| When
to Travel to Las Vegas:
Best: spring will have the desert in
bloom and cooler temperatures or anytime if you plan to stay indoors.
Worst: July/Aug, crowded and too hot
to trot.
USA
Tours
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tour operators offering tours to the USA can be found in our listings
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Length
of stay not incl. flights:
Minimum worthwhile: a couple of days
to absorb the spectacular exteriors, see some shows - free or not,
or throw your savings down the pan.
Recommended: 5 days for sights, gambling
and shows at a relaxed pace, with 2 days exploring the desert surroundings.
Arts
and Culture:
Museums and Galleries: Imperial
Palace Auto Museum [famous vehicles]; Liberace Museum and Elvis-A-Rama
[bigtime memorabilia].
Cuisine:
a great, varied choice of international foodstuffs throughout the
city, from Thai
to French to Fusion to classic Southwestern American.
Casino food varies from reasonable get stuffed buffets [e.g the
Rio's Carnival World Buffet offers Thai, Mexican and sushi] to full
on mega expensive swank for the high rollers.
Nightlife:
Gambling: everywhere! You need to be 18 to
get into a casino and 21 to actually bet [as with drinking alcohol].
Live Music: lounge lizards will love
the extensive choice of big name performers, but not the prices.
Vegas
is no longer a cheap place to eat fine food or see a great show
for peanuts. Prices are similar to any big city.
Magic: as well
as making your money disappear the world's best acts put on spectacular
magic shows of all kinds here.
Circus:
colouful, incredible stunts from Cirque du Soleil etcetc.
Activities
apart from gambling:
Sightseeing
the amazing exteriors by day and night. e.g. Luxor's pyramid and
sphinx [picture above right of interior], New York New York [with
added roller coaster, picture above left], the Venetian's beautifully
crafted Venice, and so on, though many have disappointingly mundane
slot machine interiors.
Shows: pay shows, a
stunning collection to satisfy all tastes, rock to schlock, magic
to tragic, 3D to kiddy. Only the best and easy to access, but premium
prices these days.
Free shows: the
dancing Bellagio fountains, Treasure Island's pirate spectacular,
erupting volcanoes and more. Crowded of course, but fun and free.
Don't miss downtown Vegas' free Fremont Street Experience.
Marriage: getting
hitched here is fast and could be entertaining. There are many chapels
and ceremonies to choose from, many Elvis themed.
Golf: there
are 33 golf courses within 10 miles of The Strip.
Hiking: at
Red Rock Canyon, Lake Mead and Toiyabe Forest, or head for the big
ones, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce...
|
|
Why
Travel to Las Vegas?
It's the gambling mecca of the world with the biggest, wackiest
casinos and brightest lights you've ever seen, the epitome of glitz.
You can experience a taste of Europe on the cheap courtesy of multi-million
dollar replicas, see some free shows, and it's the quickest
place to get married if you're American.
Vegas offers great cuisine, excellent assorted nightlife and varied
shows from world class performers, though prices are no longer low.
And it's much safer than you might imagine.
Downside:
- If you don't like gambling, glitz or sidewalks full of waddling
mid-west blobs, then you'll hate it - outdoor folk should stay away.
- The Strip is overloaded with gambling oriented places and very
short of useful little cool drink or coffee establishments as you
stagger, dehydrated, from sight to sight.
Sights:
***Casinos look absolutely magnificent at
night as free shows, bright lights, lasers, parks and water features
combine with architectural themes to dazzle the potential punters.
Some
of the best casino themes along The Strip:
The Paris [French sights]; Bellagio
[Tuscan village and lake]; Caesar's Palace
[Roman splendour]; The Venetian [Venice
sights including the Doge's Palace, the Grand Canal and gondolas];
Circus Circus [performances in the
big top]
***The
Fremont Street Experience:
Part futuristic mall, part urban theater, after dark the canopy
of the 5 block street becomes a vast, overhead audio-visual feast
powered by a 540,000 watt sound system and 12.5 million LEDs, showing
different, specially made events - and all for free.
Also:
The
Stratosphere Tower along with the world's highest roller coaster.
The world's largest public wine collection of 65,000 bottles at
the Rio.
Short
Trips:
Hoover Dam* a
big dam is needed to power Las Vegas and the 1935 build date gives
this power supply a great Art Deco style;
30 miles from Vegas.
Lake Mead National Recreation Area**
a monster lake for all manner of watersports; the Valley
of Fire State Park north of the lake - strange fiery rock shapes
as the sun goes down. It's great for hikes or a scenic drives.
Toiyabe National Forest*
north west of the city, with cooler temperatures, trees and hiking
trails.
Red Rock Canyon*
a popular hiking and biking area, 20 miles from Vegas.
Grand Canyon***
five hours drive away.
Zion
Canyon***
adjacent to the Grand one but glorious, cool and a lot easier to
hike.
A little advice...
Take
comfortable shoes, you'll be doing a lot of walking. The frontage
of the Bellagio alone takes five minutes to walk.
Learn the gambling ropes beforehand. e.g. Blackjack dealers don't
respond to verbal commands, only hand signals.
Stay in the centre of the Strip [aka Las Vegas Boulevard] if possible,
it's a long street. |
