Las Vegas at a glance
Eating
Las Vegas used to be a byword for bad food, with just the occasional mobster-dominated steakhouse or Italian restaurant to relieve the monotony of the pile-’em-high buffets. Those days have long gone. Every major Strip casino now holds half a dozen or more high-quality restaurants, many run by top chefs from all over the world. Prices have soared, to a typical minimum spend of $50 per head at big-name places, but so too have standards, and you could eat a great meal in a different restaurant every night in casinos such as Aria, Bellagio, Caesars Palace, the Cosmopolitan and the Venetian.
Drinking
Every Las Vegas casino offers free drinks to gamblers. Sit at a slot machine or gaming table, and a cocktail waitress will find you and take your order; tips are expected. In addition, the casinos hold all kinds of bars and lounges; very few tourists venture further afield to drink. Along the Strip bars tend to be themed, as with the Irish pubs of New York–New York or the flamboyant lounges of Caesars Palace; downtown they’re a bit more rough-and-ready. Note that the legal drinking age is 21 – you must carry ID to prove it.
Nightlife
The Strip is once more riding high as the entertainment epicentre of the world. While Elvis may have left the building, headliners like Elton John and Celine Dion attract thousands of big-spending fans night after night and all the major touring acts pass through. Meanwhile the old-style feathers-and-sequins revues have been supplanted by a never-ending stream of jaw-droppingly lavish shows by the Cirque du Soleil, plus the likes of the postmodern Blue Man Group. A new generation of visitors has been responsible for the dramatic growth in the city’s clubbing scene. Casinos like the Cosmopolitan, the Palms and Wynn Las Vegas now boast some of the world’s most spectacular – and expensive – nightclubs and ultra-lounges.
Shopping
Shopping now ranks among the principal reasons that people visit Las Vegas. Downtown is all but devoid of shops, however, and while the workaday city holds its fair share of suburban malls, tourists do almost all of their shopping on the Strip itself. Their prime destination is the amazing Forum at Caesars Palace, followed by the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian and Miracle Mile at Planet Hollywood. There are also a couple of stand-alone malls – Fashion Show opposite Wynn Las Vegas, which is the most useful for everyday purchases, and the very high-end Crystals in CityCenter.