Day One We flew into Las Vegas on what was almost a private jet, being a half full Embraer ERJ-145. A quick cab ride later we’d arrived at the Bellagio and set about getting checked in. After oohing and ahhing at the room we set out to discover the Secret[…]
Our trek to the Venetian Resort from the Luxor should have been a cab ride. Should have been. If it was it would have cost a bit of money and we would have got there straight away. Instead we tried to save a little money by walking to the monorail[…]
We arrived at the Luxor Hotel by monorail, initially watching it go by twice as we failed to understand that there were two monorails; one going from Camelot, where we’d got on to the Mandalay Bay and back, while the other one going from Mandalay Bay to the Luxor. We[…]
The check in at the Bellagio Hotel Las Vegas is a zoo. A velvet rope makes the queue snake back and forth and while it’s less than half occupied it’s still a good 10 to 15 minutes before we reach the front. It’s not through lack of personnel: the lengthy[…]
We don’t usually have a problem checking in early – occasionally a hotel will try to charge extra to give early access to a room, and occasionally the room wont be ready, but usually hotels are happy to let you store your luggage as you go out and explore the[…]
Day Zero We arrived in Page and went straight to the Clarion Inn. We were able to check in straight away and then headed out to get some food. I have a soft spot for BBQ and so was very interested in Big Jim’s Texas BBQ directly across the road[…]
Page is a town with a population of 7,500 and is over served with hotels for its size due to being the gateway to the Antelope Canyon and home of the Horseshoe Bend. The Clarion Inn is a Choice Hotels hotel at the top of the main road of Page.[…]
The Plan We planned and booked our trip to the USA a good nine months before we headed over and were comfortable that we’d done our research and had everything locked and loaded. Imagine our surprise when, four days before we were supposed to be getting a bus from Flagstaff[…]
The National Park Service runs shuttle buses to and from population centres near the Grand Canyon: joining places like Flagstaff, Page and Las Vegas with both the North and South Rim of the Canyon. We’d therefore booked tickets from Flagstaff to Grand Canyon and Grand Canyon to Page using them.[…]
Grand Canyon Village is deceptively large. Sprawled along the southern rim of the Canyon it’s served by a series of free buses run by the Parks Service. Despite it being October when we visited (and therefore shoulder season), the bus that pulled up where our shuttle from Flagstaff had dropped[…]