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Vegas Visitors Guide

There is a huge variety of hotels and casinos to visit, attractions to see, performances to watch, casinos to gamble in, food to eat, nightclubs to get wild in, rides to ride, drinks to nurse, people to see and be seen by and, if you don't stay up all night, a good night's sleep in a comfortable bed. So, by all means plan your trip and time, but not to the exclusion of opportunities which are going to spontaneously pop up all the time while you're here. Such opportunities are not in anyone's brochure or travel guide—you'll discover them yourself. It's part of the experience—the reason you come.

There are five basic components you will want to consider when planning your trip: When to come, Where to stay, What to do, How to get around and Why eat the food.

When to come. A lot of our guests want to know when the good times are (low season) and when the bad times are (high season) in Vegas. To answer that, it is important to understand how weather and conventions influences tourist-seasons in Vegas. Right now the

Low-season (Summer) falls between mid June and mid September. Prices are low, temperatures are high and lines are short. High-season begins mid September and builds to a raucous crescendo December 31 (New Year's Eve). Prices are high, temperatures are mild, lines are long, and reservations for anything "Vegas" are a must. After a short respite, high season shifts into high gear again the first week of January, and runs in fits of starts and stops until falling to its knees from sheer exhaustion—along with March Madness—about the last week of March. A five day rest and we're off again with several overlapping Las Vegas conventions that form a convergence over the city that finally fills out the calendar June 15th. Get the picture?

In other words, there are no "bad" times in Vegas, there are just temperature variations, with greater or fewer visitors who now have their own opinion as to when it's a "good" time in Vegas or when it's not. And, just for fun, here are the top 10 reasons to visit Las Vegas ...

Where to stay. First, you'll want to find lodging that meets your needs, your desires and your budget. We are going to co-conspire with you here, to help you meet those goals. Being near the major attractions you want to take in is a good place to begin. A hotel on the Las Vegas Strip will put you right in the heart of the action 24/7. But don't let that dissuade you from considering hotels near the strip, away from it or downtown. On the Strip itself there are approximately 40 large hotels for you to choose from. Most of those include over 2,000 rooms each, and some of the larger mega-resorts boast over 4,000 rooms (the MGM Grand has over 5,000 rooms and suites). Some of the more popular (and more expensive) hotels on the Strip include the Wynn, the Venetian Resort Casino , the Bellagio Hotel , Paris Las Vegas , Caesars Palace and the Mandalay Bay. And, some of the more affordable hotel-casinos on the strip include the Riviera Las Vegas and the Imperial Palace Las Vegas . Off the Strip, you will find luxurious accommodations like at the Rio, which is about 1 mile off the Strip, and the Golden Nugget located in the downtown area. For budget-wise shoppers there is the South Strip Travelodge located between MGM Grand and Planet Hollywood, the Ambassador Strip Inn located about two blocks behind the Tropicana Hotel Casino, and for about half the price there are small to mid-sized hotels, hotel-casinos and motels scattered throughout the valley. For dirt-cheap, there's the Wild Wild West Hotel Casino located about one mile behind New York New York Hotel Casino.

Start by getting the lay-of-the-land; examine the Las Vegas Strip Map to get a sense of where things are relative to the strip. From there you can drill-in-on and interactively examine individual hotel street maps, and from there you can interactively go to every other hotel's street maps and/or hotel amenity page. Or, you can select from the list of hotels on the left, organized by location, and from every hotel page you can pull up maps and/or go to any other hotel page to review its pictures, description, amenities, services, travel distances, etc.

There are also many attractions on the strip, including the Strip itself. Among them include seeing the world's largest gold nugget at the Golden Nugget , the Cirque du Soleil performance at the Bellagio, the MGM Grand and at Treasure Island , or King Tut's Tomb replica at the Luxor Hotel Las Vegas , or hear Celine Dion hit her high note at Caesars Palace (she is retiring soon). There are many other shows and events, such as at the Fremont Street Experience every night, the Volcano eruptions at the Mirage, and the Bellagio fountains, which are free to all. We're just scratching the surface here. If you can make a whole day of it, go out to Red Rock Canyon, or Valley of Fire or Mt. Charleston. They're all within driving distance of the strip.

How to get around. The only two modes of transportation that are not going to work are boats and trains. Otherwise, the field is wide open. If you're staying on the strip use the 2-decker busses that run up and down the Strip. Use the monorail if you're going to the Las Vegas Convention Center and your hotel is close to one of its stops. When going off strip, for say over a mile away, take a taxi or limo , rent a car or drive if you brought your own. Don't use public transportation unless you absolutely have to, and have an awful lot of time to waste. In the summer time, don't remain under the Nevada sun for long periods. Anytime of year, don't wander off more than a mile from the strip—those areas are not unsafe, but there's nothing there interesting to see. Never take a walk behind the Stratosphere Tower on its west side. If you're staying downtown, stay within the business district (where all the hotel-casinos are clustered together) and don't wander off, especially at night. If you take a helicopter tour of the strip, do it at night. If you take a tour of Hoover Dam, take the early tour, and don't forget your camera. If you go out to Red Rock Canyon or Valley of Fire, take some sun screen along, regardless of your skin tone, and some bottled water.

Use your common sense and have fun. You are about to have the time of your life!

Why eat the food. Except for the fact that unless you plan to bring your own, you're going to have to eat the food, but Las Vegas has made that easy for you by offering some of the finest restaurants in the world.

Las Vegas restaurants are one of the most enjoyable aspects of the Vegas experience. Give yourself plenty of time to enjoy the various restaurants located on and off of the Strip. Almost every hotel has a variety of different restaurants. The Venetian, for example, has world class restaurants like the "Delmonico Steakhouse" and the "Royal Star." The Bellagio dining options include the "Le Cirque" and "Michael Mina." The Mandalay Bay Resort has the "House of Blues" and the "Chocolate Swan." There are also many buffets and other good deals to be found, which makes this town a surprisingly affordable place to eat.