Still Tryin's new thread 2

[NikB]

Long post alert!
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Hey ST - Vegas will be great!! I'm sure you'll have a blast. I'm not sure what lava thing you meant, but I think I mentioned Valley of Fire to you? If that was it - I can see why it sounded like it, but it's not actually a lava thing. They call it that because it looks like it's on fire, the way the light hits the bright red rocks. Here's more info on it (including a map):
http://www.desertusa.com/nvval/

It will be HOT this time of year and there's nothing out there, so make sure to take a lot of water with ya.

I was trying to think what touristy hang-out spots we enjoyed that were more than just drinking and gambling.

Actually I just remembered something, I posted a detailed review on another board and it's still in their archives. I'll pull out the highlights for you. (keep in mind it was 4 years ago though so things may be different now, Vegas changes so quick!)


(these are pulled straight from my old review)

Restaurants - good
* The Range in Harrah's - AWESOME steakhouse! We ate here the first night and were so impressed with the view, the food, the service, just everything. Very worth every penny. We had a nice view of the strip from our table, which I think they do as best they can, especially if you make early reservations.

* Samba Grill in the Mirage - another wonderful restaurant! This one's a Brazilian style BBQ. DH wasn't feeling adventurous and just got a steak, but it was delicious (I snagged a bite). I did the full "rodizio" experience where they come by with different selections, and I loved every one of them. Go with a hearty appetite though! I felt really wasteful when I didn't even get through half of the samplings of BBQ.

* We had a few other meals at places that I didn't pay attention to the names of (sorry!). The Mexican place in New York New York was tasty, though, and reasonably priced.

Restaurants - bad
* Buffet in Flamingo - yuck. We ate here once thinking it'd be a good breakfast, and it wasn't. We also didn't plan ahead well enough for Saturday night dinner and the only place we could get into in time for our show was this buffet. It was bad again (we had hoped dinner MIGHT be better). It isn't awful or anything, just everything is dry/overcooked, and nothing was really hot - typical bad buffet food. Lukewarm bacon and eggs, ewww, and then the next time, lukewarm green beans and (sadly, yes, lukewarm) salad.

Shows (I paraphrased these):
* Skintight and Zumanity - (I won't even paste in my review here because I think even THAT might be kinda offensive for you (tons of serious nudity). But I'll just say, probably avoid those, as they don't seem like you'd like 'em too much. )

* "O" Cirque du Soleil show - didn't go to this but heard it was really good. Had the stuff in it that I liked from Zumanity but the people were dressed.

Bars/Clubs:
* Studio 54 - by far our favorite. It's supposed to re-create the famous club. The music was a lot of fun - mostly familiar 70's and 80's stuff, and a very mixed crowd. The staff was also noticeably welcoming here, and they had the typical go-go dancers. There's a fun catwalk type area you can go to on the top to look down on all the action too. The drink prices and cover charges here were also significantly cheaper than the other clubs we went to.

* Risque - this one's in Paris. They're trying to make it a real "loungey" type feel but with a dance floor. I think we were the only married people and people over 25 in the place except this one couple who seemed to be trying to pick up a third person. It was OK, just not our thing. If you're willing to buy a $250 bottle of cognac you can go out on these really neat balconies overlooking the strip, though (that part looked neat though not worth the money). The music was funny in here too, it was current hip-hop type stuff but I swear they had somehow slowed it down - it was impossible to dance to. Maybe they were trying to encourage closer/slower dancing or something. We didn't seem to be the only ones having trouble, even among the younger crowd.

* Curve - this one had a little more mixed crowd than Risque, and the music was better. They had two different rooms with totally different music, which was kind of neat. They also had big lounge chairs in the non-VIP area that you could sit down on and relax. We got in free when I went to ask about the cover - the guy at the door just said "Only two of you? C'mon in" - pretty cool.

* Shadow in Caesar's - this is just a bar, no dancing, but very fun!!! We only dropped in because we happened to be walking by, and were pleasantly surprised. There are two large screens behind the bar that have ladies dancing behind them (thus the name). The bartenders are very fun and friendly, and made every drink pour into a show. They also did choreographed bottle juggling type shows every so often. The atmosphere was fun but not in an obnoxious way. There's also no cover (at least during the week).

* Rumjungle - we happened to be in the area during the day so I can't comment on the crazy nightclub part of it, but I hear this one gets really packed. During the day it's actually a surprisingly quiet and interesting place to drop by for a drink or lunch. Even on a Saturday afternoon it wasn't that busy. There are walls of water with fire in the middle, and a really different atmosphere - glad we dropped by there. We didn't eat but they had a reasonably good looking lunch menu focusing on tropical type foods, and modestly priced. We saw a few of their lunches and they looked pretty good.

* Coyote Ugly - yuck, yuck, yuck. Avoid at all costs!!! I thought the movie this bar is based on was rowdy but fun so maybe the bar would be too - and the funny thing is a lot of people recommended it. Everyone in our group of friends who is planning a trip to Vegas plans (or planned) to stop here and see it. Not worth it!! It was a $20 cover charge apiece in spite of them advertising that women get in free, then once we got inside the place was both tiny and absolutely packed. We spent most of the time getting bumped into, spilled on, or yelled at by security for standing in the wrong place (never did figure out what the right place was, other than outside!) The supposed talented bartenders you can't even see due to the major crowding, except one lady who spends all her time trying to get the women in the bar to take their bras off. I can't even figure out who this club MIGHT appeal to.

* Piano bar in Harrah's - sorry, I forget the name, but it was a fun place to stop off and relax for a bit! The piano players were good and alternated between funny and serious/regular songs.

Other stuff:
* Star Trek experience in the Hilton - kind of expensive but it was fun even for a non-trekkie like myself. It's one of those motion/movie rides, but it's done really differently from what you usually see, which we enjoyed. The casino is pretty unique here, and there's also a museum part that's separate from the ride. In the museum I liked their "timeline" which goes back into history but also forward about 2000 years - interesting to see what the author's concept of the future is.

* Siegfried and Roy secret garden and dolphin habitat - neat! We didn't have much desire to see this show but my grandma always wanted to and is really sad she never got to go (she's too frail now). So I went to the garden part to take pictures of the tigers for her, and ended up really enjoying it. It's a sort of small zoo within the Mirage, plus a pool of about 13 dolphins. The Mirage was gorgeous too - if we can get a good rate we'd stay there next time.

* Bellagio fountain - I know a long time favorite and very fun to watch! Definitely worth seeing.

* Mirage volcano - another of the typical freebies to visit. It's pretty neat, if you're close by. You can also go right inside the front door of the Mirage to check out one of their white tigers for free.

* Stratosphere - we took the elevator to the top but skipped the rides. I got really, really queasy up there!! They say it's around 110 stories up. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but it was pretty darn high. You can see the whole strip and from the other sides you can see different areas around Vegas. I didn't realize how high it really was until we saw the whole strip from a distance as we were driving - definitely dwarfs everything else in the area. The whole thing shakes when the roller coaster goes by above you, and your ears'll pop in the elevator at least once. It was neat to see.

* Statues in Caesar's - quite cool! One of the sets of statues in the giant mall at Caesar's actually put on a show, I think once an hour. They're near the magic shop. You can spot them because they have gold sashes on, I think to hide the seams. We expected it to be silly but it was actually pretty neat, I'd say the animatronics part of it rivals Disney quality. The sky also changes from dawn to dusk so that's kind of neat.

* Other hotels - we walked through New York New York, Paris, the Venetian, and Mandalay Bay - all very fun to walk through.

* Wildlife walk in the Flamingo - another freebie, and of course we had to do it since we were staying there! There are lots of fish, some ducks, some penguins, and of course, flamingos. Probably more fun for kids but I enjoyed it too. We went to see the penguins several times just because I liked 'em.

* Hoover Dam - glad we went! It took longer than the 30 minutes estimated in all the travel guides, maybe because of the new security stuff. There's not much to really say about it other than if you have the time it's worth going to see.

* Valley of Fire - wow!! I wanted to see Grand Canyon but we just didn't feel like making the huge drive, so instead we went here. It was maybe an hour away. We kept driving through the middle of nowhere and then suddenly it turned into this beautiful area. It's basically a lot of different rocks shaped by winds and occasional water. It's a weird area – it looks like Mars or something. There are some various short hikes you can take but it was around 115 degrees the day we went, so we mostly did the driving tour. There are Indian petroglyphs all over the place that you can check out, some you can even see up really close. There have been something like 8 movies filmed here already, and they were actually filming one the day we were there. At first we thought it was some sort of small budget commercial or something, but then we actually saw several large production type trailers so we think it might actually be a movie. Pretty cool. You definitely want to take the full driving tour. There are a few turnoffs that are easy to miss but some of the neatest things to see are at the end of them. We took lots of gorgeous pictures. For those into this type of thing… on the way back to town DH was fascinated by the wide array of fireworks sold in the Indian reservation store. This is probably mostly only exciting for people who live in places that allow very few or no fireworks.. but it was pretty unusual for us since we're from California.