Monday, May 19 to Thursday, May 22, 2025
I am not going to do a day-by-day account of our stay in Las Vegas, but here are the highlights and lowlights.
Gambling
I'll start with the worst; gambling was not good on this trip. We were up and down, but mostly down and only a big win on our last night kept us from losing all of our gambling money. That said, we never expected (just hoped 😊) to win, and we had a great time. Sometimes you get lucky and win but mostly you lose, but if you just think of it as entertainment and stay within your gambling budget, losing doesn't ruin the trip.
The Weather
The weather was unusually mild for this time of the year in Las Vegas, but it did heat up as the week went on. All in all, it was quite comfortable.
The Monorail
We bought a three-day pass for the Las Vegas Monorail and used it every day. The monorail isn't very popular for a lot of people, but it is very handy for us. It travels the length of the east side of The Strip which is mainly the area we frequent.
When we were here last in February of 2020, Caesars Entertainment was building a large convention center in an area behind Harrah's and now it's done. Part of the construction was redoing the monorail station or more accurately, the access to the monorail station. What used to be an outdoor walkway is now completely enclosed and leads not only to the monorail station, but to the convention center as well. There was a large Wyndham Hotel convention going on while we were there, so the walkway was usually pretty busy.
We used the monorail to visit the Horseshoe and Paris hotels several times and also made our usual trip to the MGM Grand. The Sahara Hotel is at the north end of the monorail line, and we hadn't visited there for quite a while, so we decided to pay them a visit. The Sahara was closed in 2011 for a complete renovation and in 2014 it became the SLS, and then in 2019 it returned to being called the Sahara. The hotel and casino were very nice and everything has been redone. We probably won't be staying there, but there did seem to be quite a few people around for midday.
On the way to the Sahara, the monorail passes very close to the Sphere, and you could see just how big it was. We were close enough to see the individual pixels of the outside display.
 |
| The monorail tracks looking out of the loading platform. That's the Venetian Hotel in the background. |
 |
| A northbound train leaving. |
The Linq Promenade
One of our favorite things in Las Vegas is the Linq Promenade. Quite a few years ago an alleyway between the Flamingo and Linq Hotels was widened and turned into an outdoor promenade anchored at one end by a very large (550 feet tall) Ferris wheel called the High Roller. Val and I rode it once and you get spectacular views of The Strip and surrounding areas.
There are also many restaurants, bars, entertainment venues, shops and even a bowling area. In recent years a zip line running the length of the Promenade was added. On a balmy evening, it's very pleasant to walk along the Promenade finding a place to eat, doing some people watching or just enjoying the ambience. Val and I spent time there every day of our visit and had several meals there during our stay.
 |
| The Linq Promenade looking towards Las Vegas Blvd. (The Strip). |
 |
| The Linq Promenade with the High Roller at the far end. |
The Hotels
We stay at Harrah's almost every time we visit Las Vegas. It is not one of the top tier Las Vegas Strip hotels, but we like its mid-strip location and it's just fine for us. Since our last visit, the public areas have been spruced up and there are several new restaurants. The casino has changed quite a bit and is looking fresh and clean. Our only disappointment was the Fulton Street Food Hall. It was fairly new when we visited last and had a nice mix of food options from fast-food burgers to salads and freshly made sandwiches, but now it is mostly like a fast-food place. We still ate there for a quick bite, but it was hard to get anything close to being healthy food.
The Linq is right next door to Harrah's, so we spent a lot of time there also and they had also changed the public areas quite a bit and it was quite nice. They had added some new restaurants and our old favorites we still there.
The biggest change we saw was at the Flamingo that is across the Linq Promenade from the Linq Hotel. On our last visit the Flamingo was getting a bit old and worn-looking and had restaurants with bad reputations, but they have really changed things around. There were quite a few new restaurants, everything looked clean and fresh, and we made several visits to the casino.
A big surprise for us was the MGM Grand. The MGM Grand is a hotel we visit every time we are in Las Vegas. They have great restaurants, the casino was great, and the hotel seemed to generally have a good vibe, but this time it seemed a bit old and worn. I don't know why, but it lacked the freshness that we usually feel when we visit. It is still very nice and still has a great selection of restaurants, but it just felt like it was getting old. Who knows though, maybe we were expecting too much.
Food
One of the great things about Las Vegas is the wide variety and range of restaurants available. I won't go over every meal, but I'll mention the new restaurants we ate at and some of our favorites.
Gordon Ramsay has many restaurants at Caesars Entertainment properties, and we have eaten at quite a few of them in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe. Since our last visit to Las Vegas he has opened up two more that we tried on this trip. The first new one was Ramsay's Kitchen at Harrah's where we had dinner. It was very good and the crab cake appetizer was one of the best we've ever had. The other new Gordon Ramsay restaurant was Gordon Ramsay Burger newly opened at the Flamingo. We had lunch there and the burgers were very, very good. They were expensive, but it seemed like everything was expensive in Las Vegas.
Another new (for us) restaurant at Harrah's was a sports bar type restaurant called Walk-On's. We had breakfast there and it was good, but more like coffee shop good, but it was a casual dining place, and we were happy with our breakfast. I complained a bit about the Fulton Street Food Hall at Harrah's, but they did add Bobby's Burgers by Bobby Flay, Guy Fieri's Chicken Guy and The Fulton Noodle Bar. We didn't try any of them, but the Noodle Bar looked good to us.
Another restaurant that I think has been there for a while, but we hadn't eaten at before was Dominique Ansel Marche at the Paris Hotel. I think it was like a French pastry casual dining place ,and we stopped there for some breakfast crepes. We were expecting them to be very good, but we were a bit disappointed as they were OK, but nothing to bring us back again. This was our first visit though, and we didn't really know what their specialties were so it may be better than we think.
The restaurants mentioned below are ones we have been to before. We had breakfast and dinner at Chayo Mexican Kitchen and enjoyed them both. The food is very good, and the ambiance is very nice. They are located in the Linq Hotel, and you can enter either through the hotel casino or the Linq Promenade. There is indoor seating and outdoor seating on the Linq Promenade that we always choose as it's nice to eat and watch the activity going on out on the Promenade.
The last two places I'll mention are both on the Linq Promenade. The first is Flour & Barley Brick Oven Pizza that we try to eat it on every visit. The pizza's are very good and as most restaurants on the Promenade do, they have outdoor seating that is always enjoyable.
The last place I'll mention is not exactly a restaurant, but we go there every time we are in Las Vegas and that's Ghirardelli Ice Cream & Chocolate Shop. Once on every trip we have a big lunch and then go to Ghirardelli's for dinner that consists of a large delicious hot fudge sundae. It's a bit decadent and definitely not very healthy, but we are in Las Vegas so why not. Val is the ice cream connoisseur of the family, and I rarely eat it, but I have to say, I love the hot fudge sundaes at Ghirardelli's. Enough said for that.
 |
| Our favorite place for a hot fudge sundae |
The last time we were in Las Vegas, there was no Sphere, it was not completed until 2023 and now it dominates the view east of the mid-strip area. I would love to see a concert there, but none were scheduled during our visit, so that will have to be on another visit, but we did get a great show of graphics every time we looked out our hotel window. They run the graphics display 24 / 7, but it really shows how impressive it is from dusk to dawn. There are continuously changing graphics that I believe are sponsored as company logos usually showed up at the end of a sequence. While it was being built, there was a lot of skepticism about it, but from what I've heard and seen, it is a great success and a great addition to Las Vegas.
Here are several video snippets of The Sphere. I shot the video in 4K, but that was too big for Blogger so I reduced the resolution to 720P.
 |
| And a few more photos |
 |
| I woke up at sunrise one morning and couldn't resist getting up and getting my picture out our window. |
No comments:
Post a Comment