Several Things a First-Time Visitor to Las Vegas Should See and Do

Las Vegas is a great town, it's great not only for gamblers but also for vacationers in general. One thing I will warn first time visitors though is that Las Vegas, despite their marketing efforts in recent years, really is not a family vacation choice. If you have kids that are minors, you should probably wait until your children or older or take a "mom and dad only vacation". As adults many of us will see gambling as the main attraction of the town. That is indeed true, but there is so much more to Las Vegas you should take the time to experience the town and get away from the gambling floor.

My first suggestion is to go and visit all the hotels on the strip. The money that all the gamblers have lost in this town can be seen in the design of the hotels. These are not your typical cookie cutter types. The Venetian has a canal with gondola's in it, the Excalibur has a castle design and theme, there is the Luxor with it's Egyptian design, the Rio with it's Mardi Gras theme, along with the overall extravagance of many of the other hotels. I strongly encourage you to take at least one or two afternoons and split the strip in half, visiting half the hotels each day. Walk around the hotels, take photos, do the typical tourist things you would do in other resort towns that sometimes you forget to do in Las Vegas.

Speaking of the hotels, many of them are also fine dining destinations. Many celebrity chefs have created restaurants in Las Vegas as they know they have a captive audience in that area when they are on vacation. These restaurants are all good choices, but do your research. There are also many theme restaurants that are very entertaining, as well as hotels with unusual cuisine. Yes, there are the stereotyped buffets in Las Vegas too, but my suggestion would be on your first trip to avoid these as much as possible. If you really must try one, use lunch as the meal to try a buffet as the cost will be lower and quite often the food selections will be similar if not the same as the ones you would find at dinner.