Last month, I took my first trip (personal or work) in nearly 2 years! I have been very cautious during the pandemic and didn't imagine traveling anywhere while it was ongoing. My decision to travel came at a time when things initially appeared to be calming down somewhat. I had been planning to take a trip to Las Vegas for my 25th birthday since my 23rd birthday, but I did not know to expect a pandemic to be forthcoming at the time I had the initial thought. My 2020 birthday/family reunion cruise was canceled and I thought 2021 was my window of opportunity. Then, I couldn't find anyone to go to Vegas with me...that is until my mom suggested I ask to tag along with my aunt who made plans to go to the final Las Vegas Raiders home game of the regular season. She runs deep with the Black Hole and I, being someone just desperate to not have to cancel another trip, decided to go. So, here is my story of a Raiders-themed weekend in Las Vegas!
Hotel
In my previous trips to Las Vegas, I stayed at resorts on The Strip. This time, I stayed at a time share that my aunt booked for the weekend that was about approximately 2 miles off The Strip. As much as I love the hustle and bustle of being at a resort and in such close proximity to casinos and 24-hour food options, it was nice to be able to have a place to return to each night that felt like home. Since we are still in the middle of a pandemic, it was especially great to have a space that I could feel more secure in and not have to worry about walking through hoards of people or getting on a crowded elevator. I realize many people that travel to Vegas may not have access to a time share, but it's somewhat like staying in vacation rental except you're technically an owner. If you want to have a more peaceful and relaxing (and cheaper) location to rest, staying off The Strip is a great option to consider.
Transportation
I flew with Southwest Airlines to and from Vegas because they had the best available flight times and prices for non-stop that I could find. Also, they are a primary airline at my local airport and I wanted to rack up some rewards points. My aunt and I used Uber and Lyft to get around town throughout the weekend. There are other taxi and ride share services in the city to choose from. You could also rent a car, but resort parking is expensive and rental cars are hard to come by these days.
Food
To be totally honest, I did not eat very much on this trip. We didn't go to any of the buffets and I avoided eating in public as much as I possibly could. The only meal I ate in public was a footlong hot dog with seasoned waffle fries from a random miniature food court in Caesars Palace. I ate all of my other meals at the time share. My aunt and I spent the weekend drinking a free bottle of moscato that she got from a time share meeting and I kept ordering food for delivery, except for the first night. We went to Fremont Street and ordered White Castle to-go which we ate once we were back at the time share. It was the first time either of us tried White Castle. It's not the greatest food in the world, but it was good late night food. All of my other meals were delivered including breakfast from Denny's, post-game food from Rally's, and breakfast from Black Bear. I made sure to order a big breakfast each day as late as I possibly could before leaving the time share. I knew I wasn't going to take my mask off at all in public and it would be many hours before my next meal.
Pro Tip: If you visit Las Vegas somewhat frequently or even just occasionally, sign up for a rewards program. Most of the resorts are owned by a handful of groups, so your rewards can be collected and used across different locations. Time shares also give away a lot of gift cards if that's the route you go for lodging. My aunt had extra food vouchers and gave one to me to order my hot dog lunch at Caesars Palace. I'm glad she did because it would have been terrible to spend $22 of my own money on that meal, and it was actually tasty!
Activities - Day One
My aunt got to Vegas on Friday, but I had to work all day and met up with her early in the morning the next day. Once I was settled in and changed into Raiders gear that my aunt brought for me to wear, we went to Caesars Palace to try to find the Jim Plunkett meet and greet. Since she had the food vouchers, I also used that as an opportunity to eat lunch. What's great about Caesars Palace is that the place is huge and there's a mall inside! We went only a couple of weeks after Christmas, so the holiday decorations were still up in various parts of the resort. My aunt and I originally started out our visit by searching for the collectors store where the meet and greet event would be taking place. We got there so early that a line hadn't even formed yet and that's when we went to find lunch. I ate my food very quickly so I wouldn't have my mask down for too long and that left us with still a lot of time before the event. We found a bench to sit on directly across from the entrance of H&M to chat and listen to the in-store DJ play his set. We didn't want to pay for an item to meet Jim Plunkett because the available options were so expensive, so we took pictures of him arriving and returned to the time share.
After charging our phones, cracking open the free bottle of wine, and changing clothes, we took the time share shuttle to the Tropicana resort for the Raiders super fan party. These are the people who you see in the menacing costumes in the area of the lower seating known as the Black Hole. This party was packed, but so much fun! I took pictures with the costumed super fans that were present and met Otis Sistrunk, a Raiders legend. Once my aunt made sure we saw all of the super fans she was most looking forward to speaking to, we briefly played the penny machines (I cashed out quickly) before heading over to Fremont Street. We thought about going to another Raiders party on that side of town, but opted to just walk up and down the street instead to check out everything before getting White Castle. It truly was the Fremont Street Experience!
Pro Tip: Fremont Street has fun and relatively cheap activities along with delicious food options. It's a good place to go if you're not exactly sure what you want to do or just want to do something away from The Strip. I've never considered a place nicknamed "Sin City" to be kid-friendly, but there were many small children there were their parents. That being said, there is something for everyone in Las Vegas!
Activities - Day Two
After a late and long night, my aunt and I didn't have the energy to walk two doors down to Denny's and had it delivered to our door instead. This was a perk of staying in a time share that was once a regular apartment complex! I ordered the french toast grand slam to make sure I had enough food before we went tailgating outside Allegiant Stadium. At tailgating, we met up with even more Raiders super fans and took pictures with more costumed people. As we walked in less crowded areas of the parking lots, I would lower my mask until we began approaching larger groups again. Before entering Allegiant Stadium, we had to go to a tent for a vaccination status check to receive a wristband of the color that identifies our status. Being fully vaccinated, we got green wristbands.
Once inside, we went to the field level seating to take pictures as the teams warmed up and took some additional pictures with the Black Hole. As we began making our way to our seats, we walked around to check out more of the stadium and stopped by a concession stand. The stadium is cashless, so visitors will need to have a debit/credit card or digital payment handy for purchases. The stadium was beautiful and I should have known it would be a long and exciting game beyond what I had already expected. The game got flexed to Sunday Night Football and that was the first sign. However, I had no idea that Tori Kelly would be singing the national anthem! I'm a huge Tori Kelly fan and have been following her music career since 'Dear No One' was released as the free song of the week on iTunes back in the day! It was my first time ever witnessing a live performance in the same building as her and it made the trip ten times better. On top of that, Lil Jon was the halftime show performer and that gave me the exact energy boost I needed to get through the second half of the game. My friends and I would listen to Lil Jon on the way back to campus from lunch during my senior year of high school, so that performance really took me back and he had the stadium rocking! The Las Vegas Raiders having real concerts during halftime is so unique and creates an amazing game day atmosphere! The game was highly competitive and lasted through the final seconds of overtime in which the Raiders kicked the game-winning field goal to send their team to the playoffs!
We waited in a somewhat chaotic ride share pick-up/drop-off lot for a driver, but I we managed to get back to the time share after more than 30 minutes of waiting for a driver to arrive. It was cold, but my aunt brought hand warmers and gloves which helped us stay warm during the wait. I ordered Rally's as soon as we arrived at the time share because I hadn't eaten since breakfast. My aunt and I finished the free bottle of wine and we began gathering our belongings and packing them before our flights the next day. She was leaving very early in the morning and I didn't need to leave until checkout time later in the morning, so we arranged for me to be the one to officially check out after eating my breakfast.
The Big Finish
Looking back on everything, I couldn't have asked for a better weekend! I have been cooped up in my small apartment for most part since the pandemic started. I needed to get out and be social again, and I was able to do so while taking extra precaution to protect myself and others as much as possible. This trip made me feel like myself again! It was far from what I originally planned to do to celebrate my birthday, but I think this was actually even better! I never knew what to expect and I didn't spend all of my time researching everything beforehand. It felt relatively spontaneous and broke up the monotony of my day-to-day life of work and grad school. Quality time is my love language and it was so satisfying being able to hang out with my aunt all weekend doing activities that she loves to do while I also got to experience my passion for travel. This trip reminded me that I can still find ways to enjoy life during a pandemic and inspired me to revive my blog!
Feel free to leave comments below, tweet (@KimiThoughts), or leave a post/message on Facebook (@KimisTravelThoughts) and share your experiences traveling to watch sporting events or other forms of entertainment!