We Four Mallyons: This is Vegas Baby

Whenever we get asked about our time in Vegas (total time 1 day, 2 nights) we find ourselves reflecting on how great Disneyland was. One could infer then that we didn’t exactly love our time in Sin City. One would be correct in their inference. It’s like dining at a 5 star restaurant and having a 5 star experience then visiting the local chew and spew.

Las Vegas with all its outward glitz and glamour is a city whose core is broken and sad and well, tacky. Yes it has some amazing architecture, yes it has some brilliant shows (magicians, musicians, acrobatics) and yes it has some cool shops (M & M World was a fave) but this does not make up for the fact that it has an underbelly that seethes with sleaze and poverty. Seeing a scantily clad young woman atop an outdoor bar at 9am in the morning enticing patrons into the adjoining casino still haunts me.

I really didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at what we saw.

The kids really didn’t enjoy our time there either. The crowds were huge especially in the evenings and walking (no – shuffling) on the sidewalk amongst a sea of people was tortuous particularly for Seth.

To add to our list of dislikes of the city we got sucked into listening to a time-share presentation in exchange for free tickets to a show. What a joke that was – every sales pressure trick in the book was tried on us. We stood firm and said no (several times!!!). We got the tickets to a magic show (which was great – fun, clever and not sleazy – phew) but only after spending far too long listening to the sales sharks using the tickets as bait.

It wasn't all bad. We got to see a great show, we had fun browsing some of the shops and we drove outta there after only two days…..

I am sure that many people won’t agree with our assessment of Vegas. I think either we weren’t prepared well enough for a visit (eg what to see, where to go and what to avoid), we were expecting too much, or it’s just not our scene. I think it may just be a combination of all three.