Viva Las Vegas!

Apologies for the long lapse in blogging. I’ve mostly been revisiting favorite places this year, and the 5,000 photos that I sorted and organized into tidy albums for my road trip from Seattle to San Diego disappeared in a laptop crash. I can’t even think about rebuilding it at the moment. I made a little side trip to Las Vegas for my grandmother’s 80th birthday with my mom and her siblings, so that seems like a good place to re-start.

I went to Vegas for the Academy of Country Music Awards every year for the better part of a decade. Despite the fact that I can pretty much give guided tours of the strip at this point, I’m pretty much ready to leave as soon as I land at McCarren. I love bougie hotels, live entertainment, and great food, and Vegas has them in spades; but I never go there voluntarily. If for some reason you’re jonesing for Sin City (like my little sister hitting it up for her 21st birthday) I made a little quick list of the things you absolutely need to see and do in the Neon Capital of the World.

THINGS TO DO:

Maverick Tours are my number one rec for magical memory makers in Las Vegas. It’s a pretty high-roller romp, and to be totally transparent, our tickets were comped by a client, but it is one of the top 10 coolest experiences of my life… and I’ve done some REALLY cool sh*t in my life. The Wind Dancer tour comes with a spectacular aerial view of the strip, a fly over of the Hoover Dam, and a champagne breakfast in the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon isn’t the only picturesque pile of red rocks in the region. You can also fly into Vegas to explore the Valley of Fire State Park, Lake Mead, and the biggest stop on my National Park wishlist: Zion.

There are dozens of fabulous shows on the strip every night of the week. A Cirque show is the most obvious lead, particularly Love. If you bleed money and ticket connections- Bruno Mars, Adele, and Garth Brooks currently have residencies that I’d gladly eat ramen for weeks to attend. For my money, I’d make a field trip to Absinthe. It’s a bawdy variety show with aerialists and acrobats. I’ve seen it twice and enjoyed every minute under the big top. My grandma really wanted to see David Copperfield, which would have been low on the rest of our wishlist, but we were all pleasantly surprised by the show. Even my uncle, who was called up as a volunteer and had to answer embarrassing questions, thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Copperfield’s magic.

I made sure to visit Meow Wolf in Santa Fe and Denver, so you’ll bet I had to visit Omega Mart to complete the trifecta. It was so crowded and nuts, I really couldn’t even begin to try to untangle the story, but the exhibits were cheeky and fun. If you aren’t wanting to gamble, shop, or eat- this is your best air conditioned bet. It’s part of an incredible art & entertainment district called Area 15. There were plenty of unique and interesting experiences, but Lost Spirits Distillery is top of my wishlist for next time.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, I absolutely love neon, particularly vintage neon signage. The Neon Museum & boneyard is a wonderland for junkers like me. I’d love to come back and do a night tour, but they sell out really early, so be sure to book those tickets well in advance.

Hotels to See:

I’m no stranger to lovely hotels. Vegas is home to the most ostentatious mega-tels in the country. I feel like I’ve lost years of my life to the MGM Grand, but if I’m coming to Vegas- these are the ones I make it a point to ALWAYS visit for pleasure.

The Bellagio: I’ve been proudly proclaiming my Chihuly superfandom for years, and no other hotel on the planet has as big of a collection of these gorgeous glass masterpieces. The 70 foot Fiori di Como installation is the largest glass sculpture in the world, and clocks in at 40,000 pounds of beautiful blown glass flowers. It’s solid and stunning. But if real flowers are more your thing, the Conservatory Botanical Garden is my second favorite stop off the lobby. The theme and displays change seasonally, so it’s always worth a visit. Sadly this trip was in the middle of a changeover, but even that was interesting to observe. If you’re an Ocean’s 11 fan, you’ll recognize plenty of inconic spots besides the fountain show. You won’t need Julia Roberts to show you around the art, it’s actually hard to miss here. The shopping is fantastic too, and it’s even rocking a new Sarah Jessica Parker shoe store.

The Venetian: it’s way cheaper to take a gondola ride through their canals, and it smells a bit better too. These gondolier’s are also more likely to sing. The shopping is excellent, and there are some fantastic food options here at the second largest hotel in the world.

Caesar’s Palace is no longer in the top ten largest hotels in the world (it’s currently sitting at #15) but the complex is massive, winding, and incredibly confusing. No matter how many times I visit, I get lost, it’s worse than an IKEA. Unlike IKEA, the Forum Shops are pretty posh. Though it’s meant to be inspired by Italy, their partnerships make it feel more like a mini- NYC. The SoHo location of Dominique Ansel has hours long lines from open to close, but you can hop right over for the OG Cronut or a sampling of 7 mini pastries specifically curated for each city they are served in. Though at 8AM, they were sold out of all of the things I wanted to try. I am a big fan of Chris Santos’ restaurant concepts, and was very sad with the Stanton Social shuttered in the East Village. The new Stanton Social Prime space is STUNNING, and the epic French Onion soup dumplings are back on the table. Unfortunately ours were WAY under-broiled, but everything else we ate was delightful. I’d move it to the must list for a trip to Vegas.

If you’re also a big Chris Santos fan, you’ll want to make a field trip to The Cosmopolitan to visit Beauty and Essex for the famous and fabulous grilled cheese & tomato soup dumplings. I’m also a big David Chang fan, so I was thrilled to try the new Mediterranean concept at Cosmopolitan, and you know I didn’t leave without a slice of Milkbar Pie. If iconic New York restauranteurs aren’t your thing, The Cosmopolitan is worth a visit just for the Chandelier Bar. I’m begging you to NOT hit the Hattie B’s, because that’s just not hot chicken.

It was kind of wild going to Vegas with family and only working my non-stressful part time job while bopping around the strip. I’m used to running around with 2 cell phones, two laptops, and pulling 18 hour days in Sin City. Putzing around with an itinerary built around a geriatric was more than a slight change of pace, and that’s before you factor in my liver vacation. Being the soberest person on the strip was a total trip.

If it’s not already clear, I come to Vegas to eat, and while my family also loves to gamble- there’s nothing we love more than laughing together over delicious meals.

I had the pleasure of working with Wendy Hu on a business trip to Vegas, and she had us dine at the now defunct Comme ça when her fabulously talented husband, Brian Howard, was their head chef. They’ve since opened Sparrow and Wolf, won dozens of awards and accolades, and it was the top of my wishlist when I ended my Vegas hiatus. I was SO glad that their tasting menu intrigued the rest of the clan. We ooooohed and ahhhhhed over every single course, and raved about the meal for weeks. It was unique, inventive, delicious, and a fraction of the price of the tasting menus offered on the strip.

Our uber driver to Sparrow and Wolf gave us dozens of recs as we drove through Chinatown, which none of us had ever visited in all of our trips to Vegas. We were a little sad we were out of meals/time to make a return visit and check out more spots. Grandma woke up not feeling up to our planned field trip to Zion, and my uncle told her she could make it up to him by going back to Chinatown. As much as I’d been looking forward to Zion, none of us were disappointed by Nabe Sushi & Shabu Shabu. It was straight up insanity. $30 for all you can eat sushi and hot pot?! Each of us easily ate $60 worth of sushi, and probably just as much of shabu shabu. ALL of it was delicious. They absolutely lost money on us, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Though we didn’t have enough time to visit Roy Choi’s Best Friend, we absolutely loved the new Park MGM, Las Vegas’ only 100% smoke free facility. It was a win hanging out in a new casino that isn’t rocking 20 years of smoke in the hideous carpets. So it’s a win-Nguyen when the gambling contingent of my fam all win at the blackjack tables too. I hate math and I’m a nervous nelly, so gambling has never been high on my wishlist. My ideal next trip to Vegas would revolve around dinner at Best Friend and a Bruno Mars show.

There were 7 years between my last trips to Las Vegas, and I’m pretty sure I’d be fine waiting at least that long to go again. If Sin City scintillates you, I hope you try out some of my favorites and have some fun!