It also has the longest security line I’ve ever seen. I was there weekdays, not the weekend, and the longest lines were when i was arriving, not when i was leaving. But i was terrified, and left myself a lot more time to get through the airport than i usually do. And then i was stuck in this not-very-nice airport with noisy slot machines all over the place for a lot longer than i wanted to be there.
I just find the slot machines in the airport to be a depressing sight. Like they’re there just to cater to the lingering gambling urge of tourists about to leave for home.
I’ve been there twice, just to visit a friend along with my gf. I did the one ‘Vegas’ thing I’ve ever wanted to do, which was go see Penn & Teller, which was excellent. Nothing else appeals to me, except for the natural sights out of town.
We go for a near annual hiking trip to the desert southwest each April. On the last night (or on this years trip, on the middle rest day) we get a room on the Strip, get tickets to a show, plan a nice meal, and enjoy. It’s an amazing contrast to the rest of the trip, a bit of hedonism amongst the long dusty days.
Dubai appears to be Vegas with more money and less alcohol. Can’t wait to visit there either.
Dont forget the smoke! Lots of cigarette smoke with those banks of slot machines.
There’s an amusement park at the back of Circus Circus…we dropped our teenaged boys there for a little bit while we did…something, I forget.
We walked into the Circus Circus tchotchke shop. The whole place is non-smoking now…but the best way to describe that room was ‘30 years of cigarette smoke, 30 years ago.’ and if you know anything about cigarettes, you know exactly how that smells, even if you’ve never smelled it before.
Well, I’m going to be in Vegas next week from Thursday-Sunday for the first two rounds of March Madness. We’re staying downtown at the ‘old’ strip. I’ll report back on my experiences.
Ditto… haven’t been since the 20teens but that was my own pattern as well.
As to the OP, yeah, a lot of it was even designed as the “decidedly not wealthy people’s idea of what wealthy high rollers do”. Even in its peak times, and in its more refined venues, the sophistication and glamour was something you found in specific spaces… you drove to the hotel that contained the glamorous club and you walked through the casino to get to it: the glamour was contained IN that room. In spirit, the Strip is still is a loooooong-assed road connecting resorts with not much worthwhile really happening in between.
That, very much.
The “Family Vegas” boom of the 90s did refresh the place quite a bit, to the point of transforming it. However the next big revival wave that was supposed to bring fancy back ran smack into the 2008 real estate and banking crash, it set them back a bit. Also one advantage Vegas had was that the fauxglam was very reasonably priced for your middle class visitor… but then what with changes in financial condition and corporate ownership came price increases, fee increases, and “de-contenting” of packages and offers from the sorts of niceties people used to expect.
Make sure you hit Circa. Great sports book and a brand new hotel/casino. Also fantastic food choices all along Fremont and scattered in the Arts District.
Heh. That just happens to be the place that our ‘tour guide’ has booked for the first day of hoops on Thursday. Looking forward to it!
Clearly you’ve never seen SeaTac.
It’s not even a good way to see the Strip.
Even on the Strip the quality of hotel varies so vastly that one’s experience has a lot to do with where you stay and where you visit. It’s a hell of a jump from the Excalibur to the Aria.
I’ll post a longer defense of Las Vegas tomorrow, but I did want to comment on Harry Reid International / McCarran. Sure, it’s big and sometimes you have to ride a monorail to get to a different terminal, but it doesn’t seem any worse than most of the other big airports I’ve been through, including LAX and Bush Intercontinental. It definitely has Denver beat. That was the only time I’ve ever had to go through security while making a connection because you have to leave the secure area to move from one terminal to another. Even if you don’t like the slots, long walks, etc., I think having to go through security when changing terminals automatically makes Denver the worst airport in the US.
Or Tropicana to Wynn. Hell, Paris to the Cosmopolitan, and they’re across the street from one another! People who stay at Excalibur have a completely different experience from people who stay at Encore.
Las Vegas has always ranked last among places I’d want to go to for a professional meeting or on vacation.
It might be different if I was interested in gambling, glitzy stage acts, patronizing hookers or seeing assorted lowlifes behaving badly. I’m content to see (North) Las Vegas featured in occasional “Cops” reruns.
Only been to Vegas twice, but my takeaway was that everything is a lie. If you’re lucky it’s a lie in your favor: $35 buffet? Free if you follow them on twitter! $10 to see the cars at the Imperial? Free if you print out a page from their website.
Usually though, the lie is not in your favor. The sign says $3 drafts, how do two cost me $12? Half price tickets mean face value plus a fee. 10 minutes from the airport, not this century. The sign on the cab says you take credit cards… etc.
I think that is a signage issue or you were given bad directions. It is possible to go from one concourse to another on the train, but I can also see it being very easy to end up at the terminal on the wrong side of security by not knowing (how would you?) that the way to get from A to C is by going to the entrance of A, not the exit.
Heheh, I went to Vegas for the first time last year to attend a company convention. I don’t travel well (never sleep well outside of my own house), and I found the food in Vegas to be generally bad, and it was filled with things I didn’t want to do.
The one thing I enjoyed was a company party at one of the swankier penthouse bars in the city. Great prime rib, I was able to get free Japanese whiskey, but I’d never pay for what I believe that nonsense cost. My boss asked me if I wanted to do some things in the city, but playing a portable keyboard in my room generally seemed more appealing. The few times I took her up on the offer, I regretted it. I also caught covid on the trip.
So yeah, I’m mostly “meh” on Vegas.
Then, a week after I left (and was recovering from covid) I found out about Omega Mart. Damn, I wish I’d known. There’s supposed to be one in DFW soon, but I still kinda want to book a band to play the Vegas one.
ETA: If you do go, let us know if the product lives up to the packaging!
One of the weirdest aspects of the Vegas economy has got to be the exceedingly
high concentration of Goodwills and other second-hand stores. These support a similarly large number of Vegasites who make their livings buying various flavors of used merch and selling it to each other. Most of them have YouTube channels; Google “Las Vegas resellers” for a sample.
The Goodwills in LV are stocked with a much more lavish and appealing array of kitsch than I’ve ever seen in any of the used merch stores in my area (Sacramento). There has got to be a thesis for an Econ major in this phenomenon.
We went last year and enjoyed it. We are going to the one in Denver in a couple weeks, and the wife wants to check out Albuquerque someday.
So, how was Death Valley? One of the weirder and more enjoyable national park trips I’ve been on was a December trip to Death Valley.
As for Vegas, you can definitely get a very deluxe experience if you have the money. I have had more than one fabulous meal there. You an also get swamped in sleaze and kitsch. It’s really what you want out of it.