A city that never sleeps.
YES, I know, that is New York but that feeling also fits perfectly to Las Vegas!
That city is so artificial that there is so much to look at and in the end you’re just thinking: Was it real?
An example: Venice. So Venice in Las Vegas…It really looks like you have been in Venice, Italy and your friends who have never been to Las Vegas may be highly confused. Even the “sky” here is unreal.
This fun place has such a groove and even though everything is pretty unreal and you hear music ALL THE TIME plus it is super crowed here with a lot of traffic, I did not feel stressed at all unlike in other big cities.
You will see people being dressed up, parties, casinos, hotel, stores, attractions, events and so much more and that 24/7. BECAUSE OF THAT: the city that never sleeps. If you came to visit a concert of Celine Dion, Mariah Carey or Britney Spears, to watch an acrobaticshow, to sit down in a casino hoping for some luck or to go shopping, in Vegas you will always find something to do. If the day isn’t enough to explore everything you wanted, no worries, that city never shuts off the lights or closes anything.
The good thing is that even if you are underaged (in the USA that means to be under 21, you can read more about that here) you still have the possibility to see a casino from the inside since most entrances of the hotels lead through their casinos (kinda makes sense). As an underage you are just not allowed to play anything.
Only the hotels by themselves are art and really worth visiting. Once you enter them you think you are in a totally different world. Many hotels have themes. For example is one hotel a pyramid, another one looks like a circus while a different one again look like New York.
The hotels and their attractions I found most interesting:
The watershow in front of the Bellagio; the buffet in Circus-Circus; the Ceasars Palace, which is one of the many film location for the movie Hangover and it is the place where Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and many others hold their concerts.
Depending on how long you are planning to stay here I would recommend to start you sightseeing tour with the Strip. It is smart to start at the hotel New York, New York and walk the strip up to the last hotel to change the side and walk down the other way. Btw you cannot just cross the street since you cannot even reach it as a pedestrian. First you have to take either the elevator or escalator up to a kind of balcony above the street and take the escalator or elevator down on the other side.
My highlight is located on the end of the strip, the Stratosphere Tower. With a height of 1148ft (350m) it is the highest free-standing building west of the Mississippi River in the USA and with that it is a perfect vista point to see the city from another perspective. If that is not enough adrenaline for you, you can take a ride in the attractions Insanity, X-Scream or Big Shot. Those rides are on top of the Stratosphere Tower.
Once you have done everything on the strip you wanted to do, you can head to the Fremont Street. Best would be if it is already dark, then Fremont Street is literally lit. The street is a total nightlife district! You can find several stages with all different kind of live-music along the street, street performer, bars, clubs and obviously tons of casinos. But the best thing is: the entire street is roofed illuminated throughout the night. With some luck you can even watch a movie on the ceiling. There is also a zipline on the ceiling that you get attached to in a laying position so you can face down on the street.
Fyi when I say street I don’t mean an actual street with cars on it. This is an only pedestrian zone!
Las Vegas itself is easy to explore by foot or by Uber (since you will most likely come here to drink if you are 21 😉 ) but if you also came here to see some other places like the Grand Canyon (read more about it here) there are many tours that leave from Las Vegas. Either you can do a bus tour or fly with a helicopter above the Grand Canyon. You will have many options here.
Really close to Las Vegas is a beautiful State Park called Valley of Fire State Park which we camped in. If you are around you should definitely consider visiting! You can find more about the park by clicking here.
