Las Vegas — 8 Hours
Vegas, one of the greatest places to visit. Food, gambling, and shops, what more could you ask for? For me, I hold Las Vegas very dear to my heart. It's still one of my favorite destinations to visit. This will showcase my first time in Vegas as well as the first-day trip I’ve ever taken.
My girlfriend and I had a free day with nothing planned. Our first instinct was to try to fill it, but with what? I had the bright idea of taking a “day-trip”, leave early in the morning and come back late in the evening. Now the question is to where? We loaded up a map and wrote down 5 cities we’d like to see, Nashville, Los Angels, Las Vegas, Tampa, or New Orleans. After that, we found a spinning wheel online and typed out the 5 cities. We spun the wheel and the hand landed right on Las Vegas. The next part is getting all our ducks in a row.
Flight to LAS
Our original plan was to take a non-stop flight to Las Vegas (LAS) but when we arrived at the airport, the gate agent informed us the flight was full with no chance of us making it. Luckily, she helped us map out a new route to Vegas and it only cost us 2 extra hours. Be sure to peer out the window when descending, its awesome to see all the mountains that surround Vegas and the ginormous hotels. Originally our flight was slated for an 8:30 AM arrival but due to the changes, we arrived at 10:30 AM.
8 Hours in Las Vegas Begins
Walking off the plane felt different than what I am accustomed to, the air felt dry and hot. Immediately, we started looking around for the Uber pickup zone. This took us a bit to find because the airport is huge and the signs are not as descriptive as they could be. After asking for directions and walking across the bridge, we found the pickup zone. We hopped in our Uber and begun our trip. She told us the best place to start Vegas is the New York, New York Hotel.
- New York, New York Hotel
We took a few pictures outside with the sign and walked in. We saw rows and rows of pretty lights and loud sounds coming from the slot machines. We didn’t gamble at these machines but we did pass them on our way to the Hershey store. There you will see the biggest of chocolate bars and Reeces. Afterward, we walked outside, passed the Shake Shack and Bobby Flays Burgers.
2. Park MGM
The next hotel on the strip was Park MGM, which is the newest of the renovated properties by MGM. The Park MGM Hotel has tons of little eateries and shops but the main theme is Italian. You’ll be able to try gelato, cannolis, and a whole lot more!
3. Aria Hotel
Aria hotel is beautiful, the towers are gigantic and the feel of it all is amazing. When you walk in you’ll see flowers galore and bright neon restaurant lights. We passed through Aria to get to our next spot, the Shops at Crystals.
4. The Shops at Crystals
Right, when you walk in you see stores like Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton, and other expensive designer shops. We walked around and got a feel for the mall, as well as saw some designer items we have only seen online previously. After making a quick roundabout only stopping at stores we’ve heard of, we exited on our way to the Cosmopolitan Hotel.
5. Cosmopolitan Hotel
This is by far my favorite hotel on the strip. I love the look, games, food, and overall atmosphere. We explored the casino and played a few slots, then headed up the escalator and saw a giant pink neon sign that read “Milk”. I’ve never seen a store in person before but only in a documentary from YouTube. We bought the cereal milk flavor with the corn flakes on top, it was delicious! After enjoying our ice cream, we both knew that would not fill us up and we're both hungry for more. We headed outside and crossed the road to Planet Hollywood.
6. Planet Hollywood Shops
In Planet Hollywood Shops are tons of normal shops like ALDO, Foot Locker, and others. Our main focus was finding the restaurant called Ocean One Bar & Grille.
7. Ocean One Bar & Grille
We read about this place before heading to Vegas and knew we had to check it out. The big draw factor of this place is between lunch hours of 11–5 PM every food item on the menu is 5 bucks! Normal-sized entree portions all for only $5 each is a great deal. I recommend ordering the Caribbean Mahi Sandwich, it was the best! They also have fantastic deals on drinks too. Every time we come back to Las Vegas, we make it a priority to have lunch at this spot.
8. Paris Paris Hotel
After eating some lunch, we continued walking down the strip to the next hotel Paris Paris. You’ll never lose track of where this hotel is located because there's a gigantic Eiffel tower out front! We played a few slot machines here and were on our way across the street to the Bellagio.
9. The Bellagio Hotel
Every 30 mins the water fountains out front of the Bellagio Hotel erupt with music and a show, it's incredible. After enjoying the show, we walked the long path up to the Bellagio lobby. In the lobby, you’ll see talented glassworks on the ceilings, as well as vibrant flowers that are most certainly real. I was perplexed the first time I saw this because I thought the flowers were plastic. The most important area of the Bellagio to see is the garden. I was blown away by the craftsmanship of how they again used real flowers and created a masterpiece. After enjoying that work of art, it was time to head back to the airport. We called our Uber and were on our way.
Flight from LAS
Our flight back was not as eventful as the flight to here, which was a good thing. We landed home at 10:30 PM and were in our beds by 11:30 PM.
A successful day trip complete.
