This will be my final blog on Las Vegas and will mention a few helpful tips that I can pass on to you for any trip you decide to take to Vegas.
Our trip to Las Vegas this year was different from visits in the past. We had a little more money to spend, so we weren’t against splurging a little. However, there are some things that you just don’t want to spend a fortune on. The good news is that there are ways you can save a little money and not pay full-blown Strip prices.
It’s nice to browse the shops inside or attached to the Strip hotels and even shops at the Fashion Show Mall. But unless you want to buy a Coach bag for $300+ or plan on shopping at Chanel and have the means to do so, you can bargain shop on the Strip. Ross Stores, Dress for Less have several locations in Las Vegas including one on the Strip ne
ar MGM Grand. This is much like a Marshalls or T. J. Maxx and we’ve always shopped here when we travel. Fortunately or unfortunately, this visit was okay, but I didn’t get anything there as we had a Ross store open up the week before our trip in the St. Louis area so it wasn’t a big deal anymore.
Walgreens and CVS both have stores on the Strip. One was right near The Venetian. We were able to stock up on soda and snacks here at regular prices and this particular one even had a fountain drink area with specialty coffee drinks. This was especially nice to get a coffee and breakfast treat inexpensively. http://www.walgreens.com/storelocator/result.jsp?_requestid=127845
For those of you who tire of the hustle and bustle of Vegas, you can take chartered trips to the Grand Canyon or Boulder Dam. However, for the price of a rental car we have previously take
n a hiking trip about 30 minutes away from downtown to Red Rock Canyon. We did this one year during Spring Break when it was more seasonal and we enjoyed the day in the peace and quiet. The area is beautiful, although very arid, so no matter what time of year, take plenty of water with you.
The Imperial Palace Auto Museum was incredibly nice and cool in temperature as well. If you search online before you go you can find printable coupons to go for free. There are many vintage cars here and this was another delightful thing to pass time other than being in the casino. 
I have a couple of warnings for you about a trip to Vegas. The first is that no matter how hot you are, never, ever buy water bottles on the street from vendors. We were told by a shuttle driver that they have found out that people are collecting used water bottles and filling them with tap water, sealing them with super glue and selling them on the streets. That’s so disgusting, I couldn’t even believe it. You can get water bottles at any casino if you sit at a machine because the drink hostesses come around all the time and if they don’t have a bottle on their tray will bring you one if you ask. Or stop in at Walgreens, CVS and many souvenir shops sell water.
Also, if you decide to walk the Strip – make sure you are wearing your most comfortable tennis shoes – and be ready to avoid the peddlers of prostitution. These annoying people will be trying to force flyers and business cards into your hands at all costs promoting call girls. One item of note, there are fewer of them on the Bellagio side of the strip. Also, it appears that the Harrahs groups of hotels and casinos have no problem with these jerks. But if you spend most of your time at the nicer hotels, as we did, you can avoid having to deal with them. They were right up to the edge of The Venetian property but did not cross over the property line.
Our trip to Vegas this year was a pleasant getaway, but I believe it will last us for a while and we probably won’t be going back anytime soon. We have a list of other places where we wish to travel. Now it is just about finding the time.
Reading back over this post it seems as if I am advertising for some of these places mentioned. I am not receiving anything for these and have not been in contact with any of the brand names or locations that I have spoken about. I just found these to help out with our trip.
We had booked our Vegas trip through American Airlines Vacations and as such had to fly from St. Louis to Los Angeles and then catch another flight to Vegas after a layover in LA. By the time we reached our hotel, unpacked and settled in, we were ready for a light meal.
We took a stroll through The Venetian, through the Canal Shoppes, and entered The Palazzo. Here we found the Grand Luxe Café. This restaurant has two locations at the resort – one inside The Venetian and another inside The Palazzo. These restaurants are operated by The Cheesecake Factory so we were pretty sure the food would be good, but were worried about the cost since The Cheesecake Factory is somewhat pricey at home, we thought Vegas might be even more so. But we were pleasantly surprised. I don’t know if I enjoyed the meal because it was really good, or if I was just hungry, or both!
They have a section of their menu called Minis, Bites and Tapas. From that I ordered:
Warm Goat Cheese Salad
Crispy Goat Cheese, Baby Greens, Fresh Apple with a Touch of Honey
And
Zucchini and Onion Haystack
Fresh Zucchini and Onions Lightly Breaded and Fried Crisp. Served with Garlic Aioli
The husband ate the following:
Grand Club Sandwich
Freshly Roasted Turkey, Crisp Applewood Smoked Bacon, Arugula, Tomato and Mayonnaise on Toast. Served with an Organic Green Salad or French Fries.
After our meal we hit the casino for an hour or two before we headed back to end our evening somewhat early as we were prepared to get up early to make it to Hash House A Go Go (see Pancakes – Part II).
For lunch one day we happened upon Carnegie Deli at The Mirage. Since I’ve never been to New York and probably won’t make it there anytime soon, I told the husband I wanted to eat here. We waited in line about 15 minutes. As we were seated the waiter brought out a dish with pickles. We checked out the menu and couldn’t believe how expensiv
e the sandwiches were. If I remember correctly the sandwich was $20+ and since we split it we had a plate charge and fries were extra, but look at the portion. We had Jeff’s Tatalah sandwich (http://www.mirage.com/files/carnegie_menu.pdf). We left stuffed.
For our Sunday night meal we had reservations at Delmonico’s Steakhouse, an Emeril restaurant. The experience here was fine dining and very enjoyable. The wait staff was extremely attentive and courteous. We both had rib eyes that were dry aged. They were cooked to perfection, but I can’t honestly say they were any better than the Costco rib eyes my husband grills at home. But they topped their salad with a candied pecan bacon that was to die for.
We were going to see Cirque de Soleil’s “O” one evening and went to the Grand Luxe Café at The Venetian. The menu here was different. They didn’t have the same minis that I enjoyed the first night. And to be honest, I cannot remember what we ate as my nosy self was too interested in the Italian family that was seated next to us. The story of this family deserves a posting of its own.
We had a late lunch at Paris’ Le Village Buffet and while it was acceptable, I wasn’t impressed, especially with the desserts. I would assume that the crème brulee at a “french” restaurant would be excellent, but it fell short. We had dim sum at Ping Pang Pong at the Gold Coast casino. We really weren’t sold on this and the wait staff spoke very limited English and were difficult to understand but most of the clientele was Asian and seemed to be locals enjoying the food.
This post has gone on far longer than I imagined. I promised you some non-food related information and I will follow up with that in another posting very soon.
In March of this year my husband and I went to Las Vegas and stayed at The Venetian. This was our first visit to the Strip in probably about 10 years when we stayed at MGM Grand. Things have definitely changed over the years.
The Venetian was exquisite from the lobby to the attached Canal Shoppes. It seemed that when they built The Venetian they must have gotten a great deal on marble because it was everywhere including this fabulous walkway that looks much like an M.C. Escher drawing. But when we got home our son, the Art major and recent visitor to Italy let us know that he believes it to be inspired by the floor in a gallery in Italy, something that he bragged of seeing in person.
Not only was the floor magnificent but the entire hallway was fabulous and if you could allow yourself a little imagination and block out the sound of the casino you could imagine yourself in the opulence and history of an Italian museum. Look at the detail and the frescoes on the ceiling.
The hotel was set up where you had to walk a short way to the elevators, but the good news was that unlike many casinos in Vegas you did not have to roll your luggage through the casino. You walked instead on a walkway that went around the casino floor itself.
Our room was a Luxury Suite. The hotel is nothing but suites and includes a sunken living room. Our room had a king bed with a huge bathroom including a soaking tub, separate shower, double sink vanity, separate make-up vanity, and stool room. Our only complaint about the bathroom was that the stool room was very small and if you wished to shut the door while doing your business, you had to straddle the toilet to shut it.
The bedroom portion included nightstands on both sides of the bed, a large dresser, and large flat screen TV. The sunken living room included a sofa, an entertainment center with a mini-fridge (do not touch or move anything or you’ll pay) and another flat screen television. There was also additional seating with a loveseat and a table with two chairs.
We were impressed with the room and the comfortable bed. But on a side note, if you can’t make it to Vegas any time soon, you can stay in a room almost identical to the one described and pictured above at the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles, MO.
Comeback soon and I’ll describe some of the places we chose to eat while in Vegas and a few things we found to make our trip a little more pleasant.
We planned a trip early this year to go to Las Vegas in March. Last year, before our travels to San Diego, I’d read about a place called Hash House A Go Go (http://www.hashhouseagogo.com/ ) located in the Hillcrest area of San Diego and had planned on going there on Sunday morning of our visit to San Diego. When we got there the crowd lined the streets out front and we drove around the streets near the building several times and finally gave up because we couldn’t find a place to park. So, as we planned our trip this year to Vegas, I found that Hash House A Go Go had four locations in Vegas. One of these locations was at the Imperial Palace, which was only two casinos away from The Venetian where we were staying. So I told the husband that our first breakfast in Vegas would take place at Hash House and we would wait no matter how many people were there.
When we arrived it looked extremely busy and there were probably 50 people waiting. They said the wait would be about 20 minutes. We looked at the crowd and figured it would be quite a bit longer. Note: Imperial Palace is owned by Harrah’s and if you have a Harrah’s card and are a high tier cardholder you have a separate line. Unfortunately we don’t have that prestige. But, indeed, the wait was less than 20 minutes.
We perused the menu. They are apparently well known for their chicken and waffles, but I kept leaning towards the pancakes or as they call them on their menu, flapjacks. I flip-flopped between getting the Apple Cinnamon (our waiter’s favorite) and the Banana. Again, just like at Aunt Emma’s Pancakes the year before in San Diego, I opted for the Banana.
The waiter told us that our food might take awhile, but he sat the plates (or should I say platters) in front of us less than 10 minutes later.
The batter on these flapjacks must have been concocted differently than most because while there was height to the flapjack it had a crispiness to the edge that was fabulous. There were at least two bananas sliced down the middle lengthwise and then in half. They were placed on top and the batter cooked up around them. The flapjack the waiter brought to the table was gigantic. They gave me syrup to go with it, but the “cake” and the bananas cooked inside were so flavorful that I left the syrup untouched on the table. I did use a good deal of the scoop of butter on top to add a little wetness to the top. The portion was so large that I was only able to eat about half it. To give you an idea of the actual size, the “plate” that it was on was the size of a charger plate. The s
econd picture shows the flapjack in comparison to my hand. At a cost of $8.95 it was one of the best bargains we had during our Vegas trip.
Check out their menu at the link above and see what tempting delights they have. My husband opted for a Farm Benedict - Andy’s sage fried chicken with fresh spinach, hardwood smoked bacon, market tomato, griddled mozzarella, chipotle cream and scrambled eggs. This was priced at $15.95 and was huge
. It came on top of biscuits and mashed potato with fried spaghetti for decoration.
Our visit to Vegas included four mornings and had I not already had other places to try out, we would have gone back every day of our visit.
And for those of you wondering, the Hash in Hash House is in honor of their seven dishes of hash – dishes made with a variety of meats and vegetables mixed together.
