The Strip of Las Vegas

The Strip is what most people think of when the think of Las Vegas. This is home to the famous mega-resorts that always show up on TV. It runs south from downtown to south of Tropicana Boulevard.

It's proper name is Las Vegas Boulevard, and is technically 5th street.

I have been told it originally got its name because it was a long piece of privately owned land in the middle of Bureau of Land Management holdings. I have not tried to confirm this.

Everyone should drive the length of the strip after dark, when all the lights are on.

Once.

Take video, because you probably will not want to do it again.

I did it one morning, about 4:00AM, and the traffic was fine and the lights were great. I have also done it at 11:00PM on a Friday night for some out of town friends.

Not again.

If you must get to a hotel there, during heavy traffic, try Frank Sinatra Drive. It runs behind (west) most of the hotels, and will get you in from the back side.

If your hotel is on the east side ... well, I haven't figured that out yet.

The busiest intersection in the world

The corner of Tropicana Boulevard and Las Vegas Boulevard is the busiest intersection in the world. I once had to get from Tropicana on the east side of the strip, to a restaurant about 1/3 of mile north on a Friday night. We were first in line at the intersection, and the trip took almost an hour.

Avoid it.

A very quick tour of the Las Vegas Strip

As you leave Downtown Las Vegas on the Las Vegas Boulevard, some of the mega-resorts you will pass are, roughly from north to south:

The Stratosphere (tallest building west of the Mississippi, and star of many TV shots of Vegas)

The Sahara (setting for the original "Oceans Eleven" film)

Circus Circus (Home of the Adventuredome indoor amusement park)

The Riviera (Rat Pack nostalgia)

Fashion Show Mall (not a resort, but a very fancy shopping mall)

Wynn Las Vegas Resort (AAA 5 diamonds)

Treasure Island (Sirens of TI Pirate ship battle - Free!)

The Mirage (The Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat, white tigers inside and out, and a working volcano)

The Venetian (Italy on the Strip with singing gondoliers on its own canal)

Caesar's Palace (Forum Shops and a Real Las Vegas feeling)

Harrahs (Also owns Caesars, Paris The Rio, and several others)

The Flamingo (Bugsy Siegel's dream, on the Las Vegas Strip since 1946)

The Bellagio (artwork and the famous fountains)

Ballys (one of the oldest - nearly 30 years on the Strip)

Paris (another European City on in Las Vegas, complete with miniature Arc de Triumphe and a half scale Eiffel Tower)

Monte Carlo (more of Europe with its own brewery)

New York New York (The famous skyline, Stature of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge)

MGM Grand (Largest bronze sculpture in the US and a Lion Habitat)

The Excalibur (A real jousting arena, and a great steakhouse)

The Tropicana (Folies Bergere - the longest running show in Vegas)

The Luxor (A Pyramid. a Sphinx, and the world's brightest light)

Mandalay Bay (A Shark reef and the Four Seasons Hotel - only in Vegas)

Keep going south, and Las Vegas Boulevard ends as a gravel road in Jean, Nevada, about a half hour south of the Las Vegas.

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