Sightseeing

While most cities have particular entertainment districts for tourists to visit among other attractions, Las Vegas is one giant entertainment district. Las Vegas Boulevard (the central attraction for this 24-hour city) runs through the heart of Downtown, in the north of the city, and turns into the Strip, in the south. The city is divided into two halves - Downtown and the Strip. Downtown (also known as ‘Glitter Gulch’ for the bright neon signs and millions of flashing lights) is the living embodiment of old Las Vegas. Here, the vintage-style hotels, casinos, stage shows and strip joints are joined by the new and popular Fremont Street Experience Mall. Further south, the Strip is home to the latest, biggest and most ambitious casinos, many of which verge on being mini theme parks. Casinos are obviously Las Vegas’ biggest draw card and the biggest and the best.

Passes:There are no tourist passes currently available in Las Vegas.

Key Attractions:

Wynn Las Vegas

Erected on the spot where once stood the legendary Desert Inn, Las Vegas’ newest landmark is the glamorous Wynn Las Vegas. The latest property developed by Vegas casino kingpin Steve Wynn opened its doors on April 28, 2005. Sheathed in coppery bronze reflecting the desert sun, this 42-story, 192-acre, US$ 2.7billion megaresort boasts a 10,000-sq-meter (110,000 sq ft) casino, 2,700 guest rooms, an 18 hole professionally designed golf course, a fine art gallery and Las Vegas’ only fully authorized Ferrari Maserati dealership with 10,000 square foot showroom. The centerpiece of the resort is a 46m (150ft) high mountain with a five-story waterfall cascading into a man-made lake featuring The Lake of Dreams, a multi-media spectacular in an environmental theater setting.

The Wynn also features a US$70m, 2,000 seat domed showroom with a circular stage, the first of its kind in the city and the home of Le Reve, the latest production from Franco Dragone, of Cirque du Soleil fame and the mastermind behind three of Las Vegas’ most popular shows. The resort will also boast close to 5,000 rooms with the scheduled completion of Encore, a 2,000-suite tower, in 2008.

Bellagio

The Bellagio has quickly become one of Las Vegas’ best-known and most visited hotel-casinos. Cashing in on the recent trend towards Euro-opulence, the Bellagio sits on its own four-hectare (10-acre) ‘oasis’, featuring a mock northern Italian village on the shore, behind which looms the bulking mass of the large hotel. T

he hotel offers 3,200 rooms and suites (see Hotels), 17 restaurants, six lounges, botanical gardens and six Mediterranean pool settings. Its 9,000-sq-meter (100,000-sq-ft) casino features over 2,000 slot machines and electronic games and over 100 table games. The Bellagio also has a fine art gallery, which hosts contemporary art exhibits, as well as a 9,000-sq-meter (100,000 sq ft) glass-encased shopping mall. A popular attraction is the dancing water show from the Bellagio’s world-famous fountains every 30 minutes 1500-2000 Mon-Fri (starts at 1200 Sat-Sun) and every 15 minutes from 2000 -2400.

Freemont Street and The Freemont Street Experience

Located Downtown, near the Plaza Hotel, Freemont Street is a favorite nightly flocking ground for the city’s many tourists. Ten casinos, over 60 restaurants and countless bars and lounges offer Old Las Vegas style enticement to visitors. Peddlers sell silver jewelry and various crafts from their pushcart stalls by day and especially at night, when Freemont Street comes alive with The Freemont Street Experience.

Perched 90 feet above Freemont Street is a hi-tech overhead light and sound show stretching for five blocks over 1400ft composed of one of the world’s largest and longest LED screens. The Experience is an ideal way to take in the ‘real’ Las Vegas and see some of her older and well-known neon signs, for example Glitter Gulch’s Vegas Vickie and the equally recognizable Vegas Vic. Freemont Street is open 24 hours with shows starting at 2030 and from then run hourly between 2100 and 2400. A particular hit for those traveling with families.

MGM Grand

Since its completion in 1993, the momentous MGM Grand has held the title of largest hotel in the world, with over 5,005 rooms. Its enormous Grand Garden Arena has also become one of the key venues for boxing matches in the USA. The casino area alone is 15,300 sq meters (170,000 sq ft). Other features include 15 restaurants, a coffee shop, a food court with five lounges, two showrooms, two wedding chapels, five pools including a flowing river pool, a lion habitat, a dance club and shopping complex. The MGM Grand is also a main terminal station for the Las Vegas Monorail.

Caesars Palace

An old denizen of the Strip, Caesars Palace possesses more Las Vegas character than many of its newer neighbors. It sits in a lavish Roman setting, perhaps the historical theme best suited to this city of excess, with Roman columns, grand staircases, manicured shrubbery, imported marble statuary and luxuriant fountains. Its two main casinos, measuring a total of 12,050 sq meters (129,750 sq ft), feature all the regular games, as well as an ‘empire’ of slot machines that feature prizes such as motorcycles and convertible cars, and jackpots that have reached more than US$21 million. Recent additions to the Caesars Palace property include the newly constructed Colosseum, featuring The Celine Dion Theater, a high-limit slot salon The Palace Court Slot Casino and the all-suites Augustus Tower, slated to open late summer 2005, which will see the resort rooming increase to 3,340 by the end of this year.

Mirage

Of all the mega-casinos that line the Strip, the Mirage provides the biggest outdoor spectacle. The evening sees queues of people taking in the artificial volcano that erupts every 15 minutes from 1900-2400. The setting is completed by an artificial lagoon with 54 artificial waterfalls that flow down the side of the volcano. As visitors make their way inside, they enter an indoor tropical rainforest, a dolphin habitat and a saltwater tropical aquarium. The hotel also boasts a pool and spa, eight restaurants, four lounge bar areas, a white tiger habitat, its famed Shadow Creek golf course and the requisite casino, which features over 2,000 slot machines.

Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino

This US$2 billion addition to Las Vegas is yet another complex to cash in on a European theme. To some, it was a tragedy to see the demolition of the historic Sands Hotel and Casino to make way for this new hotel but no effort has been spared in creating the Venetian. Much of the complex features actual canals, on which gondolas carry visitors up and down the waterways. The 10,800-sq-meter (120,000-sq-ft) casino, featuring 2,500 slot machines and 122 table games, sits behind a replica of the Doge’s Palace. The complex’s 18 restaurants, four pools and a fitness center cater to the visitor’s non-gambling whims.

Las Vegas Natural History Museum

The Las Vegas Natural History Museum brings the natural world of local Nevada wildlife to life, as well as ancient dinosaurs, marine life and more, through exhibits, displays and live exhibitions. The museum’s dinosaur exhibit features mechanical dinosaurs, including a 10-meter (35ft) -long Tyrannosaurus Rex, as well as the exhibits detailing the evolution of life from fish to dinosaurs. The Wild Nevada Room explores the surprising diversity of life from the state’s own Mojave Desert. Replicas include rattlesnake, bighorn sheep, desert tortoises and burrowing rodents. The museum also has live animals on display, such as a gopher snake, a tarantula, a boa constrictor and scorpions.

Further Distractions:

Liberace Museum

Constantly built, rebuilt and renovated, Las Vegas is covered in the kind of up-to-the-minute polish of a city constructed yesterday. The Liberace Museum, considered one of the best museums in Las Vegas, offers a view of the city’s cultural history by focusing on one of its most infamous entertainers. Liberace became an extremely prominent musician in America and nowhere were his dazzling (some would say gaudy) costumes and stage sets more at home than in Las Vegas. The museum is divided into two galleries. The first houses 18 of his 39 pianos (including his own Rhinestone-covered Baldwin piano and a rare, early English grand piano from 1788) as well as his car collection, including his one-of-a-kind Rolls Royce covered with mirror tiles etched with galloping horses. The second gallery houses costumes, stage props and candelabra. Proceeds from the not-for-profit museum support scholarships for the performing arts. The museum is wheelchair accessible.

The Gallery Featuring The Wynn Collection

Situated inside of the newly opened Wynn Las Vegas, The Gallery featuring The Wynn Collection houses an impressive collection of 16th - 20th century European and American paintings featuring canvases from Steve and Elaine Wynn’s personal collection of fine art by such artists as Gauguin, van Gogh, Monet and Picasso. Audio tours of the collection are available and The Gallery Shop carries exhibition-related items as well as prints and posters of the master artworks featured in The Gallery.

Old Las Vegas Mormon State Historic Park

This decidedly low-key attraction may not have neon signs and an army of one-armed bandits but it does lend a sense of what Las Vegas was like before gambling stole its soul. Located north of Downtown, Old Las Vegas Mormon State Historic Park is the site of the original adobe fort used by the first Mormon settlers in the Las Vegas Valley. Built by missionaries from Salt Lake City in 1885, the fort was abandoned just a year later, due to the harsh conditions. A shed is the only remaining original building but the rest of the site was recently reconstructed. Rangers are on hand to provide interpretation and information. The museum on the property is closed from mid-Oct to mid-May