The obvious problems with visiting Vegas at the age of 18 is not being old enough to drink or gamble so you may be thinking what can you possibly do? Well, it may come as a surprise but there is actually plenty to do in Sin City!
One thing I was certainly not prepared for was the heat. I mean I knew it was going to be hot with it being in the middle of the desert in summer but when you’re used to cold and wet England it can be very hard to adapt to the 42 degree heat! I found the best option was to pop in and out of all the hotels to get a few minutes of air conditioning while I was walking around.
Until you’ve been, you don’t actually realise how long the strip is; a lot of people believe that you can walk down it from one end to the other because it doesn’t look the 4 miles in length that it is. I honestly think it would be a struggle. The best way to do it would be to use the bus service that runs up and down all day.
Everybody associates Las Vegas with gambling, partying and being the best place to go for a good stag do (as the guys from The Hangover proved). I can tell you, they’re not wrong. There are casinos everywhere, the hotels in particular. You can’t go a few metres without passing one. You are guaranteed to see drunk groups of people staggering down the strip at all times of the day because this city never sleeps! It is one of the best places to go for a night out which I’m guessing is why many people tend to go for the weekend. There are more than enough clubs, casinos and bar to crawl around and it really is just one big party. But there is more to the city than this…
Although it probably isn’t the place to go for a family holiday, there is still a lot that people under 21 and non-drinkers can do. Although it may not sound that fun, you can easily kill most of a day just by going round the hotels. Each one has a theme, some of the most well known ones like the New York New York believe it or not has a theme park inside! The pepperoni pretzel I got there was enough to keep me happy. The Luxor has a pyramid and makes you feel like you’re in Egypt, the Paris hotel has a half size Eiffel Tower at the front and the Venetian is based on Venice and has a mini canal where you can ride a gondola! It’s madness! The majority of them even have mini shopping malls inside!
When it comes to going out in the evening you will find that everything remains open but along with all the bars and clubs there are more than enough restaurants to choose from if you want a slap up meal. If you’re not there for the night life (even though party limos down the strip are extremely fun and probably the best way to get to the famous Vegas sign) you can do a bit of shopping (M&M World and Hershey’s World are pretty close together if you feel like treating yourself) but what I would recommend is going to the Bellagio and seeing the water fountain display, this was definitely one of the highlights! It’s free for anybody to see from the hotel or the strip and is a spectacular show with water, music and lights. It’s one of the best attractions.
Caesars Palace is the place most people go for a bit of gambling as it is one of the most famous hotels in the world and has the biggest and best casino on the strip. I went in to see what everybody raves about (I won’t lie it was also to use the air conditioning) and I would like to say I was shocked by the amount of people that were in the casino, but it’s Vegas so really it would be odd if there wasn’t. There was even a massive pool party that a lot of people went specifically for!
Although I never got there the rollarcoasters at the Stratosphere are supposed to be pretty incredible. You’ll need a strong stomach as most of them hang off the side of the top of the building! Just a little out of the city there is also the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and a shooting range if you are into that kind of thing.
A lot of people seem to forget about the Old Strip of Vegas. It’s roughly a 10 minute drive from the main strip and is all undercover. We stayed here at the Golden Nugget which I was pretty impressed by (this was until I saw all the others). It is a lot smaller and there is not as much to do but every night there is a light display on the ceiling which is definitely worth going for! It’s pretty amazing and turns the street into a big party. It’s really just like a mini version on the famous strip filled with clubs and casinos.
Although I wouldn’t go for longer than a few days, Sin City should definitely be on everybody’s bucket list!
Travel, Trek, Tour 