Reason 1: There are powerful reasons to visit Las Vegas, whatever age group or country of origin you are from. Las Vegas has everything anybody could want in experiencing the US at its most inventive, artistic, crazy best. And it’s easy to get there, flights to Las Vegas are plentiful and frequent.
Some sixty airlines fly into Las Vegas from around the world including Japan, New Zealand, Hawaii, Jordan and most of Europe. UK flights are available at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Glasgow. McCarran International Airport is just five very accessible miles from the city.
Reason 2: The 24/7 culture of a city that never sleeps. Famously, hotel rooms don’t have clocks, as ‘they don’t want you to leave’, but beyond that marketing, it’s a showcase of entertainment, business, conventions and the fact that it’s a city built in the desert just adds even more to the long list of remarkable features.
You can eat, drink, gamble, be entertained, enjoy spectacle, be awed or get married right round the clock. Many places lay claim to that tourist cliche, ‘something for everyone’, but Las Vegas really is.
Reason 3: Las Vegas embodies The American Dream. This is the concept that arose from the US Declaration of Independence which stated ‘all men are created equal’ and have certain rights including ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’.
Las Vegas offers that to all her visitors. American writer James Truslow Adams declared in 1931 that in the American Dream ‘life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone’. While there are many cities, mountains, beaches, historic sites and peoples to see in the USA, Las Vegas encapsulates them all.
Reason 4: The casinos and shows, amusement parks and hotels. These are what visitors would expect in a city, but the hotels are bigger, more grandiose, mini-towns in themselves. Casinos on the ground floor, shopping malls within and amusement rides on the roofs.
Bodies … The Exhibition sees 13 polymer-preserved human bodies and hundreds of organs making the study of human anatomy into an art form. There is a Titanic Artifacts Exhibition in town, not to mention four Cirque du Soleil shows running in different venues, magician David Copperfield, the Blue Man Group, Haunted Vegas tours, the ghost of Elvis and Menopause the Musical.
Reason 5: It’s like being in a movie. Visitors to famous places often feel as if they’re in a film, but Las Vegas has hosted a staggering array of top movies, from The Las Vegas Story (1952) to 2012 (2009).
Others include Ocean’s Eleven (1960 and 2001) and Oceans’ Thirteen (2007), Viva Las Vegas (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Rain Man (1988), Bugsy (1991), Honey, I Blew Up the Kid (1992), Indecent Proposal (1993), Casino (1995), Showgirls (1995), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) and The Grand (2008).
Hop on one of those flights to Las Vegas and live it. As the 2008 movie said: ‘what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’.
