Christmas in Las Vegas? It sounded like fun.

Place: Las Vegas

Last visited: 1998

My perspective: Christmas in Las Vegas? It sounded like fun.

My husband and I, longtime New Yorkers and recent transplants to Los Angeles, had never been to Vegas, so when his brother suggested a five-day jaunt over the holidays, we said yes. Of course, I have no one but myself to blame. OK, I blame my brother-in-law and spouse and the rest of the world that actually likes Las Vegas. Entering the lobby of our hotel, I found myself in the teeming, noisy equivalent of the New York City subway at rush hour. Instead of the well-dressed, louche, intrepid gamblers of fiction, there were hordes of Bermuda shorts-clad, overweight, pasty, glazed-eyed folk. The strobe-like lights and general cacophony were not helped by the garish and/or sentimental holiday decorations and elevator-inspired Christmas music. Our room, on the fifth floor of what was an allegedly luxury hotel, faced the parking lot in the back. After persuading my brother-in-law to swap rooms, as his had the view, we ventured down to the lobby again to explore. That was when I discovered I hated gambling. My husband, who was trying to juggle an unhappy wife, a well-meaning but irritated brother and his own, understandable, wish to ditch both of us, set off to flush a few hundred dollars down the toilet at the blackjack table. I retreated to our room, wondering what I was going to do for the next five days. All the good shows, we discovered, were sold out or required the equivalent of a mortgage payment. I resolved to be resourceful; I would not let Las Vegas ruin my Las Vegas vacation. I forced my husband to drive out to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area with me. Although this was scenic, the tensions between us escalated. As soon as we returned to the hotel, he fled to the casino and I hunkered down in the room watching cable. On the third day, I found a stable somewhere on the outskirts of the city and went horseback riding. On Day 4, my husband reaped the consequences of the Endless Buffet. On Day 5, we returned to L.A. I have never returned to Las Vegas. The words “cold day in hell” come to mind.

--Kathrin Segal, Los Angeles

Pictured: The water show in front of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino