During my stay of about 5 days (and nights ;)), I found that there is probably no entertaining city as Vegas in the whole world. And I am not just saying it because I have been there, this city has so much to offer. One one hand there are circus shows for children, and on the other hand Opera and other fabulous shows for more mature audience; there are gambling opportunities for the compulsive gamblers; there are one of the nicest restaurants for the ones who don't mind spending on good food; there is architecture, arts, music, beauty and the energy to enjoy everything Vegas has to offer.
Having been to Atlantic City on east coast, I had a different conception of Vegas before I went there, but boy was I wrong!!! Atlantic city is good but there is nothing like Vegas ...
The whole of Las Vegas Strip is fascinating, from Stratosphere in the north to the Mandalay Bay in south. You can see one of grandest hotels and casinos on the planet accompanied by one of the best buffets and nice crowd in their world famous nightclubs :)
I will start with Paris Paris because this is the one I saw first (it had an internal entrance from the hotel I was staying at so I could skip the 100 degree heat in the night). It is quite interesting that they created the Paris atmosphere inside a building, similar resaurents ... did I tell you they painted the roof with sky with accompanying lighting to make it feel real!!! When you sit inside (or outside!) a restaurant or when walking outside in the open (not really!!!) in the square, you feel you are really outside. Not only the streets but they also create a life size (well half the size actually) Eiffel Tower! and Arc de Triomphe outside the hotel, which is pretty amazing. The exception if that this Eiffel tower has a restaurant at the top as opposed to the original. You can reserver a table in the restaurant for dinner and get a fantastic view of the Fountains of Bellagio. More about those gorgeous creatures of night later.
I liked Venetian the best. Having seen original Venice I was not going to be impressed by some simulation model, but boy was I wrong! These guys are geniuses, I didn't expect to see Rialto bridge, Gondolas and canals inside a hotel building!!! What was quite surprising was that they took all the trouble to create the same atmosphere as Venice from the caricature makers to the shops and restaurants looking exactly like real ones and the artificial sky makes it look all real and all daylight.
Caesars Palace was the grandest of all I have seen. It hosts so many things inside and creates a feeling of a real palace. I didn't really like the copied Colosseum, I have seen the real one and believe me it will be a tough job to recreate it. I found the settings and the effort to recreate Trevi fountain and the replica of David (originally by Michaelangelo) quite interesting.
Mirage has this waterfalls concept in the front of building and they do have Volcano shows every now and then which is interesting. The fountains of Bellagio is a show which occurs every 15 minutes in the night and is quite amazing. These fountains attract more people due to the fact that this square also displays Eiffel tower from Paris Paris and view from both the sides (Eiffel tower at the back vs. Bellagio at the back of fountains) is beautiful.
If you are not one of those who get excited with European architecture and art, you are welcome to visit the 21st century architecture in The Wynn. Their mall and restaurants are pretty cool. The Wynn has a fabulous nightclub (tryst) which showcases a 3 storied water fall, which was totally unexpected for me and of course was a pleasant surprise.
The last new significant stop for me was MGM Grand and believe me it is really grand. Apparently they also own Bellagio which explains how they know what they are doing :) Anyways, so MGM is also special in the sense that it has a separate non-smoking gambling areas, which works for me (I hate smoking by the way).
Vegas doesn't leave a chance to impress you with all it has to offer. You always leave happy hoping to come back soon to enjoy the rest of million attractions awaiting my money. I know I am hoping ...
As usual some pictures from the trip:
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