Liberace Museum and other Las Vegas, NV Off The Beaten Path Tips

I have visited this museum once before the remolding and once after. I must say that the newly remolded museum is 3 times the size of the original. I don't understand this, nor have I ever heard of something like this happening, but the museum didn't build onto their already existing museum, but built another one in the small shopping center it resides in; go figure. Liberace passed away in 1987. Liberace has won two Emmy awards, six golden albums, "two" stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He has even played at Carnegie Hall. Here are some highlights in the museum:

~ 1788 Broadwood piano (one of the oldest in existence)
~ A French Pleyel piano owned by Chopin (which is the most expensive)
~ A Chickering piano once owned by George Gershwin.
~ A piano made out of toothpicks
~ And 9 other pianos
~ The world's largest Austrian rhinestone, totaling 115,000 carats, worth $50,000, weighing 50 pounds!
~ A Rolls Royce covered in tiny mirrors
~ A "pink" Volks Royce
~ A black diamond mink (lined in more then 40,000 "2-and-a-half" karat Austrian rhinestones, each sewn by hand
~ A coat covered with sea shells and pearls, weighing 200 pounds

The museum is located at: 1775 E. Tropicana Ave., at Spencer. It is 2.5 miles away from Las Vegas Blvd. Here is the following admission prices:

Adults: $12.50
Seniors (65+) & Students: $8.50
Children under 5: Free
Note: There is a buy-1-get-1-free coupon in the Entertainment Book

The hours of operation are as follows:

Mon. - Sat. (10am - 5pm)
Sunday (12pm - 4pm)
Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day
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Phone: (702) 798-5595
Website: http://www.liberace.com/liberace/museum.cfm

This place is Ron Lee's factory, cafe, shop, collection, and offices. Ron Lee has made hundreds of sculptures for Disney, Warner Brothers, Magic Mountain, and other companies. There is a vast display of his work. There is also viewing glass, which you can see a step-by-step process of his sculptures being made (hand crafted). Of course, all of the viewing was free. I was able to meet Ron Lee and have him sign my book that he published. The hours of operation are as follows:

Monday - Friday (9am - 4pm)
(Cafe closes at 4pm)
Saturday (Closed)
Sunday (Closed)

The location is at:

330 Carousel Parkway
Henderson, NV 89014

Ron Lee's web site is well put together and informative.
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Phone: (800) 829-3928
Website: http://www.ronlee.com
Other Contact: (702) 434-1700

The famous Hoover Dam, named after our 31st president, Herbert Hoover. You may remember this site in the movie, "National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation," starring Chevy Chase and Dennis Quaid. This dam is 725 feet high! The dam resides on the border of Arizona and Nevada. Behind the dam is Lake Mead (The largest man-made lake in the world) and on the other side is the famous Colorado River. If you want to get out of your car and see this dam, the only way is to pay a parking fee of $5, after which, you are allowed to freely walk across the dam. This is quite a sight to see, because there is just a 3 feet thick and 3 feet high wall, which you can look (or bend) over all the way down to the bottom. The dam is located 35 miles away from Vegas, in Boulder City, on highway 93.

The hours of operation are:
9am - 5pm (daily)
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Phone: (888) 248-1259
Website: http://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam

Yum! Yum! You may have never heard of this company before (not in California), but these chocolates are big in Vegas. You can take a free self-guided tour of the tiny factory not too far from the strip. Sometimes, In the middle of tour, they pass out free chocolates. At the end of the tour, you can have a "free" sample of any chocolate they make. Hey, I'm all for free. The tour, of course, ends in their shop, but I can guarantee you that you will pay a lot less here then in Vegas. There is also a cactus garden which is covered from head to toe with white Christmas lights. I have yet to see this at night, but you can tell in the day that everything is covered with thousands of lights (trees too). You can find the factory at:

2 Cactus Garden Drive
Henderson, NV 89015

The hours of operation are:
8:30am - 7pm (daily)
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Phone: (800) 438-4356
Website: http://www.ethelm.com
Other Contact: (702) 435-2641