Visiting Las Vegas in the heat of summer

In the absolute heat of summer I ended up in Las Vegas! This was not my first visit, but it was definitely hotter than last time. Temperatures easily reached 40-45C (104-113F) and even at night it wouldn’t cool down at al. But man, what an amazing city is Vegas, even when it’s this hot. My trip was focused on casino’s, relaxing, concerts and good food.

My hotel, Delano, was located on the very end of the strip. Basically, if you’ve never been to the strip, it’s a long road through Las Vegas with on both sides the most famous hotels. From the Delano hotel on you pretty much work your way up the strip until you reach the Wynn/Encore. By then you’ve probably past about 30 or so famous casino’s and hotels. If you walk at a regular pace you’ll atleast need an hour to make that journey.  Given how hot it was, you can imagine that I didn’t do that much walking. In Vegas Uber and Lyft are everyone’s favorite choice of transportation. All the big hotels even have specific Uber/Lyft drop of / pick up locations. It’s easy and it’s fairly cheap. There are also a few trams / rails between some casinos, like for example you can walk through the Delano to the Mandalay Bay to take a sky tram from there to the Luxor, Excalibur and New York New York. You can then cross the road and continue through the MGM casino upwards. Most of your journey will be airconditioned as well! 

Most people visit Vegas just for a few days and the truth is, I totally understand why. This city is intense. There is always something going on and the casino’s never even close. I swear that even a week after leaving the place I could hear slotmachine music in the back of my head. All in all I actually stayed an entire week in Vegas, in which I went and saw 2 shows…. The Counting Crows and Bruno Mars ánd went out from some great food that absolutely blew my mind. I did also gamble a bit but the truth is, it doesn’t make a lot of sense in my head to gamble when you know before hand statistically the house just has better odds… Though with all the good luck I’ve been experiencing lately, maybe I should have gambled more…

Anyway, the concerts! First of all I went to The Counting Crows, a band I’ve like for well over 10 years and still listen to every now and then. They gave a few shows in the Hard Rock Hotel and it was a really good experience. Though the beer was 15 USD per drink! If it’s not the casino’s that will take your money…. Oh well. Second performance that I went to was Bruno Mars at the Speedway. That was quite an adventure as the Bruno Mars concert was actually organised by Microsoft and this was Microsoft’s finale of a conference they’d been hosting the entire week in Vegas called Microsoft Inspire, the initial reason of the Vegas visit. Buses picked us up at the hotels and brought us to the Speedway. There was food, there were games. It was a really nice set up, but man it was hot. There was also plenty of water fortunately. Bruno Mars performed, and even though he’s not really an artist I spend a great deal listening to, I enjoyed that concert as well. If you visit Vegas, make sure to check out which artists are performing when you’re there as most likely you’ll find some names you like on the calendar! Sadly I missed Hardwell and Tiesto by a day, as well as The Backstreet boys!! (yes, for real).

Food wise, Vegas can be amazing. I´d like to think especially in the restaurants in casino´s (not the buffet type ones) you get served some great food. It’s wise to make reservations at the restaurants at night, because especially the better restaurants will be fully booked. By far my favorite 3 restaurants were:

1. Mastro’s Ocean Club – Amazing sea food restaurant, not cheap, but great ambiance and delicious food. As a starter I went for Oysters and as a main I head the Tuna. So good.

2. Delmonico Steakhouse – When not in the mood for fish, go for steak! I had the most amazing Chateaubriand in this place and actually also one of the best carpaccio’s I’ve had in a long time as well.

3. Mon Ami Gabi – And then the absolute winner in my book, at least when it comes do to breakfast… Mon Ami Gabi. They have the most mouth watering Eggs Benedict that I’ve ever had. We were seated just inside the restaurant (casino: Paris), with a view at the famous fountains of the Bellagio.

To summarize, 5 tips when you visit Las Vegas:

1. Go to a concert! Check which artists are performing during your visit.
2. Experience all the great food Vegas has to offer, use Tripadvisor.
3. Take a helicopter to the Grand Canyon
4. Use Uber/Lyft to cheaply get around
5. Stay in a hotel on the Strip.