Viva Las Vegas! Since its founding 100 years ago, Las Vegas has been the biggest, brightest, and brazenest boomtown in the history of the world. In the past 20 years, the population has more than tripled (rapidly approaching 2 million people in the metropolitan area), and over a dozen major hotels and mega-resorts have re-created everything from ancient Egypt to Venice (complete with canals and gondoliers), Paris (a mock Eiffel Tower), and New York City (with a Coney Island roller coaster and fake steam puffing up from fake sidewalks). More numbers: With nearly 150,000 rooms, the city has as many as New York and Chicago combined, and 40 million visitors lose close to $10 billion in the casinos here every year.
In addition to gambling, Las Vegas casinos have all the rooms, restaurants, and recreational opportunities you can imagine (and then some). If you’re staying overnight, you’ll enter the wacky and somewhat wicked world of Las Vegas lodging. Rooms aren’t the dirt-cheap bargains they were a decade or more ago; rates vary depending on the time of year, time of the week, and sometimes even the time of day, but count on spending at least $50 for a decent hotel room, 5 times that for something special. You should definitely make reservations as early as you can; on Friday nights, or during a big convention or boxing match, the whole town is often sold out. A final note: If you’ll be schlepping a lot of luggage, Las Vegas hotel rooms are a long way from parking spaces in the high-rise garages and huge lots, but parking is free. Here are a few of the many places you can play:
Caesars Palace (702/731-7110 or 800/634-6001): Long before there was a Mirage; a New York, New York; a Bellagio; or a Venetian, there was Caesars Palace. From the day it opened in 1966 as the first “themed” hotel in Las Vegas, Caesars Palace has been the classiest and most famous place in town.
Hard Rock Hotel/Casino (4555 Paradise Road; 702/693-5000 or 800/473-7625): For anyone under 60, this is the coolest place in town. Off the Strip and small by Vegas standards, but where else can you listen to nonstop classic rock ’n’ roll while playing Jimi Hendrix slot machines (a line of “Purple Haze” pays $200), or drinking a cocktail at the swim-up bar?
Luxor (3900 Las Vegas Boulevard South; 702/262-4000 or 800/288-1000): The most distinctive, housed inside a mammoth (29-million-cubic-foot) glass pyramid at the southern end of the Strip. Above the casino, stage sets of city streets hold high-tech attractions: motion simulators, 3-D and IMAX movies, and virtual reality arcade games.
The Mirage (3400 Las Vegas Boulevard South; 702/791-7111 or 800/627-6667): Has its own rainforest, a 50,000-gallon aquarium, and white tigers on display (this is the home of Siegfried and Roy). Next door, at Treasure Island, a theatrical (and free) pirate show is staged right on the Strip every 90 minutes or so all day long.
Wynn Las Vegas (3131 Las Vegas Boulevard South; 702/770-7100 or 888/320-WYNN): Brought to you by the creator of Mirage and Bellagio, on the site of the historic Desert Inn (where billionaire recluse Howard Hughes used to live), this ultra-fashionable 2,700-suite oasis is the last word in high-end indulgence, with an on-site Ferrari dealership and some of the best restaurants in the country.
