Las Vegas is an assault on the senses! Previous followers may remember that I (Anne
C) was on my way to Las Vegas six years ago when I was involved in an accident
in New York which curtailed my holiday and I never made it to Vegas – which had
long been on my bucket list.
Well finally I made it!
After several more postponements due to COVID, I combined my delayed
visit with a mega holiday, accompanied by my daughter, to the United
States. Over the next few weeks, I will
be detailing our three destinations and comparing our experiences.
The Hotel
But first – Las Vegas – apparently the most popular place in the world for visitors, with an estimated 42million people a year! It was hot, noisy and colourful to say the least. We stayed at The Venetian – the second largest hotel in the world, with more than 7,000 rooms and 250 elevators, so it was easy to get lost until we got our bearings. The hotel itself is stunning, with shops, boutiques, restaurants, fast food and of course a faux Venetian canal.
The decor was traditional, with huge frescos, exotic pottery
and an abundance of marble in the public rooms, while the bedrooms were much
larger than average and the beds were super comfortable. I would also like to transfer the bathroom
into my own home, with its fabulous double sinks, make-up table, huge shower
and deep bath.
But first on our list to do was a gondola ride. I had been with Anne H previously to Venice
but we had to share our gondola with others and the pictures were not
great. So, we pushed the boat out (pun
intended!) and went on both the indoor gondola and outdoor gondola rides, where
both gondoliers actually serenaded us as we meandered along the Venetian-inspired
waterways fringed by “outdoor/indoor” cafes.
A visit along the Strip has to include a peek inside some of
the fabulous hotels there, and of course, stopping along the way to see the
$40million dancing fountains outside The Bellagio. We saw them both during the day and at night,
and it’s certainly one of the most popular attractions on the 4.2-mile Strip,
which incidentally is not in Las Vegas, but lies within the boundaries of
Paradise and Winchester.
However, the whole area was incredibly busy – maybe partly
because the Billboard Awards took place while we were there – and it was
difficult to walk without being confronted by girls dressed as showgirls or bare-chested
hunks dressed as cowboys …. none of which are appearing in any current shows,
and you are expected to tip generously if you stop to have your photograph
taken with any of them.
The Grand Canyon
The absolute highlight of the trip was a helicopter flight
over the Grand Canyon, Lake Mead and the Mojave Desert, landing in the Canyon and
celebrating with a glass of fizz 300 feet above the Colorado River. The Maverick Wind
Dancer (love the name and so
topical!) flight had been recommended by friends and also by our travel agent,
and was certainly one of those pinch yourself moments. We are both quite
nervous flyers so our handsome pilot Adam was very gentle with us and we had a super
smooth flight.
Lake Mead
Flying over Lake Mead, he pointed out the paler rim indicating
the water level, but which has dropped so considerably that the experts
estimate the water, currently at 26% of capacity follow a 20-year drought and which
supplies 40 million people – will run dry in the next 30 years. It has also revealed
three bodies which have been submerged for years – probably dumped there during
the mob years.
Downtown Las Vegas
Talking of The Mob, we later took the hop on-hop off bus and
stopped at The Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas. It gave us a fascinating
insight not just into the development of Las Vegas, but also of immigration and
the rise of crime in America’s major cities at the turn of the last
century. Interestingly, the wall against
which seven of Al Capone’s arch enemy, Irish gangster George “Bugs” Moran’s men,
were gunned down has been taken apart and reconstructed as one of the exhibits –
complete with bullet holes. No-one was ever prosecuted for the murders and
Capone claimed to be in Florida at the time.
Hoover Dam
It is unsurprising that Vegas
became almost a Disneyland for adults, given its history. Originally a stopping place on the railroad
between Utah and California during the gold rush, the young prospectors stopped
here for refreshment and entertainment – particularly since gambling was
illegal at the time in California. As gambling grew, it attracted the criminal
elements from Chicago to New York. It was the building of the Hoover Dam in
1931 which led to the urbanisation of Las Vegas as young men were brought in to
work on its construction.
At the same time, divorce laws were liberalised in Nevada, leading to "quickie divorces" and an anything goes culture in Las Vegas. While the saying might well be "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas", we're happy to share!
Having flown over The Hoover Dam on our helicopter flight,
we decided to see it close up, and our excursion took us to a viewing platform,
which runs alongside the busy US 93 Highway, and over the Mike O’Callaghan and Pat
Tillman Bridge (respectively a former governor of Nevada and an American
football player).
Hoover Dam is as tall as a
60-story building and was the highest dam in the world when it was completed two
years ahead of schedule in 1935. Each spillway, designed to let floodwaters
pass without harming the dam itself, can handle the volume of water that flows
over Niagara Falls, while the amount of concrete used in building it was enough
to pave a road stretching from San Francisco to New York City. The amount of
water in the lake, when full, could cover the whole state of Connecticut ten
feet deep. Only a huge dam could stand up to the pressure of so much water.
Our tour also took us to a
very odd “art installation” in the desert, which to be honest I found a waste
of time. This ridiculous piece of
artwork, billed as “fun” was just a load of painted rocks, which have become a
magnet for graffiti.
Created by Swiss artist Ugo
Rondinone, “Seven Magic Mountains is an artwork of thresholds and crossings, of
balanced marvels and excessive colours, of casting and gathering and the
contrary air between the desert and the city lights”. Just as well it’s free because I would want
my money back if I had paid for it!
Of the 145 casinos, 30 hotels
and 150,000 hotel rooms, all are owned by just two companies – MGM and Caesar’s. Incidentally the MGM Grand Hotel, opened in
1993, had a Wizard of Oz theme (in keeping as a family attraction), which is why
it is green – taking the idea from The Emerald City.
Freemont Street
The bus tour also took us to the Freemont area, but as this was during the day, we decided to take a cab down later during the evening when the area comes alive. And it didn’t disappoint! It’s rather like a hyper Times Square! Street hawkers, performers and just the weird and wonderful give you plenty on which to feast your eyes if you enjoy people-watching.
Of the original hotels, the Golden Nugget, was one
of the largest gambling houses in Vegas back in the 60s and featured in Elvis’s
film “Viva Las Vegas”, and in the James Bond’s “Diamonds are forever”. Elvis
had a regular spot at the Westfield hotel, where he completed more than 800
live performances.
Iconic Vegas Sign
And to round up our visit, we
booked to see Cirque du Soleil’s” Michael Jackson One” at the Mandalay Bay. Having seen MJ live many years ago, it was
interesting to see a hologram of his performance, which was very well done. I was expecting more acrobatics from Cirque
du Soleil, but it was mostly dancing and gymnastics with very little overhead
performances, but still worth seeing. All shows are no longer than 90
minutes. The reason for this was that
while visitors are watching shows, they are not gambling – which apparently
costs the casinos around $60,000 in lost revenue per night for every additional
six minutes a performance runs!
Still there are plenty of restaurants to choose from. My daughter always likes to visit Hard Rock Cafes wherever we travel – you’ll see we went to each one in the cities we visited! But we also found the Rainforest Café which was a trip down memory lane for us as we used to visit the restaurant in Manchester (now closed in the UK) when she was younger.
Did we see people behaving
badly? Yes, a couple of times. Obviously
too much drink played a part in this and we saw a couple of girls inside our
hotel throwing up in a very public place.
Another time we were queueing in Walgreens and someone (acting
suspiciously) was asked to leave. He
threw a mega strop, pushed over a display stand and very aggressively got in
the face of the poor (diminutive) girl who had asked him to go.
And would I go back? I'm not a gambler - we had planned to have a lesson but never got round to it, so that part doesn't appeal to me. I think it was a one-off ... I've wanted to go for so long, and I enjoyed it, but I doubt I will go return. We packed a lot into five days so maybe my next holidays will be a little more relaxed.
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Final thoughts on Vegas: It’s expensive ($65 for a small salad, a sandwich, two waters and two small strawberries dipped in chocolate at The Bellagio, but we had to do it!) Fortunately, we didn’t feel like eating so much because of the heat, so just brunch and tea were ideal for us. We had tried to take in brunch at The Wynne which had also been recommended to us, but having queued for nearly two hours we hadn’t moved very far so we gave up.
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