Our coverage is focused on helping you find the  Best Places to Visit in Las Vegas so that you can have your best Vegas vacation ever.  We review, casinos, resorts, gambling, best shows, best restaurants, best shopping, free things to see and do, the area's best daytrips and Las Vegas Travel Facts.  The information on our pages is arranged hierarchically - starting with the best and then getting to the rest.

Las Vegas is a city that is like no other place on earth. Whether you fly in or drive ,  you will eventually descend into a valley and encounter what appears to be a mirage: a city in the heart of a vast desert, where almost two-million residents have gathered to watch the evolution of one of the world’s true fantasy-vacation destinations. If you first see Las Vegas at night, you will be stunned.  You will experiece one of the most colorful spectacles on earth, thanks to miles of neon,  a billion watts of architectural lighting and, of course, the  Hoover Dam power plant.  Who knew there was that much neon anywhere?

The first time you see "The Strip, you might mimic Tom Sawyer the first time he saw a "real" city. There on the left, is that an enormous, black, pyramid next to a sprawling medieval castle? Across from it, is that the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and the New York City skyline? But New York City appears to be opposite an incredibly large, emerald-green hotel, which is just down the street from the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe.  But that is across the street from a hotel on one of the Italian Lakes and doesn’t that look like Venice, just to the north? 

According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, approximately forty million travelers visited the city in 2006. Most visitors are from the U.S. and Southern Californians appear magnetically attracted to Las Vegas, as they accounted for approximately twenty-seven percent of the visitors. Twelve percent of the city’s guests were from international locations.

              

In 2006, $170 billion was wagered in Nevada on games of chance, with the Strip seeing the majority of the action. It is expected that gaming revenues will show continued growth, as  poker fever sweeps the world and visitor's love of slot machines continues to gain momentum.  Although over eighty percent of the people who visit Las Vegas gamble during their vacation, it would be a mistake to label the Strip solely as a destination for playing games of chance.

While Las Vegas may have been single-threaded in the past, over the last twenty years, the city has matured into a destination that is capable of filling the needs of many different types of vacationers. That’s a good thing because many of the couples visiting Vegas often are made up of one gambler and one non-gambler. In today’s Las Vegas, the non-gambler will find fabulous shopping, great golf, luxurious spa’s, terrific shows and top-tier restaurants.

Fifty percent of the visitors to Las Vegas shop and, believe us, shopping in Vegas is compelling.  Stores range from the expensive to the discount and from the unique to the commonplace. Many travelers are attracted to the expensive shops at Wynn’s, the Bellagio and other hotels, if for no other reason than to  ogle the eye candy (the jewelry is to die for, unless you want to pick up a Ferrari or Maserati at the Wynn Esplanade). We cover the best places to shop in Las Vegas in a separate section of our Guide.

One of the interesting, recent changes in Las Vegas is that the trappings of luxury now loom large everywhere.   Many visitors come to town to be pampered in ways that they simply can’t find at home or at many resorts. The high-end casino-resorts have expanded their offerings to include luxury lodging options, dedicated concierge service, gourmet-quality restaurants, top-drawer shopping, art museums filled with painting by the Masters, extravagant stage shows (think KA at the MGM Grand or La Reve at Wynn's) and championship-level sporting events.

With each passing year, a new resort-casino opens that captures the public’s imagination. This year the place to be on the strip is Wynn’s, where luxury is ubiquitous.   At the same time, several of the off-Strip casinos have become trendy, especially the Palms, which caters to players of professional sports, Hollywood stars and the groupies that both attract.

As noted previously, our coverage of the Best Places to Visit in Las Vegas includes the best casinos, best resorts, gambling, best shows, best restaurants, best shopping, best free things to see and do, the area's best daytrips and Las Vegas Travel Facts.

Click any arc of the circle below for our page containing that information. The segment shown in gold indicates the section of the guide you are viewing.

When you want a rest from Vegas, consider our recommendations for day trips, including helicopter tours of the Grand Canyon.

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