LAS VEGAS – Days 1 and 2

 

We arrived in Las Vegas on Tuesday, 3 June following an uneventful flight with United Airlines, which was far more efficient than American Airlines. It looks like we have hit typical May Las Vegas weather – high 30s for our whole 6 night stay – which suits us fine.

The Aria Resort is right in the middle of The Strip (part of Las Vegas Boulevard) and is amazing! Like everything here it is over the top. The ground floor includes the lobby, casino, restaurants, bars and more and is huge. The second floor, the promenade level, has three enormous pools, restaurant and café, Starbucks, shops and so on. The towers are also huge: we are on the 19^th floor and nowhere near half way to the top.

The Crystals shopping centre is part of the Aria complex and is full of high end shops. But the most interesting things we saw there were a peacock made from flowers (photo 2) and a piece of modern art that leaves the junk we usually get in the ACT for dead. It consists of several transparent glass pillars that are coloured with changing lights from beneath and fill with water and empty in a cycle. During the filling the water in each is churned in such a way as to create a thin vortex that looks like a waterspout. That seems to typify how creative people can be in this city.

Our room overlooks the Monte Carlo Casino and from it we can see at least parts of many nearby hotels and casinos including MGM Grand, New York New York, Planet Hollywood and Bally’s. We can also see the desert hills in the background, reminding us of just where this place is. The room itself is very big for a hotel room and all functions such as TV, lighting, music, temperature and opening and closing curtains can be operated using a bedside touch pad. Cool huh!

On Wednesday we took a walk down to New York New York and MGM Grand. On the way we took photo 4 which shows a view from the footbridge between those two hotels down The Strip to Mandalay Bay, the Tropicana and Excalibur. Note the seven lanes each way!

NYNY is impressive from the outside with its towers built in the architectural style of famous New York buildings, but is nothing special inside (except maybe for the Statue of Liberty  made with jelly beans - photo 3). MGM Grand is a very different story indeed. We entered from the bridge over Las Vegas Boulevard (as you are blocked from crossing The Strip at ground level) and found ourselves in the treetops of an artificial jungle with an escalator down to the Rainforest Café.  The Café is fitted out with large tropical fish tanks, jungle plants elephants and various jungle cats and a waterfall. The wait staff are dressed as forest guides. Jungle sounds play constantly and an artificial thunderstorm occurs every 30 minutes. It is hard to capture the feel of the place in words, but we found it quite creative and enjoyable … and yes, the food was great too! After that we thought we might check out the lobby but were told that was about a quarter mile walk from the Café!! Like we said, everything is BIG here. So we decided to leave that for another day. We did so much walking yesterday that Sue now has a blister under her smallest toe, so today will be on the hop on hop off bus.  They have 2 different circuits, so will do both and give our aching feet and legs a rest.  Talk about being fit to enjoy your holidays!!!

We spent the afternoon by one of the pools (photo 1). They are set among lovely Palm trees with wonderful views of the nearby buildings.