Arrival
A very high proportion of visitors to Las Vegas fly into the city’s only significant airport, not far east of the Strip, while all the rest drive across the empty desert from elsewhere in the USA. No passenger trains currently serve the city, though there’s talk of constructing a high-speed link with Los Angeles.
By air
Las Vegas’s ever-expanding McCarran International Airport (
702 261 5211, 
www.mccarran.com) lies immediately southeast of the Strip; aircraft pass within a mile of Mandalay Bay and the Tropicana as they taxi. However, both its terminals – confusingly numbered 1 and 3, since the new Terminal 3, used by all international flights, replaced the former Terminal 2 in 2012 – are accessed from the east, via Paradise Road. That means the closest Strip casinos are around three miles by road from the airport; the Venetian and Wynn more like five miles; and downtown hotels around seven miles.
Assuming you’re not renting a car – in which case, note that all the rental companies are based at a separate, off-site facility – much the best way to transfer from the airport to your hotel is by taxi. In principle, a cab ride to the southern Strip (10–20min) will cost $16 and upwards, and to the northern Strip (20–30min) more like $30. If the traffic’s bad you may have to pay up to $10 more.
Lone travellers may prefer to pay for a seat in a shared Bell Trans shuttle bus ( 702 386 7494, bell-trans.com), which costs $7.50 to the Strip and $10 to downtown, but as these services drop off other passengers en route the journey time can be long, an hour or more for properties on the North Strip.
It is also possible, but even slower, to use the RTC bus network, by taking route #109 from the airport to the South Strip Transfer Terminal, and changing there onto the Strip And Downtown Express, for a total fare of $3. The total journey is likely to take at least half an hour for the South Strip, and over an hour for the North Strip and downtown.
Note that the Las Vegas Monorail does not serve the airport.
By car
The main driving route into Las Vegas is the I-15 interstate, which connects the city with Los Angeles, 270 miles southwest, and Salt Lake City, 420 miles northeast. On Fridays especially, it tends to be clogged with cars arriving from southern California. Only if traffic is at a standstill is it worth leaving the interstate before you reach the exit closest to your final destination. If you’re coming from California, therefore, you wouldn’t normally expect to drive the full length of Las Vegas Boulevard, which runs parallel to I-15 from the southern end of the valley, and becomes the Strip roughly ten miles along.
Driving to Las Vegas from the Grand Canyon or anywhere else in Arizona, you’ll approach the city along US-93, via the Hoover Dam. Either follow the same road, as Boulder Highway, all the way to downtown, or turn west, most likely on Tropicana Road or Flamingo Avenue, to reach the Strip.
By bus
Long-distance Greyhound buses ( 800 231 2222, www.greyhound.com), which connect Las Vegas with other Southwestern cities including Los Angeles, Phoenix and Salt Lake City, stop downtown rather than on the Strip. The station is alongside the Plaza hotel, at 200 S Main Street.