Las Vegas and More

Grand Canyon trip was wonderful.

Quick Tips:

Be sure to drink lots of water if you're going to walk the strip when it hot out. It can get over 100 degrees, and you can get heat exhaustion pretty quickly. Many hotels offer free trams to other hotels.. Before planning your day, make sure to schedule in these trams to minimize your walking. Also, don't walk downtown (other than freemont st) at night by yourself!

Best Way To Get Around:

Taxi's are good to get around.. I recommend renting a car for at least a day or two so you can see the beautiful things around Las Vegas.

The Luxor has an Egyptian theme. We stayed in the Pyramid (older). Newer rooms are in the tower. Due to flight delays, we got a room on the lower level (3rd floor, I think). Check in was a hassle.. the shuttle from the airport dropped us off at a registration desk that was close..we had to lug our luggage all over the place to find the other registration desk. No one around to help us with our luggage. We were tired, had a flight from hell (we got into the hotel at 2 am when we should have gotten there at 5:30pm) Anyways, our room was average. Inclinators (elevators that go up on an angle) in the pyramid took some getting used to. The view out of our window wasn''t that great.. we could see a roof. Staff at registration was nice, but service wasn''t 100%. Maybe it was the late hour, but still.

Got a good rate on the room from American Airlines vacations $550 for 7 nights. The casino at the hotel was nice, grounds and pool were also very nice. I probably wouldn''t stay there again...there are so many other hotels in Las Vegas I''d like to try out.

Loved Emerils. Service was impeccable, food was fabulous. We had several waitors wating on us.

Appetizers: clams casino, chowder, crab cakes
Dinners: Fish special of the day, Steak
Dessert: banana cream pie
Drinks: 4 total
Bill came to $125 which I thought was very reasonable for the quality, service, etc.

Food was all just as it should be, along with creative side dishes. I would highly reccomend Emeril's New Orleans Fish house. Just be sure to make your reservations well in advance. For a friday night 8pm reservation, I booked a month in advance.

Don't let the location fool you. This steak house is absolutely wonderful. It's not what you'd expect to find at the Circus Circus. We had a nice table, overlooking the grill area. We could see the cooks work. The service was really good, and the steaks were even better. I had the filet..it was tender, juicy, and cooked just how I wanted it. My boyfriend had the Porterhouse, and he said it was delicious. Add in some mashed potatoes, a good red wine, and it's a meal made in heaven. I highly reccomend this restaurant. For 2, with apps, dinners, drinks the bill was around $100

Great scenery. Red Rock canyon is not too far from Vegas, but it seems like another world. Beautiful scenery. There's a road you can drive through it. There are stops along the way where you can get out and go hiking/climbing.
Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), is located 10 miles west of Las Vegas, Nevada. This 197,000 acre area provides a 13-mile scenic drive, more than 30 miles of hiking trails, picnic areas, and visitor center with exhibit rooms and a book store. The unique geologic features, plants and animals of Red Rock Canyon represent some of the best examples of the Mojave Desert.
Important to Note: Lock your car if you get out.. there were signs all over about people stealing things from cars while people were out exploring.

We opted not to take the long drive out there, and instead paid $250 per person for an air tour.

We flew a scenic airlines propeller jet.. (the plane seated about 16 people, i think). Took off from North Las Vegas airport. The plane had huge windows so you could see the scenery. Flew over Hoover Dam and other scenic locations. Flight took about an hour. Very turbulent (in my opinion), due to the heat rising up from the ground. Landed at the west rim of the Grand Canyon. From there, we took a short helicopter ride down to the bottom of the grand canyon. It was 115 degrees at the bottom. We had about 20 minutes to explore. They provided us with water and champagne. Took some fabulous pictures, then hopped back into the helicopter up. From there, a short bus ride to an Indian Reservation, where we had a nice bbq lunch. Took some great pictures, talked with some of the indians there.. bought some jewlery. Then we took the bus back to the air strip and boarded the plane back to las vegas.

All in all, the trip was worth the money. It took 1/2 day. The Grand Canyon was absolutely beautiful and breathtaking.

There are 2 types of tours.. the basic tour (which we did) and the hard hat tour. I think with the hard hat tour, you get to go through more tunnels in the dam.

The tour lasted about 45 minutes and took us from the top of the damn down to the bottom. The tour guide was very knowledgable.

Nice trip to escape the hectic nature of Las Vegas.

There's so much to see and do on the Vegas strip. The fountans at Bellagio are a sight.. They're synchronized to classical music. Paris has a smaller version of the Eiffel tower, you can ride to the top and catch some breathaking views. The NYNY and the Sahara hotel each have roller coasters.

The stratosphere also has a roller coaster and a free fall ride on the TOP of the hotel. I think you're about 1200 feet up.. the "big shot" ride shoots you up an additional 150 feet.. you feel like you''re being launched off the earth.. Best to do this at night, so you can see the lights of the strip.

We also went to the M&M store.. they have a 3D movie, gift shop, and you can buy M&M''s in any color imaginable.