This year was the first time I’ve spent Christmas and New Year’s in Las Vegas.  Normally, I go to Vegas during Labor Day week when the weather is hot and sunny, and the crowds aren’t too bad.  So technically, I have spent a “holiday” in Las Vegas before.  But let’s face it, Labor Day isn’t the kind of holiday that demands people spend it with family or loved ones the way Christmas and New Year’s do.  So what is it really like to spend Christmas and New Year’s in Las Vegas alone?

Palazzo

First of all, you can tailor your experience to include as much or as little of the Christmas festivities as you want.  If you have a car and can get to outlying areas, there are some great holiday light displays.  Even on the Strip and Downtown, there are Christmas trees and holiday decorations (such as the Bellagio’s Conservatory display), and the shopping malls and casinos tend to play Christmas songs during the day (at night, they go back to music as usual). Some buffets and restaurants offer special Christmas menus.  If you want to ignore the holidays entirely, it’s almost possible to do that, too, by just focusing on Vegas’s usual offerings of gambling, shows, and nightclubs.

Vegas doesn’t shut down during the holidays the way many places do.  The buses kept running, as did the free shuttles between hotels. So you don’t need a car to get around. Some shows go dark and some restaurants close for a few days during the “slow” Christmas period, but there are still plenty of restaurants and shows to choose from, and everything is back in full gear by New Year’s.  Naturally, the casinos are always open to entertain you. I spent Christmas night on Fremont Street, where there were free live bands, performance artists on the street, the zipline and overhead light show were running–it was business as usual.

You can't do this in Vermont on Christmas

Here in Vermont, if you’re single and don’t have anyone to spend the holidays with, there is nothing to do between Christmas and New Year’s except go exchange the gifts you didn’t want at the Mall, go to the movies, or play outside in the freezing cold.  I’m not a shopper, I hate the cold, and there are only so many movies I want to go see in a week’s time.  So being in Las Vegas alone was a thousand times more entertaining than being at home alone.(Although, ironically, there were a few brutally cold days there, too.)

Did I feel conspicuous being solo in Vegas during the holidays?  Most of the time, no.  Couples and groups often split up in Vegas to pursue their own interests, whether it’s gambling, or shopping, or seeing the sites.  Or one half of a couple will rise early and eat breakfast alone.  There was no way for anyone to tell that I was really traveling alone.  My only uncomfortable solo moments were:

• Watching the light show at Sam’s Town on Christmas Eve with a crowd full of families with young children; I think I was the only solo.
• Dining alone at the Chart House on Christmas night and Firefly on Christmas Eve.  I noticed in both cases that I was the only solo table, and some loneliness crept to the surface.  Most of the time, though, the fish in the aquarium (at the Chart House) or the Fremont Street light show (at Firefly) and the delicious food set in front of me kept me distracted.
• Going to see Human Nature at the Imperial Palace and being seated at a table with a group of couples who were all friends–awkward! (This is the reason I normally avoid shows with table seating when I’m traveling solo.)

But for every lonely, awkward situation I experienced, I had great encounters just striking up conversations with total strangers. . .the guy playing video poker next to me at the Breeze Bar at TI, the young man sitting next to me at the counter at the Hash House, the two guys at the bar at PF Changs–not to mention all the cool Vegas tweeps I met at the Vegas Tweetup at Beso/Eve.  I also met up with some other travel bloggers a couple of times and had lunch with some friends from back home who also happened to be in Las Vegas for Christmas.

I saw the New Year's Eve fireworks behind Caesars from my window at the IP

Honestly, I had so much more fun in Las Vegas alone during the holidays than I would have had if I had stayed home in Vermont with nothing to do.  Of course, I would have preferred not being there quite as long as I was. By Monday, I was pretty much done everything on my list and ready to leave. Unfortunately, my flight home Tuesday night was canceled and I was stuck in Vegas for an extra 4 nights and 3 days.  I haven’t crunched the numbers yet, but off the top of my head, I’m sure I spent at least $600 more than I intended to because of those extra days.  (Jetblue sort of made up for it when they sent me enough True Blue points to cover a free roundtrip flight sometime in the next year.)  But if I had to be stuck somewhere that long, thank God it was a city with so much to offer.

If you’re single and find yourself at loose ends during the holidays, it’s worth considering spending them in Las Vegas.  There’s so much to do to keep busy and have fun.  Immediately before Christmas, hotel prices are dirt cheap. After Christmas, prices rise in anticipation of the busiest night of the year (New Year’s), but I was able to get 3 nights leading up to and including New Year’s Eve at the Imperial Palace for $333 (which was a screaming deal for mid-Strip on those nights).  It wasn’t the Wynn, but it was clean and served its purpose.  I even had a terrific view of the fireworks behind Caesars Palace at midnight on New Year’s Eve.  The bad news?  My camera battery died and I wasn’t able to capture the fireworks on video.  Maybe next year.