Things To Do In Las Vegas

Sat, Jun 08, 2013

• The free Fountain Show in front of the Bellagio shoots off every 30 minutes from 3 pm to 7 pm and then every 15 minutes until midnight. (The routines often vary from one show to the next.) Wait until after to dark to go see this attraction. The shows are more frequent and the fountain lights, which are not very visible before sunset, add to effect of the routines.
• The free Volcano Fountain in front of the Mirage errupts every 15 minutes after dark until midnight. 
   
• The free Sirens of TI in front of Treasure Island at 7, 8:30, 10, and 11:30 pm is a rather stupid show that they came up with to replace the Pirate Battle.
• Also at the Venetian are the gondola rides. There are actually two different rides, both featuring serenading gondoliers. One outside in front of the resort and one inside through the Grand Canal Shoppes. Inside rides are given from 10 am to 10:30 pm (until 11:30 Friday and Saturday) and outside rides are from 11 am to 7 pm. $12.50 a person and same-day reservations are required. (Details are available at the information desk at the top of the up escalator just inside the casino's main entrance.)
   
• The Eiffel Tower observation deck at the Paris offers a great view of the Strip and a unique way to see the Bellagio fountain shows after dark. Operates from 10 am to midnight with a $9 fee. Tickets are available at booths both inside the casino and outside the Strip entrance to the casino. There's also a (expensive) restaurant in the tower. (The locations of the ticket booths and elevator are shown on the Paris diagram on the Diagrams page.)
   
• If you're a shopper, or going with one, check out the Forum Shops attached to Caesars Palace. There is an animated statue show every hour on the hour from 10 am to 11 pm in the first rotunda and one in the fourth rotunda near the large aquarium. (The locations of the rotundas are shown on the Caesars Palace/Forum Shops diagram on the Diagrams page.) The attractions and most of the shops are on the second level. They have circular escalators that take you up from the Strip-level entrance. Not surprisingly, the layout and strategic positioning of benches, etc. forces you to walk past all the shops on the first level to get to the escalators, and then go a round-about way past even more shops to get to the first rotunda.
   
• If you're an art lover, or going with one, check out the Gallery of Fine Art at the Bellagio which routinely features works by van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse, and Gauguin. There's a $15 fee. (The location of the gallery is shown on the Bellagio diagram on the Diagrams page.)
   
• Even if you're not an art lover you'll enjoy the painted ceilings in the Venetian. The painted ceilings are actually in three areas; the main casino entrance, the hotel lobby, and the Galleria hall that connects the two. Once you go in the main casino entrance and view that ceiling, the Galleria will be off to your right. (The location of the Galleria is shown on the Venetian diagram on the Diagrams page.)
   
• If you're a gear-head, or going with one, check out the auto collection at the Imperial Palace featuring antiques and vehicles owned by celebrities and presidents. Stated admission is $6.95 but you can go to their Auto Collections Website and print out the free pass available there.
  
   
• If you like roller-coasters, New York New York, Sahara, and Circus Circus (indoor) have them. If you're a hard core thrill-seeker, there's a roller-coaster (called the "High Roller") and a tower launcher (called the "Big Shot") on the roof of the Stratosphere Tower, and bungy jumping at Circus Circus.
   
• If you plan to go "downtown" do it at night so you can check out the Fremont Street Experience. The canopy over the Fremont Street pedestrian mall is the giant "screen" several blocks long for a great, free light and sound show with 2 million individual bulbs. Shows start at dusk and are repeated until 11 pm Sunday thru Thursday and midnight Friday and Saturday.
   
• Another neat lighting display is at the south end of the Strip at night. While not a "show", the intersection bounded by the MGM Grand, New York New York, Excalibur, and Tropicana is a sight to behold at night with all the buildings illuminated in a rainbow of colors. This intersection has pedestrian bridges between all four corners so it's easy to stroll over all four of them to take in the sights.

"Disneyland For Grown-Ups"

Las Vegas offers a TON of things to do besides gambling. Skydiving, riding in a helicopter, driving race cars at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and horseback riding in Red Rock Canyon are just a few.

This Attractions List is your "all-in-one" reference for a lot of the attractions and activities in and around Las Vegas (including days and times and whether they are free or a fee is involved for the resort attractions). The list is divided into those attractions and activities available at the various resorts (sorted by resort name) and those located elsewhere.

An AWESOME Ride

A tandem skydive is the most AWESOME experience I've ever had during any of my Vegas trips. With a tandem jump you're harnessed to a jumpmaster and just "going along for the ride" so there's NO LENGTHY TRAINING CLASSES involved. You'll likely be back at your hotel within four hours. There are a couple places that offer tandem skydives. Both are actually about 20 miles outside of Las Vegas but they both have a shuttle service (and you can see the Strip resorts from both drop zones). They also both offer a package which includes a video tape and still photographs of your jump. If you plan to get a video of your jump, Vegas Extreme uses the more traditional method of having another skydiver with video and still cameras mounted on their helmet jump along with you. Skydive Las Vegas uses "wrist-cams" to video your jump. This is where the jumpmaster you're jumping with has a small camera strapped to their wrist. The benefit of a wrist-cam is that the canopy ride portion of your jump is also videoed (and audioed). The downside is having a camera two feet from your face when it is being pushed out of shape by the wind of a 120-mph free-fall (a look only a mother could love - maybe). If how you look on your video is important to you, then you may want to go with Vegas Extreme.

There's also an outfit called Fly Away Indoor Skydiving which is an indoor vertical wind tunnel where you can simulate a free-fall. However, it can't simulate the canopy ride which is the greatest part of a skydive in my opinion. You fell like a bird soaring around under that chute and your jumpmaster will likely let you steer it around if you'd like. If you want to know more about what it's like (along with a couple free-fall pictures), check out our Doing A Vegas Tandem Skydive page.

Be sure to call ahead and make reservations.

FANTASTIC Flights

Heli USA offers FANTASTIC night-time helicopter flights up and down the Strip (their "Apollo Night Flight" package). They pick you up at your hotel, give you free champagne while you're waiting to go to the flight line, and drop you off at your hotel after your flight. Cost is $80 per person (worth EVERY penny) but they often have a coupon in What's On magazine. Check out one of my pictures from a night-flight.

They also offer a variety of day-time air tours of the Grand Canyon (which is the best way to see the Grand Canyon in my opinion). The Chariot of Fire is their basic Grand Canyon tour costing about $300 and takes less than four hours pick-up to drop-off (flight time is about 1.5 hours departing from McCarran Airport). If you're considering a less traditional wedding, you can get married during your own night flight or at the Grand Canyon. Full details are available on their Website or you can call them at 800-359-8727 (or 736-8787 in Las Vegas).

Horseback Canyon Ride

Second only to skydiving, this is one of the neatest experiences I've had in Vegas. If you don't think a desert can be beautiful, take a break from the hustle and bustle of the Strip and spend a leisurely two hours horseback riding in the desert around Red Rock Canyon. Cowboy Trail Rides offers a free Strip shuttle that picks you up and drops you off at the tour lobby in the "Rear Rotunda" of the Excalibur. (Look around the tour bus parking area for a white bus with the "Cowboy Trailrides" sign in the window or a white van with red lettering.) Spectacular views riding along a canyon rim may even include wild burros and other desert wildlife. What struck me is that this is not a "tourist trap" operation. These people care about the land and their horses and they enjoy sharing them with visitors. I also liked the fact that they offer a waiver option that allows you to opt out of wearing a riding helmet.

They offer a $129 morning "canyon Rim" ride (8:00 am pickup) and a $189 "Sunset BBQ" ride (pickup times vary throughout the year) which includes a steak dinner with all the fixin's cooked on a large outdoor BBQ grill after your ride. If you go to Vegas more than once you may want to do both rides because they take different trails with the Sunset ride going to the top of ridge that overlooks Las Vegas valley and the lights of the Strip. Both tours are offered Tuesday through Sunday but reservations are required at 702-387-2457. Long pants (no shorts) and closed-toe shoes (no sandles) are also required.

Souvenirs

If you need to pick up souvenirs for the folks back home there are numerous small shops all along the Strip that specialize in selling low-cost Las Vegas-logoed items and clothing. In addition, most resorts have "signature shops" that sell items with their logo on them. My all-time favorite is the Caesars Exclusively signature shop at the Forum Shops (location is shown on the Caesars Palace/Forum Shops diagram available on the Diagrams page). Some very classy items with a good portion of them, such as chocolates, coffee mugs, glasses, etc., being under $15. If you really want to impress the souvenir recipient, get them one of the Caesars "Greek Key" terry-cloth robes with their fancy trimming and gold crest. They cost around $90 but are so plush it's difficult to pack them so you may have to carry it back on the plane with you. The cart vendors in the mall of the Forum Shops also sell Caesars signature items, including T-shirts, at reasonable prices.

Buffets

Most of the major hotel/casinos on the Strip and downtown have three daily buffets. They used to be a cost to the casinos as a means of bringing people into their establishments, but with the corporate takeover of the resorts they've become a profit point and prices have risen dramatically in recent years. I've tried a lot of the buffets along the Strip and those that deserve mention, good or bad, are listed here and in the Not Impressed section below. You may notice that I only address dinner buffets here. I don't eat breakfast or lunch so you're on your own when it comes to those buffets. Buffet prices change. The prices shown here are from a given point in time and are given for the sake of comparison. In addition, local taxes will raise the price by $1 to $3 more than what is shown.

If you can only hit one buffet in Vegas, take the tram down to Mandalay Bay ($22). In addition to having one of the nicest dining atmospheres of any buffet I've been to, they have a good assortment of entrees from seafood to pasta to specialty pizza including some of the biggest hot crab legs I've ever seen. You'll find the buffet at the opposite corner of the casino from where you arrive on the tram.

The Flamingo's food is just OK but their dining area overlooks a tropical garden with white fish and, what else, flamingos. You may want to try a breakfast or lunch buffet here as the daylight will allow you to see more of the garden ($16).

All the lobster you can eat is the big attraction at the off-Strip Rio's seafood dinner buffet but it comes at a price of $35. (See the Shuttles page for shuttle bus information.) They often have small lobster tails or larger tails cut into pieces. Note that the Rio has a couple different buffets in different parts of the hotel. Don't go to the "Carnival World" buffet off the main casino by mistake. To go to the "Village Seafood Buffet" just follow the signs to the Masquerade Village. The buffet is located in the back.

Experimentation is the key to the $25 Bellagio buffet ($32 on Fridays and Saturdays with more gourmet entrees). Exotic foods such as wild boar, buffalo, squid, clams, sushi, and dishes you won't recognize by name or sight are common. Be sure to take small portions so you can sample the extensive variety and leave room for the impressive assortments of fancy cakes and pies for dessert. (The location of the buffet is shown on the Bellagio diagram on the Diagrams page.)
  The $25 Paris dinner buffet features many french cuisine dishes. These entrees are nothing to write home about but at the end of the hot food line are two dessert crepe stations where they make your crepe while you wait. Be sure to save room for a berry crepe topped with raspberry sauce and whipped cream. The classic Las Vegas "cheap buffet" (dinner) is getting harder to find these days. The center-Strip Imperial Palace has the "Emperor's Buffet" is $9.50. The north end of the Strip has Circus Circus ($10) and Sahara ($8 and $10 on Saturdays), and downtown has Gaughan's Plaza ($9).

Good Shows

There are two types of shows to be aware of. "Continuous-run" (also called "indefinite") shows feature performers that are under contract with the resort for long periods of time. These can run from major acts such as Lance Burton at the Monte Carlo and Cher at Caesars Palace to small lounge acts. Then there are the "limited-engagement" shows, like Ricky Martin doing one night at Mandalay Bay or Howie Mandel doing a week at the MGM Grand. Every resort has at least one continuous-run show, and many have several of them. Not all have the venue for large limited-engagement shows though. The places that routinely offer big-name limited-engagement acts are the Hilton, Mandalay Bay, Paris, and the MGM Grand.

I'm not much of a "show person" but friends who's opinions I respect highly say the following continuous-run shows are worth the $60 to $100 ticket prices:

Mystere (Cirque du Soleil) at Treasure Island (seats further back are better). If you want to see a traditional Vegas-style show check out Jubilee at Bally's.

The Stratosphere (Viva Las Vegas), and Flamingo (Bottoms Up adult show) have "free" afternoon shows where admission is the price of an expensive drink (around $4 to $6) with some requiring a coupon or as part of a lunch buffet package. Any available coupons can typically be found in What's On magazine (covered on the Tips page). If you can't find a coupon try checking with the hotel's concierge.

Harrah's has an open-air lounge in the shape of a carousel that features live muscial entertainment from the early afternoon until around midnight. It's located between Harrah's and the Imperial Palace and, because it's outdoors, you don't actually need to go into the lounge to enjoy the music. There are also numerous cart vendors near the lounge selling a variety of souvenir items.

Many of the resorts have lower-priced shows (in the $20 to $40 range) of all sorts including adult entertainment, comedy, magic, musical, or combinations of these. For a complete list and schedule of shows, including ticket prices and comments and ratings from those who have seen the shows, see the link to Las Vegas On-Line on the Websites page or pick up a copy of What's On magazine when you hit town.

Not Impressed

I was not at all impressed by the dinner buffets at the Aladdin, Caesars, Excalibur, Harrah's, Monte Carlo, Mirage, or Wynn. Particularly annoying was the fact that the Wynn charges more than the Bellagio, has worse food, and has TV monitors hung on the walls showing commercials for resort shows.

The Riviera heavily advertises it's show Crazy Girls. Save your money.