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Every April, my company gives the employees a rare 4 day weekend, and this year it provided a quick break travel to Las Vegas. First, we booked three nights in my timeshare at the Elara, Hilton Grand Vacations (which is fabulous!) then we planned two formal events (a Vegas style performance show and a larger-than-life art exhibit) and some casual exploration (walking Fremont Street and window shopping through my favorite upscale casino hotels). Add to that a trip around the High Roller, walking and talking along the Linq, and eating and drinking… that’s a full weekend!! We had a great time and never even bothered to gamble.
Las Vegas Long Weekend
We took an early flight and arrived midday Friday at The Elara- fortunately our room was available right away. So we made the most of the day and walked around the Las Vegas Boulevard just checking out the huge buildings, flashing signs, and general weirdos on the street. Elara is connected to the Miracle Mile shops, an indoor mall that also connects with Planet Hollywood.
Tip: Las Vegas is super-sized. I plan to walk 5 miles a day and usually that ends up right on target. Get some comfy and cute walking shoes – I bought these Steve Madden sneakers, wore them with shorts, skirts, dresses… and walked them all over Vegas! A real life saver.
We decided to stop at a tourist shop / liquor store and pick up some supplies (to sip on). From our hotel, Elara, we could walk to The Linq which is a pedestrian street about 4 blocks long with restaurant, shops, bars on either side. While we explored, we checked out zip liners overhead, walked around the Flamingo hotel, eventually we ate dinner at the Yard House then attempted to get an Uber up to Fremont street at dusk.
Tip: If your Uber request shows a fare but there are “No Cars Available”, try requesting a car at a higher fare. It’s better to pay 20% more for a car that shows up, rather than no car at all.
Fremont Street Experience
The “Fremont Street Experience” is an outdoor covered area pedestrian street between four casinos. They have built up the ‘ceiling’ with an amazing multi million dollar system that plays an audio visual experience for about ten minutes once an hour. There are also some street performers, typically in a sexy or unusual costume; you can recognize them standing in a circle painted on the sidewalk.
Tip: Great spots for people watching include Fremont Street, the Linq, and the Las Vegas Boulevard
Afterwards we walked over to the Container Park a couple of blocks away. Although most the arts and craft shops were closed because it was after dark, the wine bar was open, and we meandered and then watched while a giant praying mantis out front was breathing fire to a popular song. I’ll never think of “Dance Monkey” the same again. We closed the evening with beautiful views overlooking the city of Las Vegas and the surrounding mountains.
Cosmopolitan, Bellagio, and Caesars
Day 2 Saturday started with a small adventure to find breakfast. We though we would start at The Henry, who was spouting a sumptuous breakfast menu inside the Cosmpolitan Hotel. We quickly discovered many restaurants had a long line at any time of day due to overcrowding (the world had just started to open back up at the end of a long COVID winter) plus social distancing (50% capacity meant fewer tables available). We eventually had steak nachos for breakfast which were fantastic, at a little place called Nacho Daddy.
Tip: To reduce wait time for a table during busy period … Instead of looking at nearby restaurants, their menus and reviews, then picking your favorites, then finding out there is a big wait… try this hack instead. Use an app called “Open Table” to find available tables in restaurants nearby for the size and time you need; from that list pick and secure your favorite, and show up on time. A small change in process, big change in results.
Our day 2 afternoon excursion was walking through the Bellagio and Caesar hotels and shops. This is a treat for me because these are really beautiful hotels, they have very special gardens, and high end shops that even a window shopper can enjoy. Bellagio has my favorite indoor display no matter when I come here. This time their giant atrium is filled with spring time flowers and decorations, plus a small glass building filled with butterflies. The entire room smelled incredible and you could even see the pots that the plants were growing in. Past the shops, quick outdoor walk, then into Caesar’s for more beautiful hotel exploring. We found a Peter Lik Gallery, a Martin Lawrence Gallery, VanderPump Cocktail Garden, and I will be back to check out the Kush Fine Art gallery again.
Extravaganza
For our day 2 evening excursion I chose a typical Las-Vegas style revue called Extravaganza. It was filled with music and dancing, amazing costumes, and the dancers even had on very fancy sparkly masks. There were some special tricks like shooting stunts and finale of three motorcycles zipping around a tiny wire globe. There’s something so primal about it, how can you not like it?
Since we figured out the trick to getting a good table without all the wait we now indulged on a very rich breakfast at the Henry. There is also a super cute barber shop just across the walkway, inside the Cosmopolitan hotel. It’s also worth checking out this gigantic chandelier bar, the beads drop like 2-3 stories and it’s quite beautiful.
Meow Wolf
Our day 3 daytime excursion was the MeowWolf exhibit at the Area15 warehouse. This place is a trip. If you like black light artwork, just set up camp here or get hired as staff to work here. There is a large open main room with plenty of 2D and 3D visual objects and displays to check out (free, with $49 admission fee) plus there are about a dozen different immersive art experiences. These cost about you will want to peruse and check out your favorites. Most of them cost about $20-30 each, so I recommend check it out before you come so you can select your favorites before you arrive and are fighting with the app. We actually had a hard time finding info about the experiences until after we created a profile on MeowWolf.com
Tip: Before your visit, create an account through MeowWolf.com so you can browse, explore and book tickets to specific interactive experiences – even if you later buy them on the spot. Note, Omega Mart is not the same as the overall MeowWolf admission, and there are other interactive exhibits you will need tickets for.
In the end we really enjoyed Birdly [flight simulator], Haley’s Comet [seated ride around the top of the room], and the “Cluster” [immersive sound and light show] in the Museum Fiasco. These were real winners. We didn’t select Mega Mart because it was out of our budget, plus it was fully booked. We did get a drink in the Emporium (no fee to enter) which has cool black light paintings and is generally a good place to take a break plus has some windows with sunlight. Finally, we watched someone else do the Brain Storm, and by the time we did our Particle Quest experience, we were too tired to enjoy it. But overall an excellent unique visual experience. Just think of it as a black light adult Disneyland and it’ll be easier to justify how much you just spent.
Aria and High Roller
After a full afternoon, we had an early dinner at the Catch restaurant inside the Aria hotel and Casino. This is another beautiful hotel and just the walkway into the restaurant is like a private passageway through an arch of flowers and plants into a gorgeous restaurant with spectacular food. Although the google map doesn’t show it, you can cut back past shops to cross the Harmon/LBV intersection. Since we typically walk back through the Miracle mile shops we took a jaunt into an overlooked tiny mall above the Walgreens on the NE corner of Harmon and South Las Vegas Blvd. This had a handful of stores, a kiosk with legal weed and edibles, people walking overhead in straps at the Climb Vegas Adventure center.
For our last night, we had tickets to the high roller- this is like the London Eye whereas you enter an egg shaped pod and have essentially a merry go round experience. I think it’s about 20 stories high and has amazing views of the Las Vegas Strip hotels. If you want a much higher experience, check out the Stratosphere – a different experience altogether. After the spin, we really enjoyed just hanging out on a bench in the Linq with drinks and talking and watching all the people go by. A pleasant closer to the weekend, made great by conversation with my sweetie.
We packed a lot into our 3.5 day weekend and never even got around to gambling. Vegas has so much entertainment, with shows and visual stimulation, plus gorgeous hotels and incredible restaurants, I just don’t think of this as a gambling town. But I can assure you, we picked a winner.
Tip: If you are reading this blog in June-July 2021, please check back in a month for video posting. We captured heaps of great material but it will take time to process and post.
