Weekend Trip to Vegas with My Teenage Daughter

Four years ago, I took Ella on our first in-person trip to New York City.

We had the best time and now, four years later, it’s time for our next one-on-one trip (I have a full post about this one-on-one trip, if you’re curious!).

Initially, Ella thought she wanted to do Disney World but as we looked further into it, she realized that it wasn’t much different from Disneyland and would cost quite a bit in airfare (the cheapest tickets we could find were about $500 each).

As we discussed it further, she realized the things she wanted to do most on our trip together was go to some nice restaurants (she mainly wanted to sample the menu), get a facial, and see a show.

It quickly became clear that Las Vegas could provide all of these things and had the advantage of being driveable (which not only saved him a lot of money but also gave him a lot of driving hours to get his driver’s license this summer) and we were able to stay in a really nice hotel for a lot cheaper than many other cities.

So Vegas!

He spent weeks researching restaurants and about a week before our trip we made all the reservations. We also have a short list of other possibilities for things we want to do that we can include as we see fit over the weekend.

Here’s what our trip to Vegas looked like:

Day #1:
Ella went to school and I worked as usual and when she got home we packed up and left after 4pm. He drove until we got to Cedar City where we stopped briefly for dinner at Seven Brothers (I ordered it through DoorDash so it was ready when we arrived and we used the bathroom and were back on the road within 8 minutes). I drove while Ella ate – she didn’t want to go through the Canyon either – and after we got through the Canyon, we pulled over and filled up with gas and switched back to driving so she could get in the necessary evening shift.

We arrived at our hotel (Fontainebleau) and checked in and we bought him a smoothie and then sat down on our two queen beds in our pajamas to watch. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before before sleeping.

Day #2:
The next morning, I woke up around 7am and worked in the bathroom while Ella slept a little longer and then we both put on our swimsuits and cover-ups and went downstairs to get breakfast.

Our plan was to grab something quick from one of the little cafes in the hotel, but then we stopped to look at the menu at La Fontaine and we decided to eat there. Ella had the soufflé pancakes (amazing!) and I had the smoked salmon eggs Benedict which was delicious.

After breakfast, we put our leftovers in our room’s fridge and then headed to the pool. The weather was barely warm (around 70 degrees) and the regular pool felt too cold but the giant hot tub was perfect and completely empty. We chatted and did some synchronized swimming and eventually headed back to the pool chairs to read for a bit.

We had booked facials for the afternoon in Chinatown (they were much more affordable than at the hotel spa, plus the hotel spa doesn’t allow children under 18), so we went back to the room, changed into our swimsuits and headed to Chinatown. We had a little time for fun so we stopped at our favorite boba place in Chinatown where we had visited my parents many times in Las Vegas.

Boba done, we headed to the spa and checked in. We each had a nice facial (they did it in the same room, which was great) and Ella said she knew I fell asleep during the facial because I was snoring softly!

Afterwards, we went to 85°C Bakery and grabbed some snacks to share before going to 99 Ranch Market to buy some snacks to take home for the girls, plus some treats and snacks for us.

Then return to the hotel. We showered and dressed up for dinner, then headed to the main attraction of the trip – the tasting menu!

Ella had looked at a lot of options and chose Partage because not only did they have good reviews but they changed the menu every month, so it would be a complete surprise what we got with each dish (she felt like at many other restaurants she knew exactly what we were going to eat and that was less appealing to her).

The restaurant was beautiful and we had the choice of choosing the 5, 7 or 9 course option. We chose the 7 course and started with two mocktails before the courses started arriving.

That’s GREAT. There wasn’t a single dud dish and the octopus and sea bass dishes were our favourites. The wait staff was the best and overall, we couldn’t have asked for better food.

After dinner, we decided to visit the Meow Wolf art installation that we saw recommended on every list of things for teens to do in Vegas. I didn’t know anything about Meow Wolf (I had never heard of it until we researched it for this trip) but it was a four minute drive from the restaurant and we grabbed tickets and went in.

It’s the trippiest interactive experience with a million things to see, explore, and play, and we spent over an hour enjoying it until we were both exhausted.

We plan to watch the second one To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before movie, but when we got back to the hotel around 10 p.m., we were both beat. We quickly changed into our pajamas, jumped into bed, and were both asleep within moments.

Day #3:
I wake up around 7 and work until Ella wakes up around 9am

Ella had booked us in for lunch at Palate but it didn’t open until 11, so we had a little time to burn ourselves off.

I had been looking for independent bookstores and there was one fairly close to our lunch spot, so we packed up and headed to The Writer’s Block, which I had never been to (or even heard of before this trip).

It was SO cute and fun – probably one of the coolest bookstores I’ve ever been to – and we had the best time browsing.

Ella liked making cakes so she went straight to the cookbook section and after that she flipped through it Dessert Peoplefinally we bought it as a souvenir of this trip.

It was lunch time, so we went to Palate and sat down. It was a really nice atmosphere (and not busy at all, which surprised me!).

The menu looked crazy and we ended up choosing biscuits, overnight pancakes with strawberry compote and passion fruit cream, and pork belly fried rice with kimchi and a fried egg.

Every dish was amazing. The pancakes were probably the best pancakes of my life and the biscuits were delicious and the pork belly dish was the perfect accompaniment to the sweeter dishes.

We definitely couldn’t finish it all, so we packed it up and went back to the hotel to drop it off.

The day before we booked an escape room at my parents’ favorite place (I’ve been there once and Ella has been many times during Grancie Camp over the years).

We had a few hours until our appointment, so we drove to M&M World, which was on Ella’s list of places to visit. We parked in a nearby car park and then went in – I think I had one as a kid, but it was completely unknown to me, so maybe I haven’t!

We had fun sampling the different flavors (lemon meringue M&M’s were the winner and peanut butter and jelly was the loser. The peanut butter cinnamon roll was pretty good and the chocolate cherry cupcake was not so great) and wandering around the four floors of the store checking out the merchandise.

After that, we stopped at the Coca Cola Store then crossed the street to stop at Hershey’s Chocolate World (not as fun as the M&M store for us), Nectar, and Eatley.

We walked back to the car and went to Town Square where we walked around for a bit before checking in to our escape room.

I was a little nervous that we would be able to finish in an hour since it was just the two of us, but when we checked in, we realized the room we were working in – Antidote – was a standard room, not the mid-level we had hoped for, which gave me more hope.

And sure enough, we finished it with barely ten minutes to spare (and the help of some on-screen prompts!).

Afterwards, we walked to Tamba for dinner reservations.

It was our last meal of the trip and it did not disappoint – we had a delicious four course meal plus delicious passionfruit lassi and we were out in plenty of time for our show (this was the only thing I was worried about on this trip but it wasn’t even close).

We drove back to the Strip and headed to the Palazzo to see Shin Lim. We bought tickets at the box office and the show was phenomenal. It’s the perfect length, lots of laughs, and great magic.

At dinner, we looked for a dessert place at Palazzo and saw a chocolate ball dessert that they melted tableside with hot caramel and then opened into a banana cream pie dessert.

Banana cream pie is one of Ella’s all-time favorite desserts, so this was a no-brainer and we made reservations at dinner immediately after the show.

We walked in, sat down, and ordered our dessert which was just as impressive as promised. I thought it was delicious, but Ella – who loves banana cream pie – really liked it.

After dessert, we went back to the hotel room, got ready for bed and watched the second movie To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before watch a movie then go to bed.

Day #4:
We woke up and got ready for the day, packed, and ate our leftover lunch from the day before, then checked out and hit the road.

I drove all the way to St. George where we filled up with gas and grabbed some bagels from Einstein Bagels for lunch and then Ella drove all the way home.

On the trip, we spent quite a bit of time talking about what makes a trip like this work so well. I think it’s easier to go to a city where there’s lots to do – it was fun doing a Texas treehouse with Ani a few years ago, but it was a bigger effort on my part as I was the main entertainment in a small town with not much to do. Plus, I think it’s a good idea to lean into what each parent likes – I’m a big traveler, so big cities with lots to do are my thing, whereas Bart likes the outdoors and adventure, so Ella suggested that on their next trip together, they might take surfing lessons and deep sea fishing, which is something both she and Bart would like to do.

It was an amazing trip and I don’t think it could have gotten any better – I loved every second of it!

If you have any questions about this trip or our personal trips in general, let me know and I’ll be happy to answer them!

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