Travel 

Advertisement

Lonely Planet - Las Vegas

If you're exploring Las Vegas, be sure to visit these highlights, brought to you courtesy of our friends at Lonely Planet Publications

1. Getting a sensory overload on the world's flashiest boulevard

If it's your first time visiting Vegas and you're driving, make sure you do a few things. First, arrive after dark. Next, pull over and admire everything from afar before you hit the high-speed city limits. Finally, exit off the interstate and cruise the length of Las Vegas Blvd (aka the Strip). Your eyes will pop out of your head, guaranteed.

Flashing neon welcomes those weary from their interminably long trip across the desert (or equally taxing flight across the continent or an ocean) and gives 'em glorious sensory overload. From the beacon shooting toward the stars out of the Darth-Vader dark pyramid of the Luxor to the Big Apple cityscape of New York-New York, the thousands of feather-like pink bulbs adorning the venerable Flamingo, the spritzing musical fountains of Bellagio, the Mirage's exploding volcano and the gigantic Stratosphere Tower, all of the Strip is a spectacle.

Not that you have to drive it, of course. You can hoof it, though it'll mightily tire out your tootsies. Or cycle it, skateboard it, bodysurf it, roar down it on a Harley hog or even (as we saw one funny stuntman doing) rise above it all on a pair of rickety stilts. Watching - or joining the ranks of - the crazy folks is all part of the fun right here on the infamous Las Vegas Strip.

2. Eating your fill (or more) at a casino hotel

If things haven't gone your way in the poker room, or when you've thrown the dice the wrong way at the craps table, or after every pull of the slot-machine lever comes up short, you can still feel like you're winning the jackpot simply by feasting at one of Vegas' dozens of buffets.

Veterans of 'groaning boards' proffer some sage words of advice.

First, starve yourself for as long as possible before saddling up at a buffet, and don't count on eating any meals afterward. Breakfast or lunch - or better yet weekend bunch - is better value than dinner, unless special entrees such as steak or seafood are added. And the predictable principle usually applies: the more expensive the casino hotel, the better the fare. Think Wynn, Bellagio etc.

Once you wait out the queue, the time-tested strategy is to steal teensy servings of absolutely everything before deciding what you really want to eat. Why get stuck with soggy sushi when a smiling chef is making fresh omelettes and crepes just a few food stations over? And always save room for multiple mini desserts, from floating islands of caramel meringue to house-made gelato.

Oh, and leave behind a tip for the servers who bussed all those gluttonous piles of scrap-ridden plates off your table. Without them, you'd have drowned in those foodstuffs.

3. Putting your fortune in the hands of fate

Las Vegas wouldn't exist if people didn't come seeking their fortunes in the green felt jungle. From 19th-century silver miners and bordello prostitutes, to the New York mafia and billionaire Howard Hughes, to online gambling geeks who hang in until the final table at the World Series of Poker, a lucky few have made a mint here.

Advertising billboards around town are plastered with the smiling faces of Marge and David 'who just won $25,000 on our hot, hot slots!', which may seduce you into trying your hand at gaming.

Maybe someone hands you the dice at the craps table, and you can't resist giving 'em a to-die-for roll. Or you plug a quarter into the video poker machine and you're dealt a royal flush. Once you've caught the fever after a gigantic pay-off , there may be almost no going back.

Statistically speaking, however, the casino (aka 'the house') pretty much always has an edge over the gambler. Not even blackjack is really a 'beatable' game.

So before you bet your precious nest egg on the random turn of Fate's roulette wheel, do your homework.

Delicious     Digg     reddit     Facebook     StumbleUpon

  Get the latest iVillage news on your desktop    Sign up for more iVillage RSS feeds

© iVillage Limited 2000-2008. All rights reserved. | © iVillage inc. 1995-2008. All rights reserved.
iVillage Ltd is a UK company registered in England & Wales (3837269) at 80-110 New Oxford Street, London WC1 1HB