With no fixed itinerary here's a random selection of photos taken during my couple of days in Vegas. I'm familiar with Vegas now but I still find myself walking so many miles here it's insane and I didn't even bother walking all the way to the Stratosphere like I did last time. A lot of my time was spent just touring the casinos and doing the things that caught my fancy.
The Luxor at the bottom of the strip.
Usually a good alternative to the Hard Rock if you like loud music and lots of food, however there was a great cover band playing not far from here who I spent more time at instead of going in here.
There are games themed around just about everything.
A view looking up from New York New York
Inside The Cosmopolitan.
The themed gardens inside the Bellagio had an underwater theme on this trip.
I can never figure out how these work.
Caesers Palace is full of old things.
Caesers Palace is full of old things.
They were celebrating something here and also have a walking tour of their replica statues.
Some nice art at the Aria monorail station.
Why bother paying croupiers when you can just have video ones.
The first time I came to Vegas I commented that it was hard to leave the casino once in as they encouraged you to stay and play the games. Clearly 2 decades on they've now started displaying proper maps.
The Bellagio fountains as most tourists don't photograph. Due to winds the displays weren't running in the evening and there's rumours to save costs they don't go as high as they used to. I can't confirm that though.
The pirate boat at Treasure Island that used to be a stage for a show is now just theming as the casino moves away from the pirating theme.
I'd never bothered to check this out on my previous visits so thought I'd give it a go this time.
A lot of the big cats were resting away from the sun unless encouraged to play by some very brave handlers.
BurGR at Planet Hollywood is still one of my favourite places to eat on the strip. The milkshake is stunning!
The second Titanic exhibition of the trip. I didn't bother with this one.
Excalibur hotel.
Spazmatics, really?
As ever there were poker tourneys going on. I chose not to participate this time. Been there, done there, blew it.
Some nice pieces in the self branded high art galleries within the Planet Hollywood Miracle Mile Mall
They really do have games themed around everything.
In Vegas everything is possible but usually with a price.
Clubbing in Vegas is weird with an onus on getting people to spend cash more than dancing. If you're on the floor you're not spending money so how do you make it a viable proposition given the extraordinary payments being made to the DJs. You charge a lot to get in and encourage paying for tables. Getting in also looks very tough with different queues for single sexes, groups etc. I think to say you've been clubbing in Vegas is to have gotten in, stayed for a short while and then left; nothing like what we have here.
The detail in this is incredible.
Yours for a small fortune. Found in some autographed memorabilia store in Caeser's Palace.
A display of costumes in Victoria Secrets.
A little display of tornadoes in the mall next to the Aria
New York New York
Some of the desserts from the MGM's buffet.
UFC is popular here, and I was a week away from 200 where Brock Lesner was due to face Mark Hunt, which would be a great fight I think. (I subsequently found out that Brock won)
A new section just next to New York New York is called The Park. There's a new stadium, the T-Mobile Arena, some eating places and this really cool statue called Bliss Dance.
I saw 2 Cirque Shows here, which I'll review on the main blog, but Mystere offers some insight into the training during the afternoon. The theatre is opened up for you to go in and see the troup practising. This is the first time I've seen this insight and stumbled upon it quite by chance so was chuffed to see this.
This is just a taster of what I got up to.
