My First Time in Las Vegas: Why I’d Go Back Tomorrow

Las Vegas was another wow on a trip that had already given me quite a few of them.

New York had been wow. Texas had surprised me. White Sands had stopped me in my tracks.

And then there was Vegas.

Not a quiet, thoughtful kind of wow. A proper VEGAS!!! kind of wow.

Because really — who doesn’t want to see Las Vegas at least once?

The funny thing is, I didn’t even need to wait for the lights to come on.

We arrived during the day, under a bright blue Nevada sky, and I already loved it.

I remember looking around and thinking one thing: I’m coming back here.

I had barely arrived.

First stop: the sign. Obviously.

Las Vegas was also where the road-trip part of our American adventure began.

We had booked a rental car through Booking.com with Dollar and picked up a Volkswagen Jetta in Las Vegas on July 7. Eight days later, we would return it in Los Angeles.

My son did the driving. Because he was considered a young driver at the time, we had to pay an additional young-driver fee.

One thing I particularly appreciated was that our booking did not charge us anything extra for picking the car up in Las Vegas and returning it in Los Angeles. For a US road trip, that is definitely something I would check when comparing rental options.

But first, there was somewhere much more important to go.

The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign.

Obviously.

I had just arrived in Las Vegas. There was absolutely no chance I was going to behave as if this were a normal city and simply drive to the hotel.

First, I needed photographic evidence that I was actually in VEGAS.

Tuscany Suites, two huge beds and some very useful blinds

We stayed at Tuscany Suites & Casino, and I was very happy with our choice.

Our room was genuinely spacious, with two huge separate beds and — as it turned out — one particularly useful Las Vegas feature: very good blackout blinds.

The Sphere was nearby, glowing away at night with enough enthusiasm to make darkness seem optional.

Close the blinds, however, and we could actually sleep. Very useful.

The hotel also had a lovely pool and, when we used it, it wasn’t overcrowded.

I don’t normally photograph hotel rooms when I travel. Apparently I’m much more likely to photograph a giant thermometer, a half-eaten burger or bottles stuck on poles.

So you’ll have to take my word for the beds. They were big.

First priority: food

Once we had dropped our things at the hotel, we went out to find something to eat nearby.

We don’t usually eat at hotel restaurants when we travel. We would rather walk out, look around and find something nearby.

In Las Vegas, that meant a burger.

And it was good.

That was something I really enjoyed about eating in the US. Even in very touristy places, we rarely struggled to find food we genuinely liked.

Burger finished, it was time for the Strip.

We went to “have a look” at the Strip

Several hours later, we were still looking.

This was one of the things I hadn’t fully understood about Las Vegas before going there: the hotels themselves are attractions.

You don’t just walk past them. You go inside.

And if you visit Las Vegas in summer, there is another very good reason to do that: air conditioning.

Outside, it was brutally hot. Walking around the Strip in that heat for hours would have been exhausting.

Fortunately, Las Vegas has created a rather convenient sightseeing system. Walk for a while. Disappear into an air-conditioned hotel. Look around. Cool down. Come out again. See another hotel. Go inside. Repeat.

We still walked ridiculous distances.

Apparently Las Vegas and New York had one thing in common: both could make me walk all day without really noticing.

Hotel after hotel, casino after casino, one more thing to see around every corner — and somehow we kept going with huge smiles on our faces.

My legs may have had a different opinion. For the moment, I wasn’t listening to them.

Bellagio — my favorite

Bellagio was the one that really got me.

Of course, there were the famous fountains outside. I had seen them countless times on television and in photographs, but watching them for real was different.

Then we went inside. Another wow.

I had never seen anything quite like the enormous displays made with living plants and flowers inside the hotel. Colour everywhere, huge arrangements and an entire space that seemed to have forgotten it was inside a hotel in the middle of the desert.

It was beautiful.

Bellagio was easily my favourite.

And I have one piece of advice: don’t start your Las Vegas hotel tour with Bellagio.

It’s simply not fair to the others. Give them a chance first.

Caesars Palace — because apparently normal ceilings are boring

Then there was Caesars Palace.

Statues. Columns. Fountains. Huge interiors.

And above us, an artificial sky that actually changed as we walked around.

Completely fake, obviously — and somehow completely convincing at the same time.

Everything about Caesars felt enormous, theatrical and completely over the top.

I loved it.

Paris — in Las Vegas

Paris Las Vegas had a completely different atmosphere.

Parisian-style streets, lamps, trees — and the Eiffel Tower outside doesn’t simply disappear when you walk into the hotel. Parts of its structure continue inside the building.

There is even a Las Vegas version of the Arc de Triomphe outside.

Is it Paris? Of course not.

Did I enjoy Vegas pretending it was Paris? Absolutely.

“But Las Vegas is so tacky…”

People sometimes tell me this when I talk about how much I loved Vegas.

“But it’s so tacky.”

Fine. I don’t necessarily disagree.

My usual answer is: I’ll take that kind of tacky at my house.

Because if tacky means Bellagio fountains, enormous flower displays, Roman statues, artificial skies, an Eiffel Tower in the desert and an entire city lighting up after dark, I’m fine with tacky.

And there is another thing.

It is very easy to stand there and criticise how artificial and completely over the top Las Vegas is.

Fine.

Now build a city like this in the middle of the desert and make people from all over the world want to come and see it.

I’ll wait.

Las Vegas makes absolutely no attempt to be subtle. Maybe that is exactly why it works.

Vegas was our base too

We didn’t spend the whole trip walking between casinos and hotels.

Early the next morning, we left Las Vegas for Antelope Canyon and the Grand Canyon.

Those deserve their own stories.

Another day took us to Hoover Dam. That deserves one too — although one of my strongest memories is that it was approximately as hot as hell.

Coming back to the hotel and getting into that quiet pool afterwards felt like a very sensible life decision.

And then that evening, we went somewhere a friend had told me not to miss.

Fremont Street — this was the Vegas from the movies

She was right.

The enormous screen overhead. The lights. The music. The people. The casinos and old-school neon signs.

This was the Las Vegas I felt I already knew from films.

Loud. Colourful. Completely over the top. And ridiculously fun.

I felt like a child at Christmas.

We walked around, watched everything happening above and around us and soaked up the atmosphere.

And naturally, we ate another burger.

At this point, I was conducting quite extensive hamburger research across the United States.

My Las Vegas gambling career lasted about five dollars

Of course I had to gamble in Las Vegas.

I wasn’t going to leave without putting at least something into a slot machine.

So somewhere on Fremont Street, I invested approximately five dollars in my future.

My fortune did not arrive.

Las Vegas kept the five dollars. I think we’ll both recover.

The things I didn’t do

For all the things we managed to see, Vegas still left me with a list.

We couldn’t get tickets for the Sphere, despite having it practically on our doorstep.

I didn’t see Elvis. Not one.

And somehow I also managed to visit Las Vegas without seeing one of those wedding chapels I associate so strongly with the city.

I did see brides walking around in veils, so I got a little taste of it.

But clearly I have unfinished business.

Would I go back to Las Vegas?

This is usually the point in a travel article where I’m supposed to think carefully about the answer.

I don’t need to.

I knew I wanted to come back almost as soon as I arrived.

Las Vegas is artificial. It is excessive. It is completely ridiculous in places.

And I loved it.

Next time, I want the Sphere. I want Elvis. I want to find a wedding chapel.

I want another evening on the Strip and another walk under the lights of Fremont Street.

Maybe even another five dollars in a slot machine.

Although I wouldn’t want to develop a gambling problem. I have travel plans to pay for.

More life, please.