As sad as we were to leave Death Valley National Park, we were very excited for the next leg of our adventure! We were heading to Zion National Park, with one night in Las Vegas in between. It is only about an hour and a half drive from Death Valley to Las Vegas, so it worked out as a great way to split up the trek to Zion and get a little taste of what this world famous city has to offer.
The two of us had never been to Las Vegas before and weren’t exactly sure what to expect. We ended up having a great time!
First stop, lunch! We ate at Makers & Finders in the arts district and thought the food was good. They specialize in Latin food and coffee. Walking around the arts district after lunch was really fun, it is super walkable and there are so many unique vintage shops and local art everywhere. It is the perfect place to get vintage clothes, records, furniture, unique art, and memorabilia.
After exploring for a bit, our Airbnb was available for us to check in. There were six of us staying at our place, three couples, and the place had two bedrooms and one pull out couch. Since it was only for one night, we decided that would be fine and the location was perfect, we were right off of the main strip!
If we were staying for another night, we would recommend staying at a hotel because most of them include amenities, like the famous Las Vegas pools, not to mention there are usually casinos and restaurants in most of the bigger hotels too. Since we were there during the summer, it was pretty hot and would have loved a dip in the pool. Hotels like the MGM Grand, Mirage Hotel and Mandalay Bay are a few popular options that have pools and casinos attached.
One of the couples we were traveling with was getting married later in the year, so we decided to have a mini bachelorette celebration while we were there in Las Vegas. We split off from the boys for a bit to go see the Magic Mike Live show, which was a blast! It was really well done and was told from the female perspective with a female MC who ended the show by riding on a magic colorful unicorn. It was exciting and fun, but not grimy. There were all sorts of people in the crowd from younger to older women, as well as a few good sport husbands. They gave out fake money to feel like we were at a strip club, which was silly and fun. It felt like the perfect amount of riské without feeling uncomfortable or unsafe in any way. There were some really nice dance performances, acrobatics, vocal performances, and even some aerial dance too. The story line was about a guy named Mike, who needed to find his Magic. A bartender came around to make sure we always had a drink if we wanted one, drinks were not included in the admission ticket, but this was already a splurge night, so I had two and they were well made.
After the show, we met back up with the guys because it was time to gamble! We took an Uber over to Fremont Street, which in a lot of ways feels like Time Square. Even though it was nighttime, the amount of lights on this street made it feel like the sun was still up. There were multiple stages with different singers performing, more street performers than I could count, and people zip lining above us. Fremont Street is covered by this video screen which felt very trippy, like we were in space.
We first went into the Golden Nugget. Neither of us are big gamblers and Zoe had never been to a casino before, so we knew we wanted to play it safe. Zoe put one dollar into a penny slot machine and after some back and forth ended up cashing out with one dollar. When you cash out, the machine gives you a voucher for that amount which you take to one of the tellers to redeem your money. Zoe then tried the roulette machine, and made six dollars! She was so excited, and very quickly understood why gambling is so addicting. By the end of the night she had won thirty bucks, and was a happy camper.
JK’s gambling luck swung the other way though. We went into Fremont Hotel and Casino and JK had been talking with another person in our group about playing a little poker. He plays with his friends at home sometimes and figured he would give it a try, it being our first time in Vegas after all. He sat down at one of the tables with a dealer and bought in. We quickly learned that poker rules at a table in Vegas are totally different than at home with friends. They are very strict about not bending the cards at all, only using one hand to pick them up, and moving pretty quickly in general without really clarifying the rules. The vibe was pretty serious and it was a very different game playing against the dealer instead of playing against everyone else at the table. Long story short (although not that long…) within a few minutes, JK had gone bust. We knew we may lose and didn’t wager too much, again gambling isn’t really our “thing,” but we figured it was a once in a lifetime experience and we were glad to give it a try.
After running around the different casinos, we realized we hadn’t eaten dinner, and it was almost midnight. I was expecting all of the restaurants to still be serving food, since the vibe was reminiscent of New York City, but that wasn’t the case. We searched multiple restaurants and finally found Nacho Daddy’s (where they are known for their scorpion shots) which was open and serving dinner until very late. It was super packed but we waited and got a table. It was a good meal and after refueling, we headed back into the adult arcade that is the casino and played a few more games. It is easy to stay up late in Vegas and eventually we called it a night and saved a few bucks walking back to our Airbnb.
We love trying unique foods and places to eat while we are traveling and wanted to make sure with our limited time that we got to try at least one of the “must try” places in Las Vegas. We did a lot of research on different blogs, travel advisor, google, and everywhere else we could find. Something we like to look for is if a certain restaurant continues to pop up on multiple recommendation sites. One that we kept noticing was Honey Salt and saw that they serve a nice brunch. As you can imagine, we all definitely needed a good brunch after the late night we had, and Honey Salt didn’t disappoint.
After our tasty brunch, it was time to head out to our next destination, Zion National Park! Check out the next leg of our travel blog where we discuss what has become one of our favorite National Parks.
Final Thoughts…
Overall, we felt it was definitely a fun experience getting to romp around Las Vegas for a night. It can be a bit of a money suck, which I guess is the point when the main activity to do there is gamble. We would recommend if you do go, to check out the arts district, see a good show, and set a limit on what you would be okay with losing while gambling. Since hey, you may win(!), but also, the house never loses, so for every winner, there are gonna be a few losers. To get the most out of your budget and to try a few different games, you can play some of the lower stake games or penny slots. And after you get your fill of the casino, try some good restaurants and then head on out!
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