January has been pretty exciting for me since last three years, It marks my annual ritual trip to Las Vegas, this is my third trip this year. Almost all of my trips have been because of work. Since Las Vegas has some of the biggest hotels[1] in the world it has become a natural choice for some of the biggest American companies to host their internal and external conferences. As an example, CES hosts some 200,000 people every year [2].
This year I started my 30-hour flight journey, yes you heard it right I had a 9-hour layover at the London airport. Though it was far from ideal it was not that bad. If you can arrange priority pass [3] card from your credit card company or pay for it. Then you can use the lounge, showers and much more for free. I manage to steal the below picture from a hoarding at the airport.
Then after much rest and time pass at the airport terminal, I boarded my next flight to Las Vegas. When I landed McCarran International Airport, the first surprise for me was the weather, despite rest of US struggling with cold wave because of the polar vortex [4], Las Vegas was still a good comfortable 20-degree Celsius.
Another surprise for first-time travelers would be the slot machines at the airport. I believe its the only airport in the world to have slot machines. The below photo is from my previous trip to Vegas.
When you move towards the strip [5] you realize how relatively small it is compared to other cities. The whole sole focus of the strip is entertainment, gambling, and fun.
You can see really big mega billboards, it’s really magical like you suddenly are part of a sci-fi movie. But after a point, they become just an advertisement.
Another interesting aspect of Las Vegas is its hotels, as I shared earlier it has some of the biggest hotels in the world and these hotels are not that expensive compared to rest of America. It’s common for casino hotels to lure people with low room rates as they make most of their money from gambling. These humongous hotels have some of the biggest casinos in the world.
It’s usually an endless grid of slot machines and card tables where you lose track of time. The only thing to remember while gambling in Las Vegas is “The House Always Wins” [6]
Vegas is also famous for its extravagant parties and clubs if you are a party person you are in the right place. I got a chance to attend one of the pool parties in Bellagio. Though you cannot figure out much from the image they usually are pretty big.
Couple of other interesting things to see in Vegas is to witness the magical fountains at Bellagio and Palazzo. Here is the small one at Palazzo hotel.
You should also try out the Venetian hotel, it has a very interesting shopping and restaurant complex mimicking Venice with canals and gondolas. You can even ride one !!
And there is definitely a long list of other things you could try which I still haven’t.
1. Trips to the grand canyon.
2. Stratosphere Tower SkyJump
3. Slushy Drinks [7]
…
[1] https://financesonline.com/10-biggest-hotelst-in-the-world-the-highest-number-of-rooms-to-stay-in/
[2] https://www.ces.tech/About-CES/CES-by-the-Numbers.aspx
[4] https://www.weather.gov/safety/cold-polar-vortex
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