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Las Vegas

Las Vegas Travel Notes

Las Vegas is a glamorous and vibrant city that is fun for visitors of any age. Gambling, fine dining, top notch entertainment, and much more are all offered up at the glitzy mega-resorts. The only problem tourists have is finding time to see and do everything offered here.

Las Vegas


By FARESPOTTER STAFF
Posted 12/10/2009
Las Vegas

About Las Vegas

Las Vegas is a city unlike any other. As often as you might have seen it on the big screen, nothing can prepare you for your first sight of this wonderful gambling mecca. The cityscape is a collection of odd sights that include a pirate ship (Treasure Island Hotel), the Statue of Liberty (New York, New York Hotel), a giant lion, a sphinx (The Luxor Hotel), Aladdin's Castle, a roller coaster (The Stratosphere Hotel), and an endless array of glittering buildings. In other cities, hotels are built close to the major attractions. Here, the hotels are the attractions. What other city has a skyline made up of buildings from other cities' skylines? It's an adult Disneyland, a shrine to greed and excess. Love it or hate it, it is something everyone should experience at least once.

When to Travel to Las Vegas

Las Vegas is generally warm, arid, and sunny, but winter and summer month can reach extremes. It can get chilly in winters, with highs in the 50s and 60s but lows that often dip below freezing. Summers can be brutal. Starting in mid-May, temperatures often top 100 degrees before returning to (just) the 90s starting in September. Evenings are always delightful as the sun goes down, weather cools, and the neon comes up to light up the city. Las Vegas is least crowded between Christmas and New Year's Eve. More generally, Tuesdays through Thursdays are when hotels and resorts put out their best room rates and cheap hotel packages. Conventions are more frequent in the first few months of the year, so this may be a time to avoid Las Vegas. If you are driving to Las Vegas from Los Angeles, you want to go against the traffic if at all possible. This means driving to Vegas early Sunday morning, and driving back to L.A. on Saturday morning. Otherwise, expect long delays.

Cheap Flights to Las Vegas

40 million arrivals and departures stream through Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport (LAS) and its 95 gates each year, so cheap flights to Las Vegas are typically plentiful and easy to find. The city is even preparing for a proposed second airport capable of handling 60 million passengers a year. McCarran International Airport serves 42 U.S. and international carriers, and finding cheap flights to Las Vegas is a must for the budget-minded traveler. LAS serves as a hub for US Airways and Allegiant Air. It is also the largest base of operations for Southwest Airlines, which carries more people in and out of Las Vegas than any other carrier. These airlines commonly offer discounts on last minute airfare to Las Vegas, so be sure to compare airfare from multiple providers before booking (hopefully) what will be your cheap flight to Las Vegas.

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