Vegas

[14-7]

Just booked a week in Las Vegas with SWMBO so was wondering on any must do things. Neither of us are gamblers so will probably only spend a short amount of time in any casinos.

We will probably hire a car for a few days so was wondering what must do things there are in the area or anything that isn't covered by the brochures?

Cheers

[Pferdestarke]

You could drive to Red Rock Canyon. Some impressive scenery out there without the distance and expense of Grand Canyon.

Try Sushi Roku at Caesar's Palace, the buffet at any of the major five casinos and an American breakfast at one of the many diners.

[chrismcg1]

You will get loads of tips for things to do but one thing to AVOID like the plague is Criss Angel. Terrible.

[Fas1975]

Hoover dam
Grand canyon
Take in a show (cannot recommend La Reve enough)
The hotels in themselves are attractions, just put on your walking shoes and walk
You WILL get drawn into the casinos!

I miss it

[forsure]

The Imperial Palace Hotel has an impressive collection of classic cars.
Print a ticket for free admission here:

http://autocollections.com/

[realjv]

Penn and Teller
Don't think I need to say anything else.

[tuffer]

Wear comfortable shoes, you will end up walking miles on the strip without realising it.
Hoover Dam is way better than I expected it to be and well worth a trip, the new bridge alongside it affords some great views. Grand Canyon is a must along with Death Valley and Red Rock Canyon (would make an excellent tarmac rally stage ).
We stayed at the Cosmopolitan and that has some great restaurants but then all the hotels do so make sure you do some research.

[BertB]

forsure said:

The Imperial Palace Hotel has an impressive collection of classic cars.
Print a ticket for free admission here:

http://autocollections.com/

This is worth a visit, wish I'd known about the free ticket.

The free shows on the strip are good, Mirage volcano, Bellagio Fountains, Sirens of TI. Watch your pockets in the crowds though.

Le Reve is awesome,
Phantom Of the Opera is pretty good.

Red rock Canyon is very good given its so close, we did a scoot city tour out to it.

Death Valley isn't far away if you fancy that.

The Pepper Mill is good for 24 hour breakfast.

Ever fired a machine gun? You can in Vegas... there is the Gun Store and the Las Vegas shooting range to choose from

http://thegunstorelasvegas.com/

http://www.lasvegasgunrange.net/

[Kenty]

Drive a single seat indi car at the Las Vegas speedway. Search for Mario Andretti driving school. Expensive but great experience.
Drive north to Utah, Bryce canyon and/or Zion canyon stop over and walk both. Great time.

[rednotdead]

+1 for Le Reve

Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay if you like fish...

Go up the Eiffel Tower, great views

Red Rock Canyon and/or the Grand Canyon

Hoover Dam

Freemont Street at night

The Watch shops in Caesars Palace and the Venetian

Ferrari shop in Wynn

[adsvx220]

Take your missus to the Eiffel tower restaurant in the Paris hotel that overlooks the bellagio fountains Very nice food, nice setting, and great view.

I miss Vegas!

Adam

[Truckosaurus]

Pferdestarke said:

You could drive to Red Rock Canyon. Some impressive scenery out there without the distance and expense of Grand Canyon.

You can sign up to free guided hikes via the Visitors Centre, it snowed on the one I went on. :-)

I also did a walk along the old railroad track from Lake Mead to the Hoover Dam.

My other top tip is to visit the Neon Boneyard, you had to pre-book to do the daily tour back in January but they are working on a new visitor centre so it will soon be open all-day.

[Truckosaurus]

forsure said:

The Imperial Palace Hotel has an impressive collection of classic cars.
Print a ticket for free admission here:

http://autocollections.com/

Indeed. I seem to be the only person who turned up with the free ticket, everyone else was charged to get in.

A bit heavy on Rolls-Royces but worth a stroll around.

[C997]

Truckosaurus said:

Indeed. I seem to be the only person who turned up with the free ticket, everyone else was charged to get in.

A bit heavy on Rolls-Royces but worth a stroll around.

The Autocollection is well worth doing as is this http://exoticsracing.com/

I did it last week. Drove the Mclaren, 458, 430 Scud, Superleggera, LP560 and R8. Fantastic day!

As for stuff outside Vegas, Mount Charleston is nice, the drive around Lake Mead to the Valley of Fire is good as well.

[blueheron]

There's 2 outlet malls, one at the north of the strip, one at the south. Both accessible by bus

Bellagio flower display. It was themed on Holland when I went in May this year.

Can recommend The Gun Store too

[XB70]

blueheron said:

There's 2 outlet malls, one at the north of the strip, one at the south. Both accessible by bus

Bellagio flower display. It was themed on Holland when I went in May this year.

Can recommend The Gun Store too

Another one here for The Gun Store.

Rented yellow Corvette convertible + mates in rented Mustang convertible, fire a range of weapons, get very very odd looks from the wife: happy days

[XB70]

Depending on the willingness to forgo sleep, one thing I wanted to do but ran out of time was take the rental up ET Highway (http://www.vegas.com/attractions/outside_lasvegas/extraterrestrial.html) and stop off at the 'postbox' on one of the roads leading to Groom Lake (Area 51).

Would have made a cool long exposure photo at night for the "when I was younger" wall :-)

A good read is here: http://vagabond3.com/dont-panic-visiting-area-51/

Option would be to wear these while driving the V8 around (http://www.escapade.co.uk/masks-sale/halloween-horror-masks/alien-mask-roswell-style.asp) for a bit of fun.

Next time....

[aero93]

Things that I did that I would recommend in Vegas..

The Gun store - www.thegunstorelasvegas.com
Grand Canyon by Helicopter
Eat at "Fix" restaurant - Bellagio - Booking needed
Hired a Hummer for the day - Cant remember the name but rental place just past the Wynn Encore hotel
Parachute jump - www.skydivelasvegas.com
Watch "O" at the Bellagio
Walked up to the Stratosphere hotel - www.stratospherehotel.com

Didn't see it myself even though we stayed at the Wynn but LeReve is meant to be amazing - www.wynnlasvegas.com/Shows/LeReve

[danzltiu]

Best trip ever. Sundance helicopters from the airport out to the Canyon taking in the Hoover dam.
O at Bellagio
Mystere at TI
La Reve at Wynn (get a seat reasonably far back to take it all in)
Phanton at venetian although ends soon
Jersey boys I saw at Venetian but is now at Paris (best show great entertainment)
RA at MGM. All these shows I really enjoyed and I am not a show person .
Its a great place only been back a week and planning next trip.

[Mastodon2]

You've got to do the Gun Store - I used a .44 Magnum, a Remington 870 shotgun (with slug ammo!), a G36 assault rifle and a Glock 17. Expensive, brief, but so, so fun.

Grand Canyon - we flew out there by plane and took a short bus tour between two spots. We got to Guano point, the second of the two stops on the trip at about 7:45am - we were the only people there apart from a couple of staff in the visitor centre. Absolutely, stunningly, mindblowingly breathtaking. The sheer gargantuan nature of this place will blow you away.

Visit all the major hotels - Vegas is a great place to explore on foot, well, the strip area anyway, but there is loads to see in all of them. Make sure you see the fountains at the Bellagio, from midday to midnight every day, they play a song + water show on the hour and ever 15 minutes thereafter.

Imperial Palace car collection - get a ticket online, or pay the $7 or whatever, there are some cool cars in here, a lot of well used race cars including a few Le Mans racer things, 3 stunning Porsche turbos, a couple of Ford RS200s, Metro 6R4 that competed in Pikes Peak a few times and a mint condition XJ220. The Palace itself is a total dump, I wouldn't be surprised if it's been bulldozed within 5 years, they were shutting the big bar on the groundfloor when I was there in May.

Bodies at the Luxor is great, lots of plastinated, deconstructed bodies to look at. Sharks at the Mandalay Bay is great too, they have some really big sharks in there, a big crocodile, an Amazon giants tank complete with Arapaimas, it's a stunning place. Best holiday I've ever been on by miles, I miss it so much.

I could go on all day about how great Vegas is, I will definitely go back but not for a week again. I think when I go back to America, I'll be landing in Vegas, doing a night or two there then renting a Corvette and driving to LA or San Francisco.