Las Vegas is awesome and a holiday to Las Vegas is one you can do all year round on account of the amazing weather it has (it’s effectively in the dessert to be fair). This is exactly why I wanted to share an essential guide to visiting Las Vegas. 

After all, there’s a heap of the best things to do in Las Vegas and a whole loads of stuff to do on The Strip, too.

Okay, I’m gonna try to keep this structured though you’re gonna have to look for all the tips and tricks in between photos.

How to get to Las Vegas?

Who cares? Haha! It’s Las Vegas darn it.

Get there by car, plane or even by magic carpet; just get there already! Vegas has too many transport options so you’ll have lots to choose from. Well, except for the train that is.

No more point wasting more time on this section.

1.) Free drinks are everywhere

There’s no need to buy alcohol. You effectively get free alcohol when you’re at the slot machines (or doing any kind of gambling really) and all you have to do is tip the cocktail waitresses a few dollars each time.

Just remember, the cocktails are uber-strong though and so after a few Bellagio cocktails, you might find yourself ready to find out what comes before ‘Part B’ – Part-Aaaaaay!

We stayed at the Bellagio and luckily Lloyd knew this rule but not before we’d spent almost $100 on drinks for 4 of us.

Seeing as slot machines are as little as a few cents in some cases, it makes more sense to spend some of the drinks money on the machines while getting your drinking on.

Pretty much every hotel on the strip does this so cut your costs down dramatically by getting your alcohol for free.

2.) Every hotel has its own entertainment

Figure out which one works best for you and head over there! I loved the Venetian feeling at, you guessed it, the Venetian, perhaps partly because only a few weeks back we’d all been in Venice together.

You’d think we’d like it less for that reason but in a strange roundabout way, we loved it more.

Also got to see Cirque du Soleil at The Bellagio which was amazing. A ride on the rollercoaster at the New York hotel is also a must.

3.) Hotel buffets

Try a hotel buffet at least once but remember, the good ones have huge queues so be prepared to arrive in advance or get creative with your planning.

Again, being at the Bellagio (and being a tad hungover), we went to the one at the Bellagio and it was glorious! Amazing seafood and the tastiest desserts were all on a show and it is one of the best ones out there.

4.) Be prepared to walk

I had no idea how huge some of the hotels were but they are massive.

Asides, the hotels there’s then the main strip to see and that is a huge HUGE walk! We thought we could do this but we spent hours walking and kinda gave up after a while. It was either that or trying to walk the whole thing and having to take a taxi back.

5.) Check out the street impersonators

Don’t worry about looking for them, they’re littered pretty much everywhere across the strip and while some are a bit cringeworthy, some are pretty good.

One of my favourites is the Zach Galifianakis character from the hangover and he was the spitting image. There were a few transformer robots lurking around which had me thinking about how amazing they would be as Halloween costumes.

6.) Take a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon

This one is a bit outside of the Vegas remit but take a trip, perhaps even a helicopter ride, to the Grand Canyon.

It’s close enough to see, especially if you haven’t done this in the past and it makes sense to head on out there and see it for yourself.

7.) Always ensure you have water in your car

You’re effectively in a dessert and it’s so easy to forget this however if you ever have car problems or get stranded, it’s easy to get dehydrated in hours and this can get dangerous if you have no means of contacting anyone else. I can not stress this enough – especially as it’s an easy one to do – ensure you have a lot of water in your car.

Along with that, it also makes sense to pack a silver space blanket (at least I think that’s what they’re called) to keep you warm in the desert (again, just in case).