A Vacation in Vegas Without Gambling!

Las Vegas is widely considered to be the pleasure mecca for those interested in a vacation of gambling excitement. Casino after casino, on and off the strip, filled with miles of slot machines, blackjack and poker tables. Private rooms for high stakes games. Gambling contests and special events. It is definitely a world of opportunity for those willing to risk as much or as little money as they choose. But there is also a great opportunity for an amazing vacation without any gambling at all.

The problem with gambling in Vegas is that the vacation money goes quickly, and except for the minority who are really talented or really lucky, the pleasure is short-lived. Even on the slot machines, it's easy to drop forty bucks in about fifteen minutes. It's exciting to first walk into one of the large casinos, like MGM Grand or the Bellagio ... but visit a few more casinos and it becomes obvious that except for the décor, they're all basically the same. There may be row after row of slot machines, but there's really only about five or six different kinds, and each casino has the same ones.

Las Vegas is a city of entertainment and spectacle, so it's easy enough to plan a vacation there without ever laying a penny in a slot machine or ten bucks down on a card table. You can still spend plenty of money, but the odds are better of ending up a winner. Here are some ideas to get started on a gambling-free vacation in Vegas:

Sightseeing (a.k.a. stumbling around in awe and taking a thousand pictures). The first thing visitors can do is explore as many of the major casinos as they find time for. It's like a sightseeing vacation around the world, but all on one street. Gaze up at the Eiffel Tower at the Paris casino, walk across the Brooklyn Bridge at New York, New York, or traverse the canals at the Venetian.