southern nevada’s main attractions
You aren’t a Las Vegas veteran until you’ve experienced the awe of these eight wonders.
Photo: Las Vegas News Bureau (Hoover Dam); William Lane (Fremont Street)
Not even the in-flight cocktail has managed to calm your nerves as the plane touches down on the tarmac at McCarran International Airport. Your mind is racing with images of “What Happens in Vegas…” commercials as you track down your luggage and climb into a cab. Your attention is pulled in every conceivable direction as you’re whisked along the Strip to your hotel.
It doesn’t matter if this is your first trip to Las Vegas or your 100th, the city oozes an excitement so palpable even the most cantankerous naysayer can’t help but lust over its sights and lights. Following are some of the stops that have won Sin City its place in the hearts of so many.
Las Vegas’ propensity for doing away with the no-longer-garish-enough rivals the makeover tendencies of television’s “Dr. 90210.” Well-appointed suites are remodeled into lavishly appointed suites, 2,000-room resorts are toppled to make space for 4,000-room mega-resorts, big makes way for bigger, and extravagant is tossed aside in favor of over-the-top. Through the constant transformations, the comparatively understated symbol of the city—the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada” sign—has remained unchanged for more than 50 years. It is likely the most photographed sign in the world. The sign—on Las Vegas Boulevard South about 1,000 feet south of the intersection with Russell Road—is so popular that the city built an adjacent parking lot to cater to the throngs of tourists who pose daily with the Sin City symbol.
A replica was installed on Boulder Highway north of Tropicana Avenue in 2007, and a “Welcome to Fabulous Downtown Las Vegas” sign erected in 2002 marks the entry to downtown on Las Vegas Boulevard just north of Wyoming Avenue.
CONTACT
Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority
3150 Paradise Rd., Las Vegas
visitlasvegas.com
702-892-0711
Some might see the Fremont Street Experience as nothing more than a tourist attraction. The world’s largest video screen, rows of souvenir kiosks, street artists, and yard-long margaritas will give that impression. A new zipline even races along under the canopy. But a closer look reveals something more. Much like other famed streets of the world—Champs Élysées of Paris, New York’s Broadway, or London’s Piccadilly Circus—Fremont is a crossroads of humanity. I’ve conversed with everyone from high rollers to panhandlers and visitors from countries I can barely spell to third-generation Las Vegans. The street has been a mainstay of the city for more than a century and epitomizes “Old Las Vegas”. And on the other side of Las Vegas Boulevard, the new bars, galleries, and restaurants of East Fremont have become a magnet for downtown’s artsy types.
CONTACT
Fremont Street Experience
vegasexperience.com
702-678-5777
Hoover Dam
It is more than 725 feet high, contains 840 miles of pipes, is built from almost 4.4 million cubic yards of concrete, weighs 6.6 million tons, produces 4 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually, and holds back a lake of 9 trillion gallons. As big and impressive as the numbers are, they still fail to convey the grandeur of one of the country’s most staggering engineering feats and one of Nevada’s most visited attractions. More than 9 million visitors—almost a quarter of Las Vegas visitors—see the dam each year. You can drive and walk across it, walk through its maze of tunnels and passageways, or marvel at it from a helicopter above, raft below, or new bypass bridge from the front.
CONTACT
Hoover Dam
Bureau of Reclamation
usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam
866-730-9097
REFLECTIONS
Besides creating the largest artificial lake in the world, 115 miles long, covering 145,000 acres, containing over 30 million acre feet of water, Boulder Dam also completes a highway loop which ties together the greatest scenic section in the nation, if not in the world.
“Boulder Dam Also ‘Builds a Bridge’”
Nevada Highways and Parks, May 1936
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Auto racing may be thought of more as a Southern-based sport, but few cities have a longer tradition with it than Las Vegas. And it’s not just about the NASCAR Sprint Cup every March—the speedway, originally configured for Indy cars, also holds an NHRA drag strip, bullring, and dirt track on its 1,500 acres and hosts the NHRA Nationals, World of Outlaws dirt-track event, and Camping World Truck Series. You can also get behind the wheel with several driving schools and experiences organized by racing greats such as Mario Andretti and Richard Petty and tour the Carroll Shelby factory and museum down the street. The speedway itself, 1.5 miles long, has almost 150,000 seats, and if there’s a nicer place to breathe the thrilling fumes of burning gas and tires west of Talladega, we haven’t seen it.
CONTACT
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
7000 Las Vegas Blvd. N., Las Vegas
lvms.com
800-644-4444
Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort
What makes Southern Nevada—and all of Nevada, for that matter—stand out is the staggering diversity of entertainment options. That variety is most prevalent in the case of Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort, and one needn’t look any farther than the name for evidence. Winter sports. Las Vegas. Together. The best part is that the resort isn’t a fanciful indoor mountain like in Dubai, or a nearly flat hill coated in artificial snow. It’s a real mountain, thousands of feet above the valley floor. Less than an hour from the Strip in the Mount Charleston Wilderness, the resort is home to 11 trails and two lifts that take skiers to almost 9,400 feet—plenty high enough for an average snowfall of about 10 feet. Early snowfall this winter allowed the resort to open in November, and expanded snowmaking abilities will ensure that skiers and boarders can get in plenty of runs for the rest of the season regardless of snowfall.
CONTACT
Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort
State Route 156, Mount Charleston
skilasvegas.com
702-385-2754
Las Vegas defies expectations so often that we’ve come to take it for granted. Take this for example: The tallest structure west of Chicago. It laughs at Seattle’s Space Needle, San Francisco’s Transamerica Pyramid, and Los Angeles’ U.S. Bank Tower. It’s so tall that you can orient yourself anywhere in the entire valley by finding its iconic spire.
And, this being Las Vegas, not only can you eat atop it (and eat well, now that chefs Claude Gaty and Rick Giffen have taken over) but strap into rides that spin around (Insanity), drop (Big Shot), and lean over the side (X-Scream)…one ride even permits you to jump off of it (SkyJump).
CONTACT
Stratosphere
2000 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas
stratospherehotel.com
702-380-7777
Fountains of Bellagio
They rank among the most famous fountains in the world. Every half-hour the sidewalks surrounding the fountains fill with hundreds, occasionally thousands, of onlookers who gaze in amazement at the free show. The choreographed 12,000-nozzle, eight-acre Fountains of Bellagio are operated and maintained daily by 33 full-time staffers under the supervision of Water Entertainment Technologies, the world’s leading designers of water and fire installations. Having the opportunity to chat once with WET technologist Jason Baldwin on the power of the Bellagio’s water cannons, he told me their only limitation: “We can’t go higher than the building. Everything above that is FAA territory.”
CONTACT
Bellagio
3600 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas
bellagio.com
888-987-6667
The Strip
I like to joke that I remember the Strip when you could see daylight through the buildings. That was just a little more than a decade ago, but in the years since, Las Vegas Boulevard has surpassed all questions like “can we do it?” or “how?” (and certainly “why?”). Even before we created such improbable edifices as MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Bellagio, Luxor, Excalibur, New York-New York, Paris, Trump, Wynn, and CityCenter, the lights of the Strip held a wonder like few other places in the world. It’s hard for me to recall my own initial reaction. But I see it on the face of my six-year-old daughter every time she asks me to drive past “the shiny hotels” at night. Believe me, it never gets old.
CONTACT
Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority
3150 Paradise Rd., Las Vegas
visitlasvegas.com
702-892-0711
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Dear Sir/Madam,
We visited Las Vegas in September 2010 and loved every second we were there. Hope to make it back in the very near future. We have nothing but great memories of our visit, such nice people and so very polite—very rare these days. Missing your beautiful city greatly.