How you can enjoy Las Vegas without spending a dollar in a casino
Think you know this neon-filled adult playground? From museums to zip wires, there’s more to Sin City than slot machines, says Siobhan Grogan
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Your support makes all the difference.It’s almost impossible to visit Las Vegas without at least passing through a casino. Whether you’re grabbing breakfast or heading to a big-bucks show, you’ll likely have to navigate past roulette tables and flashing slot machines in the lobbies of most of the mega-hotels that dominate the famous four-mile Strip.
Yet there’s plenty to do in Vegas without actually gambling a cent. The world’s brashest, flashiest and trashiest city has reinvented itself as a fun-forward, anything-goes entertainment haven where losing your life savings is now strictly optional.
Beyond the neon-lit, 24-hour casinos, there are exceptional restaurants, rooftop cocktail bars, world-class music and theatre shows, quirky museums and independent galleries, and even family-friendly attractions, all with the Mojave Desert on the doorstep for otherworldly views and sun-soaked hiking trails.
Here’s how to steer clear of the clattering casinos and enjoy everything else Las Vegas has to offer.
Take a Downtown food tour
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The Strip is chockful of big-name chains and restaurants from celebrity chefs, such as Wolfgang Puck and Gordon Ramsay – head to newly hip Downtown to eat where the locals do. Sign up for a Lip Smacking Foodie Tour to sample dishes and drinks in the best spots, including cosy 7th and Carson, Mexican restaurant La Mona Rosa and Downtown Cocktail Room, the city’s first craft cocktail bar. Along the way, you’ll also discover the best vintage clothing shops, a fire-breathing art installation from Burning Man festival, a secret bar-within-a-bar called The Laundry Room and a container park filled with independent boutiques, galleries and restaurants.
Act like a big kid
The most fun new bar in Las Vegas is hidden deep inside the Luxor hotel’s 30-storey pyramid. Opened in January 2024, PLAY playground features 20 hands-on games for some friendly competition between cocktails. Think bouncy castles, oversized shape-sorting against a timer, neon-lit obstacle courses, a large-scale version of classic board game Operation and a giant dart board that players launch themselves at from a trampoline while wearing a Velcro suit (it’s a lot harder than it sounds).
Delve into Sin City’s shady history
Housed in the city’s former courthouse, The Mob Museum in Downtown Vegas is a sinister but fascinating walk through the history of organised crime in the US. Exhibits include Al Capone’s revolver, real wiretap recordings, a firearm training simulator and part of a wall from the infamous Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929, complete with bullet holes. Don’t miss the secret Prohibition-era speakeasy in the basement, hidden behind a gilt-framed painting. Other museums worth a look include the recently opened Punk Rock Museum, which has its own tattoo parlour and wedding chapel, and the compelling Neon Museum, a graveyard of retro Vegas signs best visited after dark.
Soar above the Strip
Ride the 550ft High Roller – the largest observation wheel in North America – for 360-degree views over the Strip, perma-glowing entertainment venue the Sphere, and the desert beyond. Make it even more Vegas by choosing a Happy Half Hour ticket, which includes an open bar and bartender for the 30-minute ride. Stroll the pedestrianised LINQ promenade afterwards, with its al fresco daiquiri stall, Museum of Selfies, the world’s biggest sweet shop and the Strip’s only zip line.
Be dazzled by immersive art
The extraordinary Illuminarium is an immersive art exhibition that uses in-floor vibrations, scent systems and interactive projections to allow you to step inside everything from an African safari to paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe. Cool entertainment warehouse AREA15 is just next door. Visit installations including Wink World, a journey through six infinity mirror rooms that merge light, colour and motion, and the surreal Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart, a mock supermarket concealing secret portals and work from international artists.
Get out of town
Implausibly, the rust-coloured sandstone cliffs and vast prairies of Red Rock Canyon are just minutes from the themed hotels of the Strip. Pink Jeep Adventure Tours offer guided drives through the National Conservation Area, stopping to admire 800-year-old rock art and the Keystone Thrust, a geologic fault formed 65 million years ago. On cooler desert days, keen hikers can also tackle one of 26 numbered trails that criss-cross the canyon.
Tour the world without leaving the Strip
You could easily spend several days exploring the city’s most famous hotels, without dropping a dime in a slot machine. Use the pedestrian bridges, covered walkways and monorail to take in the Strip’s most surreal sights – many of which are free. Must-see spots include the rollercoaster and replica Empire State Building at New York-New York, the Bellagio with its botanic gardens and dancing fountains, and The Venetian, where you can take a gondola ride down the Grand Canal and slurp homemade spaghetti serenaded by opera singers in St Mark’s Square.
Travel essentials
Where to stay
Virgin Hotels Las Vegas attracts a younger crowd with its 24-hour diner, live music venues, Italian street food counter, juice bar and beach club soundtracked by a resident DJ.
For a more relaxed Sin City stay, choose the newest hotel on the Strip, Fontainebleau Las Vegas, which has a luxury beach resort feel thanks to a six-acre pool area, top-notch spa and more than 30 onsite restaurants, including an exclusive 12-seater omakase restaurant.
How to get there
Virgin Atlantic flies direct to Las Vegas from London Heathrow and Manchester with return fares from £749 per person.
Virgin Atlantic Holidays offers packages including three nights at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas and flights from Manchester from £1,098 per person, based on two adults travelling.
Read more: The best Las Vegas holidays – where to stay for luxury retreats and budget breaks
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