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Viva Las Vegas

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Today’s post will be off topic compared to the past few. I finally decided to take a real vacation and blocked out two weeks out of the office. Last week my wife and I spent 4 days in Las Vegas (sans toddler—yay!) and despite the tagline that begins “What happens in Vegas…” I thought I’d share some tips from our visit in case some of you are headed that way.

THEhotel
That’s the actual name of the hotel we stayed at. It’s a fairly new premium property located on the Mandalay Bay ‘compound’. Needless to say it led to numerous Abbott and Costello moments when talking with friends about our trip:

“Where are you staying?”
“We’re staying at THEhotel at Mandalay Bay.”
“Oh, I hear the Mandalay Bay hotel is nice.”
“No, not the Mandalay Bay hotel, THEhotel…”

The property (let’s just call it that) has several unique characteristics (unique for Vegas, that is). First, it’s an all-suites hotel. Second, it’s not ‘themed’ like many of the other super resorts. Instead it’s decorated using a very contemporary, monochromatic, tone-on-tone style. This impressed my wife, the interior designer, no end. The suites are very chic and include 3 flat screen televisions that we put to use monitoring the latest news from New Orleans. (By the way, if you haven’t already, consider a donation to a relief organization like the Red Cross. Those folks can use all the help you can give.) Third, it has no casino, but is instead connected to the Mandalay Bay’s. All in all it was a very nice place to make our base of operations. And, since we started our stay on Labor Day, the room rates were about the lowest you’ll find all year.

Food
It’s been a while since either of us had been to Vegas and either the number of great restaurants has increased since then or we just didn’t see them. We love to eat and devoted most of our non-hotel vacation budget to food—and this ended up being quite a lot! We spent a good deal of time strolling along the Mandalay Bay indoor ‘village’ that features over a dozen restaurants lined up on both sides of the broad promenade. These include creations by chefs such as Charlie Palmer (Aureole) and Wolfgang Puck (Trattoria Del Lupo). On our first night in town, after seeing Zumanity at New York, New York, we opted for a late supper at Red Square. This post-modern Russian themed restaurant’s claim to fame is a vodka selection that numbers about 150 and a bar top made from a giant block of ice. The dinner and wine were great—I highly recommend it.

Tuesday night we were looking for something good but a bit more reasonably priced. After a full day walking the strip and surveying what the major resorts had to offer we opted for Fusia in the Luxor. The menu was pan-Asian and all I can say is (a) you get what you pay for and (b) everything is relative. I knew things were amiss when, after being told we’d need to wait in the lounge for a table, we were unable to transfer our bar tab across the room to the restaurant. The food itself was okay—I had a very nice Sea Bass dish—but it was nothing to write home about. And despite a final bill in the three digits for two people, overall we were not impressed.

Fortunately we made up for it on our third and final night in town with a visit to Sensia in the Bellagio. The restaurant features three distinct kitchens for Italian, Asian and seafood dishes that are all located behind glass in the center of the dining room, which itself is decorated in rough granite blocks and rich woods. Oddly, this place is listed in the ‘Casual Dining’ section of the web site. Even for Las Vegas I wouldn’t call anyplace where you can easily rack up a $100/person bill as casual dining. Nonetheless the food was superb. We shared an Asian-inspired raw seafood appetizer that was sublime and my braised beef rib was exquisite, especially when paired with a rare sparkling Shiraz wine from Australia that the chef has specifically chosen. Again, I’d highly recommend this one.

Shopping
Again, this was cause for more surprise. During my last visit I remember the Fashion Show Mall located just north of Treasure Island and, of course, the Forum Shops at Caesar’s Palace. Since then it seems like just about every high-end resort has added plazas of their own. During our walking tour we managed to take in Mandalay Place (located between Mandalay Bay and Luxor), boutiques in the Bellagio, an expanded Forum Shops, shopping along the Venetian’s Grand Canal and more boutiques in Las Vegas’ version of Paris. And these were no mere gift shops. We’re talkin’ names like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Cartier, etc., with many chain having outlets in more than one hotel. Finally just before leaving we saw the latest in high-style at the new Wynn resort (which even features a Ferrari dealership inside). Other than a couple of essentials we resisted the shopping urge, although it’s clear why so many people are heading to Vegas to part with their currency in places besides casinos.

Things to Do
As I mentioned earlier we saw a Vegas show the first night in town. Zumanity is based at New York, New York and is this only Cirque du Soleil show that limits attendance to those over 18. You can guess why. We thought the show was great but I wouldn’t recommend it if you embarrass easily or attended Bob Jones University. This makes three Cirque shows we’ve seen (Dralion and Alegria are the others) and they never fail to please. Another attraction at the hotel was not appreciated quite so much. Simply put, we can now say with certainty that roller costers really are for young people. (Lunch? No thanks.)

Since we’d rented a car we spent a half day making a day trip to Hoover Dam. Other than staring for hours at Flight Simulator’s virtual rendition I had never been there. (My wife remembers a childhood family trip.) It certainly is impressive and happily not too crowded. My wife and I were most impressed by the efforts of those who built the dam. After feeling the midsummer heat ourselves we can’t imagine the fortitude it took to put in long days dangling from ropes and covered in cement. We also saw crews working on the route 93 bypass project that will result in a very impressive arch bridge across the gorge when complete, apparently some time in 2008. (Note to self: need to add this to Flight Sim when the time comes.)

We didn’t ever make it to a spa, though that was on our original list. Looking at the hotel’s spa menu changed our plans. Somehow we couldn’t bring ourselves to pay $180 for a facial when there are so many good spas in the Seattle. However I did indulge myself at the Art of Shaving in Mandalay Place with a half-hour Royal Shave. This entailed numerous hot and cold towels, a pre-shave conditioner, two shaves (with and against the grain) with a straight razor, post-shave mask and final citrus spray. It’s hard to describe the result but it makes you feel great and is sure to impress your better half. If any of you guys are headed for Vegas in the near future I highly recommend you stop in and make an appointment.

Finally, something else we didn’t do was gamble. Call us strange but our sum total of wagering was $6.50 spend on quarter slots that, of course, we lost straight away. I hadn’t had enough time to brush up on my blackjack skills (my usual avocation) and despite my wife’s encouragement to try casino poker I just haven’t gained enough real world experience to feel comfortable in that setting (though I an a tiger on PokerStars.net so watch out).

Anyway, I hope you liked the travelogue. It’s back to work next week and perhaps more serious blogging. Cheers.

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