August 11, 2016

Time for the bright lights and scorching heat of Las Vegas – one of our favourite stops on our trip!

So our journey began after leaving the Grand Canyon on a Sunday morning.  It happened to be Indiana’s birthday this day as well so we had a quick present giving ceremony in our room before we hit the road.  We headed straight out of Tusayan back down the highway we first arrived on and made our first stop for breakfast at the town of Williams which is a great traditional spot on Route 66 – lots of old time nostalgia to look at which I thought was very cool!

 Sweet Style-1087

 We then continued back along the freeway to visit the Hoover Dam.  The temperatures once again were scorching and in the high 40’s so we our visit was short but just enough to see the amazing engineering feat that the dam is.  To get a sense of how high the water needed to be to open the dam gates was quite impressive and again to see the layers of the earth and marvel at just how long it has taken to create what we now see.

Sweet Style-1097Sweet Style-1104 Sweet Style-1108

After a few more hours driving we arrived in the hustling and bustling Las Vegas and headed straight to our hotel, The Cosmopolitan which was right in the centre of The Las Vegas Boulevarde Strip.  

From the very moment you arrive you get the sense of glitz and glam – the kids were suitably impressed to say the least.  We arrived right on 4pm which proved to make life busier as this is check in time for all guests!  I failed to read the notes our travel agent had made on our itinerary saying that we had special lounge check-in which would get us around the crowds so we lined up with what seemed to be hundreds of other people and an hour later we made it to the check in desk (will not forget to check the itinerary again!).  

The size and number of guests that these hotels accomodate is quite amazing but we were pretty excited with the room we were given which was a 2 bedroom suite on the 54th floor (there are 60 floors in total) with sweeping views of the entire city.  Out one side we were looking over the Bellagio Hotel and it’s beautiful fountain. In another direction we looked to the Sands Hotel and the mountains surrounding Las Vegas and to the other side we could see the hotels and airport on the other end of the strip – yes our suite was that big that it took up the entire end of the building!  Spoilt indeed – we kind of didn’t want to leave and go back to sharing one room. 

The added bonuses that came with the room were also pretty good – a $100 spa credit plus a choice of complimentary daily buffet breakfast for two or a $75 daily room service credit!  I used the spa voucher and put it towards a fantastic massage – the massage was $160 (plus that tip – oh that tip which I still don’t understand!!!) but it was pretty special and an experience in itself!  We used our $75 room service credit to order lunch for all of us each day.

Sweet Style-1142Sweet Style-1136Sweet Style-1192Sweet Style-1203 Sweet Style-1205 Sweet Style-1210 Sweet Style-1214 Sweet Style-1218 Sweet Style-1219 Sweet Style-1223 Sweet Style-1227 Sweet Style-1230 Sweet Style-1235

The weather was around 44 degrees each day during our stay so we made the most of using this time to relax by the pool each morning before heading back to the room for our special room service lunch – we did feel like we were living the life!

One afternoon we took a trip to the Vegas North outlet shopping centre.  I wasn’t that impressed as we have great shopping here in Australia now so there was not a lot that we couldn’t get here and the prices were not really that great for what is essentially old stock.  Our dollar is not super fantastic at the moment so really we weren’t gaining much.  We did pick up some clothes for the kids and a few other things that caught our eye but nothing to write home about!

We had 3 nights in Vegas and each was spent a little different.  Our first evening was Indi’s birthday so we stayed in our hotel and had dinner at Holsteins at the The Cosmopolitan – they made her feel extra special and went out of their way to help us celebrate her birthday – such fun and a great meal for all of us!  On our second night we went for a walk along the strip to look a the other hotels and shops – it was still so hot and with the distance between each hotel being a reasonable walk we probably didn’t achieve that much but we still had fun.  The highlight of the evening was a visit to the Tiffany Store where the staff treated the girls beautifully and offered to show them and allow them to try on lots of jewellery.  We didn’t purchase this time but I am sure it has planted a seed! 

Sweet Style-4864

On our last evening we went to a show that I had booked prior to leaving Australia.  Our choice was Cirque Du Soleil’s “O” which was just out of this world!  I would highly recommend it to anyone – we were all mesmerised. Having never been to a Cirque performance before, the excitement of seeing this one in Vegas was wonderful!

The other highlight of our time in Vegas was how the hotel spoilt our birthday girl by delivering the most impressive birthday cake to our room.  As I have spent many years in the party industry I know how much time and effort, not to mention cost goes into creating these beautiful cakes, so when they delivered one to us free of charge I was gob smacked – so special!
Sweet Style-1171

We had a wonderful few days in Vegas and used it as some down time after a really busy week and a half of sightseeing, walking and driving.  It gave us a refresh for the next part of our journey and the luxury of the hotel made it just that much more special! 

As always here is our short movie of all we got up to in Las Vegas.

 

Las Vegas from Leanne Ambrogio on Vimeo.