Las Vegas Trip Report – August 3-7, 2019
Las Vegas Trip Report – August 2019
Somewhat off topic, I guess, but Las Vegas is our favorite vacation destination. We spent August 3-7thin Vegas and had a blast. This was our ninth trip to Vegas and our fourth time staying at the Luxor. While the Luxor is not necessarily our favorite hotel, they have definitely given us the most generous offers. This is primarily thanks to the mLife program and also our mLife credit card that is linked to our rewards account. For this particular trip, we used an offer for four free nights in a suite, $150 credit towards food, and $150 in free play money for gambling. We also used one of our airline companion passes that we receive yearly through our Delta Skymiles AMEX card, which meant that we only paid for one airfare. The grand total that we paid out of pocket for airfare and hotel was $370, which I consider to be a great deal (especially when you consider that we received an additional $300 in credits at the hotel).
We aren’t big planners of activities while on vacation. We spent the majority of our time relaxing and gambling. Of course, free drinks come with the gambling, so that’s a big plus to us. We arrived at the hotel around noon and had already received notice that our room was ready. Check in time is normally 3 pm, so we were already thrilled. We went to our room and freshened up, then went downstairs to find something to eat and then gamble. We had lunch at the Public House and then spent some time playing various slots and playing craps. Due to the time difference, we were both exhausted very early and ended up going to bed around 6 pm that first day. That meant that we woke up ridiculously early and got an early start to our second day in Vegas.
On day two, we started the day with breakfast at the Pyramid Café, then spent some time gambling at the Luxor before venturing over to Mandalay Bay to gamble. We had coffee and pastries at Hazel’s Coffee & Cocktails. Once the bar opened at noon, we walked to the other side of the restaurant to the bar for a few cocktails. My husband said their Old Fashioned is one of the best he’s had anywhere. When we stopped winning at Mandalay Bay, we walked over to Excalibur to gamble there for a while. Later we had dinner at Rice & Company at the Luxor.
Day three started with a visit to the iconic Peppermill, where we had a few excellent drinks and an amazing breakfast. Surprisingly, this was our first visit to the Peppermill and we will definitely return on future trips. After breakfast, we took a cab to the Flamingo, where we dropped some money in the gift shop and then gambled for a while. Then we walked towards the Bellagio, stopping at the TAC702 shop on the way. As we walked through the many shops at the Bellagio, we were amazed at the expensive things for sale and speculated that some people spent more than we made in a year in those shops. We gambled a bit at the Bellagio, but decided that it wasn’t really a good fit for us and walked across the street to Caesars Palace. Our very first trip to Vegas was to Caesars Palace, although we came at a much slower time of year. We lost a little money gambling at Caesars before taking a cab back to the Luxor. We relaxed in the room and freshened up for dinner, which was at Lupo by Wolfgang Puck in Mandalay Bay.
On day four we ventured downtown, which is our favorite part of Vegas. We started at the Plaza with brunch at the Hash House a Go Go and then walked down Fremont Street, stopping at a few shops along the way. We spent some time gambling and walking around the Golden Nugget, the Four Queens, the D, and the El Cortez. Dinner was at the Chicago Brewing Company within the Four Queens. We managed to find souvenirs for everyone on our list in the shops on Fremont Street, which are significantly cheaper than any of the shops on the Strip.
Day five was our final day in Vegas, but we had a full day as our flight didn’t depart until 10:30 pm. We had a delicious lunch at an Irish pub called Ri Ra in the shops between the Luxor and Mandalay Bay. The day was spent wandering around the casinos and shops of the Luxor and Mandalay Bay before having dinner at Diablo’s in the Luxor. We managed to hit Platinum status on our mLife cards and got new cards before catching a cab to the airport. As usual, we were ridiculously early to the airport and had plenty of time to relax before our flight.
All in all, we had a fantastic time and can’t wait to return!