Ambrosia Software Web Board: Las Vegas & San Francisco - Ambrosia Software Web Board

(Cross posted with the B&B )

So, me and my wife are spending a week and a bit in America next month. We are going to be staying with her family in San Francisco and making a two night trip to Vegas. I'm trawling through websites that are telling me about all the cool touristy things to do, but I'm looking for personal experiences.

Have you been? Do you live there? What's cool to do? We don't have much of a budget, and are looking for things to do as well as great places to eat or drink etc.

Any help would be great, thanks!

P.s. we aren't there for long, otherwise I'd suggest some sort of meet up, but you never know!

[Edit: Really? You can't have a B with a ) next to it?]

This post has been edited by Lektor: 30 January 2011 - 11:49 AM

I can't really give you any recommendations on what to see (though I did like the Blue Man Group, its kind of expensive - $100 per ticket). However, I can give you a few words of advice.

If you have any control at all over your timing, try to avoid requiring transportation through or around the Las Vegas strip on weekend nights (Friday/Saturday). You have a mix of a bunch of impatient drivers scrambling to get places in a hurry (most of them are from California) and giant mobs of pedestrians, and both groups ignore pretty much all the traffic rules. Driving yourself through that mess will not be fun, and it's a high tension environment. Also, our public transportation system sucks and you can't really use it for much.

The strip is a lot quieter and more manageable either during the day or during the week (though there's still heavy traffic at night; I-15 is always backed up after 4:30PM, especially with the construction).

Edit: Clarification: Going to and from the strip is nasty. If you're on the strip, you can stay there and just walk around and be fine. When you go to leave, plan on a mess.

Yeah the blue man group would be amazing, but all the tickets seem mega expensive.

We are arriving and departing mid week, so hopefully traffic won't be too much of an issue. We are also not planning on doing any driving, not sure I'm confident enough to try driving on the wrong side of the road, so hopefully it'll be mostly walking and gawking! We are staying at the Bellagio so should be close to a lot of things...

A little bit late, but I had a great dinner at Olives in the Bellagio.

We had an amazing lunch at a restaurant in the Bellagio. We sat outside with amazing seats to watch the fountains. I had a burger that was divine.

We ended up going to see Penn and Teller. I pitched it to my wife, not really expecting her to go for it. She agreed and had a brilliant time. Now she's a big fan. Plus I got a new pair of autographs for my wall.