Las Vegas: around the world in 2 days

Las Vegas at night

Las Vegas at night

Las Vegas at night

Hotel New York

Shopping at the Venetian

Las Vegas

Lobby of the Venetian

Las Vegas

Fountains at the Bellagio

Las Vegas

Joshua Tree scenic highway

Nevada

Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam

Las Vegas is a city that everybody talks about, that everybody needs to go at least once in their lives. To meet Elvis, to get married, and to get rich!

Well, this week it was our turn...

From Southern Arizona we made the drive up to Vegas, passing the Joshua Tree scenic highway and making an extra stop at the Hoover Dam.

221 meters high, built in the thirties during the great depression and right at the border of Arizona and Nevada (you literally step into an hour of time difference), the Hoover Dam provides power, flood control, water storage, regulation and recreation for the surrounding states. Impounding Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the US, it is generating power for the whole state of Nevada, Arizona and California. Next to this, Lake Mead provides water for over18 million people and irrigation for a million acres of land. A pretty impressive piece of engineering!

Hundreds of tourists visit the dam every day, so make sure to be early in the day. It has a visitor centre where you can book a tour inside the Hoover dam or you can walk across it for free, while enjoying the amazing views. Parking spaces are free as soon as you have crossed the dam back to the Arizona side.

Worth stopping at while visiting Sin City!

It takes about half an hour to get to Vegas from the Hoover Dam. Within minutes the surroundings change from scenic mountain views to an overwhelming city. We stayed in a hotel at the Strip, so we drove straight into the heart of it all (the hotels at Vegas Boulevard all have free parking).

My first impression while entering the city centre: Disneyland meets Ibiza. Grazy hotels meet sunny party people of all ages. From the Eiffeltower and the Venetian Palazzo's to the Statue of Liberty and the Roman Forums, you can literally travel around the world in an hour's walk.

We stayed two days at the Strip and basically tried to visit as many hotel lobby's as we could. Most hotels there have a theme, so we ate Italian Ice cream at the Venetian, had French breakfast at Hotel Paris and ate a burger at Hotel New York New York. We watched people gamble at 8 am in the morning, saw the fountain show at the Bellagio and the Vulcanic eruption (yes, really) at the Mirage.

Vegas is, after all, the definition of 'over the top'.

Besides visiting hotel lobby's, one of the biggest attractions of Vegas is 'Cirque du Soleil' and make sure to visit one of their shows. We did 'Ka' at the MGM Grand and bought the tickets at the hotel for a reduced price the day before (do not buy them on the internet in advance!).

A visual spectacle with some great aerobatic skills on display. A simple story of good versus evil, on a pretty impressive stage, that makes good entertainment.

And as a true fan we also did the CSI Experience at the MGM Grand. Based on the popular tv show 'Crime Scene Investigation' you get your own crime scene to solve. In our case, a car crash in the living room... After solving it, and handing over your report to Grissom (true fans know who I am talking about) you get your very own CSI graduation certificate.

Not too hard, but fun to do if you are a fan of the show.

And last but not least: shop till you drop! From the Canal Shops in Venice to the streets of Paris and the Forum shops at Caesars Palace, from Louis Vuitton to H&M, they have it all in Vegas...Especially the fact that they copied entire Italian and French streets, including the Trevi fountain, the Venetian canals and fake sunny skies, makes it all very fun. Even if you don't want to pull that credit card!

It will definitely get you sore feet and painful legs, but walking around the Strip in Vegas for a day or two is a very entertaining experience. After all, where else can you travel the world in just two days?!