The Main Attractions in Las Vegas Strip Hotels
Circus Circus:
Circus Circus was the first casino hotel. Over twenty years ago it adopted the idea of providing fun activities for the whole family alongside casino facilities. An entire floor of the hotel is dedicated to circus shows that take place every fifteen minutes from 11AM to midnight. Around it are many carnival sideshow attractions where kids and adults can win stuffed toys of every shape and size. Right next to the hotel is an indoor theme park (very good for the hot summer months) called Adventuredome Theme Park. The rides are suitable for all ages. You can purchase a daily ticket for unlimited use of all the rides, or alternatively buy single tickets for specific rides.
Discount Tickets:
Caesar Palace
This is one of the most beautiful hotels in Las Vegas, although in recent years it has had some competitors. The hotel may be one of the oldest in the city but a few years ago it underwent heavy reconstruction and since then it has been growing and improving every year. In the hotel there is a beautiful shopping and entertainment centre called The Forum, which is built to look like a street in Ancient Rome. Its ceiling simulates a changing sky with moving clouds, which changes from day to beautiful twilight to night according to the time of the day. The street has lovely little piazzas decorated with Roman sculptures. At its two ends are fountains, also decorated with statues. Every hour on the hour, these statues start to move and talk in a show full of stunning fire, water and lazer effects. The two fountains feature two different shows, each ten minutes long. I recommend seeing both.
The Forum is home to many impressive stores. I don’t
recommend shopping here, as the shops are fairly
expensive; they are, however, excellent for window
shopping. Some notable stores are the Nike store, which
is a huge hall containing all of the company’s latest
releases, the toy store Schwartz, and many galleries.
One of the most unique shops in the Forum is the Exotic
Car Showroom, where over 40 cars are on display, each
worth over a million dollars. Most of them are rare
collectors’ cars. The car selection changes all the
time. This is in fact a store as well, and you would be
surprised as how quickly these cars are sold. Scattered
around the showroom are several computers that provide
information about the various cars. If the prices of the
cars are too steep for you, don’t worry – you can
purchase affordable souvenirs such as keychains,
t-shirts and baseball caps bearing the emblems of these
cars. There are also remote controlled toy cars that you
can play with in the showroom (and of course purchase as
well). The impressive display draws thousands of
visitors every day.
The Forum also features a huge
aquarium with over 500 tropical fish. Twice a day you
can watch the fish being fed. There are also ‘behind the
scenes’ tours of the aquarium once a day every Monday to
Friday (these tours are free of charge).
There is
also a 3D simulator in the Forum called Cinema Ride,
where several different films are screened. These change
every so often. The Cinema Ride moves and jerks around
and is not recommended for people with heart or back
problems and pregnant women. However, these is also the
more relaxed Omnimax theatre in the hotel, which screens
films on a humongous screen. These films change
occasionally as well.
One last interesting feature of
Caesars Palace I would like to mention is the Cypress
Street Marketplace, a stylized food court with nine
popular and inexpensive restaurants.
The Strat
The main attraction of this hotel is a needle-like tower
at its top, towering 356 metres over the Strip. It is 48
metres taller than the Eiffel Tower. You can see a
beautiful view of the entire city from the top of this
tower. Visiting after nightfall is especially
recommended, as the city is breathtakingly lit up. The
Strat has two viewing platforms, an indoor one
and an open one.
At the top of the tower are four
thrilling attractions, only for the brave: The first is
the Big Shot, which launches you upwards into the sky at
great velocity from the very top of the tower then drops
you in a freefall back to your starting point. The
second is X-Scream, a special roller coaster which hangs
in the air around the top of the tower. The third ride
is called Insanity, and it does require a certain amount
of insanity to ride; it is a giant carousel which swings
you in the air to float over Las Vegas, held only by the
arm of the carousel. The fourth and newest ride is the
Skyjump, a real freefall jump which will send you
plummeting through the sky down 108 floors. You can
purchase single tickets for each ride or combination
tickets for several rides for discounted prices.
The tower features an impressive lighting system which creates a beautiful show of dancing lights every night which can be seen from nearly anywhere in Las Vegas. The Strat also has a restaurant with a 360 view of the city, as well as many shops and restaurants in the bottom floor of the tower.
The Mirage
At the entrance to the hotel is a ‘volcano’ that erupts every evening every 30 minutes, spewing lava and flames which, along with Mirage’s waterfalls, create a beautiful show of fire and water. Near the main entrance is a tropical rainforest with tall palm trees, orchids, and other tropical flowers. Inside the hotel there is a cage housing white tigers, an enormous aquarium which spans the entire reception area and a pool of dolphins which visitors can view from above or below.
Bellagio
One of the most expensive hotels in the world, inspired by an Italian town lakeside town. The hotel opened at the end of 1998 and features fancy and expensive furnishing and decor. The lake at the front of the hotel is filled with thousands of fountains which light up with colour every night. Every evening, once an hour, a beautiful show of light and water takes place, accompanied by classical music.
In the enormous lobby of the hotel there are impressive botanical gardens filled with colourful exotic flowers. On the ceiling are 2000 glass flowers created by the famous Italian artist Dale Chihuly. There is also an art gallery in the hotel, filled with paintings and sculptures by famous artists (There is an entrance fee for the gallery). Individuals under the age of 18 are not allowed into the hotel unless they are staying there, coming to see a (paid) show, or have a reservation at one of the hotel’s luxurious restaurants.
The Venetian
With 6000 rooms, the Venetian is one of
the largest hotels in the world. It opened in 1999 at
the very heart of the Strip, its architecture based off
that of the romantic city of Venice (only cleaner and
more orderly). The complex includes piazzas,
gondola-filled lagoons (in which you can sail for a
fee), towers, and bridges. This city within a city is
amazing to simply stroll through.
The Venetian is
home to the Las Vegas branch of the famous wax museum,
Madame Tussauds. The focus of this branch is American
pop, rock, entertainment and sports idols.
If you’ve
always dreamt of having some say in the film and
television industry in the US, the Venetian’s Las Vegas
Preview Studios will provide you with that opportunity.
You can watch scenes from new movies, new episodes of
known TV shows and pilot episodes of new TV shows – for
free, every day. The episodes and scenes are 15 to 50
minutes long. Afterwards, you are required to fill out
an electronic questionnaire for another 15 minutes.
Luxor
The central building of this hotel is built to look like an enormous, 40-storey pyramid. Entrance to the hotel is through a giant sphinx. The lobby is full of mummies and Egyptian-style sculptures. Three floors of the hotel comprise the Pharaoh’s Pavilion, an entertainment centre which includes a small museum, simulators and IMAX films. You can purchase a combination ticket for all of the attractions in the Pavillion or separate tickets for each one.
A powerful laser beam at the top of the
pyramid lights up the sky at night.
WYNN LAS VEGAS
A relatively new hotel that opened in 2005. This is the
first hotel to open in Vegas in a long time which
doesn’t have some sort of theme to it. Rather, it is
named after its founder, Steve Wynn. Right next to the
shining bronze hotel is a manmade mountain, standing 7
storeys tall and covered in greenery. You can see the
mountain from the hotel, as well as a lake and several
waterfalls, some up to 30 meters in height. Another
attraction is the fountains of the hotels, which dance
along with special effects.
The Wynn Hotel houses an
impressive collection of Ferraris called the Penske Wynn
Ferrari Maserati. The collection is made up of about a
dozen cars, each one valued at over 700,000 dollars,
including a few custom-made models. Steve Wynn’s
personal 1.4 million dollar Ferrari is also on display
there. This showroom attracts many visitors, but as the
maximum number of people allowed inside at a time is 35
you should expect a small line at its entrance. Entry is
free. The showroom is closed on Sundays. Next to the
showroom is a Ferrari souvenir store which sells things
like bags, mugs, toys and the like with the company
logo.
The hotel also displays Wynn’s small but
beautiful collection of art (Wynn is known to be one of
the world’s greatest art collectors). Visitors to this
little museum receive headphones through which they can
hear information about each of the paintings in Wynn’s
own voice. The art museum is open daily. An entrance fee
is required. The hotel also has a very fancy golf
course.
MGM Grand
The second biggest hotel in las Vegas, with over 5000 rooms. Its theme is films, especially The Wizard of Oz. Dedicated television fans can test out new TV shows and upcoming episodes of existing shows at the CBS Television City Research Centre (similar to the Venetian’s Preview Studios). Participation is free and intended for anyone over the age of 10 (although children must be accompanied by an adult). Visitors are instructed how to use the testing computers while watching, then get to watch the latest productions of MTV, CBS and Nickelodeon. After watching you will be required to participate in a 15-minute concluding survey. Another attraction of the hotel is the Lion Habitat in MGM’s enormous lobby – a large glass cage in which you can see lions playing, eating and sleeping in an environment built to simulate their natural habitat. Entry to the lobby is, of course, free.
Treasure Island
This hotel is built to look like a Caribbean pirate town at Buccaneer Bay. At its entrance is a huge pirate ship docking at the harbour. Several times a day a show called The Sirens of Treasure Island takes place at the front of the hotel, featuring song, dance and plenty of special effects. You will have to get there early to get a good spot for viewing. The one disadvantage of this show is that you will have to watch it standing in a dense crowd. The shows get cancelled in stormy or windy weather. There is a playground area inside the hotel.
New York New York
A beautiful hotel inside and out. It is made up of nine 50-storey interconnected sky scrapers, creating a miniature Manhattan skyline – including the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and the Statue of Liberty. A roller coaster by the name of The Manhattan Express is built around the hotel. New York New York also has an entire floor full of amusement rides.
The Excalibur
A hotel designed to look like a medieval castle, surrounded by a moat. A knight show takes place at the entrance to the hotel every night. Excalibur is also home to the Fantasy Faire Midway, an arcade full of carnival games, video games and simulators. Next to the hotel’s main buffet restaurant is a small stage where magic shows, clown shows and the like take place every half an hour, viewing free of charge. Knights march through the hotel several times a day. The hotel also hosts a dinner show called Tournament of Kings.
Paris
This hotel opened at the end of 1999. It looks just like Paris, the city of lights. Its main attraction is of course the Eiffel Tower – 50 floors high, roughly half the size of the original tower. Visitors can go up to the top floor in a glass elevator and see the beautiful view of the strip. (This happens to be the best place from which to view Bellagio’s fountain show.) The hotel also has replicas of other famous Parisian buildings such as its opera building, the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe. The whole hotel has a very Parisian atmosphere, helped along by street performers, artists, mimes, human statues and baguette sellers on their bikes, all inside the beautiful hotel lobby.
Resort & Casino Mandalay Bay
A classy, luxurious hotel, named after
an Indian bay, which opened in 1999 in the southern end
of the strip (next to Luxor). The hotel houses a unique
aquarium called Shark Reef, designed to look like an
ancient sunken temple. It has a walk-through tunnel
going through a shark tank and offers a great view of
giant sea turtles and many other sea creatures (there is
an entry fee to the aquarium). A fantastic waterpark is
attached to the hotel, containing a huge wave pool, a
tubing river and an artificial sandy beach. The pools
are intended for hotel guest use only, but this
beautiful hotel is worth visiting regardless.
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Other great attractions can be found in the following
hotels: Sahara, Hard Rock Cafe, Tropicana, Imperial
Palace, Flamingo Hilton, and many other hotels in the
strip and outside of it.
You can purchase combined
passes to many attractions in Las Vegas here: