Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas 2023 Weekend

I took a long hiatus from my blog and have decided to document my adventures in the last year or so. First, I’ll blog about my recent five half marathons completed in 35 days with many of them made into mini weekend vacations.

My friend was planning to run the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas 2023. She had already booked her hotel and registered when she told me about the run. I invited myself and eventually invaded her party with three other friends. It just seemed like a good idea to have a girls trip so one invitation led to another and then there were a total of five of us, which we later learned made it challenging to fit in a single cab. Just our luggage alone wouldn’t fit.

Most of us didn’t care to gamble but there’s so much more to Vegas than just gambling. People don’t realize there are many options, so below is how we fit in the half marathon plus other fun in Vegas over a three and a half day long weekend, taking Friday and Monday off of work. To give you an idea on how much the trip cost, I spent $1,252 for the hotel, food, shows, and drinks. My friend who didn’t drink as much spent $968. You can totally spend less than what we spent. We weren’t really restrained by a budget so we just rolled with whatever came our way.

Friday

• Three of us flew in from SFO (San Francisco) and two flew in from SMF (Sacramento), arriving roughly the same time at around 11am
• Checked into Vdara Hotel & Spa and dropped off our bags with the Bell Hop since we were too early to get into the actual room – Vdara is a great hotel, conveniently located on the strip by Aria and The Cosmopolitan. Each room has a kitchenette so it’s really comfortable. We had a suite on the 32nd floor which had a spectacular view.
• Met our friends at Vdara’s VICE VERSA Patio & Lounge where they were already enjoying lunch and adult beverages. Cheers to a great weekend!
• Walked to Resorts World Las Vegas for the Race Expo and stopped at a bar along the way for double Jamesons and ginger backs. Race Expos are always fun for picking up random freebies, and buying discounted gear and pre-workout drink powder and such. Some of the girls got their hair done for free by one of the vendors.
• Ducked into Walgreens on our way back to get alcohol, water, Gatorade, and junk food for the hotel room. We highly recommend doing this as you’ll want to pre-game and also have night caps! Drinks were outrageously expensive – $20 at many places!
• Walked to dinner at Best Friend at Park MGM for our 6:30pm reservations. Reserve as soon as you can because they get booked up! This Roy Choi spot is really popular and for a good reason. The food and drinks were great! With a party of five, we opted to skip the pre-set menu since it would cost more per person ($69 pp x 5 = $345 without drinks and tax/tip) than just doing family style on our own allowing us to pick more dishes. We spent a total $570 which included dinner and dessert, and nine cocktails. We had Banchan, Kogi Tacos, Slippery Shrimp, Kimchi Fried Rice, Garlic Chicken, and Kalbi which were all included in the Chef Menu, and then added Aguachile, Pork Belly Hot Pot (Bi Bim Bop), Buttermilk Fried Chicken, Spicy Pork, and Mango Cheesecake. All the food was really good! We ordered way too much food and ended up boxing it up and leaving it atop a garbage can.
• Took a van cab (yes, we lucked out!) to Sahara for the Magic Mike show. We had one drink in their bar and that’s it because service was not great in the actual theatre. However, the show was super entertaining and not sleezy at all. The male dancers performed really well and there were also female dancers. You’ll love the choreography…and all those amazingly formed pecks and abs.
• Took cabs back to the Vdara and had a drink at Vdara’s VICE VERSA Patio & Lounge to decide what to do for the night.
• We decided to have more drinks and junk food in our hotel room.

Saturday

• Four of us went to Salt and Ivy Brunch at Aria for brunch. We picked up Bloody Marys to wait in line since it was super long. The service was great and the food was yummy! We spent $43 a person on average at brunch and it was $23 each for a Bloody Mary.
• Picked up “to go” drinks from bottom floor Chandelier Bar! They didn’t have any space for us at the main bar.
• Walked to the mall and shopped for a bit. Then another drink on The Strip.
• Got ready and walked IN THE RAIN to Mon Ami Gabi at Paris Hotel for our 5pm reservations. We still aren’t sure why the leader of our pack took us on the long way to dinner as we we really late (and wearing heels). Mon Ami Gabi looks much closer to Vdara than it actually is when it’s pouring rain outside. Dinner was fantastic, both service and food, and they were very accommodating to those who are Gluten Free. We loved their Steaks, Foie Gras, Beef Tartare, and Scallops!
• Four of us went to the Bellagio for the “O” show, while one girl friend had alone time and gambled for the evening. “O” was awesome. The props and stage are amazing. We highly recommend it for the visual presentation though we were all unsure of what story actually unfolded.
• Tried to get into a club but the wait was forever long. We decided to have more drinks and cheap junk food in our hotel room.

Sunday

• Time to carbo load for the night’s race! I really wanted to eat at Egg Slut because of the name and the Gluten Free Breakfast Sandwich sounded so good, but as my friend warned me, the line was extremely long (45+ minutes) and there weren’t even any tables to enjoy your sandwich at. We decided to go to Holsteins for brunch instead. Their burgers were great. They even have Gluten Free buns!!! Everyone enjoyed the burgers as well as the sides of Fries and Onion Rings we shared. The Bloody Marys were good too, though their bam-boozled shakes looked really good but too sweet with all the candies.
• There wasn’t a line today at the main Chandelier Bar so we popped in for Espresso Martinis.
• Walked around The Cosmopolitan before heading back to the Vdara to rest a bit for the race.
• My runner friend got us miniatures for the race and gave them to our girl friends to cheers us at mile 5 and mile 10.
• Left for the race early and hung out at the start line village. It was super lame how they had it set up with a dumb tunnel for us to squeeze through only to see more port-a-potties, and then walk for a while before we reached the actual start line.
• Ran the race and our friends drank the miniatures without meeting up with us at each milestone. Losers! The race was really fun since I decided to take it easy and walk/jog with my friend. We took a photo together at every mile marker and along the way at attractions. Running down the strip all lit up and through downtown is a very unique experience. It’s kind of surreal how the normally loud and traffic-packed strip didn’t have a single car.
• Regrouped and went to dinner at China Poblano in The Cosmopolitan. I highly recommend this Jose Andres restaurant. Everything is yummy. BEST QUESABIRRIA TACOS! I also had Chicken Lettuce Wraps, and Siu Mai with Quail Egg. My friends had the Wonton Soup, Braised Oxtail Soup, and Queso Fundido.
• Four of us headed out to the OMNIA Nightclub in Caesars Palace in our running gear. The non-runners were dressed in athletic attire like I was all day. Entrance was free for race participants and they let us all in, even in our outfits. The drinks were ridiculously expensive!
• We bought cans of Truly on the way back to the hotel and chilled in the hotel room.

Monday

• Checked out of the hotel and left our luggage at the Bell Desk.
• Five of us had brunch at The Henry in The Cosmopolitan.
• Four of us took a cab to Area 15. We walked around and then had a drink at the main bar. Area 15 is a lot of fun with immersive entertainment like ax throwing and interactive art shows. We didn’t do any activities this visit since we didn’t have enough time, but I highly recommend Meow Wolf and Lost Spirits Distillery which I did on another trip. I’ll write about how to incorporate them in a different blog post about a previous visit.
• Took a Lyft to The Venetian to walk around before walking back to the Vdara bar and the airport.
• After one round of drinks, we hugged and parted ways for the airport.
• Of course, more drinks at the airport.