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Old 7 Nov 18, 05:36 PM  
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Joosebug1987
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Hello

I'm fairly sure I bore all my family and friends doing nothing but talking about holiday planning and Vegas so thought why not do a trip report this time and starting with a pre trippy...

So to introduce...

Me and my boyfriend of four years first visited Vegas in a "once in a lifetime trip" to New York and Vegas for our friends wedding. Vegas was an add on since it was my first time long haul and decided why not as our friends were getting married on top of the Rock in New York. I have always had a horrific fear of flying and refused to go distance but I didn't want to miss the wedding. Little did I realise the time difference between NY and LV leading me to think it was just a small flight between the two - lucky really else probably would never have got me to book!

Well the above trip lit a fire in my belly for big holidays and shortly after we booked my first trip to Florida which I absolutely loved. Back from Florida the vegas itch set in and we returned in March 2017 and then again in April 2018.

So how did this trip come about?

Well... my boyfriend was chatting with his friend who said "We really want to go to Vegas, next time you go we want to come with you"... Not one to turn down such an opportunity I instantly started pricing up and originally had settled on end of November 2018 however sadly it was not to be as we couldn't all get the same dates off (which was very upsetting as I'd spent hours researching all the Christmas things there are to do that we won't have seen on our other summer trips! ). Excuse for another trip sometime maybe?

Back to the drawing board we decided to look at early next year (as we can't wait any longer ! )

I love looking at holidays and keeping an eye on prices so this was a doddle and we eventually settled on a lovely little deal which came up with Virgin. We flew Virgin last time and found them to be really impressive compared with our Thomas Cook previous flights - we loved the fact the drinks were included along with the much better film choice and ability to get wi-fi. We also personally thought the food was much nicer on Virgin. The new Virgin economy options too meant that the seat selection was included which actually made it cheaper than the TC option wooo!

This is our first time going to Vegas with anyone else so a little nervous but also really excited to show them the ropes plus it gives us a great excuse to repeat certain favourites.

We have always stayed at the Flamingo on our previous trips however this time have decided to branch out as a really good deal on a newly renovated room in Ballys was available and it will be nice to have a change (we hope!).

7 nights Saturday - Saturday so we will have a day to recover when home before going back to work. We didn't realise when booking but extra lucky as its Easter weekend so one less days holiday to use plus the bonus of a day off before we travel!

So thats where we are up to so far other than about a million things on our wish list of what to do this time and what we want to show them while we are there. Really looking forward to it!

We are also hoping to get to the grand canyon this time as 3 trips without going to see it really is our limit

I'm a big one for seeing loads of shows while we are there so will update when I know more about the itinerary

Thats all for now! x

Planning update can be found here https://DIBB.in/13711518 (If I've done it right! )

Edited at 12:50 PM.
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Old 7 Nov 18, 10:34 PM  
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Geordie boy 57
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Originally Posted by Joosebug1987 View Post
Hello

I'm fairly sure I bore all my family and friends doing nothing but talking about holiday planning and Vegas so thought why not do a trip report this time and starting with a pre trippy...

So to introduce...

Me and my boyfriend of four years first visited Vegas in a "once in a lifetime trip" to New York and Vegas for our friends wedding. Vegas was an add on since it was my first time long haul and decided why not as our friends were getting married on top of the Rock in New York. I have always had a horrific fear of flying and refused to go distance but I didn't want to miss the wedding. Little did I realise the time difference between NY and LV leading me to think it was just a small flight between the two - lucky really else probably would never have got me to book!

Well the above trip lit a fire in my belly for big holidays and shortly after we booked my first trip to Florida which I absolutely loved. Back from Florida the vegas itch set in and we returned in March 2017 and then again in April 2018.

So how did this trip come about?

Well... my boyfriend was chatting with his friend who said "We really want to go to Vegas, next time you go we want to come with you"... Not one to turn down such an opportunity I instantly started pricing up and originally had settled on end of November 2018 however sadly it was not to be as we couldn't all get the same dates off (which was very upsetting as I'd spent hours researching all the Christmas things there are to do that we won't have seen on our other summer trips! ). Excuse for another trip sometime maybe?

Back to the drawing board we decided to look at early next year (as we can't wait any longer ! )

I love looking at holidays and keeping an eye on prices so this was a doddle and we eventually settled on a lovely little deal which came up with Virgin. We flew Virgin last time and found them to be really impressive compared with our Thomas Cook previous flights - we loved the fact the drinks were included along with the much better film choice and ability to get wi-fi. We also personally thought the food was much nicer on Virgin. The new Virgin economy options too meant that the seat selection was included which actually made it cheaper than the TC option wooo!

This is our first time going to Vegas with anyone else so a little nervous but also really excited to show them the ropes plus it gives us a great excuse to repeat certain favourites.

We have always stayed at the Flamingo on our previous trips however this time have decided to branch out as a really good deal on a newly renovated room in Ballys was available and it will be nice to have a change (we hope!).

7 nights Saturday - Saturday so we will have a day to recover when home before going back to work. We didn't realise when booking but extra lucky as its Easter weekend so one less days holiday to use plus the bonus of a day off before we travel!

So thats where we are up to so far other than about a million things on our wish list of what to do this time and what we want to show them while we are there. Really looking forward to it!

We are also hoping to get to the grand canyon this time as 3 trips without going to see it really is our limit

I'm a big one for seeing loads of shows while we are there so will update when I know more about the itinerary

Thats all for now! x
Doing Vegas for the first time in Feb
DW is a big Donnie Osmand fan so have that show booked(Not really my cup of tea)
Staying at the Flamingo in one of the Flamingo rooms
Any tips on other things to do
She doesn't fancy going in a helicopter
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Old 7 Nov 18, 10:37 PM  
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Joosebug1987
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Originally Posted by Geordie boy 57 View Post
Doing Vegas for the first time in Feb
DW is a big Donnie Osmand fan so have that show booked(Not really my cup of tea)
Staying at the Flamingo in one of the Flamingo rooms
Any tips on other things to do
She doesn't fancy going in a helicopter
Ahh brilliant - you will love it! How long you going for? The flamingo is a great hotel and brilliant location. Ask for a fountain view room on check in if possible for sure.
I can give many recommendations - how long are you going for?
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Old 7 Nov 18, 10:43 PM  
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Geordie boy 57
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Just 5 nights
Fly on 3rd Feb from Heathrow and back late flight on 8th
Donnie and Marie are on at Flamingo and we have tickets for the 5th
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Old 7 Nov 18, 11:37 PM  
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Originally Posted by Joosebug1987 View Post
We have always stayed at the Flamingo on our previous trips however this time have decided to branch out as a really good deal on a newly renovated room in Ballys was available and it will be nice to have a change (we hope!).
Ballys is nice, esp if you get one of the upgraded rooms and excellent location as you know.

Originally Posted by Joosebug1987 View Post
We are also hoping to get to the grand canyon this time as 3 trips without going to see it really is our limit
South Rim, South Rim, South Rim. Can't emphasize it enough. If you really want to see the Grand Canyon

To give you some idea of the scale.

This is a panoramic shot I took (Click to load a full size view):



This is the red dot at 8 times magnification:


You can just see the Colorado river, top middle. The point where I took that photo is 18 miles wide.


Now here's a picture from Wikipedia of the Guano Pt on the West Rim
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Old 8 Nov 18, 10:49 AM  
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Joosebug1987
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Originally Posted by Geordie boy 57 View Post
Just 5 nights
Fly on 3rd Feb from Heathrow and back late flight on 8th
Donnie and Marie are on at Flamingo and we have tickets for the 5th
Ahh brilliant! 5 nights will be a good enough time for a taster. There is so much to do as you'll discover.

My personal advice would be as soon as you get to vegas TRY and take a nap... it is so difficult but shut the curtains and lie down and it'll catch up with you a bit. Set an alarm for a couple of hours after and get freshened up and head out. We found this works so much better than trying to keep going as you end up in bed by 8 o clock and out of sync all your time there then (4am starts and early bed times). We also take pro plus half an hour before any shows as with the jet lag and how tired you are we find as soon as we are in a dim room we automatically feel tired and get heavy eyelids. I saw Penn and Teller on our first trip and must have only seen about half of it and I love them!

Some of my favourite things to do which I'd recommend are:-

- Bellagio fountains obviously - highly recommend Hexx across the road for gorgeous food and it was really reasonable for the quality and location. Check out the conservatory at Bellagio too for their lovely floral displays
- Sigfried and Roys secret garden at the mirage - dolphins and tigers
- We really enjoyed the high roller - we actually did it twice, once in the day and once at night!
- Fremont Street is worth a visit - we prefer the strip massively but its a nice evening out. Whilst there try and book in for "brilliant" the light show at the neon graveyard. Its only about 20/30 minutes but it really was brilliant as the name suggested and had a lovely proper old school vegas feel to it.
- Volcano at the mirage - not a long thing but worth seeing if you can fit it in
- If you can try and see a cirque show - we have seen O, Love (Beatles), One (Michael Jackson) and Mystere and they were all incredible.
- Top of the Stratosphere had some lovely views and there are some rides up there if you are feeling daring. They also have a lovely cocktail bar that has a few happy hours worth checking out - we went before Fremont as its that end of the strip.
- If you like magic David Copperfield was incredible. A cheap afternoon show is Mac King who was absolutely fantastic - if you go to the total rewards desk they will give you a voucher for a free show ticket if you buy a cocktail which was about $18 I think and the cocktail was yummy too. He has a great stage prescence
- Flamingo habitat at the flamingo - only a few minutes or so walk through but lovely and free!
- Outlets are well worth a look and loads of great shopping areas - Miracle Mile at Planet Hollywood and Caesars were our favourite on strip I'd say...
- Check out the hotels - they are stunning. Just wandering around them can take you all day.
- If you want a chill out check out the Piano bar at Harrahs - Big Elvis is there - free show in the afternoon (check the days) and there are duelling piano twins in the evening which again are free and a lovely atmosphere. Le Cabaret in Paris too had some great acts on free and a lovely atmosphere in the casino.
- BEST burger we've ever had in our life was at Wolfgang pucks at MGM grand

Don't want to overload but there are some starters I'd recommend... if you want any other advice or anything let me know :-)

Last pointers for you are the worst things we've done in vegas... limited time so may save you from it!
- Circus Circus - full stop the worst waste of our time ever. I was excited to go and see the circus acts etc. Awful. Its quite far from anything too so ended up wasting our money on ubers.
- Aquarium at Mandalay bay - my god this is a walk through the massive casino to get to and when we got there it was just like a big sealife centre - nice enough but wouldn't waste Vegas time on going there.
- Worst food I ate was at Haute Doggery in the Linq area - I was really ill after it too

Few general tips...
- Go to a CVS for things like water etc - casinos charge a fortune for bottled water
- Download and use uber - the difference between uber and cabs we found massive!
- Revolut card was great - we had this attached to the uber app so didn't get charged for using debit card - before I switched it to that I was getting charges of about 90p per uber on my bank account for the card usage etc.
- Great vegas group on facebook called TalkLasVegas - often gives tips of happy hours and photos etc.
- EVERYTHING is further away than it looks - give yourselves plenty of time when booking anything in advance. "just next door" can be a good 15 minute walk to get out of the casino alone. Leading me nicely on to...
- Comfy shoes! You'll need them!

Hope this helps a bit anyway :-) x
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Old 8 Nov 18, 10:52 AM  
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Pad406 wow! Thank you for sharing that and for the info. I had no idea the vast difference. To be honest we were looking at west as I don't want to fly on one of those teeny tiny planes but will definitely give the south a bit more of a research now.

Those photos are incredible! Can I ask who you booked through and would you recommend?

I am fairly certain I'll be back to Vegas so may have a good excuse to check out both sides on different trips ;-) I'd love to do the overnight stays you can do there but would need a longer trip.x
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Old 8 Nov 18, 12:32 PM  
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Originally Posted by Joosebug1987 View Post
Pad406 wow! Thank you for sharing that and for the info. I had no idea the vast difference. To be honest we were looking at west as I don't want to fly on one of those teeny tiny planes but will definitely give the south a bit more of a research now.

Those photos are incredible! Can I ask who you booked through and would you recommend?

I am fairly certain I'll be back to Vegas so may have a good excuse to check out both sides on different trips ;-) I'd love to do the overnight stays you can do there but would need a longer trip.x
In fairness, anybody I know who has done the West rim was very happy with their day out, but I think if you ask anyone that has done both the North/South rim wins hands down. There really is no comparison. This is what you know from pictures, movies, TV etc.

here's a few links on other threads from people who have done South or both
Tweety1
Neilhd
sew109


I did the fixed wing flight and it was great. Only 1hr or so in the air and if you do the early start you're back in LV around lunch time. Really works well in the first few days when you'll be up at stupid o'clock anyway
I used Scenic Airways which were very good. Once there I did the Pink Jeep tour, small group of about 6 and the tour guide was fab and brought us to some out of the way places and had great knowledge of the Canyon. Papillion are also very good I hear (I think they actually own Scenic). You fly over Hoover and the West Rim on the way.

The bus is another option but is about 5.5hrs each way. Car probably a little over an hour.
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Edited at 12:34 PM.
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Old 8 Nov 18, 12:36 PM  
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Thanks for the info and the links - will definitely take a read.

I'm half tempted to do west rim this trip and then south next trip to have an excuse if nothing else lol! I liked the sound of doing hoover dam at the same time and i'm hoping my fear of flying lessens over the years...

We had a papillion trip booked on our 2nd trip to Vegas and I woke up in the night terribly ill and feeling really sick - think I'd eaten something... tried to struggle on but by the time we got to the airport and were asked to sign a waiver about the fact they were expecting severe turbulence due to the wind and the helicopter bit may not be an option we ended up cancelling for a full refund - they were great to offer that to be fair! I do remember pulling up and seeing the tiny planes though and thinking oh my god I can't do it lol!x
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Old 8 Nov 18, 03:43 PM  
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Geordie boy 57
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Originally Posted by Joosebug1987 View Post
Ahh brilliant! 5 nights will be a good enough time for a taster. There is so much to do as you'll discover.

My personal advice would be as soon as you get to vegas TRY and take a nap... it is so difficult but shut the curtains and lie down and it'll catch up with you a bit. Set an alarm for a couple of hours after and get freshened up and head out. We found this works so much better than trying to keep going as you end up in bed by 8 o clock and out of sync all your time there then (4am starts and early bed times). We also take pro plus half an hour before any shows as with the jet lag and how tired you are we find as soon as we are in a dim room we automatically feel tired and get heavy eyelids. I saw Penn and Teller on our first trip and must have only seen about half of it and I love them!

Some of my favourite things to do which I'd recommend are:-

- Bellagio fountains obviously - highly recommend Hexx across the road for gorgeous food and it was really reasonable for the quality and location. Check out the conservatory at Bellagio too for their lovely floral displays
- Sigfried and Roys secret garden at the mirage - dolphins and tigers
- We really enjoyed the high roller - we actually did it twice, once in the day and once at night!
- Fremont Street is worth a visit - we prefer the strip massively but its a nice evening out. Whilst there try and book in for "brilliant" the light show at the neon graveyard. Its only about 20/30 minutes but it really was brilliant as the name suggested and had a lovely proper old school vegas feel to it.
- Volcano at the mirage - not a long thing but worth seeing if you can fit it in
- If you can try and see a cirque show - we have seen O, Love (Beatles), One (Michael Jackson) and Mystere and they were all incredible.
- Top of the Stratosphere had some lovely views and there are some rides up there if you are feeling daring. They also have a lovely cocktail bar that has a few happy hours worth checking out - we went before Fremont as its that end of the strip.
- If you like magic David Copperfield was incredible. A cheap afternoon show is Mac King who was absolutely fantastic - if you go to the total rewards desk they will give you a voucher for a free show ticket if you buy a cocktail which was about $18 I think and the cocktail was yummy too. He has a great stage prescence
- Flamingo habitat at the flamingo - only a few minutes or so walk through but lovely and free!
- Outlets are well worth a look and loads of great shopping areas - Miracle Mile at Planet Hollywood and Caesars were our favourite on strip I'd say...
- Check out the hotels - they are stunning. Just wandering around them can take you all day.
- If you want a chill out check out the Piano bar at Harrahs - Big Elvis is there - free show in the afternoon (check the days) and there are duelling piano twins in the evening which again are free and a lovely atmosphere. Le Cabaret in Paris too had some great acts on free and a lovely atmosphere in the casino.
- BEST burger we've ever had in our life was at Wolfgang pucks at MGM grand

Don't want to overload but there are some starters I'd recommend... if you want any other advice or anything let me know :-)

Last pointers for you are the worst things we've done in vegas... limited time so may save you from it!
- Circus Circus - full stop the worst waste of our time ever. I was excited to go and see the circus acts etc. Awful. Its quite far from anything too so ended up wasting our money on ubers.
- Aquarium at Mandalay bay - my god this is a walk through the massive casino to get to and when we got there it was just like a big sealife centre - nice enough but wouldn't waste Vegas time on going there.
- Worst food I ate was at Haute Doggery in the Linq area - I was really ill after it too

Few general tips...
- Go to a CVS for things like water etc - casinos charge a fortune for bottled water
- Download and use uber - the difference between uber and cabs we found massive!
- Revolut card was great - we had this attached to the uber app so didn't get charged for using debit card - before I switched it to that I was getting charges of about 90p per uber on my bank account for the card usage etc.
- Great vegas group on facebook called TalkLasVegas - often gives tips of happy hours and photos etc.
- EVERYTHING is further away than it looks - give yourselves plenty of time when booking anything in advance. "just next door" can be a good 15 minute walk to get out of the casino alone. Leading me nicely on to...
- Comfy shoes! You'll need them!

Hope this helps a bit anyway :-) x
Thank s for the tips
I've a Revolut card I use all the time but didn't realise you could use it on the Uber App
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