Date | Activities for the day | Food $ | Activity $ |
Saturday | - Check into hotel | $0 | Cab ride: $26 Total food: $0 |
Sunday | - M&M’s World - Visit Excalibur & Luxor - Shark Reef Aquarium @ Mandalay Bay - Bellagio Fountains - Pick up water and snacks for roadtrips @ Walgreens | Breakfast: $5 @ La Salsa Cantina Lunch: $10 @ Sandwich place Dinner: $40 Bellagio Buffet dinner | Casino: $50 Shark Reef: $16 Water and snacks: $20 Total food: $75 |
Monday | - Pick up car - Hoover Dam - Red Rock Canyon - Ethel M Chocolate Factory | Breakfast: $10 @ diner Lunch: $10 @ In n Out Burger Dinner: $25 @ Il Fornaio (New York New York) | Hoover Dam parking: $7/car Red Rock Canyon: $13/car Total food: $45 |
Tuesday | - Grand Canyon | Breakfast: $5 @ McD's Lunch: $15 @ local food court Dinner: $10 for 50 nuggets @ McD's | Entrance fee: $25/car Total food: $20 |
Wednesday | - Las Vegas Premium Outlet - Las Vegas Outlet Ctr - Come back to hotel | Brunch: $15 @ IHOP Dinner: $30 @ Trevi (Cesars Palace) | Total food: $45 |
Thursday | - Return car - Take the Deuce/Express bus to Stratosphere - Bonanza Gifts - World’s largest Circus @ Circus Circus - Visit Riviera & Sahara hotels - Pensky Wynn Ferrari & Maserati @ Wynn - Sirens @ TI - Freemont St | Breakfast: $10 @ diner Lunch: $10 Dinner: $45 buffet dinner @ Wynn ($34.95 + tax/tips) | Casino: $50 Deuce fare: $7 for all day pass Maserati Entrance fee: $10 Total food: $60 |
Friday | - Visit Venetian, Harrah’s, Casino Royale, Imperial Palace, Palazzo - Visit the Fashion Mall - Wildlife Habitat @ Flamingo - Return to hotel to change into nice clothes - Cirque @ 9:30pm | Breakfast: $5 @ cafe Lunch: $15 @ CheeseCake Factory (Cesars Palace) Dinner: $50 @ Julian Serrano (Aria) | Casino: $50 Total food: $65 |
Saturday | - Check out at 11am - Mirage Volcano - Coca cola store - Visit Mirage, Bellagio, Aria, Cosmopolitan, - Eiffel Tower @ Paris hotel - Flight home | Brunch: $25 @ Bouchon (Venetian) Dinner: $25 @ Jevos (Cosmopolitan) | Casino: $50 Eiffel Tower: $11 Total food: $50 Taxi to the airport $14 |
A summary of each day:
Saturday
- We got ripped off by a cabbie. He took the long way to our hotel and made some big spiel about tipping the cabbie. Everyone wanted to shoot him and stuff him in his trunk and blow the cab up. Don't mention it to the others again or they'll just shake their heads and get started on it. I hope he burns in hell.
Sunday
- La Salsa Cantina has a cheap $4 breakfast which consists of eggs, bacon/sausage, home fries and 2 tortillas. Unfortunately it didn't taste too great. The water had some serious chlorine issues with the taste, the egg tasted watered down or tasted like egg substitue, and the corn tortillas were eh (maybe flour tortillas taste better) and the sausage was oily (but expected). The only DECENT thing we had was the side of Texas toast that we ordered.
- M&M's world is cool. 4 levels of ... M&M's related stuff.
- There is a tram between Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay. Make use of it.
- There is a patisserie called Jean Philippe Patisserie and they have locations in a few hotels. The desserts are mouthwatering and they have a wide selection of bakery items. If you get a chance, grab a dessert here and buy some bakery items home!
- The "shark reef aquarium" at Mandalay Bay is nice but not really worth $16. We took about 45 minutes to walk through it and we were walking pretty slow and spent a good 15-20 minutes at the sting ray interactive exhibit (you get to touch sting rays and other aquatic animals). The glass tunnel at the end was cool tho - you see all the fish swim about. We spent a good 5-10 minutes sitting here and staring at the fish.
- Bellagio fountains are pretty to watch during the day but even more beautiful to watch at night.
- Bellagio buffet dinner is nice but overrated.
- There are Walgreens and CVS pharmacies on the strip. It's good (and cheaper) if you need to buy snacks/food.
Monday
- In n Out Burger is overrated. But cheap. Fries and shakes are decent.
- Hoover Dam is nice to see. But it is just a dam .. good thing it's only 45 min away.
- Red Rock Canyon is beautiful. Do make the trip out to see it!
- We missed all the production in Ethel M chocolate factory because we got there right at closing. Would have been cool to see chocolate moving along the conveyor belt. Had some friends try the chocolate, they say it tastes like any other chocolate so not sure if you want to fork over $ to buy chocolate there.
- Food in Il Fornaio in New York New York was TERRIBLE. It's got to be some of the worst Italian food I've ever had. The guys thought it was decent because they were starving but I thought it was pretty bad .. comparable to Sbarro (never eating there again either). Portions were small, the tomato sauce on our spaghetti was watery and tasteless, cannelloni was sloppily put together and too cheesy (maybe it's like that?).
Tuesday
- Grand Canyon is quite a sight to see. Go see if you have a chance. We went to the south rim on advice from the car rental lady at the hotel. Heard that the west rim is owned by the Indians and they may restrict you on what you can do. But also heard that the general sights at south rim are more spectacular. Make sure you make good use of the free bus rides to different view points. I would suggest you get there early to go to as many points as possible.
Wednesday
- IHOP has pretty good breakfasts, I have to admit. My first and only time there and it did not disappoint. I had a giant omelet that came with pancakes. Other ordered waffles, and strawberry pancakes and everyone enjoyed their food. Way better than Denny's.
- Las Vegas Premium Outlet mall (near Freemont st) trumps Las Vegas Outlet mall any day. The premium outlet mall is like Shops of Don Mills - all the shops are outdoors and in a nice complex. It was a beautiful day for us so it made the experience that much better. You could seriously spend a whole day here shopping and prices were dirt cheap so allocate a day here!
- Trevi @ Cesars was decent Italian food. Definitely better than Il Fornaio.
Thursday
- Deuce/Express bus that runs along Las Vegas Blvd is a very nicely run transit system. $5 for 2 hrs or $7 for all day (week/month options available too). Runs frequently and there are informational things at the stops that shows which one stops at which stops. Cheap way to get to the north end of the Strip or to go to Freemont St/Premium outlet.
- Bonanza Gifts is a tacky souvenir store. Great if you want cliche or tacky or gag souvenirs. Not good if you want nice meaningful souvenirs. It is a huge store tho .. you could spend a good amount of time laughing at the gag souvenirs.
- Circus Circus, Riviera and Sahara are LAME hotels, Circus Circus being the lamest of them all. I don't know how this place continues to stay in business but I wouldn't waste money returning to this place if I ever come back to Vegas.
- Pensky Ferrari & Maserati has NICE cars. OBVIOUSLY. But for $10 to see 2 dozen nice cars but not be allowed to take pictures, not sure if it's worth it. That and everything in the gift shop is absurdly priced - $50 for a TSHIRT. REALLY? $20,000 for a model car. REALLY?
- Sirens of TI is .. ok? It's a free show that lasts about 20 minutes and has fireworks and big booms so it wasn't that bad (much better than the lame shows at Cesars).
- Wynn buffet dinner is also overrated. And overpriced. Similar selection as Bellagio but food here tasted better. AND they had a better dessert area. But still .. $35 + tax/tips is kinda pricey. Unless you can eat like 20 pounds of snow crab.
- Freemont St is kinda cool. Take the Deuce/Express bus up. Takes about 45 min from the bottom of the strip but it's worth the ride. It's cool seeing the lighted ceiling and there's a lot of random stores/restaurants/sights to see.
Friday
- Venetian and the Palazzo are NICE hotels. Mirage is nice too. Others are meh. But visit them anyways .. what else are you going to do besides blow your RRSP's at the tables?
- Go visit Jean Philippe Patisserie again for dessert. It's worth it.
- Wildlife Habitat @ Flamingo is a lot smaller than we thought it was. But it's free, so go check it out anyways.
- Fashion Mall is a good place to go shopping, especially if you're not able to hit up the outlets. You could easily spend half a day in there.
- Julian Serrano was really good. At least, I liked it. Our waitress was really nice and helpful. Food was delicious.
- Cirque was .. weird? Saw Ka and it was a random collection of acrobatics, acting and cool special stage effects. No storyline whatsoever. See a different show instead.
Saturday
- Had lunch at Bouchon in Venetian. Got to be the best brunch we've ever had. I ordered french toast and didn't like it too much but their chicken and waffles is FAB (never heard of chicken/waffles til now. Seen it many times in menus). Their coffee is also FAB and I bought a bag of grind home (their cappuccino, not so much).
- Mirage volcano is a cool sight. It's free, so check it out
- Coca Cola store is cool, check it out. You can get a picture with the polie bear lol
- Cosmopolitan is quite a nice hotel. Check it out. Other hotels are quite nice, but I think Mandarin Oriental is only a hotel (while all the others have a casino and shops).
- Eiffel Tower is worth the money, especially if you go at night. You can see the entire strip lit up, and if you're lucky you can catch the Bellagio fountain show. If you're even more lucky you'll get to see a proposal in the works! While we were there a guy proposed to his gf and it was a cute sight to see. We waited about 10-15 min line and there were not that many ppl in front of us. Potential to be a long wait so make sure you're not tight on time when you visit (or you can buy the "priority" ticket which gives you first access to the single elevator (which can fit like 11 ppl), but it's more expensive.