Las Vegas is the largest city in the state of Nevada. Nicknamed Sin City and the Entertainment Capital of the World, it is situated in the midst of the southern Nevada desert landscape. The city has giant mega-casino hotels, decorated with lavish care and attention to detail to create a fantasy-like atmosphere. The casinos often have names and themes that evoke romance, mystery, and far-away destinations.

When to Go to Las Vegas

Vegas gets a bad rap for its brutally hot and dry summers, but the climate here is actually pretty wonderful most of the year, with an average of 300 days of sunshine annually. Even during the warmer months (June-September), it’s entirely bearable.

The highs hover around 100°F with no humidity, and virtually every interior inch of this city is air-conditioned. Just drink lots of water, and we mean lots and lots.

The rest of the year, expect still more sun and only the occasional rainy days (the average annual rainfall is 4 inches) and wonderfully pleasant temps, with highs in the 70s and 80s in spring and fall, and in the upper 50s and 60s in winter.

Freezing temperatures are rare, but desert nights can get chilly between late fall and early spring, so bring a sweater or windbreaker for your evening strolls beneath the neon-bathed skies.

Top Attractions

Spectacular Spectaculars
Will it be strange, cavorting Blue Men, or a sophisticated Cirque du Soleil acrobatic extravaganza? An afternoon comedy show, or Broadway light (90-minute cut-downs of the original New York theater productions)? A classic feather revue, or nouveau burlesque? Maybe you’re just in the mood for a plain-old lounge show. Vegas has all the over-the-top razzle-dazzle you could ever hope for.

Gut-busting Buffets
Buffets in Las Vegas—those tributes to extravagance and excess—are an event in and of themselves. There are still plenty of cheapies-but-goodies around, especially if you’re willing to cast farther afield and explore some of the local casinos. But now that the city’s become renowned as a gourmet food place, those ubiquitous buffets have followed suit. Loosen those belts, and get ready to pig out.

Rolling the Dice
Never mind those buffets, swimming pools, spas, traffic jams, dancing girls (and boys, and water), wedding chapels, circus acts, and cavorting sea life. It’s Vegas, baby, and you’re here to gamble.

The Corner of Flamingo Road & the Strip
Casino-hopping is the best all-around way to explore this colorful, fanciful city, and the junction of Flamingo and Las Vegas Boulevard puts you right in the center of the action. Within a short walk are the Bellagio, with its dramatic fountains, gardens, and art museum; Paris, with its half-scale replica of the Eiffel Tower; and the Roman-theme Caesars Palace. It’s an easy walk north to reach some of the Strip’s other must-sees, including the Venetian and Wynn Las Vegas.

Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden & Dolphin Habitat
Of the handful of intriguing up-close animal encounters in Vegas, this lushly landscaped enclosure displays creatures you’ll see in few places on the planet, from snow leopards to white tigers. Watching the bottle-nosed dolphins cavort about 2.5-million gallons of water is great fun, too.

The Stratosphere Thrill Rides
If you’re an adrenaline fiend, you can’t miss the incredibly scary (and fun) rides perched atop the 112-floor Stratosphere Tower. The Big Shot fires you 160 feet up the Stratosphere needle, and both the X Scream and Insanity dangle you over the edge of the Stratosphere tower. These aren’t for the faint of heart.

The Studio Walk at MGM Grand
In a city that continues to dazzle foodies with its dozens of celebrity-helmed restaurants, this indoor promenade at MGM Grand has become arguably America’s most impressive “Restaurant Row.” Bring your appetite (and your charge cards) and eat your heart out at such culinary shrines as Joël Robuchon, Nobhill, Emeril’s, Diego, and Shibuya—to name but a few.

Forum Shops at Caesars
Opened in 1992, this chichi shopping and dining mall modeled after a Roman streetscape forever changed the retail and culinary scene in Vegas. In addition to stellar restaurants like BOA Prime Grill and Spago, this snazzy space contains dozens of fine stores, including Gucci, Fendi, Dolce & Gabbana, and Bulgari.

Legendary Nightlife
Skyhigh bars. Burlesque. Wild dance clubs. Sophisticated lounges. Strip clubs. Beefy man shows. You can’t go to Vegas and not at least check out the spectacle. So pick your scene, grab a martini, and join the 24-hour party.

Over-the-Top Pools
The tanning booth is now a ubiquitous feature in the any-town strip mall, but it still can’t compare with the old-fashioned poolside sun-soak—especially if that soak is in Las Vegas, land of toned bodies, cocktails, cabanas, swaying palms, man-made beaches, and swim-up blackjack.

Hoover Dam
If you have time for just one trip outside of town, make it to this spectacular structure created during the 1930s—it’s considered one of the seven wonders of the industrial world. Rising 726 feet above the Colorado River, the dam affords tremendous views, and tours into its interior are available. You can combine a trip here with a tour of the nearby body of water that the dam created, Lake Mead.

Getting Around Las Vegas

If you’re exploring the Strip or Downtown, it’s best just to park your car (it’s free at most casinos) and walk. To get from one end of the Strip to the other, you might want to take a cab or the monorail. For other points in the city and beyond, use a car. Public bus transportation exists (on Citizens Area Transit, or CAT) but is geared more to locals than visitors. Both CAT buses and trolleys ply the Strip but can take forever in traffic—the fare on both is $2. Cabs are relatively expensive ($3.20 initial fare plus $2 per mile and $0.20 per 33 seconds) but can be very convenient and worthwhile, especially if a few of you are splitting a fare. A good rule of thumb is this: if you think you’ll be operating beyond the Strip during your stay, consider a rental car. Otherwise, just plan on using cabs. Look at it this way: the few dollars you may save by renting a car rather than taking taxis is more than made up for in navigation and parking aggravation.

The Monorail runs from the MGM Grand to Harrah’s before making a jog out to the Convention Center and terminating at the Sahara. Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s a sightseeing tour; the train runs along the ugly backsides of the resorts. It’s a little pricy at $5 each way, but the ride makes sense on weekends when even the Strip’s back streets are full of traffic.

Free Things To Do

Yes, Vegas brims with cash, glitz, and glamour, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find freebies or romp around the Strip and the downtown area without spending a dime.

Fremont Street Experience. The downtown casinos’ answer to the spectacle of the Strip is the 90-foot-high arced canopy that covers the entire street. Every hour between sunset and midnight it comes alive as Viva Vision—an integrated video, graphics, and music show. Several different programs run each night at the top of the hour and contribute to a festive outside-in communal atmosphere that contrasts with the Strip’s every-man-for-himself ethic. It’s like a quarter-mile-long music video with a free neck-ache thrown in. But the price is right, and the kids will love it.

Watch a free show. You can easily spend $100 or more on even mediocre seats at a typical Vegas concert or big-name production, but several casinos offer fabulous, eye-catching extravaganzas that won’t cost you a penny. There’s the erupting volcano at the Mirage, which lights up after dark each night. At Treasure Island, watch the over-the-top Sirens of TI. And stand along the sidewalk by the lagoon at Bellagio to observe the graceful Fountains of Bellagio.

The New Old Downtown. The downtown casinos make no attempt to compete with the opulence of the Strip, but Fremont and connecting streets have a charm all their own. For cheapskate gamblers, browse through the Gamblers Bookstore and then take advantage of the free slot pulls and roulette spins offered at many of the downtown casinos. You can also view many of the Neon Museum’s signs along Fremont as well. Head over to the emerging Downtown Arts District for some free gallery tours and special events.

Lion Habitat at the MGM Grand. Of the handful of free animal spectaculars around town, don’t miss walking through the tunnel at MGM Grand, where beautiful lions saunter around.

Cruising the Strip. You haven’t done Vegas if you haven’t been caught—either intentionally or unwittingly—in the slow-mo weekend-night crawl of traffic down the sexy midsection of Las Vegas Boulevard (aka the Strip). You can handle the experience like a been-there local, or you can play the delighted tourist: relaxed, windows down, your heart and mind ready to engage in silly banter with the carload of players in the convertible one lane over. We suggest the latter, at least once. Just be mindful of all the pedestrians, who can crowd the crosswalks like belligerent cattle and are just as dazed as you are by the cacophony.

Go Casino-hopping. Casino-hopping is a classic way to see Las Vegas resorts, with a little shopping, gambling, and noshing along the way—and, of course, it’s always good fun simply to ogle passersby. Because nearly all the most intriguing properties are right on the Strip, you don’t need to map out where to go; just pop into the casinos you want to see. Keep in mind that you want to wear comfortable shoes (no heels!) to cover the considerable distances between properties, and use those handy indoor walkways that connect many of the casinos along the Strip to save time and trouble.

Las Vegas Nightlife

Las Vegas’s nightlife has never been hotter, spicier, or, for that matter, more competitive. Fueled by the “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” advertisements (read: “All your sins here expunged completely once you pay your credit card bill”), nightlife impresarios on the Strip are dipping into their vast pockets in order to create over-the-top experiences where party-mad Visigoths—plus, well, you and me-can live out some wild fantasies. The number of high-profile nightclubs, trendy lounges, and sizzling strip bars continue to grow, each attempting to trump the other in order to attract not just high rollers, but A-list celebrities and the publicity that surrounds them. Gambling? Why bother when you can lounge beside the pool by day and bellow at the moon by night while dancing half-clad at a cool club until noon the following day (when it’s back into the pool you go)?

In the late 1990s, once the Vegas mandarins decided that the “family experience” just wasn’t happening, Sin City nightlife got truly sinful again, drawing raves from “clubbers” worldwide. A wave of large dance clubs, such as the Luxor’s Ra, opened their doors, followed by a trendy batch of cozier ultralounges—lounges with dance floors—like the MGM Grand’s Tabú.

The game of one-upmanship has continued—recent additions that have kept the city hopping include the sensational Tryst at the Wynn, the equally sensational Tao at the Venetian, and the ever-rocking Rainbow Bar and Grill. What’s more, bawdy ’50s-era burlesque lounges have made a comeback with a gaggle of clubs, including Ivan Kane’s bump-and-grind Forty Deuce at Mandalay Bay and the ultrapopular Pussycat Dolls Lounge at Caesars, now dedicated to the art of striptease.

Few cities on earth match Vegas in its dedication to upping the nightlife ante. So with all these choices, no one—not even the Visigoths—have an excuse for not having fun, whether it’s at a chic lounge, a dance club, or even a strip joint.