Hello everyone. This is my very first travel post on the blog. We are back from our trip to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon and i am very excited to share our experience as well as some pictures. Hope you enjoy.
Me and my hubby share the passion for traveling and exploring food from around the world. Exploring new places, getting to know the history behind them and gaining knowledge along the way is something that will always excite us.
We generally plan all our trips well before hand. But this time around, our plan of visiting Las vegas and Grand Canyon was quite impromptu. It was always on our wish list, but the trip never materialized somehow. Initially we thought about planning the visit with few of our friends, but even that didn't work out as we hoped for. Hubby released that we had no plans for Easter weekend, which also was a long weekend. And so suddenly out of the blue we decided why not Vegas.
Most of the hotels in vegas have there own casinos, restaurants and shopping centers within, which is a plus. If you want to explore the strip you should do it on foot or you can also hire limousine and party throughout the night.
By the time we got to our room from the airport, freshened up and changed, it was dinner time. One of our friend had highly recommended a buffet at Caesars Palace, so we decided to walk there and explore the strip as well.
Lets talk food first, shall we?... :) The food we had at Bacchanal buffet (Caesars Palace) was truly and completely worth every penny. The bacchanal buffet is voted as the best buffet in Las Vegas. They offer......hold your breath.... more than 500 dishes. We were in a foodies wonderland. They also had an impressive spread of desserts. With so much to choose from, you will definitely leave the place happy and satisfied. By the time we got inside, we were so hungry that we forgot to click pics of the buffet spread. Although i do have few pics of the desserts. :)
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| Huge array of desserts to choose from |
Now about the strip, it felt somewhat like times square all bright and shiny. But the huge architectural hotels along the strip are a stunner. Every hotel, restaurant and casino is lit up in varied colors which is a treat for the eye. You can also check out few themed hotels and restaurants, like planet hollywood, New York hotel, Eiffel tower at Paris..etc. The strip also offers a dancing fountain show of hotel Bellagio every half an hour which is worth watching, a volcano show of hotel Mirage every 15 mins or so is also fun to watch. If you are up for some thrill rides during the day, then do check out the Stratosphere the tallest hotel in Las Vegas. Unfortunately we couldn't, due to time crunch. We are not much of a party people neither do we gamble. I know Vegas is all about gambling and partying. I am so sorry i cannot tell you much about it. But we did happen to go to our hotels nightclub XS the next day. Beautiful nightclub, awesome ambiance and amazing DJ.
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| Hotel Wynn |
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| Dancing Fountain at the Bellagio |
Day 2: After our morning breakfast, we headed off to see the Valley of Fire State Park which was about an hour drive from Las Vegas strip. Do not forget to carry food and plenty of water. The route was very scenic and the weather was perfect. The valley of fire state park is very huge (spread across approximately 42,000 acres of land) and is known to derive its name from the humungous red sandstone formations that was formed from the great shifting of sand dunes that happened thousands and millions of years ago. Trust me, you don't wanna miss this beauty if you are in vegas. Climb the rocks, enjoy the beauty of nature and click photos. Truly speaking, we enjoyed been here more than the Las Vegas strip :P......
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| On our way to Valley of Fire |
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Ancient scriptures on the rocks
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Day 3 & 4: Morning of Day 3 started with a search for a small place to have good breakfast. We were asked to wait for about 45 mins at the first place we went. Later we ended up eating a wholesome and delicious breakfast at Farmer Boys (highly recommended).
Thereon started our 4 hour long drive from Las Vegas to Grand Canyon National Park. The Hoover Dam which is also a tourist attraction is also on the way to the grand canyon. We opted not to stop, once again due to time crunch. Moreover its more exciting to see nature's beauty than a man made one :P.
We headed for the south rim which is the most visited rim. Do check the climate and pack clothes accordingly. We were very fortunate to have a pleasant climate. Although we encountered few shower while hiking our way down at a point, but that was the only glitch. The next day (Day 4) it was slightly chilly and sunny at the same time. Perfect.
The Grand Canyon is a canyon carved by the Colorado river. It is amazing to see how the river found its way by cutting across the canyon which resulted in such beautiful and mesmerizing formations.
We stayed for the night at Best Western Premier Inn which is approximately one to two miles away from the Grand Canyon entrance gate. The national park also offers cottages inside, however we only found out about it once we were inside. Maybe next time :).
The visitor services are really good here. All you have to do is park your car at the entrance and hop on to any of the buses (called as red line, blue line, orange and purple line) which will take you to all the major view points. The buses operate every 15 mins, to drop off and pick up visitors at every location. All you have to do is get off at one point, finish your sightseeing and wait for the next bus to arrive. We tried covering as much view points that we could in our short trip but we are still left wanting for more. If only we had a day or two more we could have done a little bit of hiking as well. Nevertheless it was one of a kind experience, must visit place which we will definitely cherish forever.
Here are some of the pics of the beautiful and majestic Grand Canyon. Enjoy.
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| Amazing view of rainfall at Grand Canyon |
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| Beautiful and Serene |
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| The tiny streak of line in the middle is the Colorado river |
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Beautiful view of sunset
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