Las Vegas: the holy ground for celebrating legality. It is the perfect place to go when you finally turn 21, for obvious reasons. Unlike most people who go to Vegas, it wasn’t my goal to #drinkdrankdrunk every day of the weekend. What’s the point of going if you can’t remember what happened? I wanted to explore all that this city has to offer in the short amount of time that I had. Here are all the places I visited during my weekend trip to Las Vegas, Nevada.
Twin Peaks
Ahem, I need not explain the name of this restaurant. This was the first place my family and I went to after getting off the plane. What better way to start a vacation than with beer and burgers? I expected to just order a basic beer on tap, but what I got was much better. My drink consisted of a mix of the restaurant’s light beer, called the “Dirty Blonde,” and Angry Orchard apple cider. Absolutely genius.
Bahama Breeze
This restaurant is a chain without the boring chain food and drinks. Their drink menu was at least 10 pages long consisting of specialty margaritas topped with colorful flowers, blended concoctions in a hollowed-out pineapple, and this beauty pictured above called “The Ultimate Coronarita.” This drink consists of “fresh lime, lemon and pressed sugarcane juice hand shaken with Herradura Silver Tequila and Cointreau” and is served with an upside down Corona right smack in the middle. What a masterpiece.
Virgil’s Real BBQ
This place serves a killer Bloody Mary, the perfect drink to start off a Saturday in Vegas (or any Saturday, for that matter). They even make one that is served in a giant mug with bacon and jerky, but I wimped out and got the simple one. Also, this was probably the closest I came to a vegetable all weekend.
Gordon Biersch
If you haven’t noticed yet, beer is my favorite alcoholic beverage. I know, I am not a typical 21-year-old girl, but hey, I make my dad proud. Anyway, the beer flights at Gordon Biersch included six sample glasses instead of the usual four, and each beer had a unique flavor. Why order one beer when you can order six mini beers?
The Chandelier Bar at The Cosmopolitan
I had to try this place just because of the beautiful decor. The entire bar is wrapped in long strings of glistening beads, and it really does feel like you’re in a chandelier. I ordered a typical girly drink here– a lemon drop. It was perfect. If I’m being honest though, I’ll drink anything with sugar on the rim.
Margaritaville
This place was my absolute favorite. I am a huge Jimmy Buffet fan, so I was basically in Parrot Head paradise. Since the restaurant is called “Margaritaville,” you can probably guess what drink I ordered. It was called the “Perfect Margarita,” which I found to be an extremely accurate title. This drink is made with Margaritaville Gold and Silver Tequila, triple sec, orange curaçao, and lime juice. This was the best drink I had all weekend.
I highly recommend going to Las Vegas for a 21st birthday celebration. It’s super fun to take advantage of your legality and explore this cool city. I didn’t even come close to trying out all the amazing places here, but I think I did pretty well for a weekend. Most importantly, shout out to my parents for taking me to Vegas. They’re the coolest.