Plan YOUR Girls weekend in LAS VEGAS now!

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Is Las Vegas high on your list for a future girls weekend?  If you’ve been thinking about it, there is no better time than now to start making plans!  My friend & I (both from the Midwest) caught flights out to Sin City, and met up for a weekend of adventures.  It was an incredibly needed break from our routines!

We coordinated flights and met at the airport in Vegas, where the Delta & United terminals are pretty far away from each other.  She ended up in terminal 1 and I was in 3, so to meet up there was a shuttle from 1 to 3.  Then, we shared a cab to get to our hotel.  The taxi driver asked if we wanted the scenic route or the highway to get to the strip, we went with the scenic and it was ~$30 (summer 2018).  Uber is also an option to get to your hotel, I’ve had good luck with it on previous trips.

Where to stay in Las Vegas?

We stayed at the Bellagio!  This had the best deals and location when we were booking.  If you aren’t picky, it’s worth checking out multiple hotel booking options, as there can be quite a variability.

Day 1 in Vegas – Saturday

Checking in:  Bellagio

We got an early check in, which worked out great.  After settling into our room, we grabbed a bite to eat at the Bellagio Café (we received some restaurant credits as part of our deal while booking the room).  The penne was delicious, and a much needed pick-me-up after our early morning flights.  We explored the hotel a bit, and then walked along the strip!

Pearl Factory

Yup, who can resist the excitement and charm of picking an oyster to reveal your pearl at one of these kiosks?  Sure, ~$15 to pick an oyster, not that bad… but then of course to get that pearl set into some jewelry… that’s where the cost can add up!

Since this was a girls trip, and we were both really needing a care-free stress relieving weekend… we decided to pamper ourselves and chose matching necklace settings for our pearls.  Cool souvenir, but don’t forget, you don’t HAVE to get your pearl set into jewelry.  You can keep the pearl as it is and do something else with it.  They actually threw in a 2nd oyster pick for each of us with our purchase, so we kept our 2nd pearls plain and without the hole drilled into them.  Maybe we’ll get earrings in the future? Or make something on our own?

Fat Tuesdays

While wandering the strip, you’ll see a lot of people with giant mugs or those tall skinny plastic cups with adult beverages in them.  I thought it’d be very Vegas to get one of those fancy cups, but once we realized how big they were… (mixed with the amazing 106 degree heat), we opted for the small cup (10 oz) beverages.

Exploring hotels & playing slots

We walked along the strip popping into hotels to see all the elaborate décor, and of course if any of the slot machines caught our eyes, we’d take a seat for awhile!  We did prefer playing slots at the MGM hotels so we could use our Mlife cards to earn points.  Even though it would take A LOT to get to the next level of perks with the Mlife card, it is cool earning points at all.

Shopping and watching the Gondolas at the Venetian were some of the highlights!

Cirque du Soleil

‘O’

This was my first Cirque show, and it was unbelievable!  If you aren’t familiar with ‘O’ it is a performance involving acrobatics, diving, synchronized swimming and so much more!  The stage is incredible and areas raise and lower to alternate between a large pool of water, and land.  Our seats were up high in the balcony so we got had a cool perspective and could see the SCUBA divers and performers moving around underwater before they’d make their appearances.  This performance is at the Bellagio, and since we had Mlife loyalty cards, we got a discount on the tickets.

Bellagio Fountain show

Depending on the time of day the fountain shows tend to run every 30 minutes.  As it gets later in the night they run every 15 minutes.  We saw the show at night, and it was beautiful with all the lights along the strip in the background.  Cool synchronized fountain show with fun music.  Best part?  It’s free to watch!

More slots, Sleep

Day 2 in Vegas – Sunday

Exploring the strip

There is just so much to see, you can’t do it all in one day!  We walked and took the shuttle in the opposite direction on the strip than on Saturday.

Brunch at Rainforest Café

I have been to a couple of different Rainforest Cafes in the past, and although this one was smaller than I’m used to, it still had the cool environment.  The food was good, and served in nice portions so I didn’t have to waste anything (carrying leftovers around for the afternoon was NOT an option)

More exploring, shopping & playing slots

You’re in Vegas!!  Check out the scene, each place is so unique and there are tons of things to see.

Titanic artifacts exhibition – Luxor hotel (no photos allowed)

This exhibit was incredibly well done.  It is at the Luxor Hotel, and the cost was ~$32 but if you have an Mlife card, you get a small discount.  When you enter the museum, you are handed a card with the information of one of the passengers on the Titanic, which you will want to hang on to.  I am very particular about museum displays, and often find myself critiquing the displays rather than actually reading the information on display.

This is the first exhibit in a long time where I read every detail from the signs.  There are display rooms with encased artifacts as you’d expect, but the more memorable things to me were how they replicated different aspects of the ship.  From walking down a cold hallway and peaking into what a room in 3rd class would have looked like, to walking along the deck of the ship in silence with “stars” shining bright… knowing what was about to happen in the story.

There is an amazing replication of the grand staircase.  But the main part of the whole exhibit that was REAL, and really took me back, was “the big piece” which is about a 15 TON piece of the hull of the actual Titanic.  So many emotions when touring this exhibit, very sad, but very well displayed pieces of history.  At the very end of the exhibit there is a list of all of the passengers and whether or not they survived.  My passenger, and all but 1 of her family members did not make it.  Such a tragedy.

Shark reef aquarium – Mandalay Bay

We walked all the way here, and debated about whether we wanted to see the aquarium, or go back to the hotel to lounge.  When a large group of small children started lining up to buy tickets, we decided to check out the pool :)  We’ll have to visit the aquarium next time!

Lounging at the swimming pool – Bellagio

I was surprised at how quiet it was poolside even though it was packed.  I found it very relaxing to lay out in the sun and every so often go for a dip in the water.  Servers would walk by and take drink orders, so we got a couple rounds of frozen fruity drink goodness (which we got to use our food credits for!) before having to head back to our room to get dolled up for a night on the town.

Dinner at New York New York hot dog stand

Lets be real.  We had plans to do a nice sit down dinner, but took too long to get ready.  Since we had tickets to see Ka at MGM, we figured we’d find a quick bite to eat on our way there.  NY hot dogs were just that, and oh so good!

Cirque show – Ka

OH. MY. GOSH.  Walking into the entrance, there are several costumes from the show on display.  If I could do whatever I wanted for a living, I am convinced it would be designing/making costumes for productions, so I was basically in heaven seeing these beautiful creations up close and soaking up all their creative detailing.  After soaking that in, we entered the theater and right away there were signs saying that photos ARE allowed!!  What!??!?  We even asked an usher, and yes, we were allowed to take photos, so long as the flash was off and there was not video recording.  The stage was incredible, you are SURROUNDED by the performance.  The stage in front lifts up and rotates to become completely vertical, there are insane acrobats and martial arts.  There are just not enough words to describe the experience of seeing this show.  Check it out!

Pin-up Pizza

After Ka, we split a slice of pizza from Pin-up.  Delicious, and GIANT slices.

Slots, Sleep

Day 3 in Vegas (final day)

We slept in on Monday.  There was debate about going to the pool, but we both had early afternoon flights and decided to lay low.  Only bummer was that we planned on eating brunch at the hotel again to use up more food credits… but it didn’t cross our minds until we were about to check out of the hotel that those credits would expire when we checked out.  We would have gotten up an hour earlier had we realized that!  Oh well, we’ll know for next time.

Smoothies, Slots, Cab to airport

We’re already planning our return visit in the future!  SO MUCH FUN, and in such a short time (3 day weekend) it felt like we had been away from work and relaxing for a lot longer.  Probably because we were packing our days so full and not going to bed until 2am or so, but still!  Much needed recharge – accomplished

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