What was your impression of Vegas before you first visited?

My first impression of Vegas was: "I'll visit someday but I'm in no rush..." Lol! My mom, sisters, friends all would go regularly and gushed profusely about their experiences but it never fazed me. I'll get there someday.

Oddly, it took a free trip from my boss for me to finally make it there. That first trip changed how I view Vegas.

Now I want to go all the time....

 

When we first decided to go to Vegas (probably late 80's), we went just because we thought we should see it once. We weren't big gamblers then and thought it would be like a bigger version of AC. We weren't all that impressed on that first trip and didn't expect to go back. Back then we didn't rent a car and we were taking the bus to Sam's Town and I saw a sign for Bryce Canyon. When we realized that it was close enough to visit from LV my whole opinion changed. The next time we went we rented a car, visited several NP's and have been doing that ever since. Although we love LV, we love it even more because of it's proximity to so many natural wonders. Now a typical trip for us is to spend a week or so in town and then take off for parts unknown. We go 3-4 times a year from the east coast so we've been to every NP in NV, UT and all but one in CA. We go to San Diego and Tahoe regularly (airfare to Reno has been outrageous lately, so we just drive there from LV). T-20 before our next adventure.

 

Our first trip was sort of a mistake. I was bidding on an auction site for our next holiday, and a trip to Las Vegas came up on my search. I short listed it along with two weeks AI in Palma, Majorca, two weeks FB in Marbella, and two weeks FB in Los Christianos, Tenerife. They all had the same starting price, so I followed the bidding on them all until the Tenerife and Marbella ones went over a sensible price. That left Las Vegas and Majorca. Both were acceptable dates for us, so I continued to follow them both. I also won both auctions, so we ended up going to Majorca, then home for two weeks, then Las Vegas for two weeks. The two weeks between these trips was the first serious research I'd ever done about Las Vegas. Our attitude was, "Hey, it's a cheap trip, if we didn't like it, we won't go back." We didn't gamble a single penny that trip, had a wonderful time, and will be back very soon. We do play a little now, but just for a couple of cheap drinks here and there.

That first trip in 2000 cost us £339 total for flights, transfers and accommodation. Not bad really.

Edited to add. We had no preconceived ideas about Las Vegas and had never considered it before it came up on that auction site.

 

My Mom and 3 sisters used to go together all the time. They used to invite me along, and I thought it just wasn't for me. And then one time my sister told me they were going to celebrate Mom's retirement and I thought, OK, just this once. And that's all she wrote.