Hotels near Hoover Dam

Straddling the Nevada-Arizona border, Hoover Dam is one of the great engineering feats of the twentieth century, a 221-metre concrete arch-gravity dam that tamed the Colorado River during the Great Depression and created Lake Mead behind it. The scale is staggering, and the Art Deco detailing on the dam and its towers is a surprise.

Visitors can walk across the top, tour the power plant and tunnels inside, and cross the soaring Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge for the classic view down onto the dam. It is the most rewarding day trip from Las Vegas after Red Rock Canyon.

Pro Tip: Go early to beat the heat and the tour-bus crowds, and walk out onto the memorial bridge for the best photograph of the dam from above. Combine it with a stop at Lake Mead or the historic town of Boulder City on the way back.