Within eight months of last being here, I was back in Sin City and you know what? I had no shame about it. The reason for my return to such a place was for the first leg of a two part journey to Las Vegas and Hawaii to celebrate achieving a milestone in my life and ultimately, I wanted to celebrate in style. Go big or go home! For me, the part I was most excited about for this trip was Hawaii but with Las Vegas on the way, it only seemed right to party it up here first!
This trip though had something very different about It compared to the last time I was here… I was completely on my own for it! This was the trip that I mentioned in my blog about solo travelling (click here to check it out), when discussing the pros and cons of it. As for why I was on my own this time? This was due to others being unable to join me for a variety of reasons such as lack of money due to financial commitments or other family, friends or relationship commitments and I didn’t want to miss out on this opportunity!
Day 1
The first half of the day was pretty standard day for travelling, if you ignored the nerves about being on my own. Even though I was confident in my ability to talk to new people, when with other friends, my biggest fear for this trip was that I would freeze, struggle to meet new people and spend the next two weeks alone. This was going to be a big test for me but if I wanted to widen my comfort zone, I had to first get outside of it.
Heading down from my home early in the morning to London Heathrow, checking in for the earlier daily flight to Las Vegas and boarding the flight, it was all plain sailing with British Airways. The downside of this part of the experience was that the plane that was used by British Airways was a dated one. The space and comfort provided by economy class seats was still fine, especially for someone of my 6ft 3in (191cm) frame however, the inflight entertainment though loaded with all the latest films, was suffering from age issues and was on the small side if you were to be picky. Other than that, the comfort of the flight overall was fine and the time seemed to pass as quickly as you can get 9-10 hours to pass!
Due to the nature of the trip and not wanting to go too expensive on accommodation to allow me to enjoy myself with other things, whilst also wanting to meet new people again, I decided to go back to Hostel Cat (review of this can be found here) before moving on to a hotel later in the week. There were a few people here from when I was here in the summer the year before amongst the staff, which eased the nerves I had, and a fair few new people to meet, though it wasn’t as busy as the summer due to it only being Easter. I soon settled back in, got myself some food from one of the local places and I got myself to the gym that they had here. Thankfully they had upgraded the place, covering it so you aren’t exposed to the direct sunlight and updated some of the equipment that was laid out.
After seeing plenty of episodes of Diners, Drive In and Dives, courtesy of one of my housemates at university, and saw some of the food that was on the show, I knew once I saw there was a Guy Fieri restaurant here when I walked past it last time, I had to go on in and try some of the food. With a cool interior, great service and a menu full of tasty sounding treats, I decided to go for one of the burgers and my word, look at that thing! The prices here are around $10-15 for the starters whilst it’s $20-30 for a main meal. Pricey but the portions are good and the food is good taste wise too! Definitely worth a visit in my eyes if you a fan of the show and want to try the menu influenced by some of the places in the show.
It didn’t take me long to settle into things once I had arrived, using the contacts that I had gained last time I was here to get myself on to a few guest lists for the week (something I discussed in my Vegas on budget blog) to fill my evenings up and with me staying in a hostel, I was sure it would be easy to get plenty of others to join me. So who were we going to see that evening? The answer to that question was Diplo at XS at the Encore hotel.
Joining the other travellers at the famous Bench of Hostel Cat, I got talking to plenty of people and ended up getting a few people to join me for the night out to see Diplo. With guest lists usually only being offered to large groups, it’s a good combination to offer it out to those in the hostel with you as they are sure to be travelling on a budget and helps you get accepted. Plus, who doesn’t enjoy it when someone offers them free tickets to a top class nightclub?
In typical Vegas fashion, things that I didn’t expect happened that night. Usually is unheard of for a guy to be invited on to a table but realising that I was with women that they’d just invited, they pretty much let me tag along, even if apprehensively. Upon learning that I didn’t drink though, I earned some brownie points with them thus becoming less uneasyabout the situation. It turned out that one of these guys, as so claimed, worked for a world renowned company (so renowned that I’ve forgotten which one…) and had some very interesting stories to tell! This just goes to show the kind of people you can cross paths with in Vegas. As a whole, the evening went great with the music and company, becoming another evening of partying until the lights came on at the end, before heading back to the hostel and getting some much needed sleep! All in all, for me a perfect way to open up my second time in this city.
Day 2
After a night of excitement, I was well and truly back into the swing of things like I had before. I grabbed myself breakfast, trained at the outside gym and grabbed a cuppa to catch up with the antics from the night before and see what people were planning for the day ahead. With not much going on with those at the hostel, I decided to retreat back to my top bunk to nap a little, catch up on the world and see what I could get up to.
I admit that the whole premise of travelling solo was contradicted from me doing this but ultimately it worked in meeting new people. There weren’t that many in the hostel so I decided with me travelling on my own and being single, that the best way to either meet other travellers in a city like this or to find out the best tips from locals (from the safety of the hostel), I got swiping on Tinder. I know, I know… the shame…
How did this end up? Well, I met a fellow Brit and decided to head out for lunch together at the Hard Rock cafe followed by a wander along the Strip to explore it in the day time, something that I feel I should have done more of last time I was here. The choice of Hard Rock cafe ended up being a good one with a balcony seat over looking the rest of the skyline on offer and some tasty and reasonably priced food (for the Strip). With her situation being different to mine as she was travelling with her family, it was interesting for me to see how people who travelled this way did things compared to me on my own or with a friend like my last trip. I think the main things that I noticed were that you were able to enjoy your experiences with your loved ones, possibly doing something you wouldn’t usually do but there was what felt like an obligation to do a lot of stuff with your family, causing you to have to compromise your freedom and flexibility.
The evening’s entertainment was going to be much of the same vein as it has been here, off to see a world class DJ in a world class nightclub. I decided to choose Martin Garrix this time at Omnia, with it’s absolutely insane lighting/CO2/chandelier set up above the dance floor. This time I wasn’t able to persuade anyone from the hostel to join us but I did have the company of my new friend from Tinder and one of their other family members on a guest list. As you expected, the evening was a brilliant one with someone of that calibre playing, spending the whole night partying away and chatting to those that I’d met that day as well as the few I bumped into from the hostel, until we were asked to leave as night ended.
Day 3
A late wake up after another late night was followed up by the usual morning routine of breakfast and training. Once that was out of the way, I came up with a plan with some of the other hostellers to head to the Strip to see the other end of it and head for a spot of lunch in one of the nicer locations, which again was something that I was looking forward to doing now that I wasn’t on such a tight budget as the last time I was here.
Taking a wander around Caesar’s Palace and the surrounding resort, it was still blowing my mind the scale of the place and how many attractions they had, mostly being imitated from originals from around the world, the example here being a Vegas version of the Trevi Fountains from Rome! Unfortunately the location of our lunch stop has slipped my mind but for reference, it was on the bottom level of The Forum shopping centre at Caesar’s Palace and the though on the more pricey side of things, the food there was of a high quality, which you would expect from a place at such a location.
One of the things I regretted most about the last visit to this city was the fact that I didn’t go and see one of the numerous shows that they have on offer here. One that intrigued me most and maybe the most talked about as one to definitely go and see was Cirque du Soleil. The only issue that I faced was there are several shows on offer, all with a different theme and price tag. From Ka with the high production to O specialising in water features to a The Beatles themed version called LOVE, as well as plenty more, there’s one for all tastes on offer.
My chosen show for the early evening was Mystere hosted at Treasure Island, which was the first one to be shown in Las Vegas. Though it was the cheapest on offer there, it was highly recommended when looking into it and seemed like the right one to go for. Going there with no real expectations of what was going to be on offer other than a collection of some crazy feats of human athletic ability, even then I was simply blown away!
The show kind of told a story to help them showcase the stunts and tricks with it overall being very entertaining and left me in awe of the ability of the people who take people in these shows. Feats of strength, flexibility and bravery were all on show as well as an array of hilarious antics both with crowd participation and on the stage. All this on display and with it being a very feel good type of show, it was certainly money well spent and thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours. I would highly recommend going to see one of these shows, whether it be in Las Vegas or elsewhere.
The evening’s escapade was planned for another night club held in the Encore/Wynn resort at Surrender. This time I was off to see DJ Snake, accompanied by an Australian from my hostel and a couple of their friends. With me only kind of recognising the name (which aided my decision between the options of the night), I didn’t really know the music so wasn’t sure what to expect nor what to expect from my company from the evening. On both accounts though, I had a thoroughly enjoyable time! The music was very good and the Australians were brilliant to get on with. As a collective we had a great time, got on like a house on fire and to this day I’m still in touch with all three, with us having reconvened in smaller groups several times since, all over the world. This just reinforces the statements that I made about solo travelling and what you can achieve from it.
Day 4
Being fed up of mediocre fast food breakfasts, I decided to go a touch up the scale of my breakfast choices and go to a restaurant this time in the shape of America’s well known Denny’s. Feeling particular hungry, I ended up with going all out with my order and getting pretty much everything! My small breakfast can be seen in the picture above. The value for money to be fair was pretty decent. It wasn’t particularly expensive and the food quality was never going to be Michelin star but it was a lot better than that of the fast food I’d been eating and was quite filling, which is exactly what I was looking for, ready to fuel me back up. For the activities of the day, it was one of slight rest to recharge the batteries after going at it relatively hard until this point. Of course this wasn’t a full day of kicking back as I had to get the training in!
With the aspiration of wanting to get out and experience more of what Las Vegas had to offer, I decided that whilst walking along the Strip just after the sun had set, I would head on up the Eiffel Tower at Paris. It may not be the actual Eiffel Tower in the actual Paris but it was still a significant size, standing at 164.6m or 540 feet, which is half the height of the real one and still providing tremendous views of the Strip. It was completely by coincidence that I timed it so but I would suggest going up there when the Bellagio’s fountain display is on, giving you a very different perspective to the show. Just be careful to not drop your phone/camera when taking photos up there so maybe get yourself a wrist strap. But as shown by the photos featured, you can get some great shots when you don’t have the mesh in the way. High risk, high reward!
Late evening in Las Vegas meant one thing of course… to a night club! It was time for Hakkasan this evening, with me reconvening with my Australian friends, making the prospect of the evening a lot more promising. Again, this was another guest list evening, meaning that it was another free entry for us. I’m still surprised this is a thing here but I guess they make the money through what people pay for drinks in the night clubs.
The evening itself was a very enjoyable one with the company that I had but for most of the evening, it was only Damian and I due to the girls disappearing where most attractive women disappear to: a rich person’s table. I have yet to meet someone who’s turned down the opportunity to sit on a stranger’s table and get a few drinks from them but hey ho, each to their own! Thankfully though at the end of the night, to save me the time and money to head back to the hostel, I was given the opportunity to stay over in their group room at the Linq, giving me a taste of the Vegas hotels before my stay in my booked room the next evening. After spending the evening dancing the night away, I very quickly passed out in the comfy bed!
Day 5
The start of day 5 was spent wandering through the area local around the Linq for us to grab breakfast and our chosen caffeine source from Starbucks. One of the funniest things I seem to experience when around Australians is their fascination with the way that I say things. We both speak the same language yet the basis of an accent can very easily bring about hysterical laughter (though that may be the tiredness having an influence). Yes, going to Starbucks may be on the cheaper end of places to go for food in the morning as well as a safe bet in knowing what you’re getting. However, please be wary of the inflated prices compared to the rest of the world due to it being Las Vegas. Very quickly, you can spend $15-20 on a couple of drinks, a sandwich and something like a yoghurt or pastry.
After only living out of a hostel during my last trip here, I decided to move up a little and book a hotel room for a couple of nights so that I could experience life in one of these extravagant hotels and my word, are they comfortable! Having gone for the MGM Grand as my hotel of choice, I’d gone for the budget rooms as with it being one of the well known hotels, it was also one of the more pricey ones. I was treated to a spectacular view of the… airport and Hooters hotel but I did have a king sized bed to get comfortable in. And boy, did I get comfortable!
After spending 4 nights in a hostel with a not so comfortable bed and people having sleeping patterns that don’t match yours, you tend to sleep but it’s usually not the best quality so you aren’t the most refreshed and usually lean on caffeine to get you through the day. However, when I headed over to the MGM and decided to catch up on the world and with my family at home, I managed to fall asleep for around 3 hours without noticing. That was just how comfy the bed was in the hotel, as well as how I tired I must have been! I thought the Linq was comfy but this was a whole new level!
The evening was not a busy one at all! For once, I decided to have a quiet one. The plan was to run an errand for a friend back home by heading across the road to Hooters to get him a t-shirt from their Las Vegas hotel, which was actually no mean feat due to the immense size of the resorts here, taking me about 15-20 minutes to go down through the hotel, across the road and into the hotel on the other side! Then I headed to the gym in the hotel before grabbed a vast amount of food for me to tuck into and spend the evening being lazy in my hotel room. It was. Certainly a different kind of evening and one that was much needed to recharge myself mentally and physically.
Day 6
The weekend in Las Vegas didn’t go as I had expected in a good way. After noticing one of my posts on social media, two of my friends that I’d known since college and with one going to the same university as me was just by chance heading here and it only made sense for us meet up, have a catch up and enjoy the city as a collective. It was perfect timing after moving from the hostel to hotel and the people that I met before hand having moved on to Coachella.
With my room, I was able to get access to the pool of the MGM, which is a large complex of several pools varying in sizes, an extensive lazy river for you to relax on and a selection of bars nearby providing slushy cocktails and snacks. So with a mixture of relaxing on the loungers in the cooler Easter desert sun (well, 30C rather than 40-45C!) and floating around the lazy river, we had a good catch up followed by heading for a group lunch in the hotel.
For the rest of the afternoon, we decided to split and allow them to go and see Las Vegas whilst I headed to gym to train, grab dinner and chill out before the evening’s plans. The gym at the MGM Grand pretty much has everything that you would want and need from a hotel gym to keep yourself in shape during your stay with numerous treadmills and bikes, a full set of dumbbells, a Smith machine, a core area and machines to fit all your fitness needs. All this in an air conditioned gym, overlooking the pool. It was during this workout that I spotted Axwell from Axwell /\ Ingrosso/Swedish House Mafia training but decided that now wasn’t the time to disturb him especially with his sizeable security guard with him. This only emphasises the point that I made in the last Vegas post about rubbing shoulders (or training) with famous individuals here.
Yes, you guessed it. The evening’s musical entertainment was to be Axwell /\ Ingrosso at Hakkasan. We started the evening with a few drinks from the comfort of my room before heading downstairs to head on in and party the night away.
During the time that I did have with my friends, we had fun busting some moves in the second room of the club with what turned out to be one the UFC fighters on a table right next to us (on the dance floor), fresh from his fight that evening, belt in hand. Though it wasn’t long before they disappeared and never actually returned and I was solo on the dance floor. This materialised the next day that they had been offered onto a table by a professional Swedish baseball player and his friends so that was that!
The end of the evening was an interesting one. After losing those three about half way through the night, I thought it wouldn’t be until the next day that I saw them until I got a message from one of them asking which floor and room I was in then I heard nothing…
Upon returning to my room, I found one of the trio (who shall continue to remain nameless) crawling along the corridor outside my room whilst making meowing cat sounds… No night is a normal night in this place! I then spent the next 15 minutes of my time watching them continue to be a cat and having to stop them breaking into the mini fridge as those things are expensive! Overpriced in the first place but they have a $50 “restock fee”, which actually is a reset of the system should you pick anything up. Eventually they settled, shut up and went to sleep.
Day 7
Unfortunately this was the last of my days in Las Vegas so it was time to pack up and check out. Taking it easy that morning, I threw my luggage in the hotel storage as I had a few hours to kill before my flight and we both headed to the pool, via breakfast, to chill out in the sun, go over the night before after my friends’ disappearing act and wait for the others to arrive to update us on their version of events of the night before.
Travel Tip: For most hotels that I’ve experienced in Vegas, you don’t have to hand back your hotel key cards when you check out. It is these keycards that give you access to parts of the resort such as the pool and the gym. So even though you have checked out, you’re able to get into these areas so if you have a late flight that day, you can still kill time and get every last bit out of the resort you stayed at or hand it on to a friend to make the most of should they be outstaying you.
Once the time came for me to disappear to the airport, I said my goodbyes, left my keycard with them and headed to the airport in a taxi. Las Vegas round two was over and I’d had a great time of it. Met some new friends, seen some great DJs again, had a great catch up with old friends and now I was on my way to a place that many thought to be utter paradise: Hawaii. So even though it was unfortunate that I was leaving this crazy city, with its skyline moving further into the distance as I drove to the airport and then flew off, I knew that the adventure that I had coming up was going to be just as good, if not better!
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