Las Vegas
Las Vegas is the desert city known for fun and excitement, entertainment and high rollers. Las Vegas is a great place to visit all year round and offers so much to see and do. With the Grand Canyon just a short helicopter ride away and the hills and mountains that surround Las Vegas offering all types of opportunities including hiking, camping, boating and skiing.
The Strip is where all the action is located in Las Vegas and it runs 2½ miles along the central section of Las Vegas Boulevard, through the city from northeast to southwest. It is lined with huge entertainment Palaces, luxury hotels and fine dining and it is also where you will find the home to all performance venues. A walk along the Strip at night is quite impressive with the city being illuminated by endless neon signs.
Here is an overview of some of the Strip hotels! The Venetian Hotel has not only a themed shopping arcade built to resemble the city of Venice, complete with canals and gondoliers. The hotel also features main attractions found in Venice including the Rialto Bridge and the Bridge of Sighs. The Mirage Hotel is easy to distinguish as it has a Volcano, which erupts at regular intervals in front of the hotel. At night, the glowing red fire and explosions shooting out of the Volcano are some of the most unique sites visible from the sidewalk. Inside the resort you will find Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat where you can see a large array of exotic animals, including white lions and tigers.
At the southwest end of the Strip, you will find Mandalay Bay Resort near the Luxor hotel. One of the key highlights of this complex is the Shark Reef Aquarium. The massive 1,300,000 gallon tank holds a wide variety of sharks, fish, rays, reptiles, green sea turtles and even a Komodo dragon. The Luxor Hotel has been designed in an ancient Egyptian theme, shaped like a Pyramid with a Sphinx proudly gazing out over the street. The Luxor, like all the major resorts, offers a wide variety of restaurants and shopping opportunities.
Other hotels also worth visiting include The New York-New York Hotel in Las Vegas sitting across the street from both the MGM Grand Hotel and the Excalibur Resort Hotel. Visually stunning, the hotel is designed to appear like New York's skyline, complete with the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. It has a huge roller coaster, called the Big Apple Coaster, which circles in and around the hotel. The Excalibur Hotel is decorated in medieval character, the hotel features some wild architecture, complete with turrets. Situated in the middle of the Strip is the famous Caesar's Palace. This huge complex is complete with every imaginable entertainment option. The hotel is closely associated with shows held in its huge concert venue known as 'The Colosseum'. Top performers perform here for extended periods and shows are often booked out well in advance.
One of the most recognisable hotels is the Paris Las Vegas with its scale model of the Eiffel Tower and a recreation of the Paris Opera House. Forty six stories above the city streets, the Eiffel Tower Experience is an observation deck, which has incredible 360 degree views. At the romantic Eiffel Tower Restaurant, you can enjoy great views over the Strip and across to the fountains of Bellagio. The Bellagio Resort Las Vegas is a luxury hotel complex, with a variety of attractions, including the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, the Conservatory and Botanical Gardens and some of the finest restaurants in Las Vegas. It also houses one of the most impressive dancing fountains, which perform a beautiful display of water set to music.
The pedestrian only area of Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas is only a few kms from the Strip. This five block section is covered with a canopy of LED lights that illuminate the sky in a spectacle of different colours and designs. Every night a fantastic music and visual show takes place overhead known as the Fremont Street Experience. Here you will see street performers and special entertainment acts.
One of the newest adrenaline fuelled attractions in Las Vegas is the Fly LINQ zipline. Take in the views from 12 stories above the LINQ promenade on a zipline that begins near Las Vegas Boulevard and ends at the High Roller. Position yourself in a seated position then enjoy the ride with others on ziplines next to you. The High Roller Ferris Wheel is the largest Observation Wheel in the world, topping out at an impressive 550 feet. A single rotation takes 30 minutes. This will give you plenty of time to soak up the outstanding views over the Strip and surrounding area, especially at night.
The Mob Museum or the National Museum of Organised Crime and Law Enforcement is a truly unique experience. Housed in a 1933 Neoclassical building, formerly the US Post Office and Courthouse, it was one of the locations for the famous Kefauver Committee hearings in 1950, which revealed some ugly truths about organised crime in Las Vegas and across the US. The museum tells the unvarnished history of the Mob in America through engaging, interactive displays and video clips.
The Stratosphere Tower is an unmistakable site on the Las Vegas skyline. The tower rises up 1,149 feet and at the very top is the Skypod. From various levels of the Skypod, you will find a variety of thrill rides, including the SkyJump, Big Shot, X Scream and Insanity. The Stratosphere Tower claims to be the tallest freestanding Observation Tower in the USA.
Madame Tussaud's in Las Vegas is near the escalators leading up to the Venetian Hotel on the Strip. Come see your favourite stars preserved forever in wax including figures like Elvis, Bradley Cooper and Sofia Vergara right though to musical acts like Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus.
If time prevails then just outside the city there are some spectacular landscapes including gorges, red rocks, mountains and desert scenery including the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam, two of the biggest attractions in the surrounding area. To see some spectacular red rock scenery head to Red Rock Canyon for views out over the desert and mountains.