Talk to me about VEGAS please

[Sweetheart]

Thinking of treating dh to a trip to Vegas for his significant birthday - not sure where to start.........

Anyone with hints / tips / info would be much appreciated!

Two tips, depending on what you're into.
If DH would like a trip that includes a few different kinds of things, there's some really great nature and parks just outside of Vegas. It's easy to do some hiking around Mt Charleston and be back in time for dinner and a show.
If you're not into that, I'd suggest not bothering with a rental car. The monorail (or buses, if you want to try downtown) are all you'll need

Find somewhere else! Really not nice. Huge gaming halls full of mindless people and it’s grubby. It’s also very crowded and we couldn’t wait to leave. What do you think he might like about it? We couldn’t find anything. If it’s cheap, it will be nasty! Everything there feels fake (is fake) and the shows are full of has-beens.

Try a more cultured city in the USA. Any decent city is better than Las Vegas. (Unless he’s into gambling of course).

Hotel prices vary depending on whether there are conventions in town so try several different dates if you can to get a good price.

I've stayed at New York New York, Luxor and Planet Hollywood and would stay in any of those again. There are loads of decent hotels but I'd pick one at the Southern end or in the middle of the strip.

I would highly recommend the duelling pianos show at the Time Square bar in NYNY

Away from the strip, downtown is worth a visit for the Neon Boneyard, Mob Museum and if you're feeling brave, the zip line at Fremont St.

As pp said there's lots of incredible scenery in the vicinity and it's nice to rent a car and escape the madness for a while! Vegas is what you make of it. You can embrace the insanity and have a great time or you can hate it.

Don't go in July / August! When we went it was 46 degrees and it was just too hot to do much. I feel like we never saw much of it as we just couldn't stand being outside. We stopped at the MGM but if I were ever to go again I would stop at Caesars Palace as we ended up there every night as loads to do / places to eat.

We love Vegas, went twice in 2 years. The first time we stayed at the Bellagio and would definitely recommend a fountain view room. It's mesmerising to watch the fountains dance to the music you hear from the tv in your room. It also has 2 of the best restaurants I've ever eaten at - Harvest and Picasso. Expensive but worth it. We've seen multiple Cirque shows (Love, O, Zumanity, One) we did the mob museum (quirky and more interesting than I thought it would be), we did the hop on hop off tour bus to get our bearings and it included the trip down to Fremont St (we found the best bar that did the cheapest margaritas!) we also did a helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon for my 30th which was an amazing experience.

Our trips were based around good food, cocktails, shopping and sightseeing and we were not disappointed

Thanks for all the tips so far - I have chosen Vegas becuase it is somewhere dh has always wanted to go - he plays poker and loves boxing so I'm really hoping I can get him to see a fight whilst we are there. I think we would definitely fall into the camp of embrace the madness for a one off trip!

We are quite active people but I think if we were going for an active holiday we'd do something very different. Maybe a day trip to the Grand Canyon would be good if anyone has any hints or tips about that.

The zip line sounds fab and I have seen a video of it - I think we'd fancy doing something like that.

We will probably only be in Vegas for a few days - maybe up to 5 - so don't want to try and cram too much in.

We're going for the first time in September and as you say OP are going to embrace the madness, though we are going for 3 nights so intend to cram as much as we possibly can in and will probably come home absolutely knackered!

We're traveling from Denver through to Vegas in September. We've got three nights booked at The,Mirage before we fly home. It'll be a very different experience to the rest of the holiday which is mostly through the national parks. It's our 10th wedding anniversary and ice always wanted to go to Vegas. We've travelled a lot through the US but I am ridiculously excited about this trip!

Vegas is amazing. And I’m not really a gambler. For me it’s the themed hotels/casinos (you can just go into any of them). The buffets, the bars, the atmosphere, the weather, the shopping.

My favourites are:

Mandalay Bay
Paris
Venetian

There are some great shows to see too.

The bellagio fountains are magical to watch.

We drove out to Hoover Dam,lake mead, Grand Canyon.

Been five times, so so good - embrace it!

Hotels on strip - ideally south of Wynn/encore because so many north are now gone. City centre is great, stayed in aria and vdara - both lovely. Vdara is not a casino though. If we had ££ we’d choose the cosmopolitan - it had balconies

Bar at the top of Mandalay bay is great for the view

Scoot city tours offer a Vegas tour with a difference as well as red rock canyon option - check groupon

If you like to do stuff you can’t do in the Uk the gun range may or may not appeal - your call.

And yes fountains at bellagio!

I blooming love the place! Went a few years ago & stayed at the flamingo. the linq high roller had just opened which was great.
We embraced it and fell for the place, probably a love it or hate it as it’s not for everyone.
There is just so much to see, even each casino is a world to itself! We saw a show, had a relaxing afternoon by the pool in our hotel... the zip line...
I’m desperate to go back! We did four nights but five days as arrived early and left late.

Have you looked on British airways holidays? They offer so quite good deals for hotels and flights in one.. we struggled to beat the prices.

Most hotels charge a tourist tax which is minimal really but all in all it’s amazing, nowhere is quite like it!!

We did New York in the same trip so massive contrast... but was great!

spent a couple of days there as part of a tour of the west. Saw the Grand Canyon which was amazing! Vegas itself was busy and varied. I recommend the Fremont street experience and try to do a show. We saw rod stewart. Had a great time. On the downside it was crowded and lots of homeless people and beggars

Ooh I loved the Paris hotel, the fountains at Bellagio, treasure island was good, and the Venetian (gondelas) was great. There is a Carlos bakery there too if you’ve watched the show on TLC! ( didn’t live up to expectations though!)

I’d love to go to Gordon Ramsey’s new restaurant there as well!

Hoover dam, forgot that.

I love Vegas. You're right, you just abandon yourself to the madness for a short time.
There's so many amazing hotels that you can get a lovely room on the strip with wow factor. Best hotels for great spacious rooms are Venetian/Cosmo/Vdara
Recommend the zipwire, the big wheel (you need to go in pod with you're own bar), shooting range, a range of shows for all tastes, weekend night downtown, helicopter trip to canyon is worth it (you can book before or while you're there, but if you've a budget it's good to purchase before or if a big birthday get others to contribute as gift) You might not get a boxing match, that's when you'll find the hotels room price shoot up anyway. You can get a cheap limo to collect you to take to hotel from airport as surprise (approx £50) or you could book stretch limo to do tours of Vegas approx £70 for an hour. One off is nice.
I'd recommend either Virgin direct or BA. If you can modify your dates via skyscanner or kayak to get direct flights I would. Don't waste short breaks in airports.

I'm watching this with interest I fly to San Fran then Vegas in 4 weeks getting married whilst there (very quickly and cheaply)
My OH has always wanted to go to and he is 50 whilst we are there. I'll let you know how it goes.

It's the sort of place that's worth a quick visit, but only once.

2 days was more than enough and I would never go back. It's all drunks and clickers. Great to take some photos, but seedy, sad and brash imo.

I enjoyed our holiday there much more than I had expected. Part of the reason for that was a drive out to the Grand Canyon and walking around as much as time would allow. (Not enough.)

Do your homework on restaurants. We did and went to some fantastic ones including an excellent Teppanyaki place.

the best bits of the grand canyon ( no ne of it is rubbish but the real spectacular scenes) are not within day trip of vegas and you cant fly over them.

stay a c ouple of nights, boggle at the size of things, see what is on your list and that will do unless you are happy indoors and gambl ing.

The shopping is good there, fashion show mall is on the strip and the north/south outlets are easy to get to by Uber/Lyft.

Wynn is a nice hotel if you want somewhere a little quieter but personally prefer the other end of the strip (MGM, Excalibur, NYNY, Luxor all easy to get between if you stay up that end).

Main thing I didn’t realise before my first trip was how huge everything was and it actually can take a long time to get between casinos that are next door to each other as you might have to go upstairs, across a bridge, down an escalator and back inside or something like that (they all vary but don’t just look at Google maps and think you can walk the whole strip in a day like I did!).

You can use US Groupon to buy vouchers for attractions etc and play a game called My Vegas on Facebook for free to claim free show tickets/meals etc. Sounds dodgy but it’s not!

Also worth signing up to the players card in the casino you’re staying at if your DH will be gambling a bit. Take it to the membership desk before you check out and ask if they can comp anything.

High roller with an open bar is lethal but a lot of fun and you probably won’t get tickets to any big boxing matches very easily but they’ll be plenty of places to watch/atmosphere if there’s one on.

It’s the sort of place you’ll either love or hate but I think everyone should go at least once as there’s nowhere quite like it!

Wow I forgot I'd posted this - thanks all so much for the input it's amazing. I've got a lot of work to do planning a fabulous trip I think!