Shiny Things
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Sure! You're gonna have a blast.
I'm assuming you're talking about this North Mariposa Ave, sorta between Hollywood and Silver Lake. Honestly I wouldn't walk around there after dark, but mostly because there just isn't a lot around there - you'll want to use Uber or Lyft to get anywhere.
The good news, though, is that you're right between two fun parts of town.
Silver Lake is a five-minute drive east of you, and there's an outpost of Erewhon right there. Erewhon is a terrifyingly fancy grocery store, extremely popular with celebrities, and famous (notorious?) for its eighteen-dollar smoothies (try the Coconut Cloud).
And West Hollywood is twenty minutes' drive in the other direction; it's got phenomenal bars and restaurants.
Get the SIM cards from a T-Mobile store if there's one nearby - they're especially helpful to visitors and new arrivals - otherwise AT&T is fine. I've never heard of Airalo.
Instead of or in addition to the Walk of Fame, can I suggest cramming in a studio tour on the 13th or the 14th? The Warner Bros studio tour in Burbank is an absolute blast (especially if you like Friends or Harry Potter. Ever wanted to sit on the Central Perk couch and shoot a Friends scene? Now you can!); the Paramount studio tour in Hollywood is a bit more tailored to old people but it's got a ton of Hollywood history.
After dinner, go tie one on in Koreatown; or try to catch the late show at The Comedy Store; or if you wanna be fancy, go celebrity-spotting at the bar at Chateau Marmont or the Edition WeHo.
This isn't gonna be a tremendously exciting drive, just so you know - it's basically an hour of suburbia, and then three hours of desert. The easy way is to just blast along interstate 15 all the way, maybe with a stop in Barstow to stretch your legs and get a coffee. If you go this way, it's about four hours' drive.
But what I think you're doing (which is a good idea) is to take Interstate 15 to Barstow, then Interstate 40 to the Mojave Desert, then north through Kelso and Cima to reconnect to Interstate 15. The advantage is that you get some reasonably interesting scenery through the Mojave.
I'm honestly not sure how you spend six hours on that drive, though, unless you're doing something like taking Interstate 40 all the way to Kingman, then doubling back along US-93 so that you go over the Hoover Dam? (That might actually be a great idea, TBH, especially if you wanna see the Hoover Dam up close.)
Can I recommend walking the Strip instead? Fremont Street is kinda fun, but the Strip is where all the glitz is - and also, you're right there on the Strip already!
From the Excalibur, you can take the monorail south to the Mandalay Bay (which has its own aquarium), or you can walk north to the Park MGM (which has an Eataly and a Roy Choi outpost) and from there you can take a tram to the Aria and through the Crystals shops to the Bellagio (which is where those fountains are. You definitely know the Bellagio fountains).
The Excalibur is... ehh, it's fine, but I wouldn't pick it myself, especially if I was with a crowd of young adults. Each one of MGM's Strip properties is carefully targeted to a particular audience, and the Excalibur is laser-targeted at families with young kids, so it may not be your scene. The MGM Grand might be more your style, if your budget stretches that far; or Caesars Palace, if you're not especially loyal to MGM.
As for buffets and things to do in Vegas... tragically, a lot of the really great Las Vegas buffets got eviscerated by covid, but the good news is that a few of the great ones are still around. A few of my faves...
- Bacchanal, at Caesar's Palace, is the standard-setter for Strip buffets. It's pricey, but it has absolutely everything. Come hungry.
- Wicked Spoon at the Cosmopolitan isn't quite as stacked as Caesars, but it has phenomenal desserts;
- If you've got vegetarians or vegans in your group, the Wynn buffet will rock their socks right off. Here's a neat thing to know: Steve Wynn (owner of the Wynn resorts) is a vegan, and every restaurant in the Wynn and the Encore has a secret vegetarian/vegan menu that's often better than the regular menu. You've gotta ask for it, but it's there.
Also: dress in layers. Vegas is in the desert, and it's going to be cold outside after dark: low-single-digits Celsius, close to freezing. But inside the casinos you'll be toasty warm.
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