We dropped our bags in the room at the Grand Chateau and then headed out to enjoy our first day in Vegas. It was sunny but the temps were in the 40-50’s during our visit. Though this was still better than the single digit temps we were experiencing in Texas at the same time. With no real plan on what to do or where to go, we started off walking down the strip and grabbed a burger from Wahlburgers before doing a little bit of gambling. Afterwards, we headed to the Forum Shops at Caesars where we gave a workout to our American Express card.
Afterwards, we headed back towards the hotel. Along the way, we noticed that the fountains at the Bellagio were starting one of their water shows, so we stopped and watched that for a bit. Exhausted from a very long day of travel we decided to turn in early and were in bed by 9:00p.
The next day, we slept in and grabbed breakfast from the café in the hotel. We left the room just after 11:00a and headed to Tom’s Urban for lunch, located in the New York New York casino. Afterwards, as much as I protested, my better half really wanted to go down and see the tourist trap that is the “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign. Ultimately, I caved, and agreed to make the walk. First we walked across the street to Excalibur where we caught the tram to Mandalay Bay, the closest resort to the sign. From there, it was a long walk along Las Vegas boulevard before we crossed the street to the wide median where the sign was located. There was a long line waiting for pictures with the sign that stretched out into the parking lot (why someone would wait in that line is beyond me) so we just settled for a quick selfie from a distance before making our way back to the strip.
We walked along through the Luxor, MGM Grand and Park MGM on our way back to the hotel to get ready for dinner before our show. Since our show that night was at Caesars Palace, we chose to go to the Eiffel Tower Restaurant in the Paris Hotel and Casino. The restaurant is located inside the replica Eiffel Tower with some great views of the strip and Bellagio fountains. I made our reservation online and requested a table along the window. Our reservation was for 7:45p which would give us plenty of time before our 10:00p show.
Upon arrival, we were shown to our table which was located in the corner, providing 180-degree views of the strip. We started with drinks and an amuse bouche, which was accompanied by some bread and house made butter, followed by the Casco Bay Sea scallops with cauliflower and citrus bercy.
For our mains, I had the Mediterranean Sea Bass for my main and she ordered the Beef Wellington which we followed with some small assorted sweets as we were stuffed from dinner.
Completely stuffed, we finished dinner around 9:30p and made our way across the street to the Spiegeltent at Caesars Palace for Absinthe. The show debuted years ago (I saw it when I was here for my 21st birthday) but still gets amazing reviews and she had never been so we decided to check it out. Out front, there was a small courtyard space which was used as a waiting area for the doors to open. The doors opened at 9:50p for a 10:00p showtime and we were in our seats in the third row, with drinks in hand, by 9:55p. With such a small theater, there isn’t a bad seat in the house and we felt like a part of the action unfolding on stage. After the show, we called it a night and headed back to our hotel.
Day three was our mandatory timeshare spiel, so we had a late start to the day. Our first order of business was lunch, so we headed across the street to The Cosmopolitan where they had a large food hall serving a variety of different items. Once we fueled up, we decided to check out the other end of the strip, so we made our way to the Venetian/Palazzo. During prior trips to Vegas (8+ years ago) I found the Venetian to be more upscale, but it has really fallen off in the past few years. While the shops had the trademark canals, the shops themselves looked more like what you would find at your local, dying shopping mall with random candy stores and places selling scented candles.
We bailed on the Venetian and made our way across the street to the Wynn. This was my first time in the Wynn, and I was impressed with all of their Christmas decorations though we didn’t have much of a need to gamble or shop here as we did most of our gambling at the Park MGM which had become our home base as they are the only completely smoke-free casino on the strip.
For our last night in Vegas, we made reservations at Din Tai Fung, a well-known Taiwanese restaurant chain that specializes in xiaolongbao. The company has locations around the world and their Hong Kong location was awarded a Michelin star. The Las Vegas location was conveniently located inside the Aria Hotel and Casino, so we made the short walk over from our hotel, arriving a few minutes before our scheduled reservation. We were greeted at the hostess stand and, after confirming our reservation we were shown inside to a waiting area with views of the chefs hard at work in the kitchen, churning out a mind-blowing number of dumplings. After a short wait, another host came and led us over to our table.
The restaurant floor was located in a large atrium, just off of the reception area and had large, floor to ceiling glass windows which made the space feel huge, almost like sitting in an airport lounge. After being seated, we were provided with two menus, one explaining the dishes while the other was more of an order card where we marked down our selections.
We started with a round of drinks and an order of cucumber salad. Followed by multiple orders of the xiaolongbao in both the pork and crab and pork varieties and an order of the pork steamed buns.
Continuing with the gluttony, we had the noodles with spicy sauce and spicy wontons along with the pot stickers. Finally, we closed out dinner with the chocolate and mochi xiaolongbao. After dinner we went and did some gambling at The Cosmopolitan and Paris before turning in for the night.
Our last day was a travel day though, given we had a late flight, we were able to get a late checkout from the hotel and headed over to the massive Eataly location in the Park MGM for a quick lunch. By this day, we were exhausted as four days is way too much time to spend in Las Vegas.
Summary
Hope you all enjoyed our four day trip to Las Vegas! We had a great time though when we eventually make another trip I think that three days will be our maximum. Four days here is exhausting.
