Is the smoking everyplace (restaurants, bars, lobbies) or just the casinos? I really must see the place but smoke does awful things to me. I’d hate to go and not be able to really do much because of avoiding smoke.
Not nearly enough debauchery for my tastes. We got married there and it was more commercial than the movies would make you believe. However, we were only there for a couple days. I definitely want to give it another try. We’re not much on gambling, but there’s a lot to see, both inside and outside town.
I hope it is as much fun as it’s hyped up to be, otherwise I’m cancelling my trip!
Vegas, like most vacations, is what you make of it. Vegas has sooo many choices that you can create the type of vacation you want. Excitement, they got that, relaxation, they got that too. Lots of skin, yep. And wonderful restaurants.
I’m just about ready to pull the trigger on a 4th trip. This time, I’m just going to concentrate on relaxing by the pool and trying to get a good deal on a cool show. I’m sure I will gamble, but I did so badly last time I was there, the fun pretty much evaporated. There are plenty of other things to do. Keep an open mind and you’ll do fine.
Depends, do you have an air force survival kit to take along?
I was there last week with the wife and baby. Since the wife was at meetings all day I got to push the baby around. Not one person would give me a flier. I felt left out, I saw them giving out fliers to old women but not a dude with a baby. It was funny to see them actually see me, pull their hands back and look the other way.
There’s a book called “Oscar and Lucinda” by Peter Carey. Won the Booker. You’d have some empathy with Lucinda.
Smoke is everywhere, unfortunately. It’s the only down side, people chain-smoking everywhere.
Back to the OP. I meant to say more.
The Strip is truly a fantastic experience and requires more than a day.
You must simply see a show.
Old Vegas is beautiful, too. And I advise, like many others, to do your window-shopping in New Vegas and your real shopping in Old Vegas. Unless of course you have oodles of money.
I love corny stuff. I love big, impressive displays. I want to go back so bad I can feel it. I went with family and we were with some people - well the husband was OK, but the wife really disapproved of everything and made it clear. Yuck.
At Mandalay Bay at least, the smoking is only in the casino. Everywhere else is non-smoking. I also didn’t see anyone smoking anywhere except the casinos in Caesar’s or Planet Hollywood (formerly the Aladdin.)
I enjoyed my trip (on the company’s dime) but wouldn’t probably spend a red cent of my own money to go back.
There is much less smoking than there used to be. A lot of the hotels now only allow smoking in the bars and casino, not in the lobby or shops. And many of the casinos have huge fan systems in the casinos that keep them much, much less smoky than they used to be. But people smoke in Vegas, no doubt. There’s drinking and there’s gambling, so there’s smoking.
I LOVE Vegas. Shopping, dining, gambling, shows . . . what’s not to like? It is unashamedly a monument to the almighty American dollar – whatever you want, they can get it for you. The gambling is great fun IMO but you can have a great time in Vegas without laying a dollar down. Just to walk through the casino-hotels on the Strip is fun.
But my favorite part of Vegas is downtown, the Freemont Street area. A little rougher around the edges, a little less Disney-esque, a little more “old Vegas.” I’m going to Vegas for a couple of days the first week of June, staying at Mandalay Bay. I can’t wait. 
It’s already been a year since I’ve gone. Things could have very well changes.
One of the things that disappointed me was when my friends went, nearly all of the casinos gave coins, shiny silver ones, when you won.
When I went two years later, nearly all of the casinos had switched to paper printouts. Certainly cheaper and easier for them and me, but you lost the thrill of carrying around buckets, and hearing that lovely tinkling sound. The only one I went to that still did the coins/buckets thing was the Tropicana.
So things change very quickly there. I mean, that was only 2 years’ difference.
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[QUOTE=Nzinga, Seated]
Oh, yes! They are still there. I loved the one that winds through New York, and there was this one coaster that was so fast that they wouldn’t allow me to keep my eyeglasses on. I think that one was at the Mandalay Bay?
Ah, yes. I remember now. Awesome buffet there. Las Vegas was great. Don’t think I ever need to go back, but I sure did have a blast.
I don’t think they’ve changed much in the past year. 
By “how things used to be” I meant 20 or 30 years ago. In the '70s and '80s before most of the U.S. swung to more hard-core non-smoking, the casinos all had a thick pall of smoke hanging up in the rafters and drifting around the tables. There were ashtrays on every table in every restaurant. It seemed like everybody smoked, all the time.
So Vegas IS smoky compared to other places in America where most people do not smoke and smoking isn’t allowed in public places at all. (Seattle, for example, where you can’t even smoke in the bars or clubs anymore.) But Vegas is WAY less smoky than Vegas used to be. In fact, Nevada just passed a new non-smoking law expanding the areas in which you canNOT smoke. It looks like the casinos are largely ignoring it so far because it is still subject to legal challenge. (Cite.)
There is no right or wrong answer to this question.
Some people love it. Some hate it. I’ve been once, and it was a fascinating experience, like a walk-in zoo, but it was profoundly depressing, and I have no desire to go back.
(I posted a story a while ago about contributing to a Salvation Army bellringer in front of the Mirage and being rewarded with a handful of hooker pamphlets, but apparently it’s been long enough that the post is no longer showing up in search.)
It’s certainly unique, and if you’ve never been, it’s something everybody should experience. I agree that the city represents the true heart of America, and positive or negative it will be eye-opening.
Oh, and I will disagree with silenus on one item: I made a point of exploring Vegas as thoroughly as I could when I was there, and the single most striking aspect of the city, for me, was that there was not one scrap of art anywhere. None. There is a lot of decor, but there is no art. That’s the main reason I found the city so depressing. How can people live without art?
There are some nice hotels, some fair to middling, and some horrible. Same as anywhere.
There are more non smoking sections in casinos now, but smoke is part of the whole package, as casinos are among the last places that people can legally smoke.
A friend just got back from staying at Caesar’s Palace, where she has stayed before and enjoyed it, and she said that the spa, though pricey, was a wonderful experience.
Of course, as others have noted, you can do plenty of other things besides gamble while in L.V.
See, I heard that they’ve changed that in recent years. I’ve heard they have a museum and have the niftiest art that money can buy.
Now that I looked a little bit, here you go.
Way to help tag team the topic, Duke of Rat. We got that topic good.
Seems like there was an art gallery in the Bellagio and a Guggenheim Museum in the Venetian. Not sure if that’s the kind of art you were looking for.
Simulpost with Silenus, I haven’t been to the Wynn.
You didn’t check out the galleries in the Venetian and the Wynn. No public art, true. But there are great galleries and exhibits in any number of the hotels.
If you go to Vegas for any reason, go for the food. More world-class restaurants than you can shake a shiitake at.
Cervaise, there was art when I was there. Many hotels had art exhibits! Ansel Adams’ work was at the Belagio.
And there is an art museum there.
Not to mention that if you are willing to expand your definition of “art” to include “pop art,” there’s an argument that that includes much of the Strip – the fountains of the Bellagio, the whole facade of the New York New York, the lion outside the MGM Grand.
Vegas is an essentially bourgeoisie experience: lots of flashing neon lights, bright colors, bells and whistles – a pirate ship, for crying out loud. Sharks! Tigers! Roller coasters! So far as art is concerned, Vegas is Elvis on velvet, not Guernica.
Some people’s taste is such that they can’t enjoy Vegas for what it is, which not a judgment on either them or Vegas.