10 Best Things to Do in Las Vegas

The Fountains of Bellagio are the most famous free show in Las Vegas: more than a thousand jets dance across an eight-acre lake in front of the resort, choreographed to music and lights every 15 to 30 minutes through the afternoon and evening. Crowds gather along the railings for each performance, and it never quite gets old.

Inside, the Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens is a second free attraction, an enormous glasshouse re-themed each season with elaborate floral displays and sculptures. Together they make the Bellagio the single best free stop on the Strip, by day or night.

Pro Tip: Shows run more frequently and the crowds thin later in the evening, so aim for a weeknight after 8pm and find a spot near the lake's centre railing. The Eiffel Tower viewing deck across the street frames the fountains beautifully from above.

Downtown on Fremont Street, the original Las Vegas of the 1950s lives on beneath the Fremont Street Experience, a five-block pedestrian mall covered by a vast LED canopy that erupts in light-and-sound shows every hour after dark. It is louder, cheaper and more chaotic than the Strip, and a lot of people prefer it.

The SlotZilla zip line flies the length of the canopy, cover bands play free street stages, and the vintage neon signs and lower-stakes casinos give a taste of old-school Vegas. It is the best place to feel the city's history rather than its corporate present.

Pro Tip: Come after dark when the overhead light shows run and the street performers are out, and budget a little extra for the SlotZilla zip line for a different view. Downtown is a short rideshare or Deuce-bus hop from the Strip, so pair it with the nearby Neon Museum.

Opened in 2023, the Sphere is the most striking new addition to the Las Vegas skyline - a 112-metre-tall globe wrapped in the world's largest LED screen, the Exosphere, which displays everything from a giant blinking eyeball to planets, faces and adverts. Even from the outside, it is a free spectacle that stops people in their tracks.

Inside, the venue wraps audiences in a vast curved interior screen and haptic, immersive sound for concerts and the purpose-built Sphere Experience films. It is unlike any other concert hall or cinema, and tickets for residencies and shows sell quickly.

Pro Tip: You can admire the Exosphere's nightly light displays for free from the Strip or the Venetian footbridge without a ticket. If you want to go inside, book a show or the immersive experience well ahead, as the best dates sell out fast.

The High Roller is a 167-metre observation wheel at The LINQ, among the tallest in the world, turning slowly through a 30-minute rotation in enclosed glass cabins. From the top it gives a panoramic view over the whole Strip, the surrounding valley and the mountains beyond, and it is especially good after dark.

It anchors The LINQ Promenade, an open-air lane of bars, restaurants and shops between Caesars Palace and the Flamingo, so it is easy to combine with a meal or a drink. Some cabins offer an open bar for those who want a party in the sky.

Pro Tip: Ride at dusk to catch the Strip in both daylight and neon during a single rotation, and book online for cheaper off-peak fares. The Promenade below is a pleasant, traffic-free place to eat before or after your spin.

Live entertainment is central to any Las Vegas trip, and the city's shows range from the acrobatic Cirque du Soleil productions staged in purpose-built theatres to headline music residencies at venues like the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. On any given night you can choose between magic, comedy, dance and chart-topping concerts.

The Cirque du Soleil shows are the signature Vegas spectacle, each resident in its own resort theatre with custom stages - the aquatic O at the Bellagio among the most famous. Residencies bring major pop and rock acts to the city for multi-night runs throughout the year.

Pro Tip: Decide between a Cirque du Soleil spectacle and a music residency early, since the best seats for both sell out weeks ahead. For last-minute savings, same-day discount ticket booths on the Strip release unsold seats at a cut price.

The Venetian recreates Venice on the Strip, complete with a replica Grand Canal, a St Mark's Campanile and the Rialto Bridge. Inside the Grand Canal Shoppes, gondoliers pole singing gondolas along an indoor waterway beneath a painted sky-blue ceiling that stays in permanent late-afternoon light.

It is the most committed of the Strip's themed resorts, and walking the canals, piazzas and frescoed halls is free even if you skip the gondola ride. The detail is genuinely impressive, and it pairs naturally with the neighbouring Sphere just behind the resort.

Pro Tip: Wandering the canals and piazzas costs nothing, so you can soak up the theming without paying for a gondola unless you want the ride. Combine it with a walk over the footbridge to see the Sphere lit up just behind the resort.

The Neon Museum is an outdoor 'boneyard' where the giant signs of demolished casinos and motels are preserved, a glowing graveyard of mid-century Americana. More than 250 signs fill the lot, from the original Stardust and Sahara lettering to a towering skull from Treasure Island, telling the story of the city through its lost landmarks.

Guided and self-guided visits run by day, but the museum is at its best after dark, when many of the restored signs are switched back on and the immersive Brilliant light show animates the rest. It is the most genuinely cultural and photogenic stop in the city.

Pro Tip: Book a night-time slot well ahead - the restored signs and the Brilliant show only come alive after dark, and evening tickets sell out fastest. Pair it with the nearby Fremont Street Experience for a full evening of old-Vegas nostalgia.

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is the easiest taste of the Mojave wilderness from Las Vegas, a sweep of dramatic red-and-cream sandstone cliffs just half an hour west of the Strip. A 13-mile one-way scenic loop drive threads past the best viewpoints, with trailheads for short walks and longer hikes branching off along the way.

The rock formations glow at sunrise and sunset, and the area draws hikers, rock climbers and cyclists looking for a break from the casinos. It is a complete change of pace and a reminder that Vegas sits in a genuinely beautiful desert.

Pro Tip: Timed-entry reservations are required for the scenic loop in the busy cooler months, so book online before you drive out. Go early to beat both the heat and the crowds, carry plenty of water, and allow two to three hours for the loop with a short walk.

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.