Las Vegas is not a real place, exactly, and that is entirely the point. It is a fantasy built in the desert — a strip of casino-hotels recreating Venice, Paris, ancient Egypt, and New York, lit up against the Mojave night, dedicated to the proposition that you should spend money and not think too hard about it. It is excessive, artificial, and frequently exhausting, and it is also enormous fun if you arrive in the right spirit. Beyond the neon, it is the gateway to some of the most spectacular landscape in America — the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Zion, and the red-rock deserts are all within reach. Take it for what it is, and Vegas delivers.
We stayed near the airport in Las Vegas and took a cab into the strip. There’s so much colour, energy and bizarre things going on that it takes some time to orientate – building replicas, light music shows, Casinos with encased wildlife, live acts, street performers – its all there. It’s worth seeing at least once. We made the mistake of walking back to our hotel from the strip. No one does that. Get a cab if you’re in the same position.
If you do tire of the excitement of the strip, Las Vegas is a good base to go further afield – the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon are reachable and places we’ve very enjoyed.
A Little Background
The valley’s springs — which gave Las Vegas its name, Spanish for “the meadows” — sustained the Southern Paiute people for centuries; they had lived in the region for roughly a thousand years, farming with spring-fed irrigation and travelling the desert. Their first contact with Europeans came in the 1820s and 1830s along the Old Spanish Trail.
The modern city is almost entirely a twentieth-century creation. Mormon missionaries built a fort at the springs in 1855; the railway arrived in 1905 and the town was founded; and the legalisation of gambling in Nevada in 1931, combined with the workers building the nearby Hoover Dam, set the city on its course. The Strip’s casino-resort era took off in the 1940s and 1950s — with no small involvement from organised crime — and the city has reinvented itself in waves ever since, from the Rat Pack years to the corporate mega-resorts and the entertainment-and-dining destination it markets itself as today.
What to See and Do
The Strip — Las Vegas Boulevard — is the attraction, a roughly seven-kilometre run of themed mega-resorts that is best experienced simply by walking it after dark, when the whole thing is lit up. Many of the spectacles are free: the Bellagio fountains, which dance to music on the lake out front, are the most beloved, and the resorts compete with ever more elaborate lobbies, gardens, and shows. The casinos themselves are open around the clock; the headline residencies, magic shows, Cirque du Soleil productions, and concerts are a major part of the modern Vegas draw, as is the dining, which now includes outposts of many of the world’s best restaurants.
Older Las Vegas survives downtown on Fremont Street, under a vast LED canopy — cheaper, brasher, and to some tastes more fun than the polished Strip. But the real revelation for many visitors is what lies beyond the city. Red Rock Canyon, a stunning desert conservation area of red sandstone cliffs, is barely 30 minutes away. Hoover Dam, the colossal 1930s engineering feat on the Colorado River, is about 45 minutes out. And the Grand Canyon — the West Rim with its glass Skywalk closer at around two and a half hours, the more spectacular South Rim a longer day trip — is the great excursion, the reason many people base themselves in Vegas at all.
Getting There
Harry Reid International Airport sits right beside the Strip, just a few minutes from the hotels — about as convenient as a major airport gets. On the Strip itself you can walk between resorts (though the distances are deceptively large) or use the monorail, trams, and rideshares. For the day trips into the desert and to the Grand Canyon, you will want either an organised tour or a hire car; the landscapes beyond the city are the part that genuinely repays the effort.
Weather
Las Vegas has a hot desert climate. Spring (March–May) and autumn (September–November) are the ideal times to visit — warm, dry, and comfortable. Summers are punishingly hot, regularly above 40°C, which makes the outdoor day trips hard going and keeps everyone in the air-conditioning. Winters are mild and pleasant by day, cool at night. Aim for spring or autumn, especially if the Grand Canyon and Red Rock are on your list.
The Bottom Line
Vegas hotel pricing is its own strange art: rooms can be remarkably cheap midweek and expensive at weekends, and the unavoidable nightly “resort fee” is added on top — mid-range rooms might run US$120–300 before fees, swinging wildly with the calendar. Two to three days is plenty for most people; the city is intense and a little goes a long way. Budget for the day trips, drink plenty of water, set a limit at the tables, and Las Vegas is one of the most purely entertaining places in the country.
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