Ward - Pocket Rough Guide Las Vegas

This Pocket Rough Guide to Las Vegas is one of a new generation of informative and easy-to-use travel-guide eBooks that guarantees you make the most of your trip, whether youre spending an afternoon or a few days away.

From the table of contents, you can click straight to the main sections of the eBook. Start with the covers all the practical information youll need, from public transport to opening hours and festivals. A handy chronology rounds off the guide.

Depending on your hardware, you will be able to double-tap on the area maps to see larger-scale versions fill your screen. Use of the screen-lock function on your device is recommended for viewing enlarged maps. Make sure you have the latest software updates, too.

Publishing information

This first edition published October 2013 by
Rough Guides Ltd. 80 Strand, London, WC2R 0RL

Email:

Part of the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd. 80 Strand, London, WC2R 0RL
Penguin Group (USA) 375 Hudson Street, NY 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Australia) 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
Penguin Group (NZ) 67 Apollo Drive, Mairangi Bay, Auckland 1310, New Zealand
Rough Guides is represented in Canada by Tourmaline Editions Inc., 662 King Street West, Suite 304, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 1M7
Typeset in Minion and Din to an original design by Henry Iles and Dan May.
Rough Guides, 2013
Maps Rough Guides

The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all information in Pocket Rough Guide Las Vegas, however, they can accept no responsibility for any loss or inconvenience sustained by any reader as a result of its information or advice.

No part of this eBook may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.
ISBN: 9781409364146

This digital edition published 2013. eISBN: 9781409347484

Rough Guides Credits

Text editor: Alison Roberts
Managing editor: Mani Ramaswamy
Layout: Umesh Aggarwal
Photographer: Tim Draper
Cartography: Edward Wright
Picture editor: Mark Thomas
Proofreader: Susannah Wight
Production: Charlotte Cade
Cover design: Wilf Matos and Umesh Aggarwal

DIGITAL PRODUCTION TEAMSenior Digital Producer: Linda Zacharia Head of Technical Development: Roz Hitchcock Head of Digital Media, Delhi: Manjari Hooda Sr. Editorial Manager: Lakshmi Rao Producer: Rahul Kumar Asst. Editor: Sakshi Jain Software Engineer: Rajesh Pandey Asst. Graphic Designer: Rahul Rai, Rohit Rojal Operations Coordinator: Jalaj Bansal

The Author

Greg Ward has been writing about Las Vegas for more than twenty years. As well as four previous Rough Guides to the city, hes the author of separate Rough Guides to the Southwest USA and the Grand Canyon. He has also written many other Rough Guides, including those to the USA, the Titanic, Hawaii, Brittany & Normandy, Provence, Spain, Blues CDs and US History; edited many more; and written books for several other publishers. For more information, visit www.gregward.info .

Acknowledgements

Greg Ward: Thanks as ever to my dear wife Sam, for her support, encouragement and wise words. At Rough Guides, thanks to Alison Roberts for her thoughtful and scrupulous editing, and Ed Wright for his exceptional dedication to producing great maps. And thanks to everyone in Las Vegas who helped me to find and enjoy the very best of the city, especially Kimberley Diller and David Gonzalez, as well as Hannah Allen, Jennifer Byles, Stephanie Capellas, Stephanie Chavez, Katie Conway, Maggie Feldman, Sara Gorgon, Andrew Ho, Alison Monaghan, Holly Olp, Jennifer Polito, Kellyann Roberts, Rochelle Samilin-Jurani, Josie Self, Melanie Shafer, Wendy Sloan, Eleni Stylianou, Melissa Warren and Cathy Wiedemer.

Help us Update

Weve gone to a lot of effort to ensure that the first edition of the Pocket Rough Guide Las Vegas is accurate and up-to-date. However, things change places get discovered, opening hours are notoriously fickle, restaurants and rooms raise prices or lower standards. If you feel weve got it wrong or left something out, wed like to know, and if you can remember the address, the price, the hours, the phone number, so much the better.
Please send your comments with the subject line Pocket Rough Guide Las Vegas Update to . Well credit all contributions and send a copy of the next edition (or any other Rough Guide if you prefer) for the very best emails.
Have your questions answered and tell others about your trip at www.roughguides.com

Introduction to Las Vegas

Elvis impersonator, Fremont Street

A dazzling oasis where forty million people a year let their hair down, Las Vegas has made a fine art of indulging its visitors every appetite. From its ever-changing architecture to cascading chocolate fountains, adrenaline-pumping zip-lines and jaw-dropping stage shows, everything is built to thrill; as soon as the novelty wears off, its blown up and replaced with something bigger and better. Not only does the city hold almost all of the worlds largest hotels, but thats pretty much all it holds; its these extraordinary creations that everyone comes to see.

Each hotel is a neighbourhood in its own right, measuring as much as a mile end to end; crammed full of state-of-the-art clubs, restaurants, spas and swimming pools; and centring on what makes the whole thing possible an action-packed casino where tourists and tycoons alike are gripped by the roll of the dice and the turn of the card.

Even if its entire urban area covers 136 square miles, most visitors see no more than two short, and very different, linear stretches. Downtown, the original centre, now amounts to four brief (roofed-over) blocks of Fremont Street, while the Strip begins a couple of miles south, just beyond the city limits, and runs for four miles southwest. Its the Strip where the real action is, a visual feast where each mega-casino vies to out-do the next with some outlandish theme, be it an Egyptian pyramid (Luxor), a Roman extravaganza (Caesars Palace), a fairytale castle (Excalibur) or a European city (Paris and Venice).

In 1940, Las Vegas was home to just eight thousand people. It owes its extraordinary growth to its constant willingness to adapt; far from remaining kitsch and old-fashioned, its forever reinventing itself. Entrepreneurs race to spot the latest shift in who has the money and what they want to spend it on. A few years ago the casinos realized that gamblers were happy to pay premium prices for good food; top chefs now run gourmet restaurants in venues like Bellagio and the Cosmopolitan. More recently, demand from younger visitors has prompted casinos like Wynn Las Vegas to open high-tech nightclubs to match those of Miami and LA.