For the millions of visitors who make the trek to Las Vegas every year, the city offers an  ever-increasing array of  sights, sounds, and experiences to play on their unsatisfied needs. We desire travel to exotic locales, so we stay in  a hotel modeled after one, like the Mirage  or the Venetian. We want to experience  adventure, so we play casino games: a good adrenaline proxy for physical risk. Just for a moment we want to own and consume finer things that we have, so we visit opulent restaurants and visit any several concentrations of high-end shopping districts, looking to buy items that would b just beyond our reach back in the real world.

Beyond and to some degree within the spectacle, the people of Las Vegas, Nevada are quintessentially American. It shines through in the out-of-starters who settled in Southern Nevada for a million different reasons over the years, who deal blackjack and drive cabs. But also evident is the melting pot; Las Vegas is the city on the hill for immigrants from all over the world. For visitors and many locals as well, Las Vegas knows that what you want and doles it out in spades. It's both exotic and comfortably familiar at the same time. But the city goes beyond merely reflecting American tastes and ideals; it consumes, amplifies, and blasts them out at high volume.
If you are here for 1 day: Try the spicy scrambled eggs for brunch at the Mesa Grill at Caesar's Palace to get you started off right. Then make a complete lap of Las Vegas Boulevard, North of the Wynn, then South to the Mandalay and Luxor, drinking in the sights and sounds of the Strip.


If you are here for 2 days: Catch a show if you are in town for a night. Even during the weekdays you can see some great standing acts, like comic magician Mac King at harrah's, or a broadway-lite show like the Producers at Paris Ls Vegas.

If you are here for 3 days:  You will be here long enough to get a good feel for what a Las Vegas all-nighter is really like, so belly up to a midnight card game at Hard Rock Hotel, then sleep it off in a poolside Cabana. By the third day you should not even have to use your Blackjack crib sheet anymore.

If you are here for 4 days:  The Main Street Experience downtown is a wholesome spot for people weary of the crowds on the Strip. Take the time to learn a more challenging table game like Craps or Pai Gow. It helps when you are playing at lower stakes at the El Cortez Hotel downtown as you suck in that authentic Vegas vibe.

If you are here for 5 days: See some of the countryside. Tour the hoover Dam just south of town and spend some time at Boulder Beach on Lake Mead. When night falls, pick out a Cirque du Soleil show to see; there are at least five to choose from on most nights. I recommend Mystere at Treasure Island.


If you are here for 6 days: Why not see the weirder side of Las Vegas? Go bowling at the Suncoast Hotel, then consider the nuclear option: the atomic Testing Museum. Head out west to spend a night at the Little A'Le'Inn on highway 375 in Lincoln County. better known as the Extraterrestrial Highway for its history of UFO sightings and proximity to the ever spooky area-51.

If you are here for 7 days or more: surely you cannot gamble for a week straight, right? Drive out to the new glass-floored Grand Canyon Skywalk. it extends 70 feet out over the gorge, providing you an unobstructed view a mile straight down. Follow that up with  a night in Laughlin, the mini-Vegas on the Arizona border with a charm and style all its own.