Destinations: The Latest on Las Vegas
by John Hawks

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For our clients, fortunately, that's meant a huge spike in the hotel discounts and package deals for this destination. While a few upscale properties such as the Wynn Resorts have generally held their rates firm, many other Sin City hotels have rolled out specials that you can offer to both your repeat Vegas visitors and your never-been-there-before clients.

These hotel specials matter more in Las Vegas based on the city's unique setup. Typically, your clients pick a destination based on the local sights and experiences - in Hawaii, it's the beaches and the weather, while in Europe, it's the sightseeing tours and historic attractions. They don't worry so much about the hotels in which they stay as long as they're comfortable, convenient, and affordable. That's not the case with Las Vegas - there, the hotels are the attraction. Many Vegas travelers spend most of their stays enjoying the amenities inside their hotels (or inside other hotels within walking or driving distance).

Las Vegas: The Layout

Judging from your airplane window or the nighttime glow as you drive into town, Las Vegas appears huge! Thankfully, it’s laid out logically, despite the enormous growth that’s pushed its suburbs far into the desert. You'll probably book your clients in one of the city’s two main sections – Downtown Las Vegas or the Las Vegas Strip (though more resorts like Red Rock have now sprung up farther away).

The Strip is a four-mile segment of Las Vegas Boulevard South that serves as home to some of the glitziest, most glamorous casino resorts on Earth. Though you could easily walk the length of the Strip as recently as the early 1990s, your clients will need a car, a taxi, or a Las Vegas monorail ticket to explore it end to end today. Think of the Strip in three sections:

• The North Strip runs from the Stratosphere Tower southward to Spring Mountain Road/Sands Avenue, with hotels such as Circus Circus, the Riviera, the Sahara, and Wynn Las Vegas along the way.
  
  
• The Mid-Strip picks up south of Sands Avenue until the boulevard hits Harmon Avenue, with Bally’s, the Bellagio, Caesars Palace, the Mirage, Treasure Island, the Venetian, and other popular hotels in this area.
  
  
• The South Strip continues from Harmon Avenue southward with the Excalibur, the Luxor, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, New York-New York, and others gracing the end of the Strip.

Meanwhile, the northern end of Las Vegas Boulevard runs directly into Fremont Street, the heart of Downtown Las Vegas. Before the first Strip casino was even sketched out by an architect, the city’s downtown district was filled with the first casino hotels in the region. About a dozen older - but, for the most part, clean and welcoming - casino hotels fill the “Glitter Gulch” neighborhood around Fremont Street, bordered by Main Street and 7th or 9th Street (depending on whom you ask). Fremont Street itself is closed to vehicle traffic, serving now as a pedestrian mall covered by the millions of lights in the Fremont Street Experience. (Note: While the immediate downtown district is very safe at night, your clients should not explore the side streets outside this neighborhood after hours.)

If your clients demand a chain property in Vegas, or if they need to stay as close to the Las Vegas Convention Center as possible, you may need to book their stay in the Paradise Road area – the section of Las Vegas that runs along this north-south roadway from McCarran to its intersection with the Strip at the Stratosphere. This area is relatively safe for travelers, but you’re trading the lower hotel rates here (or the proximity to the convention center) for the fun several blocks away on the Strip.

Las Vegas: The Calendar

Due to many years of money-is-almost-no-object promotion by local tourism officials and the major casino companies, Las Vegas is now a truly year-round travel destination. While other popular vacation spots like the Caribbean and Europe have clearly defined high and low seasons, your clients will find lots to do in Sin City almost every week of the year.

Another big difference between Las Vegas and many other travel destinations is that, because most of the attractions and activities that draw visitors happen inside the hotels, the outside weather isn’t a big factor. Average daily temperatures range from 44-50 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter to 84-91 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer (though it can easily get much colder or hotter!), but your clients may never know the difference until they step outside their casino resort or hotel.

Las Vegas: The Recommendations

In this article, we won't address hotels - your property picks will be determined largely by the package deals and specials offered by your preferred suppliers. (See OSSN's supplier member roster to find packagers who serve this city, or go to VAX VacationAccess to browse the Vegas offers there.) Instead, we'll focus on recommendations for other aspects of the perfect Vegas getaway.

Restaurants: The Garden Court Buffet in Main Street Station offers the best buffet in Downtown Las Vegas. The Burger Bar in Mandalay Bay (the Mandalay Bay Shops) lays out skinny fries, a nice thick milkshake, and a Black Angus beef burger with all of the fixing for under $20. Bally's Sterling Sunday Brunch boasts free-flowing Champagne, lobster, caviar, and waiters in tuxedos for under $65. Mesa Grill in Caesars Palace is the Vegas celebrity chef restaurant (owned by Bobby Flay) that lives up the most to its promise, with fire-roasted lobster tail and 16-spice rotisserie chicken. And, off the Strip, Rosemary's Restaurant (West Sahara Avenue) draws locals with its Southern-flavored menu (blue cheese slaw, jalapeno hush puppies, and panko-crusted crab boulettes.

Bars and Lounges: Your clients won't have to walk far to find a place in Vegas to gamble - or, to find a drink. They can try the ghostini at ghostbar in The Palms, the retro chic chrome-and-glass lounge. Napoleon's in Paris Las Vegas features more than 100 different Champagne options, while the floor-to-ceiling windows in Romance at the Top of the World at the Stratosphere offer amazing views of the city.

Entertainment: You can't turn around in Vegas without hitting a Cirque du Soleil production (your clients who've never seen a Cirque show could start with "Mystere" at Treasure Island or "O" at the Bellagio). With kids, they can try the Shark Reef exhibit at Mandalay Bay - North America's only predator-based public aquarium. Or, the Fremont Street Experience downtown still qualifies as the best free attraction in the city, with high-tech light and sound shows five times a night.

For more information about this exciting city, check www.visitlasvegas.com.

(Credits: Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority; Stratosphere Las Vegas Hotel & Casino)