The Great California Road Trip started with a bang and what better way to start something than with a trip to Vegas?  Vegas is one of those places you have to see once in your life, so we booked flights and headed spent one day in Vegas, which was enough time to experience the casinos, food, pool parties, and glamour of it all.

One Day in Vegas (and 2 nights)

Luis and I flew 12 hours from Madrid to LAX and headed straight to our next flight, LAX to Vegas.  Neither of us slept much on the first flight, but conked out on the second and I woke up thinking “there is nooo way I am going be able to rally tonight”.  But…we did!  I mean, we rallied in a Tamara kind of way.  Aka I didn’t go to sleep, but I also didn’t drink a lot and party all night.  I actually committed a Vegas sin and didn’t drink any alcohol (or gamble at all…) while in Vegas.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me, either….

Anyway, the first night we arrived, we took a (very very expensive) taxi to our hotel, where we met Augustin (Luis’ friend) and his girlfriend, Ouka.  They arrived earlier in the day, but slept most of the afternoon.  We quickly got changed and went out to walk the Vegas Strip.  We stayed at the Flamingo Hotel & Casino which ended up being perfect- great location, awesome views, and the perfectly trashy pool party was fantastic.  More on that soon.

So we spent the first night walking the Strip and marveling at the fact that Vegas is just so…over the top.  You can visit Paris, Venice, Egypt and New York in one day!  Who needs to go to the real places?  You can watch the light and fountain shows, go to strip clubs, gamble your money (and win big and lose big) and do things that you just can’t really do in the rest of the country.  Even though I’ve been there, I was so in awe of everything around me, especially when we walk down the street and this promoter starts yelling “TITTTIES!!  YA’LL LIKE TITTIES?  WE GOT TITTIES” and then another told us it was family night at the Strip Club.  hahaha.

We watched the fountain show at the Bellagio…

Visited the Eiffel Tower…

We also walked through the Bellagio

And I made Luis ride the mechanical bull because that’s one of those super American experiences…

And then Augustin and Ouka bet a dollar and lost it in less than 3 seconds.  Their faces!

The next morning (after sleeping 4 hours and hardly at all the day before), I was WIDE awake and ready to party.  I couldn’t sleep for the life of me, and we all seemed to be tossing and turning so I snuck out of bed and snapped this photo of the view from our room.

Vegas: the city that makes you feel rich and poor at the same time.

We ventured out of the hotel for some food and coffee, and this was just the first time we ended up at fast food restaurants that day.  We actually ended up at 5 fast food places in one day!  The Spaniards were like wtf is wrong with these Americans and their diets…

From there, we headed to the pool at the Flamingo Hotel.  WHAT an experience!  It was the perfect amount of crazy and trashy (but in a good way) and it was honestly one of my favorite parts of the trip.  We didn’t pay for a cabana, so we sat on the side of the pool and had to put up with this insane lady telling us that she and her companions ‘paid for their cabana AND the water in that immediate area’.  LADY pleaseeeee.

After a few hours of ridicilousness, we headed back upstairs to shower and then walk around the strip.  We visited Venice…

And that night, we walked all the way to ‘Egypt’ aka the Luxor Hotel and Casino, which was beautiful and incredibly real looking.  That’s where Augustin and Ouka did a little gambling.  They quickly lost their money, but I can totally see the draw to gambling and how easy it would be to get sucked in.  

We walked back to the hotel, immediately fell asleep, and the next day headed back to the airport to head to San Francisco!  Coming soon 🙂

TIPS for One Day in Vegas:

If you will be there for only one day, I recommend purchasing the 24 hour buffet pass which allows you to access a bunch of buffets for around $65 per person for 24 hours.  A lot of the food is pretty pricey, so by the time you eat at a couple restaurants, you are going to hit that price.

The Flamingo Pool doesn’t allow you to enter with any food or drinks.  Fill up before going in or plan to purchase things at the pool (very pricey)

Book a hotel on Booking.com, where you can get really great deals. Click this link for a discount.

There is a shuttle from the airport to the strip and costs only $9 per person, which is a better deal than a taxi (we paid $37 for a 10 minute taxi)