Having stayed in Paris, France and visited the Eiffel tower previously,  I thought it would be nice to stay in the Paris Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas as it is based on the French theme.

Our Check in was smooth and hassle free, with the staff being very efficient and helpful. We are offered an upgrade which I decline saying I am sure all your rooms are great.  We are given an upgrade anyway. Always remember this whether you are hiring a car or checking into a hotel, never take the offer of a paid upgrade. Hold out and you will more than likely get it for free anyway.

Before long we are given our room keys and we set off into the casino to head for the elevators. Our room 2515 is on the 25th floor, and when we look out the window and we have the Eiffel tower right in front of us, and we are overlooking Bellagio’s and the famous Bellagio fountain and Caesars Palace.

Just look at the beautiful reception area. It was continually busy so I had to wait until the early hours of the morning to get a clear shot showing the gorgeous chandeliers.

This is the guest elevator area. Everything in the Paris hotel is opulent.

First impressions of room

• Large king sized bed
• coffee table,
• computer desk
• TV and cabinet
• mini bar
• artwork in keeping with the French theme
• bedside table with large lamps
• 1 standard lamp
• ironing board and iron
• safe
• bath
• separate shower
• comfortable couch in a brushed suede finish
• broadband internet which costs $14.95 for 24 hours.
• coffee maker
• magnifying shaving mirror

We have opted for a non-smoking room with a king sized bed which turns out to be very comfortable. It has a red leather pleated feature headboard, nice linen and large comfortable pillows.

At the end of the bed is a pouffe for sitting on.

The room is very clean and the only thing we are unable to find is a clock radio.

Okay, bags down and cameras out.

King Sized bed with leather feature headboard.

Computer Desk with coffee machine and phone

TV, TV Cabinet, Wardrobes, minibar.
The cabinet is looking a bit worn and the doors stick. The safe, ironing board and iron are inside the wardrobe.

Comfortable couch, Coffee Table and Pouffe

Vanity Unit showing space for towels

Vanity unit showing magnifying shaving mirror

The hallway and guest elevator entrance has a soft luxurious looking decor.

Somewhere to sit and to check out that you look ok while waiting for your friends before hitting the Strip in style.

View of the Paris pool from the 25th floor. That shade was welcome relief from the oppressive heat of the sun.

The public toilets for  mademoiselle in the Paris Hotel Las Vegas

Just a couple of the views from the room and the top of the Eiffel Tower. 

Looking back over the Paris hotel from the top of the Eiffel Tower. It is too high for me to fit all of the hotel into the picture.

Some background about the Paris Hotel and Casino:

Work began on the construction of the Paris Hotel on April 17, 1997 and at the opening on September 1, 1999 there was a fireworks display from the Eiffel tower and the French Actress Catherine Deneuve turned on the Paris lights for the first time.

Although the project to build Paris was first announced by Bally’s Entertainment, building didn’t commence until after   Hilton Hotels purchased Bally’s.

Covering around 24 acres (97,000 m²), Paris cost 785 million USD dollars to build.

The replica of the Paris Eiffel Tower was meant to be built to the full scale of Tower in Paris but because the airport was way too close the tower was reduced in scale to around 5/8ths of the size of the original.

Inside the casino the ceiling has a painted blue sky with white clouds. This is a theme that is also found in other casinos like Caesars palace. The back stands of the Eiffel tower reach down through the ceiling right down to the casino floor.

We went up  to the top of the Eiffel Tower in the elevator and had our photo taken to commemorate the event. The trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower costs $10.00 for adults during the day and $12.00 at night.  Check your hotel brochures on things to do on the strip. We found a two for one deal so the trip to the top only cost $10.00 for the two of us. Bargain.

There is also the Eiffel Tower restaurant which is around 100 feet above the Strip, where you can experience fine French Cuisine prepared by acclaimed Chef J Joho.

Some of the other places you can dine at Paris are:

• Ah Sin – Pan-Asian Parisian dining which has an indoor/outdoor location on the Strip.
• Cafe du Par – Pick usp some sandwiches and salads beneath the Eiffel tower.
• JJ’s Boulangerie – A working bakery where you can purchase sandwiches made from freshly baked bread, soups, salads and pastries.
• Le Burger Brasserie – Gourmet burgers. We didn’t get to try these because there was always a long line waiting to get in, but we were told on a number of occasions that these burgers are the best.
• Le Cafe ile St. Louis – a sidewalk cafe that is always open and serves American food with a French touch.
• Le Provencal – French-Italian food served to the accompaniment of the singing staff.
• Le Village Buffet – Food prepared at live cooking stations
• Le Artistes Steakhouse – Enjoy rotisserie food in elegant surroundings with Impressionist art.
• Mon Ami Gabi – Another bistro that comes highly recommended that always had a long line to get into. French bistro serving steak frites and a variety of fruits de mer.

So as you can see there are plenty of culinary delights to keep you well fed during your Paris stay.

Entertainment:

• Anthony Cools Experience – Raw and Uncensored – Nightly at 9am (Dark Wednesday) – not for the shy and timid.
• Ooh La La at Paris - A Topless Revue.  Thursday – Tuesday 7pm and 11pm
• Jubliee! at Bally’s – Saturday – Thursday 7:30pm and 10:30pm
• Jubilee – Backstage Tour – Monday, Wednesday & Saturday 11am
• The Price is Right – Live stage show at Bally’s. Costs around $50.oo to participate. Shows run Tuesday – Thursday & Saturday 2:30pm and Friday at 7:30pm

There is also plenty of free entertainment with DJ’s providing music that you can dance along with.

You have the option of checking out using the Video Check- out system on your televison or by telephone.  I prefer to wait in line to check out so I can make sure I haven’t been charged for things I haven’t used.

And sure enough there was $48.00 worth of mini bar charges for items we hadn’t used.  I explained that we had moved things around to accomodate drinks we had brought at the downstairs shop but that I has put everything back in its place when we were leaving.  The charges were removed from the bill and I was only charged for the internet connection. So no hassle and everything was quickly sorted out.

Checkout experience – bit of a wait to checkout, but that is to be expected. Staff friendly, efficient and accommodating.

I purchased a package deal through Expedia.com.au that included the airfare from San Francisco and four nights at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas and you it pays to look out for great last minute Vegas values at Expedia.com!

The beauty for me, of booking through expedia.com.au is that it gives me the prices in Australian dollars so I know exactly how much my trip is going to cost up front. For this trip the return airfare to San Francisco with 4 nights at Paris cost AU$951.02  which is approximately US$793.

So if you are looking for a hotel with maximum exposure to the Strip, Paris is in a great location, the staff are helpful and friendly and the rooms are very comfortable and pleasant to spend time in.

The days starts out pretty ordinary, we have breakfast at the Terrace Cafe at El Rancho Best Western and then we go to the office to find out what there is to do in Millbrae until our shuttle at 7pm. It appears there isn’t anything to do where we are so, so we think we should go and drop off the bags and go back into San Francisco to spend a few hours.

We get to the airport really early and Qantas doesn’t open until 6:45pm to take check in for our 10:40pm flight. Damn so here we are at the airport with the bags. I ask a rather gorgeous looking security guard if there is anywhere to store the bags for a few hours. He doesn’t think there but isn’t too sure because he is new on the job ,so I check with the Lufthansa check in desk and sure enough there is.

The attendant says ‘yes at the FedEx counter’ with a vague wave of her hand in the general direction down the corridor. So I go back and tell the guard, who is a bit skeptical and asks if she said that FedEx was on the floor we are on. Uh no she didn’t actually say that.

He smiles sweetly and makes a call to check on the information that we have been given.

Sure enough there is an area for leaving your baggage so we are all happy, me because we can leave the airport and the guard because he now has this information the next time someone asks.

At the FedEx counter I ask for the cost and get tossed a sheet of paper with various charges. So okay, this isn’t helping much, what is it going to cost to leave two cases and a small carry on bag

A grumpy older attendant says “I don’t know till I see the size an’ you gotta bring em here cause I aint comin’ dere”. Oh for goodness sake you only have to tell me how this works. A young attendant then comes over and takes the bags, scans them and asks for $40.oo.  Gulp. Okay cheap at the price if I can offload the bags.

Next stop the information counter to find out about catching the BART into San Francisco. The attendants get into a full on discussion about the costs and in the end I thank them and leave, deciding to hang around the airport.

So we plug in the laptop at one of the many points around the terminal and spend the rest of the day in the airport.

Flight QF74

Finally 6:45pm arrives and we head off to check in. We have been given seats in totally different areas but fortunately the attendant changes our seating so that we can sit together – in row 73 the very last seats on the side aisle of the aircraft.

We sit on the tarmac for quite some time and finally its time to go.  The entertainment system for the last 10 rows in our section doesn’t work, great 14 and half hours flight with no magazines, books or movies.

I end up watching a movie minus the sound on another passengers screen 3 rows up.

About an hour into the flight the captain comes on and advises that there is a technical problem with engine number 4. The de-icer isn’t working which is okay while we are flying over the US but will be a really big problem when we approach Australia as the engine will ice up.  I am not too sure I like this age of full disclosure of what’s happening.

We are going to fly for a bit longer and see if the problem fixes itself. Of course it doesn’t and the captain decides that rather than risk the lives of everyone on board he is going to divert to Los Angeles where the plane can be serviced.

So at around 4:15am we arrive in Los Angeles and it looks like a scene out of a movie, with fire trucks, police and various other safety vehicles on the tarmac.

Qantas have arranged for us to stay at the Hilton hotel and we line up to catch the bus to the hotel. I have to say that Qantas staff handle the whole situation in an efficient  and professional manner. I am very impressed with how quickly everything is organized.   Our baggage stays on the plane for the flight in the morning once the engineers have sorted out the problem.

We line up in the almost empty airport terminal to wait for further instructions.

We have a Vietnamese lady from Liverpool, Sydney in our little group, who is a bit bemused what is happening and we are not sure that she speaks English  and fortunately we manage to find someone who speaks Vietnamese to help her.

In the meantime have hooked up with Maureen, who is on her way home to the Central Coast of NSW from visiting her daughter and family in Edmonton, Canada.  She is hanging out for a cigarette and just wants to get home after 5 weeks traveling.

Maureen is very friendly and chatty which helps the time to go quite quickly, and tells me about her trip and the enormous shopping center in Edmonton which I make a mental note to add  to the list of places to visit.

At the Hilton we are given vouchers for both dinner and breakfast and check in is relatively quick considering the large number of passengers to be processed.

The staff on this flight are efficient and friendly and all go out of their way to assure passengers that everything is fine and that arrangements are all in hand.

We are told that after breakfast we are to make our way out to the airport in the shuttles that run every 20 minutes. Nobody bothers with dinner, it is getting onto 5am and everyone just wants to go to bed for a couple of hours.

The hotel room is quite ordinary, not at all what I was expecting, but the bed is deliciously soft and the linen is excellent quality with a soft, smooth feel to it. The pure white towels are also thick, soft and cuddly. There is a clock radio where you can plug in your iPod and you can set the alarm so that it wakes you with either a buzz, the radio or an assortment of music.

There is a coffee maker so Val makes a cup of tea before we shower and go to bed. I set the alarm for 7am, I just want to make sure that we don’t miss the flight home.

We meet the representative in the lobby and are given new boarding passes. Then after a delicious buffet breakfast of scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, toast, bacon and sausage links followed by fresh, juicy fruit, we head off to the assembly area to get the shuttle. Everyone is a bit bleary eyed as we have all had just a couple of hours sleep.

At the airport I can see our plane still in the fix it up area, hmm not sure this is a good sign. After a while the plane makes its way to the pick up point and we are able to board.

We have all be given the same seats as we started of with originally and sure enough my entertainment system now works.

By being at the back of the aircraft we are next to the pub corner where people congregate to stretch their legs and congregate, quite noisily at times.

The flight is uneventful and we land in Sydney at 7:35pm and rush through customs to get onto the transfer flight to Brisbane. There are a half a dozen of us going to Brisbane and the plane has been held up giving us time to transfer from International to the Domestic airport.

Jurgon and Stacy pick us up at 10:35pm and only another 45 minutes and we are home.

The Hilton Hotel Los Angeles:

The public areas are beautiful but I felt that the guest areas are rather dated and worn looking.  The furnishings in the room are quite dated, but the beds are extremely comfortable as are the pillows and the bedding.  In the bathroom there are soft fluffy towels. So the hotel is a bit of an enigma  with high end bed and bath items lower end furnishings.

Chandelier in the Entrance Area

Staircase – Hilton Hotel Los Angeles

Hallway in Hilton Hotel Los Angeles

These are the really comfortable beds in the Hilton Hotel Los Angeles

Computer Desk Hilton Hotel Los Angeles

TV and cabinet

Bathroom

Shower

We have been making a lot of use  of the daily Deuce bus pass so that we can spend more time in the various casino’s, don’t get sore feet,  and don’t get worn out by the end of the day.

There are regular stops all down the Strip through to the Downtown area and we found the Deuce pass to be very economical.

The costs are :

• Single trip – $3.00
• 24 hour pass – $7.00
• 3 day pass  – $15

We didn’t find out about the three day pass until it was too late to be of any use to us.

The only disadvantage to the Deuce bus is that at times you have to stand and I have seen people be told to wait for the next bus as the bus is full. This didn’t happen to us  and  the buses come on a regular basis so the wait for the next bus is never too long.

The day pass allows you to ride on the Deuce buses, RTC, Max lines and transfer between lines.

DTC

Since moving to the Golden Nugget in Fremont St we find everything is so handy including the Downtown Transportation Center (DTC).  which is a couple of blocks over from the hotel at 300 N. Casino Center Blvd. So transport is nice and close for anywhere that you want to go in Las Vegas. Although the far south of the Strip can be a bit challenging.

Val was looking to buy some reloading dyes and we had to travel out to 1905 Las Vegas Boulevard Nth. And of course this meant figuring out how to get there.

On the day we arrived we had caught the bus to 1905 Las Vegas Boulevard Sth and so we were in the totally wrong place.  It turned out the we had to catch Max bus 506 from the DTC.  So here we are on the station asking if we have the right bus stop and when the attendant asks what we are looking for, thinking we were lost,  we tell him we want a particular pawn shop in Las Vegas Blvd Nth. He and everyone around is probably wondering why we need to go so far away, along with thinking we have blown our dough on the slots.

Well we establish that we have the right bus and there are no tourists on this one but we did find the right place and I am pretty proud of myself at how well I have come to be able to navigate around Vegas.

The shop didn’t have what Val was looking for and so we head back to Fremont St. The ticket on the Max is also good for the Deuce buses you simply slide the ticket through the machine when you transfer.

Hop On Hop Off Bus – Las Vegas

Just past Cocoa Cola World and the M & M shop we found the Las Vegas Hop on Hop off bus. I went over to get a brochure to find out the costs and the stops.  A man was saying that they wanted to get a ticket but they didn’t want to sit upstairs. I have a bit of a chuckle when the guide tells him the nobody sits upstairs as it is way too hot but downstairs is air conditioned.

The ticket cost $35 and gives you 2 days of unlimited use.  On the bus you will hear all about the history of Las Vegas, the points of interest, the attractions of the many Casinos and the various landmarks.

The tour begins at 9:30 and the bus will then pick you up every 30 minutes.

This is the ideal way to plan what you want to see.

Drop off and Pick up Stops for the Hop on Hop of Bus Las Vegas:

1. MGM Grand Hotel & Casino – at the tour lobby at the corner of The Strip next to Grand Canyon Express.
2. Bally’s Hotel & Casino – at the main entrance under the walkway by the elevators.
3. Flamingo Hotel & Casino – at the tour lobby
4. Harrah’s – at the tour lobby
5. Wynn South Gate – at the taxi and shuttle waiting stand
6. Sahara Hotel & Casino - at the front entrance towards the Strip exit
7. Statosphere Hotel & Casino - tour lobby
8. Hilton Vacation Club – Shuttle bus stop
9. Circus – Circus – at the front of Circus Circus next to Slots of Fun on the Strip
10. Treasure Island & Shopping – at the shuttle bus stop at Sirenes Cove Blvd
11. Caesars Palace & forum Shops – at the shuttle bus stop under the Planet Hollywood Globe
12. New York – New York – at the tour lobby
13. Excalibur Castle & Luxor Pyramid – at the Excalibur Rotunda
14. Mandalay Bay, Four Seasons, The Hotel – at the tour lobby at Mandalay Bay
15. Fabulous Las Vegas Welcome Sign – the ideal photo shot stop
16. Tropicana Hotel & Casino – at the tour lobby
17. MGM Grand Hotel & Casino - at the tour lobby at the corner of The Strip next to Grand Canyon Express

When you  buy a ticket on the LasVegas hop on hop off  bus it gives you 10% off your  purchase of the San Francisco hop on hop off bus.

Don’t Walk the Strip

Don’t be fooled into walking between casinos. When you look down the Strip everything looks quite close and then you start to walk and that’s when reality checks in, the distances are really deceiving. Take a bus and save your legs.

When Val and I moved from Paris down to the Golden Nugget Hotel in Fremont st and we hopped on the Deuce bus with our bags, so much cheaper than getting a taxi and it is quite acceptable.

The world famous Caesars Palace is a luxury hotel and casino in Las Vegas, USA.  It’s on the west side of Las Vegas Strip, between the Bellagio and the Mirage, in Paradise, a township in Nevada.

With it’s Roman theme, this is one of my favorite Casino’s, mind you they are all pretty impressive.

Caesars Palace is owned by Harrah’s Entertainment and is a vast complex of 3,348 rooms in five towers.  These are called the Augustus, Centurion, Roman, Palace and Forum.

People flock there to gamble and see spectacular shows and world famous entertainers.

How did it all start?

The beginning of Caesars

In 1962, the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund lent $10 million to a cabana motel owner called Jay Sarno.  Sarno began making plans for a hotel that would be built on land owned by Kirk Kerkorian.  Building began that year.  The first tower would cover a 34 acre / 138,000 square meter site and have 680 rooms.

What’s with the missing apostrophe?

Sarno had real difficulty deciding on a suitable name for his amazing hotel.  He finally settled on ‘Caesars Palace’ because he wanted the hotel guests to feel as if they were royalty.  He specifically called it ‘Caesars’ and not ‘Caesar’s’ because his idea was that every guest should feel as if they were Julius Caesar himself.

Caesars opens…

On 5^th August 1966, the hotel opened with Andy Williams and Phil Richards heading the bill – both as Julius Caesar in a play.

Who has played Caesars?

A glittering list of celebrities has provided the entertainment in this luxury venue, including:

• Frank Sinatra
• Judy Garland
• George Burns
• Liberace
• Diana Ross
• Bette Midler
• Celine Dion – her show regularly sold out despite having some of the highest priced tickets for any show in Vegas, some costing $220 each.   The spectacular Colosseum (Caesars spelling!) Theater was built especially for Celine Dion’s show, called A New Day.
• Elton John
• Cher
• Julio Iglesias
• David Copperfield
• Gloria Estefan
• In 1982, Ronnie Vannucci (who is now a member of the band, ‘The Killers’ who are based in Las Vegas) became the youngest musician ever to play with a band in a lounge in Caesars Palace…at the age of six!

What other entertainments have occurred there?

During the 1980s, the hotel had a games room devoted to Atari video games.  There were over 60 arcade-style machines.

In 1981 and 1982, a Formula One World Championship event called the Caesars Palace Grand Prix took place.  The desert heat was tremendous and it took Nelson Piquet a quarter of an hour to recover from heat stroke when he completed the race.  The event wasn’t repeated because the heat put spectators off too!

Caesars Outdoor Arena hosted several championship boxing matches.  Sugar Ray Leonard, Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes, Evander Holyfield, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran all boxed there.

Jumping that fountain…

On December 31, 1967, Evel Knievel unsuccessfully tried to jump over the hotel’s water fountain on his motorbike but didn’t succeed.  In 1980, Gary Wells attracted huge press coverage and nasty injuries when he tried and failed.  In 1989, Robbie Knievel – Evel’s son – tried again …and made it!  If you thought that was good, on May 4, 2006, Mike Metzger became the first person ever to back flip his motorbike over the fountain!

What about the gambling…?

Las Vegas is the place to go for a ‘flutter’.  Caesars has around 1,440 slot machines and 160 casino tables.  It’s not easy to find out about the revenue from gambling at Caesars because as the 1990’s approached, the management wanted it to have a new, family-friendly image, focusing more on children and less on gambling.  To encourage families, a new venue called Caesars Magical Empire opened in 1996, to showcase major magicians.

However, it is on public record that in 2007 the eight Harrah properties in Las Vegas had a total income of $3,626.7 billion – and 54% of that was just from the casinos!

Caesars changes style

In 1992, Caesars opened The Forum Shops.  The high end stores became a huge crowd puller and pleaser.  The store fronts were exotic, with beautiful fountains at intersections.  The elaborate gold interior décor would have made Gianni Versace swoon with pleasure.  In October 2004, another phase of the mall opened.  This included the second circular (spiral) escalator in the US – the other one being in San Francisco.

In 2005, the highly successful 46 storey Augustus Tower was opened.  This encouraged Harrah’s to expand Caesars further with another tower of hotel rooms, to be called the Octavius Tower as well as a sports complex to replace the existing events center.  The entire project was to cost $1 billion.  However, in January 2009, Harrah’s announced it would delay completion on the new tower as demand for hotel rooms had dropped.

Obama at Caesars…

On 26^th May 2009, US President Barack Obama performed in the Colosseum for one night in a tribute show to the senator of Nevada, Harry Reid.  Obama’s fellow performers included Sheryl Crowe, Bette Midler and Rita Rudner.  Obama then became the first American President to stay overnight at Caesars!

Want to visit?

To find out more about what Caesars has to offer, to check availability of rooms and to book online go here.

Here are some views of the decor in Caesars Palace to give you an idea of how breathtakingly beautiful it is.

The Reception Area

A shop selling oriental items

Vanity mirrors in one of the ladies rest rooms

The Forum shops have a Roman facade in keeping with the theme

The Trojan Horse (wasn’t it Greek not Roman) moves its head and opens its eyes

Pegasus flying from the fountain

I threw coins into the Trevi fountain replica last year to ensure my return and sure enough I am back

Entrance to one of the many restaurants. The decor is amazing.

The Palms restaurant. Just look at the magnificent statues and columns

Painted skylight

Eating in Caesars Palace can be expensive however we found The Cheesecake Factory and found that the meals there are quite reasonably priced.

Our waiter, Tim Mossman was attentive and funny, he wants to go to Australia one day to claim the town of Mossman which was founded by his ancestors.  He and his wife also want to visit Rome and Venice, although working in Caesars Palace and having the Venetian Hotel just down the Strip is the next best thing to visiting those places.

Still nothing quite matches up to the original.

Tim warns us that the servings are large, and he is not wrong.  The food is tasty and well presented, and as I say, surprisingly reasonable for Caesars Palace.  The Cheescake Factory is right behind the aquarium and the fountain show at the end of the Forum Shops.

We spent a lot of time just strolling around the Forum shops, and just taking in all the beautiful fountains and statues that make up Caesars Palace.