second glance.
I laugh every time you post #1, ziti. I love walking the strip and seeing the morons in their heels trying to walk after a night on the town. The best that I saw was a girl walking barefoot because she couldn't physically handle the heels anymore. Talk about disgusting.
OP- I agree that you shouldn't plan too much in one day. You will be tired and you'll want some down time, plus touring the strip seems to take longer than most people expect.
My must dos: See a show (love Mystere and Love), eat a nice meal (there are so many--Olives at Bellagio is great, SW Steakhouse at Wynn is a bit fancier but yummy), have a drink at a fun bar or lounge (love Parasol Up/Down at Wynn and the rum bar on the strip outside of Mirage), and have a good booze-filled brunch. For brunch I love Simon at Palms Place and Envy Steakhouse at the Renaissance. Tip--if you are going during pool season check into getting a cabana at Palms Place on a Sunday (same day as brunch). We paid $150 and it included 2 brunch buffets with all you can drink champagne, so we drank and ate free from 10-3 and had a place to lounge by the pool. The cabanas can comfortably fit about 4-6 people. The pool is small but very chill.
Oh, and Earlsbride, we tried to meet friends at Dos Caminos the other day and it was gone! I was so bummed, I was craving their guac.
Another vote for the Palazzo. Love that all the rooms are suites, the fact it has a small casino so it doesn't take forever to walk to the elevator, and because it's attached to the Venetian, you feel like you get two hotels in one. My sister and I are staying at the Cosmopolitan next month which I have also heard good things about.
Other suggestions:
*Have a drink at MIX Lounge at THEhotel at Mandalay Bay. It has a great view of the Strip lit up at night.
*If you guys want to go to a club, think about doing bottle service since you will cut the line and have a designated space for yourselves (I am suggesting this since you are going with friends)
Restaurants: StripSteak at Mandalay Bay (they also honor the restaurant.com coupons and were super nice about it); Mon Ami Gabi is a great choice for a moderate priced meal (eat on the patio if you can to see the Bellagio fountains); Sushi Samba at Palazzo is also good especially with friends
100% this. Drove me nuts. I think maybe it's almost best if you don't have an agenda. If you do, you will just get frustrated that you cannot get anywhere quickly. It took me 45 minutes to walk the length of 3 casinos trying to get to a pastry shop. The monorail is a royal PITA because it skirts the backside of the casinos so you have to walk through the casinos to get where you are going - which sounds like it would be no big deal, but it really is. In retrospect, renting a car or even taking the bus would have been a better option. Things are very far apart. And even if they aren't far apart, the path between them is not a straight shot.
We stayed at the Mandalay Bay. While a very nice hotel, it is the last hotel at the far end of the strip. I would recommend trying to be a bit more centrally located.
Restaurants are hard to recommend without knowing pricepoint or tastes. Most of the best chefs in the world have an outpost of their restaurants in Vegas and you can spend a lot of money on very fine meals. I'm kind of a food person, so went in with an agenda of places I had to make it to. So...kinda depends what you are looking for.
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This. Even just going from one end of the strip to the other is a lot farther than it looks! We walked from Caesar's to the Stratosphere and my legs have never been so sore! We ended up taking the Monorail back. As someone else mentioned, it is a PITA though because they pull up to the backs of hotels/casinos, so it still isn't terribly convenient.
You've gotten lots of eating/hotel recs. I'll just throw in that we saw Cirque LOVE at the Mirage and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen (and I'm hugely into seeing shows wherever we go). Even if you're not a HUGE Beatles fan, I still think you'll love it. I have also heard good things about Mystere. I'd love to go back and see more. There is just so much to do there. For your first trip, just walking the strip and checking out all the hotels is fun (and free!)
Look online for coupons too. We got a 2 for 1 deal at a celebrity impersonator show at the Stratosphere, which was fun. We also got a 2 for 1 deal at the wax museum, another fun, silly thing to do.
Really?? Dang it, I really liked that place, and LOVED their guac!