Things to Do in Las Vegas

🎰 Gambling

While gambling is the obvious Vegas activity, don't think you have to just because everyone else is.  First off, not everyone else is!  One in four Vegas visitors don't gamble.  If you do want to try gambling, then start with our Ways to Be a Smart Gambler. • Gambling lessons @ the Fashion Show Mall ($20)

🎭 Shows & Concerts

Seeing a show is one of the best experiences you can have in Vegas.  Budget shows run as little as $15, and the breathtaking production shows are often over $100.  There are a few shows that are actually free.  See our tips for getting the best price.

🍲 Dining

Veg*n travelers should see my Vegetarian Survival page (and won't want to miss the vegan offerings at Ronald's Donuts), and those on a budget can check out the Cheap Eats article, which also has a list of the cheapest buffets.

🥃 Drinking

Play any game and soon the cocktail waitress will come to take your order.  Standard tip is $1/drink.  Some casinos are stingy with the drinks, but many will serve you even if you're playing penny slots, a penny at a time, slowly.  The cheaper casinos (esp. downtown and off-strip casinos) are more likely to serve you with minimal play. • See exquisite bars •  Pub crawl ($40/person, 6p min.)

🏝️ Pool

This is not your Holiday Inn pool!  The pools at strip hotels are downright elaborate.  The hotel made you pay the resort fee, you might as well use the resort offerings.  If your hotel doesn't have a great pool, you can often visit another hotel's pool for an entrance fee.  Vegas also has a number of European-style (topfree) pools. • Planet Hollywood has FlowRider surfing (price not listed)

📷 Free Sightseeing

These are all free, and are detailed on my list of free things to see page.  Welcome to Vegas sign • Luxor pyramid, Sphinx • Eiffel Tower at Paris • Bellagio fountains • Bellagio conservatory • Flamingo Wildlife Habitat • Mirage Volcano • Pirate Ship at TI • Fremont St. Experience • Free bus between downtown & the strip

⚛️ Quirky Museums

Strip: Aviation Museum, at the airport (free) • Classic cars at Shelby Heritage Center (free) • Wax museum ($27) • Burlesque Hall of Fame ($15) • Erotic Heritage ($19) • Shark aquarium ($29)

Downtown:  • Haunted Museum ($48) • Mob Museum ($30; use the free Downtown Loop bus) • Neon Museum ($20)

Elsewhere: Atomic Testing Museum ($22)

🚌 Vegas Tours 🛴

(Note: Tour guides expect tips! 5-20%) • Tour the Strip and downtown in an open-top bus ($40), or a pink jeep during the day ($69) or night ($86), en Español ($50 or $119) • Arts District tour ($45) • Do a Segway tour of Downtown Vegas. ($89) • Tour the Strip on a 2-seater motor trike ($99) • Haunted Ghost Tour or the Vegas Mob tour. ($100 ea.)

☁️ See Vegas from above

Rooftop bar at Delano. (free admission) • Take in the view from the observation deck of the Strat tower*($20) or the Legacy Club lounge at Circa (free admission, drink prices not listed) • Ride the huge ferris wheel. ($21) • Ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower. ($22) • Take a helicopter tour of the strip. ($89) • Skydive off the Strat tower. ($124) • Ride in a hot air balloon ($139)

   *(The Strat's revolving restaurant is notable for serving the especially cruel foie gras and veal, "which even most enlightened carnivores avoid".)

🐅 Animals

Flamingo Wildlife Habitat.  Flamingos, ducks, pelicans, swans, koi fish, and turtles.  (free) • Dolphins & Tigers at the Mirage.  (Critics oppose poor conditions for the dolphins, noting 12 of them have died, and that captivity itself is cruel.  One visitor reported poor conditions for the tigers.)  Admission, ($25) meet the dolphins ($50), behind the scenes tour ($120), train the dolphins ($400)

🆓 Free Things to Do

See my huge list of free things to see and do in Vegas.  Don't let the free cost fool you, lots of these are actually worth paying for, but you don't have to.  The most popular are the Bellagio Fountains and the Fremont Street Experience. (more...)

💵 Cheap Things

Drink for only the cost of a tip ($1).  (See "Drinking".) • See the Strip from the top of the Deuce bus for $6-8. • Try the $1 massage chairs at Flamingo, Linq, and Strat. • Get your picture taken with a street performer. ($1-5 tip) (more...) • Scour this page; all items in each box are sorted by price.

💰 Expensive (>$500)

• Crush a car ($625)

• Dive with the sharks at Mandalay Bay ($650)

• Fly a 6-axis flight simulator. ($749/hr)

• Blow up a car ($2000)

• Buy something pricey in one of the upscale shops.

Medium-priced

Almost everything else on this page.

🎡 Thrill Rides 🎢

Vegas has a number of world-class roller coasters and thrill rides, including three different terrifying ones on the top of the Strat tower, and of course there's the enormous ferris wheel at the Linq.  See our list of Vegas thrill rides.

— Zip Lines

The Linq zipline flies right into the huge ferris wheel. ($22)

The Voodoo Zipline at the Rio is the highest in Vegas at 500 ft. ($30)

Slotzilla, 7 stories high ($29) and Zoomline, 11 stories high ($49) fly you right under the Fremont Street Experience, above the pedestrian mall.

Haley's Comet at Area 15 is a combo zip line / roller coaster / hang glider.

In the desert outside Boulder City ($99)

👽 Area 15

Area 15 is a massive art and entertainment complex (free admission) offering: Emporium video+game arcade & bar (21+), Oddwood bar with huge digital maple tree, Brainstorm (creates art from your brainwaves on a huge LCD screen) ($5), wacky retail shops (including a unique toy store) Particle Quest (augmented reality) ($8), "fly like a bird" VR experience ($14), sound & light show ($17), combo zip line/ roller coaster ($18), psychedelic art funhouse ($18), VR golf simulator ($25), axe throwing ($35), the jaw-dropping Omega Mart ($45), "free roam" VR ($55), full-body VR gaming ($100)

💪 Macho stuff

• Exotic car rental (see other box, above/left)

• Shoot guns (see "Off the Strip", below)

• Operate heavy machinery like excavators. ($169)

• Car police chase as either the cop or the suspect ($199)

• Drive a monster truck ($250)

• Secret agent or SWAT training ($369)

• Crush a car ($625)

• Blow up a car ($2000)

🧒 Things for Kids

The strip has a decent number of thrill rides & roller coasters.  • Visit the Wet'n'Wild water park ($35), though Cowabunga Bay in Henderson has better reviews ($43) • Drive a Go-Kart ($30) • Video arcades, Children's Park, the Children's Museum, and Kid-Friendly attractions are detailed on my Things for Kids page. • Many kid-friendly attractions such as the Bellagio fountains and Fremont St. Experience are detailed on my Free Things and Cheap Thrills pages.

🏃‍♀️ Running

There are no good places to run on or next to the Strip.  Best bet is is the UNLV campus:  take a taxi to the Lied Library (2 miles from the Strip), or drive and pay to park in the Tropicana parking garage (also 2 miles from the Strip).

🏋️ Workouts

The resort fee your hotel forced you to pay might give you free access to its fitness center. • Pole fitness ($15) • Circus Bootcamp workout ($25) • Indoor rock climbing ($25) • Lyra, (hoop), rope, aerial silk, or aerial straps workouts ($30) Tennis at Bally's ($35)

🧘🏿 Yoga

Antigravity yoga ($15) • Hot yoga at the Neon Museum in summer months ($18) • Yoga with beer ($20) • Clothing-optional yoga ($20)  • Yoga on the big ferris wheel ($75) • Yoga among the dolphins at the Mirage. (price not listed) (Note: Critics oppose poor conditions for the dolphins, noting 12 of them have died, and that captivity itself is cruel.) ($75)

🚌 Hoover Dam

(Note: Tour guides expect tips! 5-20%)

Budget tours by Paradise Found ($57) and Mr. Las Vegas ($60) • Walk on the top tour from Comedy Tours ($90) or Pink Adventure ($109) • Dam, Red Rock Canyon, 7 Magic Mountains, & Boulder City ($134) • Private tour ($145) • On a motorized trike ($179) • Bicycle tour from the Strip, 7hrs ($191)

⛰️ Grand Canyon 🚁

This is just a summary; see my full article on Grand Canyon tours.

Note: The South Rim is the more beautiful, iconic part of the GC.  The West Rim isn't nearly as impressive, but it's much closer to Vegas.

West Rim:  Bus (12 hrs, hotel to hotel) ($114) • Bus En Español ($149) • Airplane ($210) • Private tour ($275) Helicopter (4hrs) ($299)

South Rim: Rent a car and drive (4.5 hours one-way to either the North Rim or South Rim). • Bus tour (15hrs, hotel to hotel) ($78) • Bus + open-air Hummer (14hrs) ($200) • Small airplane ($372)

💧 Water adventure, wet

Aqua Park ($22), Kayak ($32),  Paddleboard ($35), Cable Park ($71), or Flyboard ($79) at Lake Las Vegas in Henderson • Scuba diving: already certified ($80), dive at Hoover Dam ($149), or get certified ($285)

⛵ Water adventure, dry

Dinner cruise on Lake Mead ($79) • Motorized raft to Hoover Dam ($69) or on Colorado River through Black Canyon ($72: 2hr, $114: 6hr) • Kayak Emerald Cave ($119) • Kayak, paddleboard, or hydrobike tour of Emerald Cave, or Colorado River, or Lake Mead ($133), or Hoover Dam ($199) • Electric Boat rental ($199)

🏎️ Offroad Driving

Driving: Racing ($149) • Nellis ATV ($114) • Mojave desert on an ATV ($148/2 people) • Hidden Valley on ATV ($169) or a dirt bike  ($309) • ATV through El Dorado Canyon & Techatticup Gold Mine ($169) • Tour of Hidden Valley and Primm Valley in an RZR ($163) • Dune buggy chase ($194) • Rent a Jeep for wherever you want to go ($199)

Riding: ATV in the Valley of Fire ($99)

🔫 Shoot Guns

Shoot guns in the desert ($140), with an optional machine gun add-on ($100). • Note that a 9-year-old girl accidentally shot and killed a shooting instructor with an Uzi submachine gun at one of the Vegas ranges in 2014. • Read US Blasting News' comparison of the top 10 shooting experiences near Vegas.

🚐 Other

Chocolate Factory Tour (free) (Note: Most chocolate is made with child labor, and much of that is slave labor. (WaPo) Your editor buys only Fair Trade chocolate.) • See the entrance to Area 51 and Death Valley ($395) • For hiking and nature outings, see below

🏜️ Red Rock Canyon

About the canyon • Hike ($15) • Guided tour ($75) • Tour of RRC + Ghost Town ($81) • Electric bicycle tour, 20 miles, 2.5hrs ($79) • Scooter tour ($99) • Tour of RRC + 7 Magic Mountains ($103) • Horseback riding ($132) • Guided tour of RRC, 7 Magic Mountains, Boulder City, & Hoover Dam ($134) • Pink Jeep tour ($138) • Road bike or mountain bike tour, 4hrs. ($140) • Motor trike self-guided tour ($165) • Climb a mountain ($295)

🕶️ Other Outdoors

Cactus Garden in Henderson (free) • Learn mountain climbing ($75) • See Mt. Charleston ($97) • Valley of Fire guided hike ($100), private tour ($245) • Valley of Fire + Lost City Museum tour ($120) • Antelope Canyon + Horseshoe Bend tour ($169) • Skiing or Snowboarding ($167) • Zion Natl. Park + Bryce Canyon tour ($190) • Tour Horseshoe Bend & Peekaboo Slot Canyon • Death Valley tour ($239), stargazing + winery tour ($319) • Private tour of Kanarra Falls Slot Canyon ($245), or Antelope Canyon ($365)