Things to do in Las Vegas
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Las Vegas
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Spring, best overall: 70s to 80s F, pools open, Red Rock and Valley of Fire at their best, desert wildflowers in March.
Summer, the extreme season: highs of 105 to 115 F, desert hiking dangerous, cheapest Strip rates, monsoon flash floods in July and August.
Fall, co-best overall: October to early November is perfect, hiking reopens fully, with festival, Halloween and F1 price spikes.
Winter, the budget and shows season: cold nights, excellent midday desert hikes, most pools closed, with NYE, CES and Super Bowl spikes.
What's on
- Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) mid-May
Three dusk to dawn nights at Las Vegas Motor Speedway; rooms and prices spike city wide, so book months ahead.
- F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix November
Strip closures and grandstand build out for weeks, with the year's highest room rates around the race.
- CES early January
Makes rooms scarce and dear, followed by the year's cheapest, quietest weeks in mid to late January and February.
- National Finals Rodeo (NFR) early December
Fills the city with a completely different, very fun crowd.
- March Madness mid-March
Mid-March tournament weeks spike hotel prices, along with spring break and convention weeks.
- Las Vegas PRIDE October
Held in October precisely because June is too hot.
Worth the trip for
Best things to do in Las Vegas
Sphere
A wraparound screen, haptic seats and beamed sound make its concerts and films unlike anything else on Earth.
"O" by Cirque du Soleil
The classic Cirque splurge: divers, swimmers and aerialists share a stage that is a 1.5 million gallon pool.
Absinthe
Filthy, funny and close up: acrobatics in a tiny spiegeltent where there are no bad seats. Adults only.
The Neon Museum
Retired Vegas signs, restored and lit, tell the city's history in its own medium. Go on the night tour.
The Mob Museum
Organized crime and law enforcement across three floors of the old federal courthouse, plus a speakeasy below.
Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area
A 13 mile scenic loop past red sandstone, 25 minutes from the Strip, with scrambling and shaded canyon hikes.
Valley of Fire State Park
Wave-like red and white sandstone, a slot canyon loop and petroglyphs in Nevada's oldest state park.
Meow Wolf Las Vegas | Omega Mart
A fake supermarket that opens through secret portals into surreal art worlds. Allow two to three hours.
Where to stay in Las Vegas
Mid-Strip
first trip, all-round base
The most walkable stretch of the Strip, with the fountains at your door and O and Absinthe in walking distance.
North Strip
luxury, quieter luxury base
Bigger, calmer, better kept resorts and the city's best fine dining cluster, with Sphere walkable from Venetian and Wynn.
Downtown / Fremont East
value, repeat visitors, groups and gamblers
Cheaper rooms and tables, walkable bar and restaurant streets, and the Mob Museum, Neon Museum and Arts District on foot.
The Arts District
non-casino base
One proper boutique hotel on the city's best restaurant street outside the Strip, with a local rather than tourist feel.
Off-Strip / Summerlin (Red Rock)
families and desert-first trips
A real resort and pool with Red Rock Canyon at your door, 20 minutes' drive to the Strip with free parking.
Think twice about
- North Las Vegas Blvd beyond the STRAT, including Naked City
A long standing high crime, drug activity area steps from a tourist tower. Do not base here and do not walk it at night.
- North of Fremont Street, the Foremaster Lane and Las Vegas Blvd North corridor
The city's main homeless services corridor, with large encampments and open drug use. A different city on foot after dark.
- Boulder Highway motel row and East Las Vegas around Charleston and Nellis
Extended stay motels and higher violent and property crime, with nothing a visitor needs.
- South Strip budget motels south of Mandalay Bay
Isolated and unwalkable; you pay the savings back in rideshares while standing on a highway shoulder. Stay Downtown instead.
Best restaurants in Las Vegas
Lotus of Siam
Northern Thai from an award-winning chef: garlic prawns, crispy duck khao soi, and a vast Riesling list.
Esther's Kitchen
Seasonal Italian that turned Main Street into a dining street: house sourdough, handmade pastas, wood fired pizza.
Herbs & Rye
A speakeasy dark steakhouse doing cocktails by historical era, with a famous late night half price steak hour.
Bazaar Meat by José Andrés
Fire is the whole concept: whole suckling pig, cotton candy foie gras, and wood fired steaks by breed and cut.
Raku
Tiny, dark, open late: charcoal grilled skewers, house tofu and sashimi in the restaurant chefs choose.
Sparrow + Wolf
Wood fire cooking with global detours, from oxtail hummus to beef cheek and bone marrow dumplings.
Shanghai Taste
Soup dumplings, pan fried soup buns and hand pulled noodles at Chinatown prices. The lunch to have here.
Tacos El Gordo
Tijuana tacos by meat station, adobada sliced off the trompo, a few dollars each and open to 2am.
Outdoor things to do in Las Vegas
Shadow Creek Golf Course
A manufactured pine and water oasis you can only play as an MGM Resorts guest, arriving by limo.
Wynn Golf Club
The only course on the Strip itself: walk from the Wynn lobby straight to the first tee.
Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort
Three desert courses with no houses on them; the Wolf Course is the longest, with an island green par 3.
Wolf Creek Golf Club
Fairways carved through red rock canyons with extreme elevation changes on nearly every hole.
Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area
Get out of the car: Calico Tanks scrambling, Ice Box Canyon shade, and world class sandstone climbing.
Valley of Fire State Park
Walk it properly: Fire Wave early, the White Domes slot canyon second, petroglyphs at Mouse's Tank.
Hoover Dam
Walk the memorial bridge for the free 900 ft view, cross the dam crest, then ride the Historic Railroad Trail.
Emerald Cave
Paddle the calm Black Canyon from Willow Beach to a cave where the water glows green in the right light.
Best hotels in Las Vegas
The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
The only Strip resort with real private terraces on many rooms. Book a fountain view and Bellagio is your balcony.
Bellagio Hotel and Casino
The classic luxury base: fountains, the Conservatory and O in house, in the most central location on the Strip.
Wynn Las Vegas
The best kept grounds on the Strip and the strongest in house dining of any resort, in a calmer adult setting.
Encore at Wynn Las Vegas
Wynn's sister tower: the same polished, adult feel, with Sphere walkable via the pedestrian bridge.
Fontainebleau Las Vegas
Huge rooms with mountain and Sphere views, a serious spa and 30 plus bars and restaurants in an airier resort.
Circa Resort & Casino
Adults only throughout, with Stadium Swim's six pools facing a 143 ft screen and the world's largest sportsbook.
The ENGLISH Hotel
A small, design led, adults only boutique on Main Street, the anti Strip stay still in the middle of a scene.
Four Queens Hotel and Casino
A full Fremont Street hotel casino that famously charges no resort fee, so the headline price is near the real one.
Is Las Vegas expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | $140 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | $360 a person |
| Splurge | $850 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Sphere: weeks ahead
- "O" by Cirque du Soleil: weeks ahead
- Absinthe: weeks ahead
- The Neon Museum: a few days ahead
- Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area: a few days ahead
- Meow Wolf Las Vegas | Omega Mart: a few days ahead
- Shadow Creek Golf Course: weeks ahead
- Wynn Golf Club: weeks ahead
- Book Sphere concerts, O and Absinthe first, then Lotus of Siam, Esther's Kitchen, Bazaar Meat, Raku and Sparrow + Wolf.
- Book the Neon Museum night tour and Red Rock timed entry in season; all routinely sell out on weekends.
- Shows have dark days, usually Monday and Tuesday for Cirque. Build the itinerary around them.
- Resort fees of $40 to $55 a night are rarely in the headline price. Four Queens charges none. Check the total.
Is Las Vegas safe?
- Inside resorts, on the Fremont canopy and on the main Strip the area is heavily patrolled; risk rises a few blocks off those spines.
- Rideshare rather than walk between Downtown and the Arts District late at night; the daytime Main Street walk is fine.
- Watch for pickpocketing in crowds and drink spiking in clubs. Keep bags zipped and never leave a drink.
- Heat is a safety issue May to September: carry water for any walk over 15 minutes and hike deserts at dawn only.
- Flash flood warnings in July and August monsoon storms close washes and slot canyons with little notice.
- You must be 21 to gamble or drink; IDs are checked seriously, and Circa is 21 plus for the whole property.
- Check your government's current travel advice before you go.
Las Vegas travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Celebrity chef burger, slice and taco counters on the Strip: the same money in Chinatown is a different league.
- Most buffets are expensive and mediocre now. Bacchanal and Wicked Spoon are the exceptions.
- Timeshare presentations, free show ticket booths and club promoters: the free costs you half a day or an unagreed cover.
- Bottle service spends faster than any group expects. A Fremont East or Arts District bar crawl is the better group night.
- At the Sphere film, buy the cheapest central seats. The experience is the room, not your seat row.
- Casino floor ATMs charge punitive fees. Use your bank's app to find a no fee ATM off the floor.
Getting around Las Vegas: public transport and more
- Walk within a cluster and rideshare between clusters: a next casino over walk is 15 minutes.
- The Monorail covers the east side of the Strip, free trams run on the west side, and the Deuce bus costs $8 for 24 hours.
- The free Downtown Loop shuttle connects the Arts District, Fremont East and Downtown hotels about every 15 minutes.
- Driving only pays off for Red Rock, Valley of Fire and Chinatown crawls; Strip self parking is paid at almost every resort.
- Harry Reid Airport is 10 to 15 minutes from Mid-Strip. Avoid the long haul taxi route via the tunnel.
Who Las Vegas suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | Great |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Great |
Make Las Vegas your trip
Swearby drafts the days from places people swear by. Swap any stop, then invite the crew by text, even friends without the app. Vote on dates, track costs as you go, and everyone gets one number at the end.
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