Las Vegas demands the suspension of
disbelief - the moment you start to take it seriously you miss the point. It's
glitz for its own sake, over-the-top hustle and flash as means and end. It's
crowds of people in polyester pantsuits, big hair and gold chains, staring at
neon signs and spinning lemons like deer hypnotized by headlights. Not that
Vegas doesn't have a serious side: billions are at stake on the craps and
blackjack tables and in the battle of the theme parks - but you're given enough
distractions to ignore it - until you lose. If you tire of pulling the handle
on that one-armed bandit and drinking watered-down (albeit free) screwdrivers,
the surrounding area has some of the region's most beautiful scenery.
Population:
1,245,000 Area: 85 sq mi (215 sq km) Elevation: 2175ft
(650m) State: Nevada Time Zone: Pacific Time (GMT minus 8
hours) Telephone area code: 702
History
Las Vegas (the name is
Spanish for "the meadows") was originally a camping ground for travellers
making their way across the desert from Sante Fe to California. There was no
real settlement until 1885, when 30 young men were sent by the government to
Las Vegas to "build a fort there to protect immigrants and Indians and teach
them how to raise corn etc." But they didn't stay long and the area remained
uninhabited until it was announced that a new railroad was to be built through
Las Vegas to the south-west. On May 15, 1905, a land auction was held and in
two days 2000 lots of land were sold at a total price of $265,000. Soon a huge
tent city had grown up, and these tents provided Las Vegas's first saloons and
gambling houses.
The city of Las Vegas, population 3,000, was
incorporated in 1911 and that was 32 years after Reno achieved that status 400
miles to the north. The most notorious section of Las Vegas was called "Block
16," an anything-goes red-light district in the downtown area. Dating back to
1905, Block 16 and its gambling parlours were ahead of their time; Gov. Fred
Balzar didn't legalize gambling until 1931. But that was a mere formality.
Gambling, in fact, had been legalized once before, in 1869, and then outlawed
in 1910. In 1931 the state of Nevada
legalized gambling, but though Las Vegas had its share of small gambling houses
there were no luxury hotels or casinos until 1941. On April 3 the El
Rancho opened with 63 rooms and on Oct 30, 1942, the Last Frontier with 107
rooms.
Also in 1931 came the Hoover Dam project, the biggest single kick
to the southern Nevada economy. The project, embraced as a part of President
Franklin Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration, was seen as a way to create
jobs and bring water to the southwest desert. Over a four-year span, this
massive federal project brought 5,000 workers and a veritable cascade of money
into the area. . For Las Vegas, the damming of the mighty Colorado River was
indeed a watershed event. The Hoover Dam provided the first reliable source of
water, along with cheap electricity to meet the growing city's prodigious
demands. It left the region with a recreational jewel called Lake Mead and a
quaint suburb named Boulder City.
The first real resort opened in 1946.
In that year the notorious New York gang leader and speculator Benjamin "Bugsy"
Siegel opened a club called the Flamingo on what was then a three-mile desert
strip between Las Vegas and McCarren airport. The desert didn't worry him, he
filled 40 acres of it with imported lawns, cork tress, live flamingos and
artificial ponds. He was either going to be a visionary or a
crank.
Siegel's reign in Las Vegas was short-lived. A year after the
opening of the Flamingo he was murdered and it wasn't long before his
successor, Gus Greenbaum, suffered the same fate. Alarmed by the evidence of
the underworld's power in Las Vegas, the Gaming Control Board decided that it
was high time they took firmer control. They made it a law that all casino
owners must apply to the State Tax Commission for a license.
On state
matters it is interesting to note that the Nevada Test Site is located
about 65 miles northwest of the City of Las Vegas. The Test Site encompasses
1,350 square miles of desert and mountainous terrain. The site is surrounded on
three sides by the 4,120 square-mile Nellis Air Force Range, which provides a
substantial buffer between the site and surrounding communities. Prior to the
signing of the Limited Test Ban Treaty on August 5, 1963, which effectively
banned atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, the Department's predecessor
agencies conducted more than 1,100 nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site.
But Vegas had been launched, and nothing could check its progress. Once
the Flamingo had proved itself, other hotels began to spring up. In 1950 the
Desert Inn was opened, in 1951 the Horseshoe (Downtown), in 1952 the Sahara and
the Sands, and by 1956 there were 12 luxury hotels with casinos along the
strip. In 1961 Vegas had 9,000,000 visitors and notched up a gambling profit of
$107m, it had been $50m in 1954. By 1960, the city's population had
grown to 65,000. One of the newcomers was Howard Hughes. The eccentric
billionaire started buying up casinos, including the Desert Inn (where he
lived), Sands, Landmark, Silver Slipper, Castaways and Frontier. Paying top
dollar for the properties ($14 million for the Sands and $13 million for the
Desert Inn), Hughes sparked an intense round of speculation and opened the door
for corporations to get into the gambling business.
The MGM Grand was
built in 1973, and its 2,100 rooms made it the largest hotel in the world at
that time. With funding from the deep pockets of well-known corporations, such
as Hilton, and local start-ups like Circus Circus, gambling projects have been
getting bigger ever since. In 1990, Circus Circus opened the 4,032-room
Excalibur, which claimed the distinction of being the world's largest
hotel-casino. In 1994, a new MGM Grand was built with 5,005 rooms, and that
hotel recaptured the "world's-largest" honours.
In 1995 Clark County
surpassed the 1 million population mark, attracting newcomers at the rate of
4,000 to 5,000 a month. Tract-home developments sprawled toward the mountains,
giving Las Vegas the feel of a new Los Angeles.
One of the newest
chapters in Las Vegas history is being written by Steve Wynn. Arriving in the
late '60s from New Jersey, this son of an East Coast gambler is credited with
taking Las Vegas gaming to the next level. With financing from junk-bond king
Michael Milken, Wynn built The Mirage for $610 million and set new standards
for opulence and cash flow. His $1.3 billion Bellagio resort opened in October
of 1998 on the land once occupied by the Dunes Hotel. Major hotels that opened recently include Mandalay
Bay, located at the south end of The Strip; Paris, located next to Bally's at
The Strip and Flamingo Road; and the Venetian, located centre-Strip where the
Sands Hotel-Casino once stood. The new Aladdin Hotel was opened late in 2000.
The World's Largest Casino is the mammoth structure of the Venetian,
the $2.5 billion, 12 million square foot casino, convention centre, holiday
resort and entertainment complex built on the site of the former Sands Hotel in
Las Vegas, which was destroyed in a spectacular implosion in 1996.
The
"must see" attraction on the strip for every Las Vegas visitor is the $550
million Stratosphere Casino Hotel and Tower which boasts the tallest
free-standing observation tower in the United States. The tower is the tallest
building west of the Mississippi River and is more than twice the height of any
other building in Las Vegas, standing 1,149 feet.
Casino
Hotels
Most resort type casinos are situated on The Strip and the older more
basic casino/hotels are sited off the The Strip or Downtown where Binion's
Horseshoe is, along with the Golden Nugget and the railway station.
The
links below will take you to the individual Casino/Hotel website but for a
comprehensive Vegas Guide and excellent room booking service we recommend
vegas.com.
Also good for room information/booking is vegas
hotelguide
The
Venetian Heart of the Strip Suites -
3036 702-414-1000
The Wynn Heart of the Strip Suites - 2,700 (888) 320-7123
Some
personal views
Aladdin Resort and Casino It's new and we like the layout. No longer do you have to walk
through smoky casinos to get to your room. It is more like any other hotel;
guest elevators can be reached from either side of the reception
desk.
Bellagio Blows anything else out
of the water. There is no comparison; not even Paris, The Venetian, anything.
Smoke and noise-free casinos!!
Caesar's Palace Hotel and
Casino One of the oldest hotels that has not been blown
up and has tried to survive among the latest Mega Resorts. Our advice? Skip it.
Although they tried to maintain it, they missed. The only redeeming quality is
the Forum Shops; designers from all over the world have set up shop, and it is
truly a shopaholic's dream.
Mandalay Bay Resort and
Casino They tried -- it's new. A bit 'cheap' but there
is a sperate part known as "The Four Seasons Hotel" in Mandalay. They have
their own entrance on the side of Mandalay Towers. It's expensive but well
worth the service, rooms, excellent staff, and concierge, complete with its own
private pool area. Mandalay does have a cool bar called Rum Jungle, with 100
varieties of rum imported from all over the world, and Salsa dancing from 10pm
until dawn. Mandalay does offer up some of the best sports events around
town.
Monte Carlo Pretty on the
outside, but a mess where the staff and rooms are concerned, and there is no
concierge. Poor customer service.
The Tropicana Hotel and
Casino On the other side of the spectrum... this hotel
is meant for a party! Always known as the bachelor party destination, it offers
up a fun pool, and decent enough rooms at more reasonable
prices.
Map
Night
Life
Vegas has plenty to offer the weary
traveller who just can't sleep in the thin altitude air. If it can be done then
you can find it for a price in Las Vegas.
There are night clubs that
are separate from the resorts and good ones in them. Adult clubs exist on the
Strip and Downtown and all the large resorts have show rooms with top
entertainers performing nightly. Top shows are imported from around the world
and play alongside home grown American acts. Bars and Cabaret Bars litter Vegas
like confetti. There are also Jazz and Blues venues and of course there is the
Hard Rock Hotel is you want institutional music. If you can drive then you can
get to the cinema or bowling alley.
If you want sophistication then you
will have to hunt a bit harder than the norm but the Venetian will take care of
you. Visit this site for up to the minute
information on everything that there is to do in sin city
Night Guide
Attractions
The Grand Canyon
National Park is the number one attraction that you must get to when you are in
L.V. Visit the Grand Canyon
National Park Service website. Grand Canyon National Park receives an
average of 5 million visitors a year; this means the park is crowded most of
the year. Expect heavy crowds during spring, summer, and fall months.
Alternatively take a plane trip through the Canyons.
The National Historic Landmark that is the Hoover Dam is also
popular. Visit the Hoover Dam
website. The Bureau of Reclamation started conducting tours through the Hoover
Dam and Power Plant in 1937. More than 1,000,000 visitors a year take the tour
and millions more drive across the dam. The dam is located 30 miles southeast
of Las Vegas on U.S. Highway 93 at the Nevada-Arizona border.
Lake Mead National Recreation Area (NRA) offers a wealth of
things to do and places to go year-round. Visit the
Lake Mead
website. Its huge lakes cater to boaters, swimmers, sunbathers, and fishermen
while its desert rewards hikers, wildlife photographers, and roadside
sightseers. Three of America's four desert ecosystems--the Mojave, the Great
Basin, and the Sonoran Deserts--meet in Lake Mead NRA. As a result, this
seemingly barren area contains a surprising variety of plants and animals, some
of which may be found nowhere else in the world.
Flights
Virgin-Atlantic has the only direct flight from
London. British Midland has the only direct flight from Manchester
(Thurs and Sun only). British Airways go via Los Angeles.
United Airlines go via San Francisco to Las Vegas. American
Airlines go via Chicago (our favourite non direct route). Delta Air
Lines From Manchester via Atlanta. US Airways From Manchester via
Philadelphia. Continental Airlines From Manchester via New York
Newark.
The airport
is close to the heart of Las Vegas, approximately a mile east of the southern
end of the Strip.
Weather
Check on the weather in Vegas right now and for the next ten days -
click
here
Main Menu
Las Vegas demands the suspension of
disbelief - the moment you start to take it seriously you miss the point. It's
glitz for its own sake, over-the-top hustle and flash as means and end. It's
crowds of people in polyester pantsuits, big hair and gold chains, staring at
neon signs and spinning lemons like deer hypnotized by headlights. Not that
Vegas doesn't have a serious side: billions are at stake on the craps and
blackjack tables and in the battle of the theme parks - but you're given enough
distractions to ignore it - until you lose. If you tire of pulling the handle
on that one-armed bandit and drinking watered-down (albeit free) screwdrivers,
the surrounding area has some of the region's most beautiful scenery.
The Grand Canyon
National Park is the number one attraction that you must get to when you are in
L.V. Visit the 
The National Historic Landmark that is the Hoover Dam is also
popular. Visit the 
Lake Mead National Recreation Area (NRA) offers a wealth of
things to do and places to go year-round. Visit the