72 hours in Las Vegas: More pomp and circumstance, than fear and loathing
Strip Pass Vegas Trails In Light Las The Through
Aer Lingus’ inaugural flight from Dublin to Las Vegas departs, passengers — influencers, hen parties, business trippers, lovers, and friends — ready to party having been treated to a set by ‘Elvis’.
Ten-plus hours after leaving Dublin, we arrive wide eyed, the Sphere, brighter than the orange sunset, greeting us as we land at Harry Reid International Airport, with views of the Grand Canyon offering stunning entertainment for the final hour of the flight.
It’s impossible to wrap your head around what exactly Vegas is. It’s a place that seems to exist as a fantasy; immortalised by , , and Elvis’s own ; and a place that’s bigger, brighter, and wilder than where you’re coming from.
We’re staying at Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino; nearly every hotel in the city is themed and doubles as a casino.
Across the road is Caesars Palace, where Adele is in residency at the venue within; it’s called the Colosseum, of course, with tickets going for around $1,500.
Paris features a replica Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, and Montgolfier Balloon. Across the road are the famous Fountains of Bellagio.
We’re off for Friday night dinner at HaSalon at the Palazzo in the Venetian, a resort featuring gondolas inside and out.
Be prepared to walk in the city. It’s either that or catch an Uber through stop-start traffic.
You’re part of a crowd getting into party mode, with speakeasy bars — a callback to Prohibition-era USA — and drinks outlets peppered all along.
By the time we arrive, things are already in full swing at HaSalon. The music is loud. Over in the corner, there’s a marriage proposal happening. One punter seems to be in a dance-off with a server. Every other person appears to be dancing on the tables.
Like the city itself, there’s a lot to take in, so much so that you could forget about the food. But you shouldn’t.
Note: The beetroot carpaccio is sensational. Though it’s tempting to keep going all night, we have an early start so somehow manage to make it back to, er, Paris in one piece.
Founded in 1960, we get a Pink Jeep Tour to Red Rock Canyon.
Brian is our guide – he used to perform on the Strip over the decades and has family in Roscommon and Cork.
We get a potted history of Vegas in the 30-40 minutes it takes to drive there and, though it only dates back about 200 years, it involves mobsters, entrepreneurs, and entertainers.
Billionaire businessman and hypochondriac Howard Hughes arrived in the 1960s and had an influence not just on gangsters’ grip of certain casinos, but bought huge tracts of land on the outskirts of the city and was key in the development of the sprawling Red Rock Canyon.
It’s bustling on Saturday morning, with people on bikes, scooters, and foot exploring different trails peppered with creosote, Joshua trees, and yucca.
Red Rock has its own microclimate and while summer might be a bit too hot for hikes and bouldering, if you’re into that sort of thing, Calico 1, Calico 2, and Ice Box Canyon are good beginner options.
Freeclimber Alex Hannold, as seen in various documentaries, lives nearby and is out exploring often. One could imagine coming to Vegas just for the outdoor life.
The Pink Jeep Red Rock tour takes four hours in all, but there are day trips offered to the Grand Canyon and Death Valley too.
After lunch in Vanderpump á Paris – ask your reality TV-obsessed friends – and a rewarding couple of hours at the slots, we’re off to the all-seeing Sphere.
U2 christened it with the inaugural residency last September through to March and while the Eagles are the current house band, V-U2 is an immersive concert film, shown throughout the week and featuring some of the show’s jaw- dropping visuals on the 580,000sq ft of LEDs.
Below, it looks like the actual Bono et al onstage. Like Abba Voyage in London, it’s all just state-of-the-art technology and visuals. While the setlist is a little disappointing, we did enjoy the irony of ‘Even Better Than The Real Thing’.
Vegas has many names, the entertainment capital of the world among them (as well as the sports capital of the world - Formula 1 takes place in the city this weekend, for instance).
Plan ahead and you can see the likes of Bruno Mars, Gucci Mane, and Usher in concert, or any number of shows.
We catch DISCOSHOW at the LINQ on Saturday, a fun dance-along journey of self-discovery with a killer soundtrack.
Neon Museum on Sunday is a ‘boneyard’ comprising distinctive old signs of Vegas, some of which have been re-lit.
Awakening at the Wynn on Monday. The latter is directed by Dublin’s own Baz Halpin, who has also worked on shows for Taylor Swift, among others.
Big productions are what Vegas does — every night of the week.
It’s easy to get lost among the high-rise nature of the Strip but head a little further north and there’s a reassuringly ‘normal’ feel to the place.
After brunch at La Fontaine in Fontainebleau, one of Vegas’ newest hotels, having opened late last year – and gaping in wonder at the ostentatious chandelier in the lobby – we head to the
Mob Museum, obviously based in the former city courthouse, for a closer look at the city’s links to gangsters like Joe Pesci’s Nicky Santoro in Casino, based on Tony Spilotro.
The museum, which gets about 2,000 visitors daily, is by the same people who did the Rock & Roll Museum in Cleveland and features talks by real mobsters like Frank Calabrese Jr.
We weren’t expecting our Uber driver to tell us about his links to the mob though — I guess it added to the
experience?
The area is called the Arts District, with breweries and hipster bars more evident than downtown. After stumbling through the madcap Fremont Street with its LED screen canopy, we reach Esther’s Kitchen.
An Italian-inspired restaurant, it has more than tripled its seating after moving a couple doors down the road earlier in the year.
The sourdough bread and pizzas will fill you up, the cauliflower alla romana a nice snack before you tuck into any number of great pasta dishes.
The chocolate olive oil cake though: It almost made me cry when it was over. Pure joy.
Vegas has a population of some 2.9m but with about 150,000 hotel rooms, it’s noticeably quieter after the weekend.
The mantra seems to be, we’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time.
After lunch at Brasserie B by Bobby Flay in Caesars we head to the High Roller at the bottom of LINQ Promenade, styled to look like classic ‘Main Street USA’.
The Ferris wheel is one of the biggest in the world at 550ft (167m) offering views right on top of Sphere — distinctly unadorned in the daytime — and much further afield.
Hop onto the LINQ Zipline for a little thrillride above the street. Thanks to the staffer who whispered “It’s actually pretty fucking windy” as I set off; really appreciated that.
A relatively sober and tame dinner is had that night at Kusa Nori, a modern Japanese restaurant in Resorts World, which features a mini Sphere. You couldn’t make Vegas up if you tried.
The last day in Las Vegas and we haven’t even seen one Elvis impersonator since Dublin! There’s only one thing for it: a trip to the wedding chapel. Bliss Wedding Chapel to be precise.
Tens of thousands of people get married in the city every year — we all remember Britney Spears’ shotgun wedding in 2004, annulled after 55 hours — and while that sounds fun, Bliss says it offers a more tasteful experience, with an hour-long ceremony and pickup in a stretch limo, livestreaming options for friends and family back home, and, of course, entertainment and officiating by Elvis.
Renewal of vows is also popular here, with Irish people among those to take part. We head back to the still frankly ridiculous – in the best way – Venetian Hotel for a browse around its high-roller Grand Canal Shoppes.
Our last supper is at Smith and Wollensky, a steakhouse where the prices ain’t cheap but, well, it might be the best thing you eat in your life.
With locations along the east coast and one in London, this is the only one out west.
We finally get our hands on some local craft beers and tuck into the Wagyu NY Strip. We don’t want it to end – the meal as well as the trip.
We head back to Dublin from Harry Reid, the overnight flight much more subdued than Friday.
Las Vegas is many things to many different people - and a weekend here is whatever you want it to be. And don’t forget, what happens in Vegas…
- Editor’s note: Technically Eoghan stayed longer than three days — but in Vegas, who’s counting?