LAS VEGAS- The Strip, aka Las Vegas Boulevard,is Las Vegas' signature thoroughfare,afantasyland stuffedwith casino-hotels, shops, restaurants,bars galore and some of the best people watching on the planet.
Strolling the Strip—whose busiest partstretches fromMandalay Bay Resort & Casino near McCarran International Airportnorth to the Wynn and Encore resorts near Fashion Show Mall—is a rite of passage for first-time visitors and a highlight for many returning visitors.
To inspire newbies, we traversed Las Vegas Boulevard from MGM Grand to Wynn Las Vegas on a sunny Thursday in mid-February. It was eighthours, 14,256 steps and 6.67miles of fun.
And we set a budget of $100 becauseLas Vegas ATMs routinely spit out Benjamins instead of smaller bills. It wasn't so much a test of how to stretch a dollar as it was about sampling a variety of places andexperiences, including a little gambling. Every visitor would spend their time and moneydifferently, no doubt.Lunch at luxe Bellagio ate up a good chunk of changebut was a highlight of the day for me.
Here's how it unfolded.
RELATED:Best Las Vegas buffets|Las Vegas Travel Guide|Las Vegas Happy Hours|Discount Las Vegas|Great Las Vegas views and atmosphere
10:15a.m.
Withdraw $100 from an ATM at MGM Grand, the strikinggreenhotel that anchors one corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue near the south end of the Strip. Grumble at the $5.99 fee (which is in addition to my bank's fee.)
MGM is the largest hotel in Vegas and among the largest in the world, with more than 5,000 rooms.MGM's lobby, like many lobbies in Vegas, is a destination itself, with stunning fresh flowers and a themed attraction in the middle. During my visit the theme wasChinese New Year, with a vivid display of red and yellow flowers, red lanterns and monkey etchings surroundinga gold lion. MGM's signature, to celebrate the Year of the Monkey.
MGM used to draw throngs of visitors to its live lion exhibit but that closed in 2012. The only big felineat the moment is the 45-foot-tall bronze lion sculpture that stands sentry outside the hotel.
The hotel has a slew of restaurants and bars, and itsfood court isalways buzzing. 32 Degrees, a small bar near the food court,has one of the nicest, craziest and probably most successful bartenders in Las Vegas. Lisa, who is singled out in many online reviews of the place and draws repeat visitors galore, wasn't therewhen I was this visit but she might be when you visit.The bar at Emeril's New Orleans Fish House has a great happy hour from 2 to 6 p.m. and 9:30 to close.
Read more about all you can do on the Las Vegas Strip after the interactive map!
Editor's Note: Desktop users can see the full interactive map ofthings to do on the Las Vegas Striphere. The map also displays on mobile. Users should scroll or swipe down for event details.
10:45 a.m.
Head across the pedestrian bridge that connects MGM to sister hotel New York-New York Hotel & Casino. The giant Statue of Liberty outside is the star of countless Instagram photos.
Inside the hotel, the roller coaster was temptingbut a sign in the casino, past the towering martini glass advertising Tom’s Urban, past the celebrity slot machines —“Ellen,’’ “Big Bang Theory,’’ “Hangover’’ and “Willy Wonka’’ —caught my eye. New York-New York offers free craps lessons at 11 a.m daily and free blackjack lessons at noon.I’ve played craps on occasion but never had a lesson except from friends and tablemates.
Fourteen of us gathered around the table and watched and listened as Burt walked us through the dice game, which has a dizzyingarray of side bets and is crazy hard to follow when real money is on the line at a packed table on a weekend night.
For this class, the wagers were hot-pink and neon-green chips. The advice starts at the most basic: If you’re the shooter and the dice don’t hit the wall on the other side of the table or you throw so hard that they go over the table, it's no biggiethe first couple times. But you risk losing your turn if you do it three or four times, Burt said.
He walked us through pass bets (the best odds) and a flurry of other bets: odds, field bet, place bets, come bet, C&E (pays if the shooter hits craps or 11), horn bet, hard ways.
“For beginners,’’ Burt says. “I recommend place bets.’’
It was an hour well spent and didn’t cost a dime. Yet. (See 5 p.m.)
11:54 a.m.
You can't go to Las Vegas and not bring home a souvenir, especially if you have kids. I stopped atHershey's Chocolate World just off the New York-New York casino floor. Sure, you’re paying more than you would at Target or Fry’s, but the two-level store, like its M&M factory competition across the street next to MGM Grand, is an attraction.
It’s home to a chocolate Statue of Liberty, a Twizzler Statue of Liberty, a bakery with too many cupcakes to countand by-the-pound Hershey Kisses in flavors including Pumpkin Spice and Cherry Cordial. I passed on the 5-pound, $79.95 souvenir chocolate bar in favor of the 1-pound, $14 bar (the onegrocery stores display with s’mores fixings, for considerably less money, of course.)
You can personalize your candy-bar wrapper, including a photo, on a computer in the store.Hersheyworld sales supervisor Ocie Creerphotobombed my pic. The wrapper is ready withinminutes.Even on a weekday in February, the place with packed with kids and adults.
12:38 p.m.
If imbibing is on your agenda, strolling the Strip with a drink in hand is a must. (Don’t try that in Old Town Scottsdale.)
I passed on the 32-ouncefrozen margaritas and daiquiris sold up and down the Strip in favor of a 6-ounceglass of white wine from Shake Shack. The New York burger chain is just outside New York-New York near theentrance to The Park, a sprawling new outdoor dining and entertainment district and home to the new T-Mobile Arena. The Shake Shack wasthe first West Coastoutpost of the New York chain with the cult-like following. (Locations in Phoenix and Scottsdale opened this year.)
The wine was $8 at the express-line takeout window. I was tempted by thefrozen custard but had lunch reservations in an hour.
12:46 p.m.
A suave hustler hawking discount show ticketsnoticedmy drink and askedwhere his was. I keptwalking. “Where you from?’’ he asked. “I do massage,’’
12:55 p.m.
Stop at CityCenter, an upscale MGM Resorts International project that is home to three hotels (Mandarin Oriental, Aria and Vdara) and the Crystals luxury shopping mall. Mandarin Oriental hasa popular tea with views of the Strip, but I didn't have time before my lunch reservation at Bellagio.
Foundtwo selfie spots: the 19-foot typewriter-eraser pop-art sculpture (“Typewriter Eraser, Scale X" by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen), with the bristles of the brush turned skyward, and the cascading waterwall at Aria.
On the walk through Crystals to Bellagio, you can’t help but gawk: Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Hermes, Prada. Also check out what has to be the coolest Mastro’s Ocean Club design out there.
1:25 p.m.
Hop on the free tram that connects Aria to Bellagio. It’s the first time I’ve sat down in three hours. I’ve only spent $22 but the total willtriple after I visit Michelin-decorated chef Julian Serrano’s third Las Vegas restaurant. Lago by Julian Serrano, an Italian restaurant, opened a year ago in the spot formerly occupied by Circo.
It is sandwiched between Hyde, my go-to hidden gem for early evening fountain views, and Le Cirque. It's near Olives, one of my longtime favorite spots for a relaxing meal with a view of the mesmerizing Bellagio Fountains show.
I nabbed a patio table one seat removed from the edge and its unobstructed view. The fountain shows don’t start until 3 p.m. on weekdays so I ate slowly and talked with two sisters from Pittsburgh who made Lago and the fountains the first stop on their first visit to Las Vegas.
A gorgeous setting calls for an equally gorgeous co*cktail so I ordered the sparkling purple Lago martini, with Absolut Elyx, Mancino vermouthsecco, orange blossom syrup and butterfly pea flower extract. Instead of ice cubes, it hadan ice spherewith seasonal flowers inside.
For lunch, I couldn’t afford the $28prix-fixe three-course lunch (and didn’t really want dessert) plus a $19 martini, so I opted for the martini and the antipasto misto plate, with burrata cheese, prosciutto, salami, porchetta, olives and bell peppers.
Total bill with tip: $47. Not bad for lunch and a show.
3:23 p.m
Head to another can’t-miss attraction at Bellagio, the Conservatory and Botanical Garden, one of the most visited spots in Las Vegas and surely among the most photographed. The theme changes with the season.It wasChinese New Year during my visit, with a riot of red and yellow flowers, a family of 12 Macaque monkeys on a mountain and stunning Chinese children topiaries. The theme switched to Japanese Spring on March 18 and features more than 82,000 flowers and a Japanese tea garden.The conservatory is just off the lobby, itself an attraction with Dale Chihulyglass artwork hanging from the ceiling above a bedazzled horse.
Both are free, so I still had $29 left for the day.
3:45 p.m.
I backtracked slightly to Cosmopolitan Las Vegas, a haven of hipness next to Bellagio.
You’ve heard of tableside guacamole? Cosmopolitan’s new Clique Bar & Lounge features tableside mixology. The drink menu featured drinks bothstiff (Racing Down the Boulevard hasbourbon, Campari and vermouth) and sweet (Not Your Father’s Root Beer Float has Not Your Father’s Root Beer and Tahitian vanilla-bean gelato), and the tableside bar was tantalizing.
But the drinks cost$25-$30 so I moved on to Cosmopolitan’s new sports book. There are pool tables, shuffleboard andTVs galore. At 4 p.m., I slipped a $10 bill into a video-poker machine at the bar and watched my alma mater, Syracuse University, play Florida State in basketball while sipping a free Hendrick’s gin and grapefruit juice. It didn’t turn out to be free, of course, because after winning the first few hands I lost the entire $10. But Syracuse won.
4:25 p.m.
I've been to Vegas dozens of times, but I madea rookie mistake I won’t soon live down. I wasn’t paying attention outside Planet Hollywood when I was scooped up — literally—by two ridiculously sculpted men who call themselves the Synergy Brothers.
They weren’t as obviously hustling for tips as the Minions next to them (on a break with their costume heads beside them) and the assorted other characters I dodged along the Strip.
So for a brief moment I thought it might be legitimate, a fitness demonstration or something. But it was just a hustle for a photo and I fell for it. They wanted $20. I handed them $10 and moved on.
4:46 p.m.
I checked out the flamingos fluting at the Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel & Casino and breezed through the Linq shopping and dining promenade. It’s home to the High Roller observation wheel, whichis worth a visit.
5 p.m.
Decided to put my craps lessonto work at Casino Royale, a low-budget place with Subway and Cinnabon the starring restaurants just off the casino floor. Beers are$1.
I wrote off the $10 photo expense as a personal expense since I got suckeredso my remaining budget was $20. There was a good shooter when I started at the table so my tiny stakedidn’t disappear in seconds. I even bethard ways (betting that if 4, 6, 8 or 10 is rolled the dice will showa pair of 2s, 3s, 4s or 5s) and won a few times.
Then the dreaded seven —which ends the shooter’s roll and costs all but the contrarian players’ money —came in and I was out of there.
5:35 p.m.
I continued walking north, past the sprawling sister hotels Venetian and Palazzo, before stopping at Wynn Las Vegas. Like Bellagio, Wynn is a floral fantasyland that shouldn’t be missed.
My favorite feature: the 14-foot carousel in the atrium. The colorful carouselhas four white-flower horses and was playing “Cabaret.’’
The first line in the Liza Minnelli song isfitting after a long day on the Strip: “What good is sitting alone in your room?’’
