Las Vegas; Monday, 10 April, 2023

I took advantage of an 11am checkout to have a bit of a lie in before dropping off my luggage and heading out onto the strip to explore some more of Vegas before my flight home that evening.

I started by heading over to Caesars Palace and exploring the enormous complex which includes the casino, multiple hotels, a Colosseum style theatre, Trevi fountain recreation and a massive shopping complex called the Forum. The Forum is also home to The Atlantis Story, an animatronic retelling of the Greek (yes I know, not certain they do) myth of the destruction of Atlantis.

From The Forum I headed over the road to grab some lunch in one of the few non-hotel fast food joints on the strip ($15 vs closer to $40 inside the hotels), before heading back over and have a wander around The Mirage Hotel greenhouse. From the Mirage I caught the Tram next door to Treasure Island where I discovered an important distinction in public transport in Las Vegas. The Monorail which runs up the East side of the strip is quite expensive with journeys starting at $5, where as the separate trams which run down the West side of the strip are all free.

Having had a look round Treasure Island I crossed over the road back into the Venetian to start heading South down the strip. By now the sun was really starting to beat down and just being out in it for a few minutes and with sunblock on I could still feel the back of my legs getting very hot, so I was aiming to do as much of the walking down the strip via the airconditioned casinos and resorts as possible – which is very possible as they are all connected up, or only a short dash across a bridge over the highway from each other.

From the Venetian I headed back over the road and then through the Forum and Caesars Palace to The Bellagio where I picked up the Aria Express through some of the newest resorts on the strip to the Park MGM. I was then able to quickly hop out of the casino into the heat, across the road and back into the air conditioned pleasantness of New York New York for a look round there.

From New York New York it was a warm five minute walk across the bridge over the highway to Excalibur, a medieval castle themed resort, before catching the tram from there down to the Mandalay Bay, the last main resort at the southern end of the strip before walking back through the link corridor to The Luxor – perhaps one of the craziest of the resorts on the strip with everything having a very Egyptian theme, down to the entire resort being housed inside a giant pyramid.

After takin in Luxor I headed back on the tram to Excalibur and hopped over to have a look round the MGM Grand before hopping back over to New York New York to retrace my steps back to the Bellagio and then finally, via Paris, back to my hotel to collect my luggage, call an Uber and make my way out to the airport for my flight home.

I had a very smooth journey through the airport and with only a slight delay of 15 minutes we pushed back off the stand and started our 5,000 mile journey home.