Las Vegas
Las Vegas is four miles of spectacle that look walkable on a map and are not, the cheapest airport for the Southwest parks, and a room rate that is a loss leader until the resort fee arrives. Two nights, the free trams, and water everywhere from May to September.
Las Vegas in a nutshell
Las Vegas: what to expect
The numbers below come from 450,000+ planned stops in the United States on Stippl, and the rest from the guides we cross-check.
Two nights is the Las Vegas number, and the trips it sits on are road trips. The Strip runs 4.2 miles and looks walkable on a map, which it is not, so the list is the Bellagio fountains from the pavement, the Strip after dark, a show or the Sphere, Fremont Street's canopy downtown, the Neon Museum at dusk and Red Rock Canyon half an hour out; the casino floors are free to walk through and several of the best sights are inside them. Most travellers give Las Vegas 2 nights on Stippl.
Las Vegas is the bed, the airport and the last supermarket before the parks. Only 5.7% of Las Vegas trips planned on Stippl carry no other American stop, the lowest of any big American city, and only 17.5% start here, because the city is the middle of the western loop between Los Angeles and Zion, Bryce and the Grand Canyon.
Stay on or near the Strip for a first visit, check the resort fee before you compare two rates, and use the free trams and the Deuce rather than a car. Downtown is materially cheaper and not a downgrade. Skip a rental car for the Strip, since parking is charged and everything is walkable or on a tram, and skip an outdoor day in July or August without a first-light start, because the heat here is dangerous rather than uncomfortable.
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First-timers to the West
The cheapest place to fly into for the parks, and two nights of the spectacle is a real experience before Zion and the Grand Canyon.
Road-trippers
The bed, the airport and the last supermarket before Zion, Bryce, Death Valley and the Grand Canyon, which is how 22.33% of US trips on Stippl use it.
Show-goers
The concentration of residencies, Cirque productions, arena acts and now the Sphere is unmatched anywhere.
Birthday and stag travellers
The whole city is built around the format, from the pool clubs to the chapels, and it does not judge.
Downtown budget travellers
Free attractions, rooms at half the Strip's rate and a walkable centre under the Fremont Street canopy.
Two-night stoppers
Most travellers give Las Vegas 2 nights on Stippl and only 13.9% of stops run to four or more, which is the shape the city is built for.
Maybe not for you: anyone who dislikes crowds, noise or cigarette smoke indoors; families with young children on the Strip after dark; and anyone visiting in July or August without a plan for the heat.
The best time to visit Las Vegas
Spring
March to May
The best of the year: warm days, cold nights, the canyons at their most walkable and the pools open, with the conference calendar setting the midweek rates.
Summer
June to September
Genuinely dangerous heat rather than merely uncomfortable, at 40 degrees in July; pools and indoor everything, and outdoor plans move to first light.
Autumn
October and November
The second good window and the quieter one, with the Formula 1 weekend in November the exception that moves room rates across the city.
Winter
December to February
Cold at night, cheap, and the pools largely shut, with New Year's Eve the one exception and the most expensive night of the year.
- Most travellers give Las Vegas 2 nights on Stippl, and 33.0% of stops are a single night. Two nights is the shape almost everyone takes: one for the Strip, one for a show and downtown, then the road.
- The summer heat is the planning constraint, and the summer is when people come. July and August together are the busiest two months on Stippl, at daytime normals near 40 degrees, so water goes everywhere and the outdoor day trip starts at dawn.
- New Year's Eve closes the Strip to traffic and fills it. Room rates multiply, minimum stays apply, and the fireworks from the rooftops are the one night the city sells at any price.
- Fight weekends, the Formula 1 race in November and the big conventions move rates across the whole city. A room that is cheap one Tuesday is not the next, so check the calendar before fixing the dates.
- First Friday is the Arts District's free monthly street festival. Over a hundred artists and food trucks on Main Street, and the one evening downtown feels like a city rather than a resort.
- The resort fee is the single most surprising cost. A nightly charge on top of the room rate at almost every Strip hotel, often not in the advertised price, and it can exceed a cheap midweek room.
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Things to do in Las Vegas
The Bellagio fountains
Free, every fifteen to thirty minutes from mid-afternoon until midnight, and better from the pavement than from a restaurant window; the conservatory inside is free too.
Walking the Strip after dark
The full 4.2 miles takes about ninety minutes without stopping, which nobody manages, and it is the single thing every first-timer is told to do.
A show
Cirque du Soleil, a residency or the Sphere, which is a venue rather than an act and the newest reason to come; book before the flight for the headline nights.
Fremont Street
The LED canopy downtown, the zip line above it and the older city underneath, with the bars of Fremont East beyond the canopy where the locals drink.
The Neon Museum
About 250 salvaged casino signs in an outdoor lot, best booked for dusk when they are lit, and the one museum the city built about itself.
Red Rock Canyon
A thirteen-mile scenic loop and 26 trails half an hour from the Strip, on a timed entry in season, and the desert the city sits in.
The neighbourhoods of Las Vegas
The Strip
Four miles of spectacle
The Bellagio fountains, the Sphere, the mega-resorts and every headline show within one boulevard, with the free trams and the Deuce bus along it. For first visits.
Everything at the door and the resort fee and parking on the bill, with nowhere quiet to sleep.
Downtown Fremont Street
Old Vegas, cheaper
The covered LED canopy, the Neon Museum and rooms at half the Strip's rate, older rather than worse, with the original casinos and the shrimp cocktails. For budgets and second visits.
Half the room rate and its own attractions, and a bus ride to the Strip's shows.
Fremont East
Indie bars, no casino floor
Cocktail bars and music venues just beyond the canopy with none of the mega-resort obligation, where the locals drink downtown. For nightlife without the machines.
The best bars in the city, and streets that thin out a few blocks off Fremont at night.
Arts District
Galleries in warehouses
Independent restaurants, breweries, vintage shops and a free street festival every first Friday, between Downtown and the Strip. For art and eating like a resident.
Real restaurants and a monthly festival, and a car or a rideshare to everything else.
Summerlin
The gateway to the canyon
A planned suburb ten minutes from Red Rock Canyon's scenic drive and its 26 trails, with resort casinos of its own and none of the Strip's noise. For hikers and families.
The canyon at the door and quiet nights, at twenty minutes' drive from the Strip.
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Where to stay in Las Vegas
Stay on or near the Strip for a first visit, and being a fifteen-minute walk off it is the compromise that saves real money; Downtown is materially cheaper and not a downgrade, with older rooms rather than worse ones. Most travellers give Las Vegas 2 nights on Stippl, and midweek and last minute both work here, because the rooms are a loss leader for the casino floor.
The Strip
€130–320
Mega-resort rooms from cheap midweek rates to headline hotels, €40 to €400 a night before the resort fee.
Downtown Fremont Street
The older casino hotels at half the Strip's rate, €30 to €120 a night, resort fees included in some.
Fremont East
€70–160
A few boutique hotels and hostels among the bars, €50 to €150 a night.
Arts District
Apartments and small hotels between Downtown and the Strip, €70 to €160 a night.
Summerlin
€90–200
Resort casinos with pools and canyon views, €120 to €300 a night, and a car to the Strip.
What to eat in Las Vegas
An all-you-can-eat spread, the format the city invented
A named chef's flagship inside a resort
A downtown counter tradition dating to the 1950s
Sichuan, Korean, Thai and Japanese along Spring Mountain Road
Cafes inside the older casinos that never close
The meal the Strip prices most reasonably
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Las Vegas customs and what not to do
Open containers, no glass
You may carry an alcoholic drink walking the Strip, in unincorporated Clark County, but glass containers are prohibited for any drink, and you must be 21.
Twenty-one is the line
Gambling, alcohol and most clubs, and identification is checked routinely, so the passport comes out at the door.
More hands out than anywhere
Tipping applies as everywhere in the country and then some: dealers, servers on free drinks, valets and housekeeping all expect it, in cash.
The casino floor still smokes
Smoking indoors is legal on the gaming floors, and it is the thing non-smoking visitors most often say they were unprepared for.
No photographs on the floor
Photography inside casinos is restricted on the gaming floor, while the public areas, the conservatories and the canals are fine.
Set the number first
Gambling losses are the predictable harm, so the amount is set before arrival, and the free drinks on the floor are part of the machinery.
Do
- Check the resort fee and the parking fee before you compare two room rates
- Use the free trams and the Deuce rather than a rental car
- Carry water everywhere between May and September, indoors and out
- Drink from a plastic cup or a can if you are carrying it on the street
- Ask the hotel where the rideshare pick-up point is before you order
Don't
- Assume the Strip is walkable in the time a map suggests; it is 4.2 miles
- Carry glass on the Strip, even a water bottle
- Plan an outdoor day trip in July or August without a first-light start and a plan for water
- Book a Friday or Saturday if the dates are flexible; midweek is a different price
- Take a taxi from the airport when rideshare exists; long-hauling visitors is a known game
What a Las Vegas trip costs
Budget
€50–70
A dorm bed or a downtown room, groceries, the free attractions, the Deuce pass, a couple of drinks.
Mid-range
€130–220
A mid-Strip room with its resort fee, a show, eating properly once a day, the Neon Museum.
High-end
€340+
A headline hotel, a celebrity-chef dinner, a show and a club, a helicopter to the canyon.
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Fun facts about Las Vegas
The Las Vegas Strip is not in the city of Las Vegas at all. It sits in unincorporated Clark County, which is why its alcohol and open-container rules differ from Downtown's.
Clark County holds more than 700 wedding chapels. The short-notice marriage has been a Las Vegas industry since the 1940s, and the licence office is open until midnight.
The Bellagio fountains run 1,200 nozzles. They fire every fifteen to thirty minutes from mid-afternoon until midnight, choreographed to music, and cost nothing to watch.
The Sphere is the largest spherical structure in the world. Its LED skin is 112 metres high, and it is a venue rather than an act, which is why it is the newest reason to come.
Las Vegas means the meadows in Spanish. The springs that named it dried up under the city, and the water now comes from Lake Mead behind the Hoover Dam.
The Neon Museum keeps about 250 dead casino signs. They lie in an outdoor lot north of downtown, and the tour at dusk is when the restored ones are lit.
Local tips for Las Vegas
No car for the Strip
Parking is charged at most resorts, typically €13 to €22 a day, and everything on the Strip is walkable or on a free tram, so rent one for the parks and not before.
The three free trams
Bellagio to Park MGM, Mandalay Bay to Excalibur and Mirage to Treasure Island, all free, all air-conditioned, and the most useful thing nobody tells you.
The Deuce runs all night
The length of the Strip and on to Fremont Street, 24 hours a day, at €7 for a day pass; it is slow in the evening traffic and still beats walking four miles.
Rideshare pick-up is awkward
The resorts each have a designated point that is rarely where you are standing, so ask before you order and walk to it.
Heat is the danger
Hundreds of heat-associated deaths a year in the county, most in July and August, which are also the two busiest months for visitors; water everywhere, and the desert day trips at first light.
Two nights, midweek
Most travellers give Las Vegas 2 nights on Stippl and 33.0% of stops are a single night, and midweek is a different price from the weekend.
Las Vegas questions, answered
Two nights is the shape almost everyone takes: most travellers give Las Vegas 2 nights on Stippl and only 13.9% of stops run to four or more. One night for the Strip and the fountains, one for a show and Fremont Street, and the third day is Red Rock or the road to Zion.
A compulsory nightly charge added on top of the room rate at almost every Strip hotel, typically in the tens of euros and often not in the advertised price, covering the pool and the wifi whether you use them or not. Compare two hotels on the room rate plus the fee plus the parking, never on the headline number.
Squarely in the middle, since only 17.5% of Las Vegas trips start here and only 5.7% carry no other American stop, of everyone who plans it on Stippl, with Los Angeles at one end and the Utah parks at the other. Put it into Stippl as two nights between them, then ask people who have driven the loop, in subreddits like r/roadtrip, which direction to run it.
Not for the Strip, where the free trams and the 24-hour Deuce bus cover everything and parking is charged by the day. Rent one at the end of the stay for Red Rock Canyon, Zion or Death Valley, and treat the desert drives as a different category, with water, a full tank and a first-light start in summer.
Yes on the Strip, if you are 21 and the container is not glass, because the boulevard sits in unincorporated Clark County; glass is prohibited for any drink, alcoholic or not. Downtown's Fremont Street has its own rules, and in a car the open container is banned everywhere.
Yes, because the trips that carry it are road trips rather than casino trips: 22.33% of US trips planned on Stippl pass through, most on the way to the parks. Two nights of the spectacle, the shows, the fountains, the Neon Museum and Red Rock Canyon cost nothing at the tables, and the casino floors are free to walk through.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
Plan Las Vegas in Stippl
Day-by-day planning, stays and budget in one app, with every place from this guide already on the map.
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