More of our Christmas walk

When we stayed at The Hotel at Christmas we walked up the Strip to Caesar’s Palace. MGM seems to own most of the south end of the Strip, their hotel/casino/resorts (I never know which term is the best, here the big ones seem to be all three things at once) include the MGM Grand (of course), Aria, Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, New York New York, Monte Carlo and City Center. On the southwest side Mandalay Bay is furthest south, with great views of the airport and up the Strip, the Luxor in the center and Excalibur on the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue. The three are run independently and have different atmospheres, but are connected by both a tram and walkways. We usually walk through all the casinos going in one direction then do the tram to bypass two and go right where we want on the other half.

We walked from Mandalay Bay through the upper walkway connecting to the Luxor; it’s called Mandalay Place and is a small shopping center. In the middle is my favorite burger place in town, Hubert Keller’s Burger Bar.


Good burgers, good fries, wide assortment of beers. You can get burgers from $6 up to $65 (with foi gras and special sauce), buffalo burgers, chicken, fish, wagu beef, almost whatever. You pick the meat (or a veggie patty), toppings, sauce, cheese, whatever, how you want it cooked, and the bun, so you get what you want. Or you can pick one of the pre-set ones, I like Keller’s favorite with thick fries. And great shakes.

Then through the inside of the Luxor pyramid and over into Excalibur. Built when Vegas was trying to cater to families and kids, the hotel is two big angles around the outside and inside is a fairytale castle.


That was taken from the bridge over Tropicana Avenue going to New York New York. From there we walked over to the Monte Carlo and took another tram through City Center to the Bellagio. I don’t know why they didn’t continue the tram to New York, maybe sometime in the future. Then they can cross Tropicana and join in to the Excalibur segment. Anyway, I like the view of City Center from the tram, which goes right through the middle of it.


Through the Bellagio casino over to the shopping arcade, which has new Christmas decorations this year.


Last time they had big trees made out of presents. Kind of dull this year.


Then across Flamingo to Caesar’s Palace. The view from Caesar’s courtyard is rather interesting, you can see Bill’s Gambling Hall (which will be replaced as part of the new Link center), Balley’s with the big poster of the back side of one of their showgirls, and the Eiffel Tower and Paris.