The city of Las Vegas is seen as the most unique city in the world, there is no other place like it and it is the city of the show. The name itself, in the mind of a human being, conjures a collection of images: it means fun, excitement, bright lights, entertainment, mega-sized hotels, and casinos. Besides gambling, Las Vegas has other things to see and do. The city is seen as the Great American Playground and here we can add ways of enjoying Las Vegas.
The Surroundings
The famous “Strip” or Las Vegas Boulevard is considered the American Dream. The Strip is the central boulevard of Las Vegas and the main road to the city’s best sights, gambling, hotels, and shopping centers. The eight-mile (13 km) stretch is featured with neon signs and luminous and dancing fountains, in other words, the Strip delivers sensory fascination.
The Strip is themed with hotel-resorts, where each of them has its own interesting design and architectural elements. You can navigate from Egypt (Luxor Hotel & Casino) to New York (New York-New York Hotel & Casino) from Paris (Paris Las Vegas Hotel) to Venice ( The Venetian Las Vegas), all of them within a few blocks.
Besides the Strip, some of you might be interested more of the outside city environments, like The Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, which is less than 20 miles (32 km) away from the Strip. The hiking trails are more than 30 miles (48 km) and the place offers a 13 mile (21 km) of a panoramic drive. You can also enjoy a horseback riding, those who love the thrill of adventure can climb the rocks, others can enjoy a picnic at picnic areas and ride the bike. The Red Rock Canyon offers a visitors center with rooms for exhibition and a bookstore.
About 35 miles (56 km) west of Las Vegas, you can find Mount Charleston, otherwise known as Spring Mountains National Recreation Area. It is a popular destination for the summer months, offering cool mountain breezes and moderate temperatures.
Northeast of Las Vegas, about an hour drive, is the Valley of Fire State Park. It is the largest state park in Nevada. You can hike, place a camp for camping and enjoy a picnic. In summer, the days can have extremely high temperatures, from 100+ degrees F up to 120 degrees F (38+ degrees C up to 49 degrees C). During winter days, the temperatures can vary between 75 degrees F and freezing (24 degrees C), while during the months of fall and spring the temperatures are mild and pleasant.
Southeast of Las Vegas, in a short drive you can check out the Hoover Dam. It is one of the Top 10 Construction Achievements of the 20th Century. In 2010, Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge was completed, offering spectacular views to those who visit it. There is one neat fact of the bridge, visitors can go from Nevada to Arizona by crossing the bridge. Two tours are available for visitors, one unique tour where you choose the locations you want to visit and another tour where you can see the whole dam, inside and outside.
Inside the City
The city offers large resorts and there is a wide variety of pampering yourself with the spa-services that are available. Women and men can enjoy massages, getting styling services, while women can get the usual facials, manicures, and pedicures. All spa services are open to the general public.
On the Strip, there are fountains in front of the Bellagio resort. Every 15-30 minutes between 3 pm and 12 am (depending on day and weather conditions), these fountains become “dancing fountains”. The water shoots to heights of up to 24 stories and it is choreographed with music.
Something similar is the volcano from the Mirage Hotel, which erupts every night from dusk till midnight every hour, depending on the weather.
Every day, every hour starting from 11 am, the Fall of Atlantis is emulated by 9-foot-tall animatronic statues, while at Caesar’s Palance, at the Forum shopping area a 20-foot dragon is animated.
Las Vegas offers plenty of gaming and gambling opportunities, where you don’t have to connect to an online casino. Since you are in the city of gambling you can check out the casino areas of the Strip. If you don’t want to gamble, you can play other games as well. At Circus Circus, the Adventuredome is a family-oriented roller coaster rides, you can also play golf at a miniature golf area and play arcade games. There are also less ordinary games, like a KISS-themes mini golf course, a Pinball Hall of Fame featuring over 150 vintage pinball machines, all of them still playable and there is a number of thrill rides atop the Stratosphere Tower.
Maybe you have a fantasy of driving an incredible sports car. There are businesses where you can “upgrade” your car into a NASCAR-style car or even drive a stock one as well. You can also play with a heavy construction machine by spending the afternoon driving a bulldozer, excavating digging sites, stacking the tires or playing “bucket basketball”.
Las Vegas features a number of museums, botanical gardens, and zoological exhibits. The ones that stick out from the ordinary are the Neon Museum and the Mob Museum. Both of them celebrate the city of Las Vegas from very distinct points of view by displaying artifacts of older technologies and pictures from earlier days of the city. Other worth looking venues are the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, the National Atomic Testing Museum and the Auto Collection at the Quad hotel.
Every hotel, resort, and casino in Las Vegas offers musical entertainment and some kind of production. In almost any given time, everything from international headlines, magic shows, and tribute bands can be found. Recommended house productions show may be one of the Cirque du Soleil and Mystere. A more of a Vegas type of show would be Bally’s Jubilee!.
Mentioned before, Las Vegas is the city of gambling. A tip for The Las Vegas Experience is that many casinos offer “classes” of popular table games, like Blackjack and Craps. Attending these classes you will learn a tip or two about gambling games.