Las Vegas: Start of our Southwest USA Journey

We are at the beginning of yet another USA road trip journey. This travel series will cover one of the biggest road trips that I have ever taken. The roads took us from Los Angeles all the way to Las Vegas through the desert and and north towards Utah across the planes towards Monument Valley in Colorado through the mother Road and all the way back to sunny California. This is also the third consecutive road trip that I have taken since Japan and as you may know I visited some of these parts of the USA back in 2015. This journey, however, is However filled with completely new experiences insights the places I had visited before I got to experience more and in-depth while many new ones covered our itinerary. The first part of my multi part travel post series covers my arrival to the United States and my time in Las Vegas. I hope you will enjoy coming on this photographic journey with me as I explain all the things that I saw and did.

The Start of our Journey

It was a cold and dark morning in Zagreb, When Selma and I parked our car in the parking lot of the airport. I wasn’t really fully awake when we boarded our first flight to Amsterdam. There was a short delay in our flight and once we reached Shippol airport in Amsterdam, we had to run to our international gate. We just made it on time on our long overseas flight from Amsterdam to Los Angeles. The flight took around 11 hours and each passing hour on the flight felt like a day but there was also anticipation in the air. I couldn’t wait to set foot in Los Angeles. I couldn’t wait for that moment when we got our rental and just started driving down the highways.

Arriving at LAX

Once we got through customs and rented our car, it was time to drive towards Las Vegas. My cousin Miran was waiting for us there he had just moved to Las Vegas and he set us up with a suite in the Palazzo Resort Hotel. It was our plan to drive directly to Las Vegas in order not to lose any more nights on our already long road trip. This proved to be a challenge, however, because night caught up with us and we had to drive with the last bits of strength that were left. I don’t think I will ever drive this much again after a long flight. It’s better to just rest and to organize the trip a little bit differently but we had enough adrenaline in us to make it to Las Vegas unharmed and in one piece.

Our hotel room had a view of the Las Vegas Sphere. I knew a little bit about it, but I couldn’t even begin to imagine what it would look like. I was fascinated by the display and the ever changing shapes colours and animations. We went to bed immediately and the next morning a wonderful sunrise greeted us. Since we went to bed early, we got up early and the jet lag was playing some tricks with us. But as always when you are traveling westbound the jet lag gets in your favor because you started getting up early which is really good when you are on a road trip. We had an amazing breakfast with an even better view. We enjoyed our morning and took it easy and slowly for the first day.

Back in Las Vegas

Once we stepped outside the hotel familiar sides greeted me. I immediately got flashbacks to 2015 when we first visited Las Vegas of course the city is always changing but some sites hotels and the main strip stayed the same. I remembered a lot of it and as we were waiting for my cousin to arrive and pick us up, I took some photos of the Strip and hotels there. We had a great time with my cousin. He has a beautiful new house and he lovingly invited us. His wife, Francine and my cousin Nina were there as well. It was amazing to catch up with them and their hospitality was only matched by the beautiful surroundings of their new home. We took it easy at first day we didn’t do much didn’t sightsee we just relaxed on their terrace and soaked up the sun. They’re cute dogs Yoda and Leia, where there as well and I had a really great time with them petting them and just admiring how cute they are.

Our Stay in Las Vegas

We stayed in Las Vegas for four days. One of those days was filled with a one day trip to the valley of fire, which will actually be the next part of this travel series. The rest of the time was spent on the trip, but also driving around the city. I wanted to explore as much as I could. We drove to the shopping centers, had dinner with my cousins, saw new hotels and resorts and all around had a perfect start to our journey in the United States.

Downtown Las Vegas

Of course a visit to downtown Las Vegas couldn’t be missed. We visited here in 2015 but this time I wanted to explore a bit more. We went and saw some pawnshops, grabbed some tacos, and we saw the Freeman Street. We had luck since there weren’t many people there. Maybe it was because we were visiting before the holiday season so there weren’t many tourists on the streets that prove to be really good and a enjoyable start for our trip.

There are many things to do in downtown Las Vegas I think and there is a lot of authentic charm of the old ways here. This is the place where Las Vegas originated from. I think it’s always interesting to go to the source of a town or a place and see how everything started. Yes it’s not that bright and glitzy like the strip but there is some charm here and I think it’s a worthwhile attraction as well. Of course, nothing beats the strip the many hotels there the luxury and lights that you can see there.

Selma and I don’t gamble that much, so we didn’t really spend that much time in the casinos. We used up our time here relaxing after a long trip doing some light sightseeing and preparing mentally and physically for the days ahead. And boy did we need that. What followed after Las Vegas was one of the most beautiful road trips that I have ever taken but it was also one of the most challenging things that I’ve ever done in my life when it comes to travel. But more than that in the next post…

To be continued...

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