5 Things I Loved About Las Vegas (And 5 I Didn’t Like At All)

I arrived home and collected the 5 things I loved about Las Vegas. And of course, I will also mention 5 things I did not like at all!

After my trip, I’ll talk about the 5 things I loved about Las Vegas. It has been a long time since I last stood on the Strip. Long enough that my friends out there had stopped asking when I was coming back and started simply sending me photos of everything I was missing. New towers. New shows. A giant glowing sphere that did not exist the last time my shoes touched that pavement. I write about this city for a living, so I told myself I knew exactly what had changed. My friends laughed at that over the phone. They were right to.

Because the Vegas I landed in was not the Vegas I remembered. It wore the same perfume, sure, but half the face was new. It also had moments where I stood on a sidewalk at midnight and understood, physically understood, why my entire industry exists. Click here to browse my reviews on the online casino sites in the US too!

Didn’t Love: The Big Walks

Okay so wow! Budapest feels like a little town compared to this place. Just take a look at how long it’ll take to get to the Bellagio from the airport, and you’ll get it. The map lies to you in Vegas. Everything looks close. Nothing is close.

That casino “right there” across the street? Twenty-five minutes, two escalators, one pedestrian bridge, and a detour through a shopping mall that exists purely to ambush you. By day two, my legs filed a formal complaint. By day four they simply stopped negotiating. Register at VAVE Casino, and you’ll have the same games available!

Loved: The Strip

According to Visit Las Vegas, there are hidden gems to be found, and oh boy was I a miner? I walked the Strip the way other people visit cathedrals. Slowly, head tilted back, occasionally muttering something in Hungarian that has no polite translation. It is vulgar, it is loud, it is a monument to the idea that more is more, and I loved every overlit meter of it.

Five years of writing about this street. It still managed to surprise me. It wasn’t as wild as I imagined, but it was more surprising than I expected. I saw random tourists just running between casinos, hopping in and out of limousines. I saw weddings, and I did not envy them.

Didn’t Love: The Prices

While I understand the prices, the cost of a night out in Las Vegas is really not something I expected as a lil ol’ Hungarian. I knew the numbers. I had literally published the numbers. But there is a difference between reading that a cocktail costs twenty-four dollars and holding that cocktail while doing a forint conversion in your head. The house always wins, yes. I just did not expect it to start winning at the minibar. But the cocktails? They were worth the price.

Loved: O by Cirque du Soleil

According to Tripadvisor, this is their top recommendation, and I finally get to watch it. Came out quiet. Genuinely quiet, which the people who know me will tell you is a rare and beautiful event. Humans are diving into water from heights that should require a permit, and somewhere in the middle of it I forgot to be a critic. This show just sparked a whole new interest in me, I never expected I would have.

Didn’t Love: The Noise

According to Reddit, even locals tend to be a little drained by the constant over-stimulation. Now imagine a man raised in Central European silence, where the loudest thing in a casino is the dealer’s disappointment. Vegas never lowers its voice. Slot machines sing to you at breakfast. Music follows you into the bathroom.

On the third night I caught myself missing the sound of nothing, and you can buy nothing in this town at any price. Matter of fact, where I live, the most exciting thing is bumping into my elementary school teacher. Now imagine bumping into Elvis Presley… several times.

Loved: The Fear And Loathing

The streets smelled like weed, and yes. This is how I imagined it after watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Most places clean themselves up for the tourists. In fact, they have laws and rules about that. But you can’t really clean the smell of a joint, and an artist’s amazing perfume. Vegas leans in. Somewhere between the Elvis impersonator arguing with a showgirl and the man calmly walking a parrot at 2 AM, I understood that Hunter S. Thompson was not exaggerating.

Didn’t Love: The Heat

This partially inspired my guide to survive the heat. Nobody warns you that the desert does not cool down at night; it merely switches from “oven” to “hairdryer.” I stepped outside the airport, and my first thought was that something nearby must be on fire. Something was. It was Nevada. But really, this was nothing like any European countries I visited. I’ve been to Vegas before, and in fact, I’ve been to other US cities, but this summer is really just a cruel summer.

Loved: The Casinos

You can imagine that the casinos would be among the 5 things I loved about Las Vegas. According to Yelp, the Bellagio was the “don’t miss out on it” experience, and they were right. However, my love for Greek and Roman culture drew me to Caesar’s Palace. I stood under those fake marble columns feeling like a Pannonian provincial visiting Rome for the first time, which, if you check a map of the old empire, is more or less exactly what I was. The chips, the felt, the ritual of it all. This is my church, and I finally attended mass in person. It was fascinating!

Didn’t Love: The Jerks In Their Cars

The new age of Las Vegas transit might be here, but the people are still not ready for it. The locals are very lovely, until they get in their car. A man who held the door for me at the buffet nearly erased me from history at a crosswalk forty minutes later. Same man. I recognized the hat. Honestly, be safe out there; this is nothing like European cities, but I’d wager it’s nothing like the rest of the United States. Don’t imagine Mad Max, because honestly? Sometimes I wished I was in a Mad Max movie, actually.

Loved: The Food

From the fanciest dishes I ever tasted to the 40s and 50s mob recipes, I tasted everything. And I mean everything, with the dedication of a man who knows his cardiologist is nine time zones away. Steak that made me briefly forgive America for everything. Old mob-era Italian that tasted like a history lesson with butter. My wallet lost. My stomach won. On balance, a fair deal.

So would I go back? Of course I would. Vegas is like the tables themselves. You complain the whole time, you swear it robbed you, and you are already planning your return before the plane leaves the tarmac. The house always wins. This time, I did not mind losing. As for gambling? I didn’t see anything new. Click here to try Vegas-quality online slots at VAVE Casino!

Click Here To Play Roulette At VAVE Casino!