World City Guide

Key Attractions

Wynn Las Vegas
Erected on the spot where once stood the legendary Desert Inn, Las Vegas’ newest landmark is the glamorous Wynn Las Vegas. The latest property developed by Vegas casino kingpin Steve Wynn opened its doors on April 28, 2005. Sheathed in coppery bronze reflecting the desert sun, this 42-storey, 192-acre, US$ 2.7billion megaresort boasts a 10,000-sq-metre (110,000 sq ft) casino, 2,700 guest rooms, an 18 hole professionally designed golf course, a fine art gallery and Las Vegas’ only fully authorized Ferrari Maserati dealership with 10,000 square foot showroom. The centrepiece of the resort is a 46m (150ft) high mountain with a five-storey waterfall cascading into a man-made lake featuring The Lake of Dreams, a multi-media spectacular in an environmental theatre setting.
The Wynn also features a US$70m, 2,000 seat domed showroom with a circular stage, the first of its kind in the city and the home of Le Reve, the latest production from Franco Dragone, of Cirque du Soleil fame and the mastermind behind three of Las Vegas’ most popular shows. The resort will also boast close to 5,000 rooms with the scheduled completion of Encore, a 2,000-suite tower, in 2008.

3201 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Tel: (702) 770 7100 or 888 320 7123. Fax: (702) 770 1571.
Website: www.wynnlasvegas.com
Transport: Bus 301; Las Vegas Strip Trolley.
Opening hours: Daily 24 hours.
Admission: Free (hotel and casino).

Bellagio
The Bellagio has quickly become one of Las Vegas’ best-known and most visited hotel–casinos. Cashing in on the recent trend towards Euro-opulence, the Bellagio sits on its own four-hectare (10-acre) ‘oasis’, featuring a mock northern Italian village on the shore, behind which looms the bulking mass of the large hotel. The hotel offers 3,200 rooms and suites (see Hotels), 17 restaurants, six lounges, botanical gardens and six Mediterranean pool settings. Its 9,000-sq-metre (100,000-sq-ft) casino features over 2,000 slot machines and electronic games and over 100 table games. The Bellagio also has a fine art gallery, which hosts contemporary art exhibits, as well as a 9,000-sq-metre (100,000 sq ft) glass-encased shopping mall. A popular attraction is the dancing water show from the Bellagio’s world-famous fountains every 30 minutes 1500-2000 Mon-Fri (starts at 1200 Sat-Sun) and every 15 minutes from 2000 –2400.

3600 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Tel: (702) 693 7111 or 888 987 7111. Fax: (702) 693 8585.
Website: www.bellagio.com
Transport: Bus 301; Las Vegas Strip Trolley.
Opening hours: Daily 24 hours.
Admission: Free (hotel and casino); US$ 15 (art gallery).

Freemont Street and The Freemont Street Experience
Located Downtown, near the Plaza Hotel, Freemont Street is a favourite nightly flocking ground for the city’s many tourists. Ten casinos, over 60 restaurants and countless bars and lounges offer Old Las Vegas style enticement to visitors. Peddlers sell silver jewellery and various crafts from their pushcart stalls by day and especially at night, when Freemont Street comes alive with The Freemont Street Experience. Perched 90 feet above Freemont Street is a hi-tech overhead light and sound show stretching for five blocks over 1400ft composed of one of the world’s largest and longest LED screens. The Experience is an ideal way to take in the ’real’ Las Vegas and see some of her older and well-known neon signs, for example Glitter Gulch's Vegas Vickie and the equally recognizable Vegas Vic. Freemont Street is open 24 hours with shows starting at 2030 and from then run hourly between 2100 and 2400. A particular hit for those travelling with families.

Fremont Street Experience
425 Fremont Street
Tel: (702) 678 5777.
Website: www.vegasexperience.com
Transport: Bus 301 or 302; Las Vegas Strip Tolley
Opening hours: Freemont Street is open 24 hours.
Admission: Free (street and shows).

MGM Grand
Since its completion in 1993, the momentous MGM Grand has held the title of largest hotel in the world, with over 5,005 rooms. Its enormous Grand Garden Arena has also become one of the key venues for boxing matches in the USA. The casino area alone is 15,300 sq metres (170,000 sq ft). Other features include 15 restaurants, a coffee shop, a food court with five lounges, two showrooms, two wedding chapels, five pools including a flowing river pool, a lion habitat, a dance club and shopping complex. The MGM Grand is also a main terminal station for the Las Vegas Monorail.

3799 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Tel: (702) 891 7777 or 877 880 0880. Fax: (702) 891 1030.
Website: www.mgmgrand.com
Transport: Bus 301; Las Vegas Strip Trolley; Las Vegas Monorail
Opening hours: Daily 24 hours (hotel and casino); daily 1100-2200 (lion habitat).
Admission: Free (hotel and casino and lion habitat).

Caesars Palace
An old denizen of the Strip, Caesars Palace possesses more Las Vegas character than many of its newer neighbours. It sits in a lavish Roman setting, perhaps the historical theme best suited to this city of excess, with Roman columns, grand staircases, manicured shrubbery, imported marble statuary and luxuriant fountains. Its two main casinos, measuring a total of 12,050 sq metres (129,750 sq ft), feature all the regular games, as well as an ‘empire’ of slot machines that feature prizes such as motorcycles and convertible cars, and jackpots that have reached more than US$21 million. Recent additions to the Caesars Palace property include the newly constructed Colosseum, featuring The Celine Dion Theatre, a high-limit slot salon The Palace Court Slot Casino and the all-suites Augustus Tower, slated to open late summer 2005, which will see the resort rooming increase to 3,340 by the end of this year.

3570 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Tel: (702) 731 7110 or 877 427 7243. Fax: (702) 967 3890/866 1700.
Website: www.caesarspalace.com
Transport: Bus 301; Las Vegas Strip Trolley.
Opening hours: Daily 24 hours.
Admission: Free.

Mirage
Of all the mega-casinos that line the Strip, the Mirage provides the biggest outdoor spectacle. The evening sees queues of people taking in the artificial volcano that erupts every 15 minutes from 1900-2400. The setting is completed by an artificial lagoon with 54 artificial waterfalls that flow down the side of the volcano. As visitors make their way inside, they enter an indoor tropical rainforest, a dolphin habitat and a saltwater tropical aquarium. The hotel also boasts a pool and spa, eight restaurants, four lounge bar areas, a white tiger habitat, its famed Shadow Creek golf course and the requisite casino, which features over 2,000 slot machines.

3400 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Tel: (702) 791 7111 or 800 374 9000. Fax: (702) 791 7446.
Website: www.mirage.com
Transport: Bus 301; Las Vegas Strip Trolley.
Opening hours: Daily 24 hours.
Admission: Free.

Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino
This US$2 billion addition to Las Vegas is yet another complex to cash in on a European theme. To some, it was a tragedy to see the demolition of the historic Sands Hotel and Casino to make way for this new hotel but no effort has been spared in creating the Venetian. Much of the complex features actual canals, on which gondolas carry visitors up and down the waterways. The 10,800-sq-metre (120,000-sq-ft) casino, featuring 2,500 slot machines and 122 table games, sits behind a replica of the Doge’s Palace. The complex’s 18 restaurants, four pools and a fitness centre cater to the visitor’s non-gambling whims.

3355 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Tel: (702) 414 1000 or 877 883 6423. Fax: (702) 414 1100.
Website: www.venetian.com
Transport: Bus 301; Las Vegas Strip Trolley; Las Vegas Monorail.
Opening hours: Daily 24 hours.
Admission: Free.

Las Vegas Natural History Museum
The Las Vegas Natural History Museum brings the natural world of local Nevada wildlife to life, as well as ancient dinosaurs, marine life and more, through exhibits, displays and live exhibitions. The museum’s dinosaur exhibit features mechanical dinosaurs, including a 10-metre (35ft) –long Tyrannosaurus Rex, as well as the exhibits detailing the evolution of life from fish to dinosaurs. The Wild Nevada Room explores the surprising diversity of life from the state’s own Mojave Desert. Replicas include rattlesnake, bighorn sheep, desert tortoises and burrowing rodents. The museum also has live animals on display, such as a gopher snake, a tarantula, a boa constrictor and scorpions.

900 Las Vegas Boulevard North, Downtown
Tel: (702) 384 3466. Fax: (702) 384 5343.
Website: www.lvnhm.org
Transport: Bus 301.
Opening hours: Daily 0900-1600.
Admission: US$6 (concessions available).