Vegas!!!
I know what you are thinking “you must be crazy” but I promise it was absolutely fine. This “crazy” idea manifested due to my Dad’s 60th birthday. We had already decided to go back to our favourite place San Diego and my husband and I decided we would add Vegas into the trip as a surprise for Dad's birthday. We flew with BA from Heathrow to Vegas and got super lucky on the way out. I had requested extra leg room seats for my son as he has complex medical needs. Unfortunately the information hadn’t been passed on. When noticing we had been assigned normal seats I explained the situation and get this….we was upgraded for FREE to business class! Cue my jaw dropping to the floor. As you can imagine it was an amazing experience and so comfortable, although it did make the journey home back in economy difficult after being spoiled.
Arriving in Vegas we called an Uber to our hotel The Linq. It was pretty cheap at just $12. Pulling onto the strip cued another jaw dropping moment for me. It was just WOW. Bright lights, themed hotels, dancers all filled the streets.
The Linq hotel is centrally located and is a modern quite new hotel. Check in was a bit of a wait as so many of us turned up all at once, but once again we was pleasantly surprised to find out we had breakfast included in our stay. The first you notice when walking in, and to be honest most hotels in Vegas, is that the first floor is just one big casino. I wasn’t surprised by this but I was surprised at how big it was.
Most of the daytimes were spent in the pool at the hotel next door The Flamingo. The Linq hosted pool parties due to the summer break so was strictly 21 and over. The Flamingo pool was lovely though and there was an additional pool with 2 water slides. It was just too hot to walk about during the day, throughout our 4 days temperatures varied between 42-45 degree Celsius. Being in the dessert it was also humid. Thank god for air con!
Of an evening we explored all the famous hotels on the strip from The Venetian to Caesars Palace. We visited the zoo at The Mirage hotel, Watched the fountains outside the Belliago and rode the rollercoaster at New York New York. We also rode the high roller which is like a bigger version of the London Eye and gives the most amazing views of the strip and beyond. We timed it so that we could also see the fountain show again from up above.
As for the casinos us adults all fancied a little flutter so we waited until our son was asleep and took it in turns (1 sat with him whilst the other 2 gambled). The best tip I can give for gambling in Vegas is to set yourself a budget before you go and stick to it. Also make sure it’s a realistic budget, something you can afford to loose. As there is no guarantee you will win. It may seem like an obvious thing but the atmosphere and excitement can soon suck you in and we saw a few people chasing after money long after they said they’d spent their budget.
The highlight of the trip though has to be our helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon. That experience was just out of this world and its easy to see why it’s a wonder of the world. The flight is about 40/50 minutes and takes you past Lake Mead and Hoover Damn. The pilot gives you lots of interesting information and tells you the best places to get the perfect pictures. It was just amazing approaching the Grand Canyon and seeing just how big it really is. We was lucky to land inside the Canyon and was given a drink and snack to eat. Turning and looking around you surrounded by the Canyon and beautiful views is just an experience we will never forget. I would 100% recommend anyone in doing this trip. Our 9 year old absolutely loved it, especially the helicopter ride.
That trip concluded our time in Vegas and the next morning we headed off to the airport for our flight to LA.
There is so much to do in Vegas and surprisingly so much family friendly activities too. We didn’t get chance to do everything in our short time but I wouldn’t hesitate to go back and I would take my son again too.