9 Amazing things to do in Las Vegas
Las Vegas is one of the most AMAZING places on the planet. It does however, have one major downside. It is massive! If you go there with the thought “I’ll just hang out and see whatever I want” you are quickly going to be overwhelmed with things that you want to see.
So, I am going to try and break down some of the must sees. This list is primarily for the first or second time visitor. So if you are an old hat at Las Vegas please feel free to add some more places in the comments.
Bellagio Fountains
It’s hard to believe that the fountains have only been around since 1998. They seem to have been around nearly forever, but I guess amidst the ever changing landscape of the Las Vegas night a decade seems like forever.
The fountains run every half hour and they are free show. You have to walk up the Strip and when you see a bunch of people congregating outside the Bellagio, you know the fountains are only a few minutes away.The fountain display is choreographed to various pieces of music. Current pieces include:
* “The Ecstasy of Gold” by Ennio Morricone, part of his score for the Sergio Leone film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
* All That Jazz (from Chicago)
* Con Te Partirò (Time to Say Goodbye) – Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli
* Fly Me To The Moon – Frank Sinatra
* God Bless The USA – Lee Greenwood
* Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus – Mormon Tabernacle Choir
* Big Spender (from Sweet Charity)
* Hoe-Down – Aaron Copland
* Luck Be A Lady (from Guys & Dolls) – Frank Sinatra
* My Heart Will Go On – Celine Dion
* One (from A Chorus Line)
* Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini – Rachmaninov
* Singin’ in the Rain – Gene Kelly
* The Star Spangled Banner – Whitney Houston
* Viva Las Vegas – Elvis Presley
* Your Song – Elton John
* This Kiss – Faith Hill
* Santa Baby – Madonna
(source Wikipedia )
Fremont Street
To me this is the closest you will get these days to old Vegas, in fact I think that the next Monster Casino on the Strip should be dedicated to just that Old Vegas. But, I digress. Fremont Street is everything that the Strip is not. It is small (compared to the Strip), friendly and inviting. Not to mention the fact that it has one of the best light show anywhere on the planet. Did I mention that the light show is free??
Caesar Palace
I don’t know what it is about Caesar’s but I just love this place. The architecture is unreal, I have never been to Rome but I imagine the buildings are fairly true to the source. To be honest, Caesars does not offer anything you can’t get a half dozen other places in Las Vegas. It has great shopping, amazing restaurants, a HUGE casino, and stunning designs. But, there is something about the place that just feels right… You have to experience it I guess.
The Strip
Ok this is kind of a no brainer. I mean you go to Las Vegas and you see the Strip right? Not necessarily. The last time I was in Vegas I never made it out on the Strip, and what I mean by the Strip is outside on the street. There is something that is so unreal about the Strip that you just have to experience it. There are million dollar cars being paraded around, there are beautiful people everywhere, unbelievable neon lights blazing everywhere. Admittedly, it is not all good. The crowds can be overwhelming and the guys handing out stripper cards every 20 feet are a real pain in the neck. But,there is no place else that you can see the Fountains or the Treasure Island Sirens or the Volcano (that is finally back at the Mirage).
A Cirque
I think for a lot of people the Cirque Du Soleil’s have become synonymous with Las Vegas. If you have not seen one, please take the time to check them out. Yes, they are an investment as they are not cheap entertainment but I think that they are worth every penny. I did a post a while back on the Cirques but I think that I will have to update it as it is quite old now and there are more of them.
Stratosphere
Ok the fact that the Stratosphere stands out in a city like Las Vegas should be reason enough to visit it, but if you need more. How about this:
- Rides galore including The Bigshot (checkout a video here),X-Scream, Insanity just to name a few.
- Dining at “Top of the World” – eating in a revolving restaurant 800 feet above the Strip (enough said)
- Bite- I don’t know, but topless vampires just kind of works for me
Buffet
Mmmm food! Yes the days of eating for free in Las Vegas are gone, but you can still find some jaw dropping buffets to satisfy your snacking needs. A few places to mark on your list are The Rio, Stratoshpere and Ballys’ to name a few. I started a series on buffets a while back that should be revisited I suppose.
Gamble
Ok I know this one will not sit well with everyone but… Las Vegas is about enjoying yourself and any which way you slice it Gambling is fun. I won’t bore you with a rant on how you should be budgeting your spending money, if you don’t know that by now…
Dining
I have specifically kept this separate from buffets as there is no comparison between a nice restaurant and a buffet. There are so many amazing restaurants in Las Vegas that this post would never end. I did make a suggestion on steak house on this posting.
So that is it. Do you have any to add? Please make a comment if you do.
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Things to do in Vegas, that don’t include gambling.
It still amazes me at the number of people who think Vegas is all about gambling and nothing else. So I thought I would put a list of activities that you can do that does not include gambling. In fact, most of these are completely free.
- Sit and enjoy a Sports book. To me this is a lot like enjoying a beer at the local pub. Just a lot more TV’s
- Eat, honestly there are more restaurants here than you could possibly visit.
- Slots tournament, believe it or not most of them are free.
- Imax, the Imax theatres in Vegas have some of the more unique shows.
- Spend some time on the strip and just soak in the environment.
- Fremont Street experience, starting every night at about 6pm(sometimes 7) the light show starts. If you haven’t seen it yet make sure you do.
- See a Show, there is no place else in the world where you can see so many top quality performers.
- Do a Dinner Show; there are a lot of great dinner shows like the “Tournament of Kings” at the Excalibur.
- Bellagio Fountain, pretty much every half hour the free water show is going off. On the weekends sometimes it’s every 15 minutes.
- Gallery of fine art in Bellagio.
- Eiffel Tower in The Paris, ride an elevator to the top of the tower.
- Watch the Volcano at the Mirage, every hour on the hour after sunset.
- Treasure Island Sirens Show, nightly at 7:00 p.m., 8:30 p.m., 10:00 p.m., and 11:30 p.m.
- Big Shot at the Stratosphere , umm it’s kinda beyond words.
- Roller Coaster at the New York New York.
- Gondola Ride at Venetian.
- Auto Collection at the Imperial Palace.
- See a ridiculously large Golden Nugget at the Golden Nugget.
- Gaming Classes at the Hilton, free classes on how to gamble.
- Visit a pool, just about every hotel has one.
- Spa (I have heard Treasure Island hs an outstanding one.)
- Liberace Museum, 5 minutes of the strip. Take a cab.
- Shopping, between Caesar’s Palace and The Aladdin there is about 1,000,000 sq ft of shopping.
- Siegfried & Roy’s Royal White Tigers at the Mirage
- Lake of Dreams at Wynn. 140 foot mountain covered with 1500 trees, waterfall and three-acre lake.
- Shark Reef, Mandalay Bay
- See “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition” at the Tropicana
- Watch dragons and magicians battle in the moat of The Excalibur.
- Feeling the need to go to a Circus, there is free one at Circus Circus
- Watch the fountains come to life in the forum shops at Caesar’s Palace.
- Get married.
- Go to a nightclub. Few examples are VooDoo lounge, Coyote Ugly’s, and Pure.
- Watch a major sporting event like boxing or UFC.
- Visit the world’s largest atrium at the Luxor
- Flamingo garden at the Flamingo.
- Madame Toseau’s wax museum at the Venetian.
Of course, this is only a taste but as anyone can see there are plenty of activities in Vegas that do not involve gambling of any sort. Las Vegas is truly a complete entertainment destination. Did I miss any? Add them in the comments.
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