Come with Us to Fabulous. Las Vegas!

Set in the Nevada Desert, (Fabulous) Las Vegas really is ….. well FABULOUS! We came to Vegas as part of our ‘Big Trip’ across America in 2024 for a 3 night stay at The Venetian Hotel. Vegas was our 5th stop! Flight time from Chicago was just under 4 hours and took us directly from O’Hare into Harry Reid International Airport.

On arrival we cleared security quite quickly, collected our bags and headed to the Uber pick up point. We booked our ride using the Uber App and waited around 10 minutes for our pick up, and boy, what a character we got! We happened to mention that we were in town to celebrate G’s birthday and before you knew it, every version of Happy Birthday was being played at top volume, everything from Stevie Wonder to the edgier Cody Wise and Will.i.am! It took about 20 minutes to get from the airport to the Venetian due to fairly heavy traffic but having such a fun ride into town certainly made it easier. We definitely left this driver a tip !

On arrival into Vegas the first thing we noticed was the heat - being August the mercury was hovering around 42 degrees during the day, only dropping to around 30 in the evening. It’s a dry heat which is different to anything I have experienced before and could be quite overwhelming although G was living her best life!

I have to say the Venetian is HUGE. Nothing really prepares you for the sight of those iconic hotels laid out along the strip (which is around 4 miles long). Seeing the Mandalay Bay Hotel, Caesars Palace, Treasure Island etc - it really is something to see! We were ushered through to a thankfully cool reception where our credit card was swiped ($150 per night refundable deposit) and we were sent on our way.

Up one huge long corridor we walked, with its painted and detailed ceiling it was like walking through the Sistine Chapel, however the Starbucks and fancy chocolate shop we passed along the way kind of killed the mood! Never before have I walked down such a richly carpeted, ornate walkway just to get to the elevators! We were met at the entrance to the elevators by a security guard who checks your room key before allowing you through to another bunch of elevators which will whizz you up to your room.

And our room was quite something! It had a bedroom area with two huge queen sized beds, a chest of drawers and TV, bedside cabinets, a large closet and an enormous gold bathroom with a separate bath and shower, two sinks, separate loo and a large dressing area plus marbled floors and numerous mirrors. It was G’s absolute heaven and she has done a whole vlog section on the bathroom alone - check out our Vegas vlog at Georgia Louise Travels on You Tube.

There were then two steps down into the lounge area which had a sofa and numerous chairs, another huge TV, side tables and a mini bar. Beware the mini bar though - items are weighted so do not even pick them up to see what they are as you will be charged!

As was usual for us on this trip, visiting 7 cities in just 18 days meant that we never really unpacked more than our essentials but I can confirm that the closet was ample and there was a lot of drawer space too. Despite the palatial suite there was the usual lack of plug sockets next to the bed (something we noticed a lot of on this trip across America) which was a little annoying as we always had wires trailing around the room. There was also no tea or coffee making facilities in the room either which was a little poor, and as the mini fridge was full of snacks and drinks, there is nowhere to store your own cold drinks or indeed my medicines!

As this trip had been planned for many months, we had managed to make reservations for most of the restaurants and excursions that we were planning to do - as usual we used Viator and their buy now pay later service where your space is reserved and the monies are taken from your account two days prior to your trip. Restaurants were either booked directly via the restaurant website or through Open Table / The Fork. I would say definitely do book restaurants as the queues and waiting time can be quite long. There are of course many fast food options but in 42 degree heat in August it is pretty unpleasant to have to walk around eating and personally I prefer to be seated in an air conditioned restaurant.

On our first afternoon we headed out along the strip to get our bearings. We wandered through the Venetian, getting a coffee and a snack at the large Starbucks, spending a ridiculous $38 for a coffee, a dragon fruit drink and the equivalent of a McDonald’s egg and bacon muffin ! There was also a Johnny Rockets inside the hotel, however after watching numerous vlogs ahead of our travels to Vegas, we discovered that they too were really overpriced!

We headed to the shops at The Venetian which are decorated to resemble a Venice street complete with a beautiful painted sky that changes from day to night and has its own river together with singing gondoliers. Prices for the gondola rides were around $35 per person and required booking ahead. After a wander around we purchased a Venetian Hotel tee shirt in the gift shop and then headed out of the hotel.

Once outside, we headed across the street to Caesars Palace to check out their version of the Trevi Fountain; not quite as impressive as the original in Rome of course, but fun to see.

Not quite as impressive as the real thing but still pretty amazing !

Inside Caesars we headed to the shops and again, the whole shopping area is opulent and full of high end stores. Remember that Vegas roads consist of at least 4 lanes, on each side! Crossing can therefore be a challenge! For this reason you will find escalators on the sidewalk which will allow you to cross over to the other side without having to wait for the lights and then running across all 8 lanes before the cross light goes out.

After a wander through Caesars we headed back to the Venetian to get changed and ready for our dinner which was booked that evening at Amalfi, Celebrity Chef Bobby Flay’s offering at Caesars Palace.

Amalfi was a really nice restaurant, however be mindful that you are on the casino floor of Caesars Palace and it is quite noisy. The restaurant was busy but we were seated quickly and our food was served. We had a burrata to start together with their famous focaccia - this is not on the menu but an insider tip, if you ask for it you can get it ! It’s basically a ball shaped focaccia filled with garlic and served warm, and at around $14 it is well worth it - totally yummy. G opted for the squid ink pasta for mains as she had spotted that on the menu weeks before and had her heart set on it; me, a boring but tasty ragu ! We both opted for a soft drink and our bill came in at around $175. Pretty steep for what we ate but it was an experience. The service was good although our server was a little over attentive at times and as for ambience, well I’d say pretty noisy! Maybe next time we’ll opt for a Gordon Ramsay restaurant instead!

The next morning we headed to Sugarcane for breakfast which is in the Grande Shoppes area at the Venetian. This was a really nice restaurant, again booked ahead of time and we opted for French toast and a breakfast plate to set us up for the day. We paid around $60 for breakfast so not too shabby for a breakfast in Vegas and managed a coffee and juice as well to set us up for the day.

We then headed off to visit The High Roller which we had booked in advance via Viator. Note that this does not open until midday so even though I booked a morning ticket, we had to wait until midday for it to open. A full revolution of the wheel took around 45 minutes and we spent the time spotting different places from the air and taking photos!!

I loved this little street ! Here you will find a Gordon Ramsay eatery and Honolulu Cookie Co !!

After leaving the High Roller, we headed back out to the main strip and caught the Deuce to the Fabulous Las Vegas sign. The Deuce is a double decker bus that runs north and south along the main strip and is a good way to get around. Tickets can be purchased at the bus stop and you can buy single or daily tickets. From memory I believe each journey was around $3 so again much cheaper than a taxi.

Very Hot and Very Fabulous (!) at The Fabulous Las Vegas Sign !

After taking many pictures at the sign, we decided to walk back through the hotels - we had a table booked at The Bellagio (Como) for 2.30pm and thought we’d get there in time! We were wrong! We walked through Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur and gave up and ended up catching a taxi! Everywhere in Vegas looks close but is actually quite a walk and in the heat it was a bit too much. Walking through the hotels is definitely cooler, however you seem to walk for miles!

We did finally make it to Como for 2.30pm and had a lovely meal of Greek salad, vegetable wrap and chicken skewers with a virgin strawberry daiquiri! Well, it was really hot!! I’d definitely recommend Como - the food was lovely, the setting was lovely and the staff were lovely - a little pricey at around $120 for lunch but we did get a free lemon posset for dessert as it was G’s birthday! This little gem of a restaurant is located beside the pool area at The Bellagio and it was a really lovely find - you could almost forget that you were in the midst of a huge concrete jungle!

After lunch we headed outside to watch the famous Bellagio fountains water show. The water fountain show runs regularly throughout the day and attracts hundreds of people at each show. My advice - stand in the shade to wait - it was absolutely boiling!

After a shower and change we headed back out, walking up to Planet Hollywood where we had tickets to see Shania Twain. When booking our trip to Vegas we decided to incorporate a residency in our itinerary and just got lucky really that Shania was performing. I know G would have preferred to see Adele in all honesty, however she would have been around four times the price we paid to see Shania …… and let’s face it Shania was much more FUN! One thing to be mindful of is the drinks at the shows are ridiculously expensive - we paid over $40 for one mojito!

As the next day was G’s birthday, we headed to Sadelles which is in the beautiful garden area of the Bellagio for breakfast. I’d pre-booked this a month before and it was well worth it - pricey at around $110 for breakfast but it was like fine dining in a Parisian tea room - beautiful. I opted for eggs Benedict and G had the blueberry pancakes which were absolutely packed with fruit. After a leisurely breakfast which included a free glass of bubbly for the birthday girl (and a beautiful cupcake) we headed out to begin our day of shopping! Now shopping in Vegas really is something else - we visited the shops at The Bellagio, headed up to Caesars Palace and then to Planet Hollywood before finally moving on to the Fashion Show Mall, spending a couple of hours just browsing Macys.

After a quick freshen up and to deposit our bags in our room, we headed out again to Buddy V’s Ristorante based in the Venetian for a Buddy Valestro pasta dinner! We had aubergine parmigiana to start and G had seafood risotto and I opted for my rather safe but tasty ragu.

Our final stop of the day was a helicopter tour over the strip. Booked again through Viator, we opted for an 11.30pm flight to make sure the bright lights were dazzling whilst we were flying over the strip. We were picked up at our hotel at around 10pm and driven out to the airfield where we received a safety briefing before heading out to our chopper. It was amazing to see the whole strip lit up under your feet stretching out into the desert and then, well just stopping! It really is quite the spectacle - we flew right up the strip and around the tower of the Strat which was exciting and could easily spot the Luxor pyramid, the mini Eiffel Tower and the High Roller !

We finished the day with a few slot machines (25c machines as that’s all I would allow G to play !!!) and we were off to bed.

The next morning we headed out to the airport and on to our next stop which was San Francisco for stop No 6 on our amazing tour across America.

So I hope you enjoyed seeing what we got up to on our trip to Vegas, it is a really amazing place to visit and one that you will need to visit again and again to see everything. I think next time maybe a stop over at The Grand Canyon could be on the cards, plus a visit to the Strat, the mini Eiffel Tower and New York, New York. As anyone who knows me will know, I love all things NYC!

So wherever you stay, and whatever you decide to do in Vegas, enjoy, and savor every minute !

See you soon

Tracey & Georgia xx

** check out our Vegas vlog on You Tube at Georgia Louise Travels or watch our other USA adventures !