Las Vegas Review

My husband and I always knew we would go to Vegas some time after we got married.  After all, everyone in my family has been there, some multiple times, some a ton of times.  Everyone in my family loves it.  What my husband didn't know is that I would get the Vegas bug only a few months after our wedding!  I looked into it and really calculated out.  Yes it is an expensive trip, but it can be affordable if you keep your budget in mind as you plan.

The Hotels
We stayed at the MGM, but we walked through most all of the others as well.  What I love about this is that you can enjoy all of these larger than life hotels without having to stay in them.  Next time I think we will stay at the Planet Hollywood because we enjoyed the restaurants and attractions in the hotel, plus it is near other hotels we like to visit.  The hotels range in price so just pick one that fits your budget.  I preferred to pick one of the hotels I thought was "better", but honestly you aren't in the room that much so feel free to choose something cheaper.  Just make sure it is actually on the strip as that is where you will be every day.  Each hotel is so big that you could potentially never leave it.

The Food
There are tons of great restaurants out there, not to mention the buffets!  We had planned to eat 3 meals a day.  Silly me!  That wasn't possible.  Not only was this expensive, but each meal was so huge that we were too stuffed to finish any of them.  By the last few days we decided that 2 big meals a day was enough and we would supplement this with a snack.  Take this as a warning when you plan your trip.  You probably will only hit 2 or 3 really good restaurants the whole time or else you'll be way too stuffed.  We loved Margarittaville, La Salsa and Cheesburger Las Vegas.  Breakfast at the MGM was also really good. There are a lot of 5 diamond and other highly rated restaurants that we passed on because the menus looked too fancy for us.  It just wasn't appealing to us. 

The Attractions
We saw lots of free and lots of paid attractions.  Some of our favorites include the Bellagio Fountains which is must see, Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage which is pretty cool, Wax Museum at the Venetian which was awesome, and going up the Eiffel Tower which actually scared me a little.  The best thing to do is to look up every hotel online and make a list of attractions you may want to see and times they are open.  I went as far as printing the Vegas strip map and writing what attractions were where.  Since we had to walk to most locations, this helped us go from place to place without doing a lot of back and forth.

The Shows
Unlike the Attractions listed above, the shows need tickets.  We decided to see Carrot Top and Mystere, one of the many Cirque de Soilel shows.  The shows are worth the price!  I would try to see 2 everytime I go even though it is expensive because they are huge shows you wouldn't see elsewhere.  There are ways to get cheaper tickets when you get to Vegas, but I didn't want to risk getting bad seats or no seats so I bought mine in advance. 

Getting Around
We took a cab to and from the airport, but that was it.  Otherwise we walked, or took the Monorail which connects a lot of the hotels on the MGM side of the strip.  That's another benefit of staying on this side, easy access to the Monorail.  This was pricey but our legs thanked us!  If you cannot walk much, plan on paying a lot for transportation.  This place seems to be made for walkers and I enjoyed walking it, but I know people who aren't real good walkers that went and just didn't do as much as I did.

Gambling
I'm sure you are all wondering about this.  We actually didn't gamble much.  First of all, we don't like losing money.  Second of all, we were so busy every day!  My husband didn't get to try the blackjack tables until the last day, but once he got into the game he enjoyed it.  I don't really play any of those games for money, so my addiction was the Wheel of Fortune machine which is a huge slot machine with a little extra aspect because of the huge wheel.  These are found in various casinos.  I didn't go to Vegas to gamble, I went for all the other fun things.  You can either throw money into the slots or spend it on something where you are guaranteed some entertainment.  We choose to spend more money on the hotel room, food, and attractions, and less on gambling.

Overall
Vegas is a great place for adults to visit.  I loved going with my husband and we will go again!  If it were up to him we'd go every year, but I can't spend that much money on the same place year after year.  Leave the kids at home... seriously.  If your kids are under 21, get a babysitter and go for a vacation with your spouse or your friends.  Even if you think you can shield your kids from the "bad" stuff, there is no way your kids could go to Vegas without coming across some rude pictures, advertisements thrown on the ground, gambling, drinking and smoking.  This is NOT a family destination.  Going with a large group could be fun because there would be opportunity to hang out together as well as opportunity to break off into smaller groups.  I enjoyed going with only my Husband.  It's nice to go as a couple because we could do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted.

Vegas is a trip worth planning for!  Start doing your research today and feel free to ask me about anything you aren't sure about :)  Enjoy!!