7 Days in Vegas

I wish I could travel to Vegas more often but right now it looks like I can only book one Vacation per year.  When I go back I’m going to travel in late April again into early May as I found this was when the weather was just starting to heat up and the pools should be open.  We had perfect weather there on our last trip and I can’t wait to get there and play some poker, golf, and feast at all the buffets.

Some things I miss:

Mike from American Shooters

• Firing machine guns at the local gun ranges;
• Cruising down the Strip in the Rental at night;
• Mountain biking through Cottonwood Valley and trying not to run over Rattlesnakes;
• Going to the Bellagio buffet and trying one bite of everything. (So wasteful but who cares….)
• Just the good feeling you get in your stomach knowing your thousands of miles away from your daily life and routine.

Only 184 Days to go…

Until then I’ll be slowly crossing the days off my calendar.

October 25th, 2008 | Category: 7 Days in Vegas, Trip Reports | Leave a comment

What is the worst part about a week in Vegas?  The flight home.   A close second: hangovers and herpes…. J/K

There is too much to do, too much to see, Too many casinos and resorts to visit them all within 7 days.  The only thing you can think about once you get home from your trip is when can you go back.

For myself, it will be 365 days until I return to the Nevada desert for another week of freedom.  I’ll be looking to get back there late April 2009 which gives me lots of time to plan my next trip and I’ll have a much better idea where I want to stay and where I want to play.

Places I want to stay when I go back:

• Bellagio or Venetian: I feel liked I’ve stayed at the lower end of hotels (Golden Nugget) which was good for the price but this time I’m going to splurge and stay at a 5 star on the Strip.
  

  Venetian

Places I will avoid when I go back:

• Downtown: I can’t think of a reason to go downtown other than the light show on Freemont St. or some cheap gambling.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

September 29th, 2008 | Category: 7 Days in Vegas, Trip Reports | Leave a comment

So your reading this blog, chances are you might own a laptop and you might want to bring it to Vegas so you can look up info on the Internet while you’re there. I know when I was there it definitely came in handy and I used my laptop almost every day. The only concerns I had about bringing my laptop was finding an Internet connection and storing the laptop when I was out of my hotel room so the maids wouldn’t steal it.

So we check into our room at the Golden Nugget and I was happy to see that they have an Internet connection right in my hotel room. Perfect I was thinking, so I went down to the lobby to go get it setup. Turns out that the hotel wants to charge me $13/day and they also want to preauthorize my credit card $700 for the week just so I can use the Internet. Are you kidding I asked? I guess they weren’t and I guess cash is no good at the Golden Nugget either. There is no way I was going to put down a $700 deposit plus another $100 just to have Internet for the week.

So I headed back up to the room, disappointed at the Nugget for their crap customer service and then I thought I would try out my wireless connection just to see if I could get lucky and pick up somebody else’s connection.

Turns out I was in luck, some company called Cheetah Wireless has wireless internet all throughout Las Vegas and the downtown. I was able to get an hour of service for free so I gave it a try. It worked fine, good connection speed and once my free trial expired I forked over the dough for the pay service.

I don’t remember the exact rates but it was around $12/day, $37/week, or $50/month. I signed up for the week and it was well worth paying $37 compared to the $800 that they wanted at the Nugget.

So now that I was connected I just had to worry about storing my laptop. Basically I just tried to find a spot in the room I could hide it since it wouldn’t fit in the safe. I ended up hiding it on top of the TV armoire whenever I left the room and it worked great.

Next time I’m in Vegas I’ll be looking out for a private wireless company so i can get some decent cheap wireless service instead of paying the $13/day that most hotels are charging.  I figure they get enough money as it is why not just give out free Internet.  Maybe someday..but for now, I’ll go with Cheetah and keep more money in my pocket to play with.

September 14th, 2008 | Category: 7 Days in Vegas | Leave a comment

So you’re under 40 and you want to rock? You’re in Vegas and you want to rock? You want to party like a rockstar or see some rockstars then you must visit the home of rock; the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Vegas.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino

The Hard Rock is arguably one of the coolest places in Vegas for the younger crowd and they have must visit clubs, restaurants, and of course the casino. Head out there on a Saturday night and you can catch happy hour down at the Pink Taco, a little Mexican type of bar/restaurant that serves up half priced apps (4-6pm) and they have some of the cutest servers in town.

Pink Taco Hardrock Las Vegas

Head back into the casino and throw some dice or put a few bucks down on the roulette wheel. The drink service here is great, which means no long waiting to get that next Corona as long as you’re gambling.

Hard Rock Casino Entrance Las Vegas

Want to catch a good concert, then check out the upcoming events list at The Joint, no not stuff you smoke, but the Venue where all the top acts play at when they roll through town. We were lucky enough to see The Raconteurs play there back in April and it was easily the best Rock show I’ve ever seen. The beers are pricey $5-6, and the lines are long so grab two at a time.  On Sunday’s you want to check out the weekly pool party called Rehab if you want to be surround by the cream of the crop when it comes to Las Vegas hottest girls.

Las Vegas Rehab Party

Overall, our night at the Hard Rock was one to remember and a destination I will return to on my next trip to Vegas.

Extra Pics:

Hard Rock Las Vegas Elvis Collection

Hard Rock Las Vegas Motorcycles at Entrance

September 14th, 2008 | Category: 7 Days in Vegas, Featured, Gambling in Vegas, Shows in Vegas | Leave a comment

Day two, was really day one for us because we had wasted most of yesterday by flying and getting settled into our hotel room.  I finally got my wireless connection going so I had a decent Internet connection for the week.

We got up around noon, went to the Las Vegas Outlet Center south of the airport.  This place is the biggest outlet mall I’ve ever seen it’s well over a mile long and has 130 different outlet stores.  All big brand names are sold there and everything is half the price you would expect it to be.  Only had an hour to grab some stuff but I would be back here a few times through the week to get a new wardrobe, something to take home from Vegas if I can’t take down the casino as planned.

Las Vegas Outlet Center

We were hitting the links at 2:30pm at the Angel Park Golf Course so we drove on up there.  Everything about Angel Park was top notch.  The service staff are friendly, one of the guys bringing carts out offered to put my new spikes in for me while I was getting ready, thought that was good service.  The most impressive part of the day for me was the rental clubs the gave me, brand new Callaway Hyper X Woods and X20 Irons, better than my own clubs from home.  By the end of the day I wanted to buy a set but I though I would just go back to the hotel and try to win some money to pay for them.

Angel Park Pro shop

Got back to the Nugget around 7pm, went down to the Shark Tank to go for a swim.  This is probably one of the best things about the Golden Nugget is their sweet pool, with a shark tank that you can swim around from all sides.  Or just take the Water slide down and go through the middle of the tank.  Great way to relax after a great round of Golf.

Golden Nugget Shark Tank Pool

August 21st, 2008 | Category: 7 Days in Vegas, Daytrips, Featured, Golfing in Vegas, Trip Reports | Leave a comment

If there is only one thing I would recommend to anybody who has ever ridden an ATV or Dirtbikes, it is to take a tour through the Nevada desert with one.   This is your chance for the ultimate dream ride on some pretty sick machines.   Once your done it leaves you with the taste of sand in your mouth, dirty, and begging for more.

We booked it online through American Adventure Tours and we lucked out by having a small group of riders (6) and the guide was pretty cool too.

ATV Tour Guide Seth

The Day starts early and its best to do it with some good rest instead of a hangover. They offer free pickup service anywhere on the strip, we met up with our tour Guide Seth at 8am in a van with a trailer and some bikes hooked up on the back.  We filled out out our paperwork as we drove to Bellagio and Flamingo to pick up the other 4 people then headed 30 minutes south to the middle of the desert.

Las Vegas Extreme ATV Tour - Taking a break on the mountain

Why does this day have to end? I could have went on the afternoon tour if I wanted but we had some other things to do in the afternoon so we headed back to the Strip to get back to the room and clean up for the night.

Las Vegas ATV Tours - Great Views

When you should go: Seth told us between October and March is the best time for good weather.  We went in late April and it was perfect.

August 20th, 2008 | Tags: Las Vegas Extreme ATV Tours 4 Wheelers | Category: 7 Days in Vegas, Daytrips, Headline, Trip Reports | Leave a comment

Since there are unlimited choices of food in Vegas, surely you will find some killer restaurants with great food.  Since I am also a pizza addict I had many times to sample the pizza that Vegas had to offer.

I only had a few below average meals and one meal that I wouldn’t feed my dog.

Starting with the worst:

#10 Binions $10 Steak and Lobster special: If you want to dine with 50 rednecks and eat Grade D steak and lobster then you should dine at Binions dungy basement of doom restaurant.  You get what you pay for most of the time but this crap was a ripoff to say the least.

#9 Golden Nugget Buffet: I ate there only because I was staying at the Nugget and had a 241 coupon. I thought it was weird how you have to pay before you eat in vegas but I guess that’s because they don’t trust anybody.  Pablo or whoever served us was friendly, and the food was a little bit above McDonalds quality (which is garbage).

#8 $5 footlong subs from Subway: convieniently located all over Vegas, I went to the one near the Las Vegas Outlet Center and right next to a liquorstore with the cheapest liqour/beer in town, and a good selection.

#7 Pizza from O’Sheas: Way in the very back of Osheas they have a few fastfood type of places, a Subway, BK, and this cool little pizza place.  Great way to cure the hangover is a slice and a gatorade G2 from Osheas, plus you can watch all the idiots play beer pong right beside the tables.

#6 Carson St. Cafe @ Golden Nugget: Ate here about 5 times over the course of the week since they are the only 24hr food available at the Golden Nugget.  Good Club Sanwiches, and Wings for the 3am munchies.  The servers are friendly and most of them look like they’ve been working there since the Golden Nugget opened in the 60’s.

August 14th, 2008 | Tags: Binions Steak and Lobster Golden Nugget Osheas Carson S | Category: 7 Days in Vegas, Dining in Vegas | Leave a comment

Mini Putt Course - Angel Park

We booked our tee-time about one week in advance and booked a twilight time for 2:30pm on the Mountain Course.  They set us up with a cart and some sweet Callaway rental clubs.

View of the Strip from the Mountain Course

The total cost for the whole trip was less than $150 and included:

Twilight Golf including a cart – $75

Callaway Rental Clubs – $35

Range Balls – less than $5

New Spikes for my shoes – $10 plus $2 tip (one of the cart guys offered to install them for me)

Hotdog & Beer from the clubhouse – $8

August 9th, 2008 | Category: 7 Days in Vegas, Featured, Golfing in Vegas | Leave a comment