A friend of mine is going to Vegas and wants to know what she should do while she is there. The only time I went to Vegas I didn’t have any money so I didn’t do anything fun. I told her to go see Cirque, but other than that I don’t know what to recommend…
There are plenty of shows—Cirque, as you mentioned, plus the Blue Man Group, and a whole lot of others. Magic, showgirls, comedy and more.
There are museums, art galleries, and also shopping malls if that’s more appealing.
Farther north on the I-15, there is the Valley of Fire. It costs nothing and is a spectacular, eerie, awesome natural construction.
That’s off the top of my head. I’m sure others will come up with more.
There is:
The Bodies exhibit at the Tropicana
The Atomic Testing museum. Quite interesting.
Red Rock State Park, Lake Mead/Hoover Dam, Mount Charleston
Bellagio Museum of fine Art and the nifty fountains out front.
The Venetian has the Guggenheim
I have heard that the Cirque shows are good, Celine Dion show sucks, Blue Man Group is cool
The shark reef at Mandaly Bay is really neat.
Tons of nightclubs for the trendy and House of Blues at Mandalay does “Boogie Nights” which is a disco themed cover band- pretty fun.
Good food to be found at most places. Olives at Bellago is really good and the prices arent too bad.
“lots of shows and museums” doesn’t really help–she knows there are lots of shows and museums. She wants recommendations as to which are the better ones to hit. Sounds like Blue Man Group is one to recommend. Will warn her away from Celine Dion. I’ll send her the links that you guys put in here as well.
I enjoyed everything I did in Vegas so I’ll just give you a list…
- Just walking down the strip, visiting every casino (they are waaaayy more than casinos and hotels).
- Gondola ride down the Venetian
- Mandalay Bay Reef (aquarium)
- Topless burlesque show at the Tropicana (there’s also a clothed version - the point is that the dancing and acrobatics are top-notch)
- Jousting show at the Excalibre
- Tour of the tombs at Luxor
- Star Trek stuff at MGM (there’s 2 things - I forget what they are but they were cool!)
I really really really wanted to see Penn & Teller but they were not there when I went 
Hmm…I should create a website about that…
Another vote for Blue Man Group, Mount Charleston, and the Valley of Fire. “Spectacular and eerie” are right on the money. And lots of petroglyphs, too.
The “museum of fine art” at the Bellagio sucks, unless one has never set foot in an art museum in any decent-sized American city. The permanent collection is full of mediocre works by good artists, with only one or two exceptions. If a guy painted 50 haystack scenes, you can guarantee that the one on display at the Bellagio is the one that no-one else wanted.
The special exhibits can be good (in fact the Ansel Adams bit looks cool), but to pay $15 to see two decent paintings is ridiculous.
The Spa at Mandalay Bay is amazing.
We saw Cirque du Soleil’s Ka at MGM Grand.
We ate a damned good breakfast buffet at Hooter’s.
We saw The Amazing Johnathan at Sahara.
Cool. Dunno how much she would get into the spa, though, as her business is running a spa.
Do not let her see the Blue Man Group! So stoopid! Men with blue masks on playing with PVC pipes and spitting out twinkies? Circ shows rock, another vote for the Mandalay Bay Shark Reef, we saw Penn & Teller when we were there. Not much help here… 