Travel Recap: A Very Vegas Getaway!

 

We may have dubbed this summer the summer YOLO...which is how we found ourselves hopping on a plane to Las Vegas with exactly one week's notice. I had been toying with the idea for a while but we didn't decide to pull the trigger until about 8 days before we needed to be there. The main reason we were going? The Backstreet Boys at Sphere! And I'll blog allllll about that but - for now - I wanted to do an in-depth recap of our weekend getaway to Sin City.

Friday: Arrival to Las Vegas

We flew out Friday afternoon and landed around 6 pm on Friday. Just enough time to check in to our hotel, grab some dinner, explore a bit, and then head to sleep. We stayed at the Wynn this time to be walking distance to the Sphere. We previously stayed at The Mirage (now closed, sadly, to make a room for a guitar shaped Hard Rock Hotel/Casino) and Park MGM. At this point I feel like we have stayed at different places on the strip and gotten a really good flavor of all the casinos/hotels. It is so interesting to explore all the different vibes and compare the pros and cons of each.

The Wynn upgraded us to a Wynn Panoramic View Room on the 32nd floor overlooking the Strip. It was clean, well-appointed, and was a nice surprise to have a higher floor room. Our room number was 3251. 

The view was mostly of Treasure Island, the Palazzo at the Venetian, and the former Mirage.

Dinner was at La Cave, one of the restaurants in the Wynn. It always astounds me just how large these properties are. I know they're designed to keep you from needing to leave and I totally get that. You could spend a full weekend just exploring one property! I immediately changed from my plane outfit to my first Night in Vegas outfit: a black sequin skirt with a hot pink top and black rhinestone champagne flute statement earrings. Not gonna lie....I was feeling very cutesy. Lol.

We ordered the Jumbo Lump Crab Lettuce Cups to start, along with a Havana Nights cocktail (me...drinking alcohol?! What?!), and a wine flight for my husband. My entree was a Moroccan Chicken Skewer with a really amazing pear chutney. I am a sucker for anything that comes with naan so this was an easy choice. Since we were eating pretty late it was the perfect amount of food. 

We decided to finally make it to the Neon Boneyard, a really neat - albeit small - museum of types featuring a bunch of the old neon signage from casinos and other Strip buildings. We had never been able to squeeze this in on our prior trips so it was one of the things we definitely wanted to do this time around.

And one of the neatest things was that the Visitor Center at the Neon Boneyard is the lobby of the former La Concha Motel built in 1961! It was literally moved in 2006 to be the visitor center at Neon Museum. I love a good re-purpose. 

After a bit more of exploring the Wynn it was time to call it a night.

Saturday: Exploring

We set out relatively early on Saturday morning since we were still on East Coast time so we started the day with a quick grab-and-go breakfast at Caffe Al Teatro, a super cute french themed quick service with pastries, sandwiches, coffee, parfaits, and fruit cups. I ordered the chocolate croissant which was super tasty.

After finishing breakfast, we headed out to the Mob Museum to learn more about the glory days of the Strip (back when it was run by the mob) and organized crime in the US. It was fascinating. 

After that we walked over to Fremont Street.

This was a bit older and a little more seedy than the strip. We didn't spend too much time there before heading back to the strip. But there was an absolutely adorable donut shop on Fremont Strip called Pinkbox Doughnuts that had some wild flavors. They had a Labubu doughnut!!

We caught an uber to Aria to walk to the Diane exhibit. I am a sucker for anything invloving the royals and Princess Diana was such an impactful figure that I wanted to see what all of artifacts were in the exhibit. There were clothes, letters, photos, trivia, and all kinds of items. We got to play royal for a second and sit on thrones.

And there was a mock up of her gorgeous wedding dress with the 25 foot train!

And of course - always the Beatles fan - I was thrilled to see the Queen's personal invitation to George Harrison to play for her and Princess Anne for her Silver Jubilee.

And then we walked over to the Venetian to visit the Backstreet Boys Terminal to buy some merch and pose for some photos. More on that later - we decided we would have to come back and take more photos when we were dressed in our concert whites.

We explored the Venetian a little. It was just like Venice. Ok maybe not exactly but it was such a fun environment.

I ran back to the hotel for a quick costume change into more nighttime sequins (I had too much fun with sequins on this trip) and we headed out for dinner and show. The show was Shin Lim, a closeup magician that performs the most mind-blowing tricks ever. We had seen him on Fool Us but apparently he was also a two-time winner of America's Got Talent!

Spoiler alert: At the end of the show he does a switcheroo from the stage and appears somewhere in the crowd. Well....he ended up right in front of us! The two seats in front of us had been open the whole performance and then toward the end some guy hustled down and sat. Right as I was thinking who is this guy?! he stood up and the light focused on him and it was revealed. So I was within 2 feet of Shin Lim! Very unexpected.

Oh and the dinner was at Sushisamba. 

Of course I ordered sushi and edamame.

Sunday: Pool Day and Concert

For Sunday we had the concert so we wanted to do a lowkey morning. We ended up doing a little casino hopping and lounging by the pool before changing into our concert whites and heading to dinner, Backstreet Boys Terminal for more photos, and then over to the concert.

We ran back through the Venetian and also saw the flamingos at Flamingo (it's free). Also I LOVED my romper for this day. It was perfectly comfortable and I thought the color was fun and Vegas-y.

And naturally we had to pose with the Shin Lim sign we passed while walking out of the Venetian.

We also ran over to the Bellagio to watch the fountain show and to see what the floral arrangement was in the conservatory. It ended up being wild animals and parlor games? 

There were giant moss covered chess pieces.

Ok so I maybe didn't quite understand the theme but hey, let your freak flag fly Vegas!

And we even stopped at Caesar's for their Fountain of the Gods show (also free!). It's just a little fountain show that they have every hour starting at noon. It gave us something to do before heading to the pool.

We headed back to Wynn for some R&R at the pool. Yes, I had pink sunnies and champagne flute earrings to match my hot pink bikini. And if you look closely my belly button ring was a dice! I've had it for years...but I don't use it much.

We got into our concert whites. And if you have been wondering why I keep referring to concert whites, it's because BSB asked concertgoers to wear all white in honor of the Millennium album's cover. Of course I love a themed outfit so say less! 

I went with a plain white tank top but then glitzed it up with silver/white sequin skirt. When in Vegas, right?? And to really seal the back-to-the-millennium deal, I went with simple sneakers (they were Kate Spade and had a spade on the side...get it? Vegas. Spade. I pay too much attention to these things...). And the piece de resistance?? My Tiffany & Co. heart tag necklace (borrowed from my sister - shout to my sister!) and tag bracelet. 

I was tickler pink when the girl behind us in line totally noticed it and said it was the perfect accessory. Though she was wearing a black plastic chokers that were also SUPER popular in the 90s-2000s so I said she had the perfect accessory too. 

Dinner was at Bouchon, an AMAZING french restaurant at the Venetian. I ordered the escargot, steak frites, and enjoyed wayyyy too much baguette.

Then we were off to the Sphere for the Backstreet Boys concert!

There is so much I want to say about the Backstreet Boys concert experience. But I'll make that whole experience its own blog post since this is getting very long (are you still with me?? Thank you so much if you are still reading!).

Monday: Headed Home!

After the concert we headed to sleep. We had a leisurely morning since the flight out wasn't until noon or so. My plan outfit was just black leggings and a black top with my sneakers and of course...my bags...lol.

Also I always get a kick out of the Vegas airport having slot machines. We did not gamble. Fun fact: We have been to Vegas three times and have not gambled a single dollar.

Also, while we're talking about airports....has anyone volunteered for a travel voucher? They were offering $1500 for 4 people to give up their seats on our flight because it was overbooked. I gave it serious consideration since $1500 can get you a lot of places! But ultimately, we needed to get home so we could pick up our dog from her resort kennel.

Thank you for joining me for this recap of our quick trip to Las Vegas! I'll share more about what I packed and maybe an itinerary even...but especially the BSB concert! So stay tuned!

Have you ever been? 

What is your favorite casino? 

What show have you always wanted to see?