Las Vegas- A city that glitters.

We associate Las Vegas with Gloss and glitter. Bright lights, dancing girls, tall buildings and vibrant music are evident whenever we see a visual of what is known as ‘sin city.’ Las Vegas Fact :  There is every reason to consider Las Vegas as the city that glitters because it has 15000 miles of Neon tubing which comes alive at night and can be seen from another planet !

Reaching Las Vegas during day time in summer is however a totally different experience. You have been travelling in an air conditioned car for 5-6 hours and most of it is on a smooth road and all you see is barren & rocky land all around bathing in harsh sun.  You see desert plants and sand all around with nothing resembling any kind of glamour at all. You get a hint of gambling when you cross into the state of Nevada and see an isolated hotel with Casino written all over it. A few more kilometers, and you are greeted by a cluster of tall buildings at a distance.  Las Vegas fact : The hot winds can reach up to 60 mph at times. It is common to have temperatures of 45 deg C in June and July. Yet at times it snows in winter.

You reach the entrance of Las Vegas and want a photograph at the sign board declaring that it indeed is Las Vegas. You get out of the car and you are hit by violent hot winds. It is so hot on a summer June afternoon that you give up the idea of the photograph. But then one has to remind oneself that it is as hot in Delhi at this time and I do play Golf in Delhi in the afternoon even when temperature is 45 deg C.

You get out and actually shiver in this heat . It is unbearable. You take a few photographs and the kids look at me as if I am mad for taking them out of the cold comfort of the car into this furnace. I look at the sign board again. It says:  Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas!

The kids did not like being in this kind of heat !

Las Vegas Fact : This famous signboard was erected in 1959 once the finances were arranged.

‘Strip’ is what we have come for to Las Vegas. It is the happening 6.8 km of straight road having the largest of hotels in the world and is considered to be the world’s longest gambling street. My brother in law takes me around the whole ‘strip’ area so I get an idea about what the ‘strip’ looks like during the day and how the hotels are located. We see all the top hotels and tall buildings. Each hotel is based on a theme.  We cross the pyramid shaped ‘Luxor’ hotel where we had stayed in 1996. We cross Venetian, Mirage, New York New York, Paris and MGM. Some hotels have massive roller coasters on top of them. During the day the city looks sort of dead.  The hotels from outside look calm and quiet. After getting  an idea about where each and every famous hotel is located and marveling at new structures like Mandalay bay, we enter the gates of massive ‘Caesers Palace’ where we were booked to stay. It is flanked by Bellagio and Mirage. All these are top names in hotels. So large are hotels like Caeser’s Palace that you could get lost in them. You have to remember the name of your block to reach your room. Otherwise in a hotel with 4000+ rooms, you could be trekking the whole night to find your way.

Las Vegas Fact : Out of the 20 largest hotels in USA, 17 are in Vegas. No other city in the world has so many hotel rooms as Las Vegas. There are more than 1,50,000 hotel rooms in Vegas.

We walked from the car park to the lobby of the hotel for registration. You go through passages, lifts and labyrinth of corridors till you find yourself surrounded by slot machines and each slot machine emanates a different kind of noise. There is sound of continuous jingling from one machine and a Chinese guy is happily watching and celebrating as his machine converts $1 into $175. He is hooked now.  We stand to watch his excitement but are politely asked by the security personnel to keep moving as we have 2 under age persons with us. The kids walk through the casino but can’t stop and watch.

Kids strictly not allowed here.

Las Vegas Fact : As per the law in Nevada, slot machine needs to give out  at least 75% of what it takes in.

Millions of  people visit Vegas each year and last few years there has been a reduction in numbers as gambling industry is not recession proof. People come here mainly for gambling but Las Vegas is not just a gambling paradise. It is an entertainment hub with loads of other activities. But as soon as you enter a hotel and you will be overwhelmed, as from the entrance till where the eyes can see, all you see is casino tables and slot machines. 

Las Vegas Fact : Around 40 million people visit Vegas each year !

We had chosen to go to Vegas during the week as we were told that weekend prices were exorbitant. Recession or no recession, the Caesars Palace had a weekend rate for the room at $ 400+. My sister had done the bookings and for the first day she had got a good rate but was being quoted more than $ 400 for the next day - a Tuesday ! Obviously she had not booked for the 2nd day, but had booked another hotel . The check in counter had long queues which moved at snail’s pace.  We understood the reason why the registration took time when our turn came. The person in charge managed to convince us to upgrade our room to a suite and also managed to sell a deal for the next day.  It had taken us half an hour there but in the end we were happy as all of us could be together in a suite and there was no need to change the hotel for the next day. Caeser’s Palace indeed was expensive and you can find good hotels at great prices on the strip itself. On a week day there are some great deals .

Las Vegas Fact : The average room rent of a hotel in Vegas is $ 125. The highest could go upto $10000.

Caeser's Place

When you stay in a hotel like Caeser’s Palace then you can spend around a week inside the hotel without having a need to go outside. It has 6 residential towers. We stayed in a suite of 1000 sq ft in the forum tower. It has convention facility of 30000 sq ft; it has  5 (or maybe more) fantastic swimming pools. The Colosseum at the Ceaser's Palace has seating capacity of 4300 seats and each evening Celine Dion performs there. In August Rod Stewart is scheduled to perform here. Colloseum had started with Celine Dion but in between she had moved away for a few years. Now she is back. Ceasers Palace has a 25000 sq ft dining hall where the seating capacity is 600 and for dinner buffet there are 300 items.  Besides this there were many Restaurants including the Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill, Mesa Grill and the Restaurant Guy Savoy. The Nightclub must be immensely popular as well as there was a long queue to enter it at night.  There was something called Nobo hotel inside Caesar’s palace and this hotel within hotel must be for special people who can pay special rates !

The famous restaurant is inside the hotel.

I was quite amazed to see huge screens inside the Casino showing horse racing and other sports live on TV and you could bet there itself.

Las Vegas Fact : An average gambler loses  $250 per day. The Gaming revenue of Las Vegas strip is $ 6.2 billion per annum. There are more than 2,00,000 slot machines in Vegas.

However, it is their Forum shopping arcade which takes the cake. It has talking statues, an exotic fish aquarium, selection of high-end retail,with stores from famous designers like Salvatore Ferragamo, Gianni Versace, Dolce and Gabbana, and Louis Vuitton, you won't have a problem with splurging. The Forum Shops also offers a nice blend of popular favorites. These include Guess, Anthropologie, Gap, Express, Nike and H&M. You feel you are roaming around in ancient Rome with skylight giving it the right flavor.

I am writing about Caeser’s Palace as we stayed here. Each hotel here is large and has a theme and each is like one full city. To explore them all you will need a lot of stamina so I have mentioned the theme of some of the main hotels at the end.

The Forum shopping center inside Caeser's Palace.

Amazing World of Cirque Du Soleil

Cirque du Soleil is a Canada based Company which combines circus based theme shows and takes them to different parts of the world. It has entertained millions of audience and has been a benchmark in live entertainment. Their shows have stunning visual effects and music ,and each stage is created especially for a particular show. In June, there were around 8-9 cirque shows going on in Las Vegas. The show called ‘O’ was most popular followed by ‘Ka’, ‘Mystere’, ‘Love’ etc. etc. ‘Love’ was about Beatles  and based on their songs and I was keen to watch that. ‘O’ is supposed to have a stage which is partly under water and I am told tickets for this particular show are sold out months in advance. It so happened that on the 2 days we were there, ‘O’ and ‘Ka’ was being given a break so my kids and I went for Mystere.

The show was spectacular and we enjoyed the music, the circus and the stunts. The stage keeps moving around and goes up and down and also sinks totally at times. Kids loved the comedy part as some members from audience were roped in to be the butt of jokes unleashed by the circus comedians. We all were happy after watching this lovely production.

Las Vegas fact : Cirque du Soleil started with street artists but now has some former Olympic  gymnasts and athletes.

A few days after we had left Las Vegas, on  29th June to be precise, Cirque celebrated the inauguration of Michael Jackson’s ‘ One.’ It should have been a happy day for the Company which had been trying to fight recession last couple of years. Instead,  on the same day at the performance of ‘ka’, audience members gasped in amazement as one of the aerialists plummeted an estimated 27 meters into a pit below the stage. But the fall was no act: Sarah Guyard-Guillot, 31, a mother of two known as "Sasoun" to friends and colleagues, died of her injuries before she reached hospital. This was the first fatal accident during the performances of the Company in last 29 years. Ka has had to be stopped since then. This accident has been a big blow to Cirque du Soleil.

The Hourly shows

After the show we walked out of ‘Treasure Island hotel’ through the casino and the same atmosphere of gamblers and sounds & lights of slot machines reverberating the entire area. Outside it had become dark and we saw thousands of people standing around a lake outside ‘Mirage.’ We also stood quietly waiting and watching for what was to come. At 8 PM sharp, the Volcanoes emerged from the water and we had a spectacular Volcano show. This would happen every hour. It was all lights, fire and color. It was evening time and Vegas was getting into action.

Las Vegas fact : Around 55000 marriages take place in Vegas each year and the wedding licence can be obtained for $ 60.00.

Las Vegas at night

The lights were on and all buildings were shining bright. Lakhs of people were strolling all around. The music was everywhere. There were jugglers, hawkers and musicians on the walking paths. The road was full of cars. This is the Las Vegas we had read about and seen in movies. The city would remain like this till small hours of morning.

Las Vegas fact:  Las Vegas holds most number of  Trade shows, exhibitions, launches and even indoor sporting events in the world.

We wanted to go to the room and freshen up. We entered the shopping arcade of Caeser's Palace and got immersed in the walkways of Roman Empire. The shows of the statues started and the giant statues came alive and presented a spectacular show for 10 minutes before going back to sleep. We tried walking towards our hotel block but got confused and lost. We went back to the main road and once again got occupied by watching another spectacular fountain and music show outside the famous Bellagio hotel. This was also an hourly affair.

( Most of the hotels have these kinds of hourly shows. They are for free and they are spectaculat). 

We had to struggle to get decent food that night as the Americans eat early and then start painting the town red. The feet were hurting and hunger pangs were getting better of us when we realized that ‘The cheesecake factory’ restaurant in the forum shopping arcade of our very own hotel served a good choice of cuisine and was open till very late. The kids were miserable as we must have walked 10 km’s since leaving Treasure Island after the show. Actually each hotel has many restaurants and many of them are open round the clock. Some have big food courts as well. But as each hotel is so large, it is tough venturing into one and wade through the casinos to find a restaurant.

Las Vegas fact: 60,000 pounds of shrimp are consumed in Vegas per year. This is more than combined for rest of America.

Each hotel has a theme and each hotel is a city in itself. Cirque du Soleil has shows in 8-9 of these hotels but for those who would rather see topless women rather than circus acrobats, the choice is vast! Each hotel has something or the other going on – be it wrestling matches, boxing bouts, music concerts, IT exhibition, electronic fare or as said earlier – the adult shows ! Vegas has enough choice for those who want more than gambling & cirque shows to spend their money. There are a few Golf Courses (only 37 !) and a huge shopping outlet center as well. People do wild things  and whoever coined the phrase ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’ said so after a great deal of experience and thought.

Theme of Hotels

The USP of Vegas is the architecture of the hotels and what it has to offer in terms of entertainment. A drive down the strip will show you all kinds of hotels. You will see replicas of Eiffel Tower, Sphinx, Manhattan and what not. Some of the prominent hotels have this to offer :

Excalibur : medieval-castle-themed hotel that offers accommodations fit for the knights of the round table themselves.

Venetian: It is another Venice with detailed ceiling frescoes, a winding canal complete with floating gondolas, and expansive Italian fountains for swimming pools.

Caesar’s Palace : Modeled after ancient Rome, this themed hotel includes five towers named Centurion, Roman, Forum, Augustus, and Palace. The huge on-site casino includes a world-famous race and sports book, where fans can view and bet on sporting events on 6 big screens and 12 televisions.You can get married Roman style as well.

New York-New York : Decorated to look like New York City inside and out, this Hotel & Casino is complete with near life-size replicas of the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge. It has Manhattan, Soho and even Coney Island with Roller Coaster ride.

Paris : Another theme hotel, with the Arc de triomphe and the Eiffel Tower  both at three-fourths the size of the real things in France. The Paris has a glittering lobby that will make your eyes dance.

Planet Hollywood : This replaced the earlier Aladdin hotel. It has arguably the best shopping arcade replicating the streets of Morocco.

MGM Grand : Earlier they had live Lions but now it has been done away with. It is a huge hotel  and the property includes five outdoor pools, rivers, and waterfalls that cover 6.6 acres. MGM Grand has 18000 doors in the hotel.

Luxor : Egyptian theme. It’s a wonder how this glass pyramid was made and it throws a light to the sky at night which can be seen from many a mile. This hotel is a bit far from where Bellagio and Caeser's palace but now there is a mono rail for transportation which connects one end of the strip to another.

Bellagio : This Mediterranean Villa-style hotel has long been admired as a place of beauty and elegance. From the moment you enter the exquisite lobby, with its glass sculpture masterpiece soaring above you, to its spectacular botanical gardens, you know that you have arrived to a luxurious environment of elegance, opulence, relaxation, and excitement.

Mandalay Bay Resort : This Parisian-themed hotel features Paris landmarks, storefronts and even the Eiffel Tower. Outside you can dive into their amazing 11-acre tropical sand beach, complete with waves, or into one of their 3 outdoor pools. There is a fabulous spa and the Shark Reef aquarium.

Las Vegas Fact : Holyfield shocked the world by beating Mike Tyson in 1996 in Las Vegas. In 1997, touted to be a revenge match at MGM, the fight  grossed $ 100 million but had to be stopped at the end of 3^rd round as Tyson was disqualified for infamously biting Holyfield’s ear.

Las Vegas Fact : The first hotel-casino to be opened in Vegas was in 1906. Name of the hotel was Golden Gate hotel & Casino.