Gluten Free dining in Las Vegas.

The first hurdle on any holiday for me is the plane. I don't order Gluten Free meals on planes, it's terrible. I just pack sandwiches, fruit, snacks and eat what I can. I do pack food with me when I travel some biscuits and cakes that I can have with coffee while I am out and about, then I'll go shopping on arrival to purchase what I need for the rest of my stay. However, it's not often I travel and stay in a Hotel and have to eat out for every meal and I was disappointed to discover that Las Vegas is not at all Gluten Free friendly.

I was unable to locate any stores on the Strip that sold Gluten Free food other than food stuff that is Gluten Free anyway. 

I wish I'd packed Gluten Free bread rolls and bread so I could've swopped a burger or a sandwich out in a restaurant or had something to dip in my soup. I never tend to feel full after a meal when the GF alternative is just to remove the bread/pasta etc from the dish.

We did find a Gluten Free restaurant and had an amazing dinner one evening. We were comped the meal, but at $250 it wasn't somewhere we were going back to. 

For breakfast I had fresh fruit and greek yogurt and I could have Gluten Free toast. Although the quality and varied from place to place. The first bowl was $5, the plate was $15.

I was surrounded by donuts, pastries and pancakes. 

I was tempted, but if I eat wheat it's a trip tp A&E for me. A friend in the UK recommend a cafe that sold GF donuts and we tracked it down. When we arrived it was $10 a donut, it was also vegan, it looked greasy and there were only 2 left, they were small and looked unappetising, so I declined.

I stuck to ice cream/sorbet. Mind you, that was $10 a scoop.

I can always find something to eat when I'm out, it's just my choice is limited and I have to read labels and it takes me longer to choose. I had a chicken salad pot for Christmas lunch and we sat in the street outside New York New York to eat it. I had chips and a milkshake for my dinner. There weren't many places open other than fast food joints which limited my options to eat.

With the lack of food options available to me, it was pretty much the focus of the holiday for me. Mind you most times away from the home unless I take a pack lunch are difficult for me. I can't just grab a sandwich or a sausage roll on the go. A cake in a coffee shop. Yes, I'm aware supermarkets sell Gluten Free sandwiches, but the stock is low and sold out early on. Want something after 10am and good luck finding it. I end up eating a lot of cold food away from the home. Salads, home made sandwiches, fruit as snacks, sushi, or chocolate, chips, crisps etc. Which I did a lot of in Las Vegas.

Do you have dietary needs that make it difficult to eat out, especially when you're on holiday?

Things I needed in Las Vegas and Things I didn't need.

 I read two books on holiday, they stayed at the airport when finished. One in Vegas, the other at Heathrow on our return, these books came home with me.

It was an easy pack for Las Vegas, like for like with the weather, but without the rain. One jumper, a cardigan and gloves and scarves not worn as the sun shone and there was no wind, so warmer in the day.

This food went to Vegas and came back with me. One packet of crackers was enjoyed on the plane with some cheese. I don't order Gluten Free meals on planes, it's terrible. I just pack sandwiches, fruit, snacks and eat what I can. 

I did pack more than this and had biscuits and cakes that I could have with coffee when we were out and about as Las Vegas is not at all Gluten Free friendly.

What I should've packed though was Gluten Free bread and rolls so I could've swopped a burger or a sandwich out in a restaurant or had something to dip in my soup. I never tend to feel full after a meal when the GF alternative is just to remove the bread/pasta etc from the dish.

I desperately needed a travel kettle. The hotel rooms on the Strip don't have tea/coffee making facilities and few have fridges these days. They want you to spend your money on the casino floor. It meant we had to leave the room for every meal and every drink.

We did have access to an ice bucket and we bought soft drinks, beer and snacks from a local supermarket. I didn't have a decent cup of tea all week and I'm sick to death of Starbucks, which was $7 a go.

I also wished I'd packed a small pair of scissors in my suitcase. I usually have a pocket penknife in there but I'd used an old suitcase and hadn't transferred it over.

The Paris hotel, Las Vegas.

Peter and I have had many trips to Las Vegas. I think it is probably my most favourite place in the world to visit. I'd live there if we could. From the architecture to the lifestyle, endless buffets, entertainment. Las Vegas is truly a 24/7 city built to entertain from the moment you step off the airplane.

Work on the Paris Las Vegas started in 1997 and took two years to complete. Originally designed to be a full size replica of the Eiffel Tower itself, it had to be scaled back to 1:2 scale due to interference with nearby McCarran Airport.

It opened in 1999, is 164.4ms tall. The hotel has 33 floors and 2916 rooms. We've stayed in many of the hotels on and off the Las Vegas Strip. We opted to stay in the Paris hotel on this visit, as we'd not long returned from Paris, France and had dinner up the actual Eiffel Tower itself.

 View from our hotel room on the 5th floor.

Our hotel room

Like all hotels in Las Vegas, each one contains a casino, restaurants and shopping experiences, usually located on 3 different floors. In the casinos there are no doors, no windows and no clocks, so no way of knowing if it's day time or night time.

The ceilings are decorated with outdoors scenes and the interior is designed to look like you're in a street, outdoors, including real trees.

Since moving to Dubai in 2014, I've been fascinated by the speed at which they construct buildings here and have been following the progress of several construction projects and exploring some of the more unusual building designs.

I'm featuring these buildings in Dubai and from a around the world for My Sunday Photo for 2018.

Week 158 Dubai Bluewater Islands and Dubai Eye. Man made island a 210m high Big Wheel
Week 159 Dubai Dubai Marina - Reflections
Week 160 Dubai Dubai Frame. A window between the Old and New Dubai and a 150m high glass floor.

Week 161 Dubai Dubai Marina 3 years apart.

Week 162 Dubai Dubai Water Canal Bridge Construction and reconfiguration of roads

Week 163 Dubai New Metro Line for Expo 2020
Week 164 Arizona and Nevada Hoover Dam 2002 - 2010
Week 165 Dubai Dubai Opera House What a difference a year makes
Week 166 Dubai Unfinished buildings. The Pentominium
Week 167 Coventry Mixing the old and the new. Coventry Catherdral
Week 168 Dubai New Dubai Metro Station 
Week 169 Dubai The new extension of the Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa 
Week 170 Dubai Hotel fire After the Address fire 
Week 171 Dubai Unusual designs The Opus Building
Week 172 Dubai District Cooling. Keeping the desert cool.
Week 173 Dubai Can I visit the Burj Al Arab
Week 174 Dubai The Almas Tower
Week 175 Dubai The Cayan Tower
Week 176 Toronto The CN Tower

7 top tips for visiting Vegas

Las Vegas is my favourite place in the whole wide world. I first visited in 2002 when my cousin got married downtown and we returned in 2003, 2007 with the 4 boys, 2008 and our last trip in 2010 just 2 months before we moved to South Africa.

We've seen lots of changes over the years, new hotels, old hotels demolished and the airport seems to be closer to the strip every time we visit. Our longest stops have been for a week, the others have been a couple of days on our way either from Phoenix, Arizona or San Francisco, California on a drive that has taken us through Death Valley, Reno and up to Oregon to visit family and back along the West Coast and down to Hollywood.

This trip was just the 2 of us, the year before we brought MIL with us and stayed at The Monte Carlo, flying in to Phoenix and a drive past the Grand Canyon. Every trip to Vegas has involved a drive out to Hoover Dam, where we'd watched with interest the building of the new road bridge. And on this trip we ventured up into Utah, where you can't buy alcohol on a Sunday and they looked at us rather strangely when we tried to buy beer in a supermarket.

We stayed at The Parisian, one of the many themed hotels on the strip. All the rooms seem to have 2 Queen beds and the views have never disappointed us. There is plenty of shopping in every hotel and numerous malls to explore. The pool is not on the ground floor.

Inside

On the evening news we heard that the new bridge had been opened that day by President Obama, so the following morning we decided to take a drive over the new bridge, the walls were very high and I was disappointed not to get a view, but then on our drive back I saw heads bobbing around the other side of the wall, so we took the first exit and found a car park. There were no signs but we climbed up some steps leading from the car park and found ourselves on a walk way. There were a few families milling around and we discovered that the walkway wasn't open to the general public just yet, only to family and friends of people who had worked on the project so we made friends with an engineer and his family and while hubby learnt about how the bridge was built I took literally 100's of photo's

Straddling the time zones between Nevada and Arizona

Every year we've visited we've noted how the water levels are continuously dropping and it's actually rather alarming to see.

The view of the new bridge from the old which is now closed to traffic.

The following day we drove into Utah, there was no agenda, we'd never been there before so heading off we just decided to stop and look at whatever took our fancy. We drove through Zion National Park, well part of it anyway before stopping off at Cathedral Valley on our way back to the hotel.

  

The highlight of our holiday was free tickets to see Cher, live at Caesars Palace which happened to be the same day as our 8th wedding anniversary. She was an amazing performer entering the stage from a giant birdcage top right of the photo, belting out 'If I could turn back time'

My 7 Top Tips for visiting Vegas

• search for the best hotel deals online and be prepared to move hotels during your stay to maximise keeping the costs down. We had 2 nights at the Bellagio in 2003 for £60 per night for the two of us.
• you'll need a car in Vegas as it's at least 1 mile from the front of each hotel and it gets very hot as don't forget it is built in the middle of a desert, so don't be afraid to stay off the strip and travel in and out.
• It's possible to drive out to the Grand Canyon and back in a day, calling in at Hoover Dam on the way back. Death Valley is also possible there and back in  a day.
• Take plenty of water with you when driving, you'll really push the limits of your air con driving in temps of 45c+ below sea level, you may need it to refill the water in the radiator as well as plenty to drink, although you'll find plenty of fuel and rest stops on your route.
• Despite what you hear, kids are very welcome in Vegas and there is plenty for them to do. Just remember anyone under 21 can only walk through the casino floors in the hotel they are staying in to get to the hotel rooms if entering the casino from the front door and not the car park. The carpets are marked, very wide and it's a straight route through.
• If you do decide to gamble, only take with you what you can afford to lose, leave your wallet and cards in the hotel safe. When you're gambling, even at the slot machines, you will be offered free alcoholic drinks.
• For the best views of the strip visit the Voodoo Lounge at The Rio hotel, it's the pink and purple building off the strip, visit before 10pm and they'll let you pop up to catch the views, be warned you do climb a spiral stair case that goes round the building. Another must is the Stratosphere at the end of the strip. Enjoy a buffet, take in a show and visit the top of the tower and if you're feeling brave enough go on the Big Shot, where they'll strap you in your seat and shoot you 160ft in the air at 45mph. After the ride I fully understood the use of the word Awesome.

When was the last time you got all your kids together?

At the start of our expat journey in 2011 we moved with children 4 & 5 to South Africa, leaving child 1 & 3 in the UK and child 2 in Germany.

Having just returned from a trip to the UK, I was unable to get all 5 of the children together at the same time.

Having spent the evening trawling the physical photo albums and on the laptop, I found 3 pictures of all the children together. Sadly there isn't a single picture of us with the kids, other than me and the kids or hubby and the kids (who else would take the picture?)

This picture was taken in 2002, the one and only time we all holidayed together in France. 

2003 on the Malvern Hills

Christmas 2004 Malvern

The last time we had all the children together was in 2007.

Since then we've had different combinations of kids together but not all at the same time. 

Now all the children live in the UK, leaving just hubby and I here together. In December for the first time in 7 years we will all be in the same country at the same time, what's the chance of us all getting together?

A week's holiday in Dubai

Well my first impressions of Dubai wasn't great, but the place has grown on me as the week has gone on.

We're staying at a hotel on the beach front, the Sheraton Jumeriah, with breakfast included and full use of the pool and sun loungers. There are a couple of public free beaches, where you bring your own towels and chairs or for 5 AED per visit you can use the hotels towels and sun loungers.

 The Metro is easy to use and for 16 AED per day you can travel the full length of the city including to and from the airport and all the buses from the station to the beach or inland, be prepared to stand for most of the journey during peak times. You can pick up a bus and metro route map from the terminals, which also names the attractions and hotels so you know where to get on and off. Standing in the rear carriage gives you excellent views of the City.

The Emirates Mall and Dubai Mall can be reached directly from the Metro, although be prepared for a bit of a walk. There is free wifi in Dubai Mall, although the wifi in Emirates Mall requires you have a cell number to have a message sent to, to receive your password.

There are plenty of tours available. The best value is a boat taxi across the river in Old Dubai at 1 AED each way. For a longer trip or a trip round Palm Island out in the Gulf prices start from 150 AED.

The only tour I took part in was the visit to 'at the top' at the Burj Khalifa, The World's tallest tower. I was however disappointed to discover that visitors only travel to 452ms of the 828m height on floor 124 of 160, still the views of Dubai were pretty amazing. It cost 150 AED if you book a time slot in advance or 400 AED if you turn up without a booking and there is space.

Prices appear to be in general cheaper than the UK, but the cost of eating and drinking is far more expensive than South Africa and alcohol is restricted mainly to hotels, there are non alcoholic beers/champagne/cocktails on the menu.

I particularly enjoyed a visit to the old part of Dubai, reached by the Metro and a short walk and a river trip. I felt very comfortable in the Souq, I managed to get out without buying a Pashmina or any real 'fake' goods as they described the phones and handbags they had for sale.

I also spent a lot of time on foot, walking around Dubai Marina. For me living in South Africa I loved the freedom to be out and about, find free wifi and use public transport. I did however get the feeling that I was indoors all the time, I was reminded of Las Vegas and the 'falseness' of the malls and hotels there. The outdoors, indoors.