"Viva Las Vegas Baby!" a Las Vegas Travel Page by AVG2319

When you enter Nevada (from Arizona) you will drive through winding mountains, cross the impressive Hoover Dam and wind around some more mountain regions-everything is for the most part brown or earth toned with scraggly bushes and shrubs scattered about-far less cacti than on the Arizona side. When you come down that last big hill you can see the City of Las Vegas with the smog in the distance. The nice suburban houses are getting closer each passing year. Every hour 24 hours another two acres of Las Vegas land are developed for commercial or residential use. On average 50,000 people move to Vegas per year. You drive past these,down the freeway and then onto "the Strip". If you come during the day somehow this strip is not as impressive as you would have thought-lots of hotels as far as the eye can see,tons of people,cabs, and palm trees line the BLVD. If you come from the airport-that part of Vegas is even less impressive in my opinion. But wait! When night falls it is impressive-it is what they show on TV.
Everything "comes alive" here at night and for a city scene the lights are beautiful. Walking into the hotels can be a sensory overload here,but that is the fun of Vegas.There are plenty of "free" things to do-mainly sightsee, as well as shows,dinners,drinking,and gambling which are not so cheap.
We have been here several times. Las Vegas is an interesting city. It is congested, not any cooler than Phoenix and filled with tourists. But it is one of the places to visit at least once in a lifetime. As much as they try to make things easier and more appealing for families to come here on vacation-I say leave the kids at home for this trip. Vegas is a lot more fun without the kids.