Travel And Tourism

Fremont Street Experience

By 13:13

See where Vegas began on legendary Fremont Street, now a pedestrian-only area with free nightly shows and special events.

In the center of the city, Fremont Street is a five-block pedestrian zone where vintage Vegas meets modern technology. Set against some of Sin City’s classic neon signs, you’ll find live bands, roaming street performers and a captivating light show.
The first street in the city to be paved, Fremont was a beacon for visitors in the 1950s, with famous casinos like the Eldorado Club, the Golden Nugget and the Pioneer Club. The Northern Club, at 15 E. Fremont St, was the first to obtain a Nevada gaming license in 1931, the same year in which the first traffic light in Las Vegas was installed. Fremont Street has also had its share of Hollywood film credits. It was the backdrop for the 1964 Elvis movie “Viva Las Vegas” and the 1971 flick “James Bond: Diamonds are Forever.”
Today, the area’s biggest calling card is its nightly six-minute Viva Vision light show, which is timed perfectly to music and draws tourists by the hundreds. Displayed overhead on a 90-foot-high (27-meter-high) steel canopy the length of five football fields, the light show uses state-of-the-art LED technology and more than 12.5 million light bulbs. Pumped up by 550,000 watts of surround sound, the evening laser and lights shows are themed around annual events. The most popular show, Lucky Vegas, pays tribute to the city’s icons and history.
The Fremont Street Experience also includes live entertainment, such as performances from tribute bands and roaming street performers dressed up as celebrities. After dark, dozens of street vendors join the surrounding casinos, shops and restaurants to give the mall a lively, festival vibe.
For a little more history, wander east to the Neon Museum, where a collection of the street’s vintage neon signs from casinos, hotels and loan businesses are on display.
The Fremont Street Experience is accessible by taxi, bus or “trolley,” a bus that travels between the Strip and downtown. There’s also parking available at the Fremont Experience Parking Plaza, at 4th Street and Carson, where you can leave your car for free for up to five hours.

Mob Museum

By 13:12

Get a glimpse into the shady and sinister underworld of Sin City’s gangster roots at this unusual museum.

The Mob Museum, also known as the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, uses interactive displays, memorabilia and original artifacts to provide insights into the lives of famous mafia players like Al Capone, Whitey Bulger, Bugsy Siegel and John Gotti. The museum examines the roles of these historic Vegas figures in turning a small desert town into the gaming capital of the world. You’ll also get great insights into the wider impact of the Mob across the United States.
A newer addition to downtown Vegas, the 41,000-square-foot (3,809-square-meter) museum opened on Feb. 14, 2012. Not coincidentally, that was the 83rd anniversary of the infamous St. Valentine’s Day massacre in Chicago, when tensions between Al Capone and Bugs Moran’s rival gangs came to a bloody end. Although the original site of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre is now home to a parking lot for a nearby nursing home, much of the bullet-riddled wall was salvaged and reassembled. Today, it’s one of the museum’s signature exhibits.
The building that houses the museum also has a place in Vegas’s mob history. A former federal courthouse and U.S. Post Office, this building is one of the few remaining historically significant places in Las Vegas. It’s famous for being the courtroom where one of the 14 national Kefauver Committee hearings — devoted to investigating organized crime in America — was held in 1950.
The museum provides a fascinating history of police and citizen efforts to eliminate mob activity. You’ll learn about wiretaps and other technology, used by investigators in the 1940s and ’50s to record gangster conversations through an interactive display. Enter the world of FBI action and listen to original surveillance recordings, or take a crash course in weapons training.
The Mob Museum is located in downtown Las Vegas next to the Fremont Experience. There’s limited free parking, so it’s best to take a bus or taxi if you’re not staying close enough to walk. The museum is open to all ages, but an adult must accompany children under 14. Some exhibits include graphic imagery, including crime scene photos and a large collection of weapons.

Las Vegas Strip

By 13:09

Here’s where you’ll find the quintessential Vegas: Lavish casinos, glamorous clubs, hopping piano bars, and those infamous wedding chapels and neon lights

At the heart of the Las Vegas is the four-mile (six-kilometer) stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard affectionately dubbed "The Strip" Hotels and casinos began cropping up here in the mid-1940s. The Flamingo was among the first, opened by mobster Bugsy Siegel in 1946 and named for his leggy girlfriend, whose nickname was Flamingo. The Strip was made popular as a location in countless Hollywood films, and is known today for its five-star casino resorts, decedent day-spas and pools, and glamorous nightlife.
As well as the much-photographed “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada” sign, erected in 1959 and now listed on the National Register of Historical Places, The Strip is home to landmark hotels and casinos. There’s the pyramid-shaped Luxor, the elaborately themed Treasure Island (or “the TI”) with artificial cove, the old-world MGM Grand, glamorous Caesars Palace, Shark Reef at the Mandalay Bay, and Bellagio, where the illuminated fountain show attracts throngs of tourists every evening.
Stroll the sidewalk at night to witness the lights of Las Vegas at their outlandish best. Ride to the top of an Eiffel Tower replica at the Paris hotel, and tour miniature Manhattan at the New York-New York Casino. The Venetian offers, gondola rides along its canals, and there’s a lava-spewing volcano at the Mirage. Be sure to wander through the hotel lobbies, often a show in themselves, and try your luck on the gaming floors—zinging slot machines, cards and chips slapping on tables, and both cheers and groans from the players — for the true Vegas experience.
The Strip isn’t as lively by day, but it’s more family-friendly. Tourists of all ages hit the many shops in the casino galleries and sample the cuisine from top-notch restaurants and quick snack bars. You can get anything from sushi, to a five-course Italian meal, to a sumptuous burger and shake. You’ll find it all!
Once the sun begins to sink, get ready to do it all again.The Las Vegas Strip is a wild party every night of the year.
The Last Vegas Strip is not actually in the city, but located just outside the city limits, just a ten-minute cab ride from downtown. Traffic is slow and parking expensive along this prime real estate. The best way to get around is by private limo, taxi, minibus or monorail.
For more details on interesting local attractions and activities, check out our things to do in Las Vegas page.

Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay

By 13:08

In Vegas, nothing is out of the ordinary, including a trip into the deep for an encounter with some of the most exotic and dangerous marine creatures in the world.

Mercifully, you won’t need to get wet to come face-to-face with piranhas, jellyfish, endangered sea turtles, giant rays and more sharks than you’ll find in the Vegas casinos. The Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino is home to more than 2,000 animals, including a rare golden crocodile and Komodo dragon. It’s a worthy attraction for families and those seeking a little quiet time away from the neon-lit madness of the Las Vegas Strip.
The 90,560-square-foot (8,413-square-meter) aquarium has 14 permanent exhibits, including the popular touch pool, where visitors can interact with a handful of placid creatures, like horseshoe crabs and sea slugs. Stroll through the huge acrylic tunnel and watch as marine life of all colors, shapes and sizes swim around and above you.
For the truly adventurous, Shark Reef’s Dive with Sharks Program will have you swimming with the aquarium’s more than 30 sharks, including sand tiger, sandbar and whitetip reef sharks. You must be dive-certified to participate. Actual diving time is about 45 minutes, during which divers are taken through the Shipwreck Exhibit in a 1.6-million-gallon (6-million-liter) tank, home to the sharks as well as rays, green sea turtles and schools of fish. Non-divers still have their share of sights to behold. Look out for the 100-pound (45-kilogram) giant Pacific octopus, the exotic-looking but deadly lionfish and the jewels of the sea, including the rainbow-colored parrotfish, in the Caribbean Reef display.
A unique experience considering Vegas’s desert setting, the aquarium’s mission and design is quite extraordinary, with one section of the space created to resemble a sunken temple. Shark Reef has made a pledge to ocean conservation and preservation; the facilities here use recycled water and imitation coral so real reefs aren’t disturbed.
Shark Reef Aquarium is located near the South Convention Center of the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. Visit in the evenings to avoid the crowds, and see the animals behaving differently than during the day. Mandalay Bay is on the southern edge of The Strip. The monorail, public buses, and shuttle buses between casino resorts all stop here.

Las Vegas Vacation Packages

By 13:07

When Las Vegas calls, pack your sunglasses and leave your watch behind. This party town shines brightly under a desert sun by day and neon lights by night.

Once a dusty, desert town in Nevada, Las Vegas is now a playground of big hotels, outrageous neon lights and outlandish personalities. Its transformation into a gambling hotspot began in 1931, when the first gaming license was issued. Since then, Vegas has continued to expand and evolve, from a post-war gangsters’ paradise and favored hangout of the mid-’60s Rat Pack to a glittering spectacle.
The themed hotels of Vegas are legendary. Experience ancient Rome at Caesars Palace or climb aboard a gondola at the Venetian. Marvel at the Mirage’s erupting volcano, see The Big Apple’s skyline at New York-New York, or drink a cocktail at the top of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris hotel.
While it’s known as Sin City, Vegas is more than gambling and adult entertainment. Families will find plenty of innocent fun, some of which, like the Bellagio Resort and Casino's nightly fountain show, is free. A stroll along the Las Vegas Strip or The Forum Shops will also cost you nothing. At the Fremont Street Experience watch the nightly parade without paying a cent.
You can also see fantastic Las Vegas shows featuring A-list, superstar performers, and for the seriously adventurous, experience the thrill of driving an exotic performance or true race car.
Las Vegas provides experiences on an extravagant scale. One of the seven natural wonders of the world, the Grand Canyon, is a just a few hours drive away. There’s a record-breaking free fall at Stratosphere Tower and exotic sea creatures at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino's Shark Reef Aquarium. Even Sin City’s seedy past is on display at the fascinating Mob Museum.
Though the famous all-you-can-eat buffets and juicy hamburger joints remain, Vegas has stepped it up in the food stakes, with a fresh crop of restaurants attracting discerning clientele. The shopping here rivals New York and Los Angeles, with hundreds of designer boutiques, opulent malls, children’s stores and plenty of souvenir stops. If you can't find it in Vegas, it probably can't be found.
For more details on interesting local attractions and activities, check out our things to do in Las Vegas page.
Accommodation in Las Vegas
As for finding the best place to stay in Las Vegas, Expedia's booking website features 219 Las Vegas hotels to select from.
Visitors who delight in a touch of class can choose from the Excalibur Hotel Casino, at 3850 Las Vegas Blvd S, and the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, at 3799 Las Vegas Blvd S. The TI - Treasure Island Hotel and Casino and the Luxor Hotel and Casino are worth checking out as well.