Las Vegas, Nevada
The Westgate Resort was a marvel to look at, but I believe its best days are long behind it.
This story is part three of my January 2022 road trip to Las Vegas. Read about our others stops here:
Charity and I departed Two Guns, Arizona late at night and set our sights on Sin City itself, arriving well after midnight.
There’s something magical about seeing Vegas for the very first time at night. We were shocked by the scale of the city, which stretched across the horizon like a shimmering mirage of gold as far as the eye could see.
I’ll confess to my ignorance of the geography of Las Vegas. I always pictured it sitting in the middle of a flat sandy desert and had no idea it was actually in a mountain valley.
The next time Charity and I visit Las Vegas, we plan to stay in one of the more iconic hotels on the Strip.
I was also ignorant as to the condition of the city. I always envisioned Vegas as a grungy, run-down, crime-ridden casino town like Hill Valley in Back to the Future 2. It’s actually gorgeous and well-maintained, with nice sidewalks, good roads, ample streetlights, and lots of landscaping. It’s inarguably more attractive from a street view than my hometown of Tulsa, though I still say Tulsa has the prettiest downtown skyline I’ve ever seen.
Charity and I stayed at the Westgate hotel where her conference was being hosted. The rates were reasonable due to a discount for conference attendees, but I have to say I’ll be looking for a new place to stay on our next visit.
The New York City skyline is likely prettier in New York than it is in Nevada.
The 30-floor behemoth was previously known as the International Hotel and was the largest hotel in the world from 1981 to 1990. It was also the tallest building in Nevada when it was constructed in 1969, and it was the home of 636 consecutive sellouts for Elvis Presley.
All that history and extravagance is meaningless if it doesn’t come with good service.
We booked our room four months in advance but that didn’t stop them from giving it away and leaving us with a full-size bed instead of a king. Of course, we weren’t even offered an apology, and we weren’t even told until after we had paid and checked in with no opportunity to decline it.
To add to that inconvenience, the hotel itself just didn’t have any decent amenities. I’ve had far better experiences at cheap motels across America. On our next visit I’ll be vetting the iconic hotels on the Vegas Strip to see who has the best amenities.
I spent the first day of Charity’s conference disc golfing, but I’ll put all of that in a different post. Disc golf ended at dusk and I returned to the hotel as Charity’s conference was dismissing.
The iconic Luxor Hotel was a must-see due to the presence of its Egyptian artifacts in Resident Evil: Extinction.
The Las Vegas Strip
On Sunday, Charity and I spent our one and only night out on the infamous Vegas Strip. I’m sure a lot of people would be shocked that we went all that way to Vegas and only spent one night on the Strip, but partying and nightlife aren’t really our thing.
But, when in Rome you do as the Romans do.
We took it fairly easy and only had a couple of drinks as we walked the entire Vegas Strip from Flamingo to the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign.
Well, first we drove from our hotel and tried to park at the “free parking” that Google Maps said Caesar’s offered. Then we got there and they charged $30 so we skedaddled back to our own hotel after realizing there was no real free parking anywhere on the Strip.
We then took a monorail from the Westgate to the Flamingo. My goal for the evening was to locate all the major sights, particularly those featured in one of my favorite zombie movies - Resident Evil: Extinction. Mission accomplished.
Walking the Strip was an interesting experience. For one, there are almost no crosswalks. The only way to cross in a lot of areas is to take an escalator up to an overpass, and many of those overpasses force you to go through the casinos themselves before you can get back to the ground level.
That’s a genius marketing strategy, and if your goal is to actually spend the entire night hitting up the bars and casinos, then it’s perfect. We were more interested in simply walking and seeing the landmarks, so I did grow weary of the constant back-and-forth, up-and-down zig zag that took half an hour to go a single block at times.
The crowds were massive and we were pressed together like sardines, which was made all the more uncomfortable since I was open carrying my sidearm. Nevada requires no licensing to open carry a firearm, but you do have to have a CCW to conceal it legally.
How’s that for logic? Carrying a gun that nobody can see is unsafe, but having one publicly displayed where any of the thousands of drunk idiots I was walking past could make a grab at it is somehow okay.
Regardless, I definitely didn’t feel safe without it. On the main parts of the Strip there are a lot of people around so you at least you don’t have to worry too much about getting mugged. But by the time we got past Excalibur there were far more long, dark stretches of sidewalk with nobody around.
It was a long and painful walk for Charity, who recommends NOT wearing Converse All-Stars while walking the Strip.
When we finally arrived at the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign, we realized there was actually parking there at the sign, so we could have just driven instead of walking the extra two miles past all the fun stuff. Or we could have taken an Uber.
My last Uber experience was a $75 ride home from downtown Tulsa to Sand Springs several years ago and I had no idea the rates could actually be quite reasonable. Charity wore Converse to walk four miles in, so we ended up Ubering back to the hotel and it only cost around $6. Lesson learned.
All in all, walking the Strip was a blast. We saw the fountains at the Bellagio, took photos of the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the Sphynx, and the MGM Grand Lion. We did lots of people watching, had some good food and drinks, and enjoyed the night air. It’s an open container town like New Orleans, so that was nice as well.
One day I certainly hope to go back and actually spend a whole week or so enjoying the nightlife and exploring the town and its shows and cuisine. That all sounds a little out of my price range right now though.
On Monday Charity had one last morning session of the conference, and I spent my time hiking before we reunited and left town. All in all, Vegas was nothing like I expected, and I highly recommend visiting even if drinking and gambling aren’t your scene.
