Las Vegas

Understanding Las Vegas

Las Vegas is not subtle and does not try to be. It is a city built on the proposition that people will travel to a desert to gamble, watch shows and eat in restaurants operated by the finest chefs in the world — and it has been proved entirely correct for eighty years. The scale of the hotels on the Strip, the quality of the entertainment and the sheer improbability of the whole enterprise make it one of the most extraordinary places in America, regardless of your interest in gambling.

You do not have to gamble. Most visitors these days come for the shows, the food, the pools and the sheer spectacle of the place. The casino floors are open to anyone — walk through them, watch people play, have a drink at the bar. The atmosphere is unique. Whether you sit down at a table is entirely your choice.

The Strip

Las Vegas Boulevard South — the Strip — runs for approximately four miles through the heart of the resort district. The major hotels line both sides: Bellagio, Caesars Palace, MGM Grand, the Venetian, Wynn, Encore, Park MGM, Aria, the Cosmopolitan. Each is effectively a self-contained city — hotel, casino, multiple restaurants, bars, pools, theatres and shopping. A first-time visitor can spend two days on the Strip without covering it all.

The Bellagio fountains — a choreographed water show set to music on the lake in front of the hotel — run every thirty minutes in the afternoon and every fifteen minutes in the evening. They are free to watch from the footpath and are one of the genuine spectacles of Las Vegas, particularly after dark. The Bellagio conservatory and botanical garden inside the hotel changes its display seasonally and is always worth seeing.

The Venetian and its sister property the Palazzo are the largest hotel complex in the world by floor space. The indoor canal with gondoliers, the replicated St Mark's Square and the sheer scale of the shopping and dining operation inside make it worth walking through regardless of whether you are staying there. The High Roller observation wheel at the LINQ is the tallest observation wheel in the world at 550 feet — the thirty-minute rotation gives views across the entire valley.

The Sphere

The MSG Sphere, which opened in 2023 on the eastern edge of the Strip, is one of the most remarkable structures built anywhere in the world in recent decades. A spherical entertainment venue covered in the world's largest LED screen — 580,000 square feet of programmable exterior display — it is visible from miles away and transforms the Las Vegas skyline entirely at night. The interior holds 17,500 people in a venue designed specifically around immersive audio-visual experience, with the largest LED screen ever built curving around the entire audience.

Shows at the Sphere are not conventional concerts. The immersive format — visuals surrounding the entire audience, spatial audio, haptic seats — creates an experience that has no equivalent anywhere else. Check the programme before your visit; the Sphere hosts a limited number of residencies and shows sell out quickly. Even without a ticket, the exterior display alone is worth seeing after dark.

Shows and entertainment

Las Vegas has the most concentrated live entertainment programme of any city in the world. Residencies by major artists, Cirque du Soleil productions, magic shows, comedy, theatre and specialist performances run simultaneously across the major hotels every night of the week. Book shows in advance — the best seats for the most popular productions sell out weeks ahead.

Cirque du Soleil operates multiple permanent shows in Las Vegas. O at the Bellagio — performed in and above a 1.5 million gallon pool — is the flagship production and one of the finest pieces of live performance you will see anywhere. Book it. The ticketing is complex and the best seats are expensive; it is worth every penny.

Food

Las Vegas has one of the most extraordinary concentrations of high-end restaurants in the world. Gordon Ramsay, Joël Robuchon, José Andrés, Nobu, Wolfgang Puck, Guy Savoy — the roster of serious chefs with Las Vegas operations is remarkable. A dinner at one of the genuine fine dining establishments is one of the great Las Vegas experiences and, relative to the quality, often less expensive than equivalent restaurants in London or New York.

The buffet is a Las Vegas institution — many have declined in quality over the years, but the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesars Palace maintains standards worth considering. For casual eating, the food halls in the Cosmopolitan and the Aria are both excellent. Secret Pizza on the third floor of the Cosmopolitan — a deliberately unmarked, no-frills pizza restaurant reached by an unmarked corridor — is a Las Vegas institution that costs almost nothing and is always good.

Getting there from California

The drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas on Interstate 15 takes around four hours without traffic — longer on Friday afternoons and Sunday evenings when the road is heavily used. The route passes through the Mojave Desert and the scenery, while stark, has a particular beauty in the early morning and at sunset. Fill the tank before you leave the LA area; petrol stations are sparse in the desert sections.

Flights from LA to Las Vegas take fifty minutes and are frequent and cheap. If you are not driving the route as part of a road trip, flying makes more sense. The drive from San Francisco is around nine hours — fly from there.

Day trips from Las Vegas

The Grand Canyon South Rim is four hours from Las Vegas by road — a long day trip but entirely feasible and enormously rewarding. The West Rim, which features the Skywalk glass bridge over the canyon, is two and a half hours away and run by the Hualapai Nation — a shorter and easier day trip. The canyon views at the West Rim are less dramatic than the South Rim, but the Skywalk experience is unique. Helicopter tours to the canyon floor operate from Las Vegas for those wanting a more dramatic approach.

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is twenty miles west of the Strip — a remarkable sandstone landscape of red and cream rock that makes the proximity to Las Vegas feel entirely improbable. The thirteen-mile scenic drive is accessible in a hire car and the hiking trails are excellent. Half a day is sufficient; it is a remarkable contrast to the casino floors and costs almost nothing.

Valley of Fire State Park, an hour northeast of Las Vegas, has the most dramatic red rock scenery in Nevada — ancient sandstone formations, petrified trees and petroglyphs. Early morning visits, before the heat of the day, are best. Hoover Dam, forty-five minutes south on the Nevada-Arizona border, is a genuinely extraordinary piece of engineering and the dam tours are excellent. Lake Mead, immediately behind it, is the largest reservoir in the United States by volume.

Practical notes

Las Vegas in summer — June, July and August — is extremely hot. Temperatures regularly exceed 40 degrees Celsius on the Strip. The hotels are aggressively air-conditioned and most of the entertainment is indoors, but any time spent outside during the day requires water, sun protection and acclimatisation. Spring and autumn are the most pleasant times to visit; winter is mild and the hotels are quieter and cheaper.

The Strip is longer than it looks on a map. Walking from one end to the other takes over an hour at a reasonable pace. Rideshare is cheap and fast between hotels. The Las Vegas Monorail runs along the eastern side of the Strip but covers only the central section. Most visitors find a combination of walking and rideshare adequate for getting around.

Alcohol is legal to drink in public in Las Vegas — the famous walk-up cocktail windows and yard-long drink containers on the Strip are legal and heavily used. Drinks inside the casinos are complimentary to those actively gambling, which is one of the more remarkable American hospitality customs.