Later this week I am off to Chicago so it seemed like an appropriate time to share my Vegas recap from my trip last month! I traveled to Vegas for a dietitian related conference and met a friend but we made sure to fit in some fun as well.
We planned to arrive early Saturday evening to have a couple days to our selves before the conference started on Monday. My flight arrived at 5:30 Vegas time so I hopped in an Uber and made my way to Bally’s. Unfortunately upon landing I realized that Dori’s flight was delayed almost 4 hours… so instead of kicking off our trip together so didn’t arrive to the hotel until 10:30pm. I decided to make the most of my time alone and grabbed dinner at Hexx right next to Paris. I ordered my favorite dish (carbonara) and was really pleased with it considering it was not an Italian restaurant. I was starving so I ate it all and had a drink while watching a Sixers game at the bar.
After dinner I strolled around a bit by myself and walked through a mall attached to Planet Hollywood, I wasn’t in the mood for shopping so I ended up chatting on the phone for a bit and then I decided it was time to test my luck. I hadn’t been gambling in a long time so I decided to keep in casual the first night and stick to video poker at the bar instead sitting down and playing for real at a table. (We used to play Texas Hold Em regularly in Philly with some guy friends but we haven’t found a group to play with yet in Pittsburgh but I definitely want to make that happen soon!) I ended up doing pretty well and after 3 hours and a couple drinks I walked away up $20! It was just fun to sit and chat with people at the bar as they came and went.
Once Dori arrived we were both on about 20 hours of awake time so the big night out we originally planned for Saturday wasn’t looking good. We did walk around a bit and grabbed a drink and some snacks but then headed back to the hotel for sleep. This was a good plan since of course we were both up early thanks to still being on East coast time. We were too early for our brunch reservation so we explored Bellagio first. WOW is that casino gorgeous!! I would always opt to stay at a Total Rewards casino but I definitely want to plan a meal or spa day in Bellagio next time.
I had booked Mon Ami Gabi for Sunday brunch as it came highly recommended by pretty much everyone. It did not disappoint! I started with my favorite- eggs Benedict but also got a side of crepes (yes that’s a real side). They were brown sugar with Chantilly cream and OMGGGG they were so good! I will totally admit to overeating at this meal but it was oh so delicious and I didn’t want to let one bite go to waste. This meal ended up accounting for breakfast and lunch so that worked out well for us to maximize our pool time and not eat shitty pool food.
The pool at Bally’s was pretty chill, not super busy and the weather was perfect. The high was 80 but without the humidity we are used to on the East Coast it felt like perfection. We lounged on beach chairs and chatted pretty much nonstop. (Dori is one my best friends and even though we talked regularly I hadn’t seen her in months so it was so great to catch up!). Eventually a DJ came to the pool but it wasn’t super obnoxious and he actually played a lot of good throwbacks. We grabbed $17 drinks (YES $17!) a the pool and enjoyed our relaxation time until about 3:00pm.
We had booked a show to see at 7:30 so I suggested eating an earlier dinner a Mexican place my friend Lia recommended called Nacho Daddy. I always get chicken enchiladas when eating mexican and I even talked Dori into a pitcher of margaritas. Big mistake….. one drink was plenty- they were strong! Luckily it’s Vegas and you can always take your drink to go! (I love this so much!!)
I brought my drink into the show which was an off Broadway play based off a book. I found it entertaining and our 3rd row seats were pretty solid too. After finishing off the margaritas we were really to explore the town and check out some other casinos. We ended up in Caesars and made some friends and enjoyed watching some hockey playoffs (it’s the first year of the Vegas team and they are still in it now!) This ended up being a slightly later night than planned but we had to make up for not going out Saturday night.\
Monday morning was a bit rough and came all too early. Luckily the first day was basic information I already knew pretty well so that good. Coffee and lots of snacks helped too. By the time our day was over we just wanted to eat dinner and relax a bit. We grabbed burgers at a sports bar in Paris (disappointing) and then decided to explore further down the strip. I really wanted to see the Venetian and see how it looked compared to the real thing. Dori and I also explored a few other casinos in the area- Harrahs, Flamingo, etc. We turned in relatively early and definitely felt much better the next day.
I started the next morning with a short run on the treadmill- it felt good to move my body after a couple days of rest. The hotel gym wasn’t terrible either so that’s always good, my only complaint is watching CNN while running, I’m much more of an ESPN kind of girl. Haha. I grabbed Starbucks before the start of Day 2. I definitely learned a lot more on Tuesday and enjoyed connecting with some of the other people at our table.
Tuesday was our last night since we were heading out Wednesday evening so we wanted to make the most of it. I had made early reservations at Beauty and Essex in Cosmopolitan. The ambiance was so cool, you literally enter the restaurant through a pawn shop and the decor is really interesting. Dori is gluten free so we ended up not being able to share all the food which is my favorite way to eat. So I ordered 3 appetizers basically starting with grilled cheese and tomato soup dumplings. Yes these were as amazing as they sound. I also ordered chicken meatballs with sheeps milk ricotta and Spanish chorizo mac and cheese. I ended up getting most of the mac and cheese to go because it was a huge portion and saved it for lunch the next day. We dropped our to go bags off in the hotel room and met up with a friend we made from the conference to go explore the casinos.
We had made it our mission to walk through each casino and check it out especially the sports betting room. We enjoyed ranking and pointing our features of our favorites. The three of us explored Cosmopolitan, Aria, New York New York, Excaliber, Luxor, and MGM. My overall favorite casino definitely goes to Caesars though but it was so fun just walking around seeing what each casino had to offer. Dori and I rode the monorail back because we wanted to see the other end of the strip- will have to check out Wynn and old Vegas next time!
The next morning I did another quick workout and Starbucks run before sitting in the conference until early afternoon. Overall I definitely got a lot out of it and was excited to learn so much. Since we had a few hours before my flight departed we walked back through some of the casinos and shops. We did a bit of gambling including some roulette since we had lost our sports bets we made the night before so I ended up basically breaking even overall on this trip. Which I consider a WIN! Plus we finally got to see the Bellagio water show.
I ended up grabbing a second lunch at Egg Slut and then ice cream from Milk Bar. I had discovered milk bar the night before and had gotten a cereal milk to go (which is exactluy how it sounds)… it was so delicious! I’m a huge cereal fan so this was such a cool and unique treat. Eventually I had to head back to Ballys to grab my back and get an Uber to the airport.
I was sad to go but I definitely agree with most people that say only go to Vegas for 3 days. I plan to go back for sure! Have you ever been to Vegas?? What was your favorite thing??
