My wife and I have travelled a lot (for us) in the last year. We’ve visited Aruba, Venice, Montreal and Toronto in what has probably been something of an extreme reaction to not being able to get away for so long. It’s been wonderful visiting new places but something has always been nagging away at us… we haven’t been back to Las Vegas since 2019.

This is a long time to be away for us. We were married there in 2002 and with one or two exceptions, we had been back every to celebrate anniversaries/birthdays/conventions etc. However, c*£%d rolled around and we haven’t been able to return…. until now!

This year, I turn 50. I’m not one for parties (I love parties, don’t get me wrong, but I just hate attention of any kind and the idea of a celebration held for me brings me out in a cold sweat).

But, getting back to my happy place with my wife was exactly how I wanted to celebrate my birthday.

So that’s what we did.

We kicked our trip off at Harrahs. Now I know it’s not a fancy place. It’s no Wynn, Cosmopolitan or Venetian. But it is somewhere we have stayed before, it is comfortable, very friendly and ‘affordable’.

We had such a good time staying there. Our room was spacious and clean. The casino is big and the piano bar is great fun to spend time in.

It also happens to be Harrahs 50th Birthday this year to… so it was meant to be.

Thank you for a great stay Harrahs and happy birthday from both of us!

We popped into the Peppermill for breakfast on one day (9 egg omelette anyone?!) and it turned out to be their 50th birthday to!

The omelette was a bit much though.

Once we had checked out of Harrahs, we moved over to The Mirage for the remaining few nights of our trip.

The Mirage is really special to us. We’ve stayed there many times over the years and it is somewhere that feels like home. It also smells great and my wife once fell into the flower beds there on one drunken night.

The Mirage is due to be massively renovated soon having been bought by Hard Rock, so we had to stay there one last time before that travesty happens.

We had booked a standard room (which are lovely in themselves) but it turned out my wonderful wife had actually booked us a one bedroom suite for our stay as a surprise and it was awesome! A room bigger than our house on a private floor of the hotel. It felt very fancy indeed!

U2 kicked off their residency at The Sphere whilst we were there. We didn’t go (not fans) but The Sphere is amazing… an absolutely jaw dropping building. A must see if you can get there.

The Bellagio conservatory is always gorgeous. It’s fall display this year was better than anything I have ever seen though.

One word of caution.

If you are planning a first visit to Las Vegas I would avoid the period from September to December for the next few years.

As you might know, the inaugural F1 Grand Prix is being held there in November. As a consequence the areas of the Strip that are part of the track are an absolute mess. Sidewalks are closed, grandstands are being erected meaning such popular sites like the Bellagio fountains and the Mirage Volcano are more or less off limits and super ugly lighting systems are everywhere. Traffic is even worse than normal. Thanks F1.

Heidi. Our nemesis.

Aft Cocktail bar at Wynn Las Vegas. Beautiful venue… awesome cocktails.

One last little anecdote.

In order to afford to travel so much this year we have tried all we can to keep costs down. Using airmiles on flights has been a great way of doing this but we also used different airlines to find the ‘cheapest’ flights.

In this case we flew with United airlines for the first time in many years. Now, United get a lot of stick (as is always the case with massive organisations like this), but they were absolutely superb. 3 of the 4 flights were on time / ahead of schedule. Service brilliant. Food really tasty. Cabin crew super friendly.

The one flight thas was delayed was our little hop from LAS to SFO on our way home. When we got on the plane the third seat in our row was already taken by a United pilot I assumed was on a positioning flight. After a while we got chatting and it turned out he was flying to SFO in order to Captain our flight back to LHR!

He talked me through our route (I’m an AvGeek so this was fascinating) and he reassured me we wouldn’t miss our flight (which became obvious as soon as we knew who he was). That was that I thought.

But no! Once we had found our seats on our flight back to LHR and all of the safety briefings were done, Captain Buckley appeared from out of nowhere at our seats to check up on us, to make sure we had made the flight and to make sure we were comfortable. It was a really classy move and made us feel very special.

United’s slogan is ‘Fly the friendly skies’ and this was a perfect example of just that!

Our trip was so much fun. Thank you to United, Harrahs and The Mirage. Massive thanks also to Love, Atomic Saloon (not for the faint of heart), Buddy V’s, Striphouse, Margaritaville (RIP Jimmy Buffett) and The Golden Tiki for helping to create wonderful memories and celebrate my birthday.

Thanks also to everyone that sent me birthday greetings.

But most of all, thank you so much to my beautiful wife for travelling with me, for the amazing surprise at the Mirage and for being my partner in crime. You are amazing and I love you so much.

Will we be back?

Yes. And sooner than you might think!

P.S. If anyone wants me to photograph their wedding in Las Vegas…. let’s do it!

Las Vegas 2023. My 50th birthday on our return to the USA!