Happy Thursday, friends! This post on Las Vegas has been highly requested and a few of you are going over Christmas so I figured I would go ahead and post it! I was honestly a little scared to go to Las Vegas because I had no idea what to expect. In my head, I pictured it to be dirty, with drunk people everywhere haha. It was the complete opposite! It was so so nice, very clean, and beautiful - there are tons of amazing hotels, shopping, and SO MUCH to do and see. I was pleasantly surprised and would recommend the trip to anyone. If you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments!
WHERE TO STAY
We stayed at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and LOVED it. We all decided at the end of the trip after visiting some of the other hotels that the Cosmopolitan was our favorite out of every one we saw. Here are some of the bullet points:
*Room: The above picture is the view from our balcony. We stayed in the West Tower in a Terrace One Bedroom Fountain View, which was really spacious and had a Japanese soaking tub, private balcony, two TVs and a living room area. Plus the view from the balcony was phenomenal!!
*Atmosphere: It was very vibrant and full of life... there were lots of young people (and some families too) and we felt very comfortable there and right at home. You could walk downstairs at 3 am in the morning or 3 pm in the afternoon and it didn't matter - there were always people around having fun. For the guys - there was a gigantic wall of TVs that plays sports 24/7. Chris loved that!
*Location: We decided the Cosmopolitan was also located in the best spot! We were within walking distance to shows and a lot of the major attractions, and right next door to the Bellagio fountains. I also appreciated that there was tons of shopping nearby, including luxury stores.
*Restaurants/Things to do: We LOVED the food at the Cosmopolitan (see below category for more). The Cosmopolitan also has two really nice pools, and in the Winter they turn one into an ice skating rink. Chris and I checked it out - it was on a rooftop and they were selling festive Christmas cocktails at the bar right next to the rink. It was really cool! The casino part was also awesome. I am not a big gambler (it gives me anxiety) but I did play on a slot machine and at the roulette table - it was actually really fun!
WHERE TO EAT
Like I said above, we ate most of our meals at the restaurants within the Cosmopolitan because it was easy and convenient. There are sooo many restaurants in Vegas, they have practically every restaurant you could think of. The one night we ventured outside the hotel, we ate at "Shake Shack," a famous burger restaurant based in NYC. Here were are favorite restaurants within the hotel:
*Eggslut: Amazing breakfast sandwiches! We all had bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches - they came with spicy ketchup and OMG. So good.
*Wicked Spoon: This was a buffet restaurant where we ate brunch one morning. It's a little pricey - $50 for the buffet and unlimited mimosas - but so so good. The had every type of food you could imagine for brunch - mashed potatoes, sushi, pancakes, Japanese noodles, eggs benedict, pastries, gelato, you get the picture. It was AMAZING!
*Holsteins: This was a burger joint where we ate the first night. They have amazing burgers, salads and milkshakes. We got the buffalo chicken dip too and it was so good!
WHERE TO PLAY
We packed in a ton of activities into a short amount of time while we were in Vegas. The most fun thing we did was attend the UNC vs. Kentucky basketball game at the T-Mobile arena. I went to UNC and Krista went to Kentucky, and our teams have a huge rivalry... it was so so fun! The game was really close too, and the whole area was going crazy. Here are some other things we did:
*Visit the Venetian: The Venetian is a hotel modeled after Venice. You walk in and see beautiful painted ceilings and Venetian-style architecture. No trip to Venice would be complete without a romantic glide down the Grand Canal in a gondola - which you can do on the second floor of the hotel! The ceiling is painted like a sky and is slightly glowing - it looks so real that when we first walked in, I thought I was actually looking at the sky. It's incredible!
*Vist New York New York: This is another incredible casino/hotel that is modeled after NYC. Different sections of the casino are modeled after different neighborhoods in NYC, and they even have restaurants and shops that are authentic to those neighborhoods. The coolest thing we did was ride on the Big Apple Roller Coaster which you can access through New York New York's arcade. The roller coaster itself was INTENSE with lots of turns and an upside-down twist. We rode it at sunset and saw an incredible view of Las Vegas!
*Shopping: The boys were SUCH good sports and walked around with us while we shopped. The Bellagio (right next door to our hotel) has luxury shops like Chanel, Gucci and Valentino, while on the other side at the Las Vegas CityCenter you'll find more luxury stores, including a 3-story Louis Vuitton.
*Shows: There are tons of shows to see in Las Vegas, whether you want to attend a concert (both Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez were performing while we were there) or a magic show, dance performance or play.
*Helicopter ride: A bench of helicopter companies offer tours of the Grand Canyon (it is very close to Vegas). I wanted to do this sooo bad but we didn't have time! They will even come pick you up and drop you back off at your hotel, and the entire trip is around 3.5 hours.
*Eiffel Tower: You can visit the Eiffel Tower attraction (modeled after the one in Paris, but a lot smaller!) and even eat lunch at the Eiffel Tower restaurant.
me and Krista from Covering the Bases blog!
If you have any questions about Vegas, let me know in the comments!
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*Disclaimer: I was not paid to write this post, however I did receive compensation in the form of room c/o The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. As always all opinions are my own.