Las Vegas
Las Vegas Strip
Aladdin | Bally's Las Vegas | Barbary Coast Hotel and Casino | Bellagio (Hotel and Casino) | Boardwalk Hotel and Casino | Caesars Palace | Casino Royale Las Vegas | Circus Circus Las Vegas | Echelon Place | Excalibur Hotel and Casino | Flamingo Las Vegas | Harrah's Las Vegas | Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino | Luxor Hotel | MGM Grand Las Vegas | Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino | Monte Carlo Resort and Casino | New Frontier Hotel and Casino | New York-New York Hotel & Casino | O'Sheas Casino | Paris Las Vegas | Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino | Project City Center | Riviera (Hotel and Casino) | Sahara (Hotel and Casino) | Sands Expo | Stardust Resort & Casino | Stratosphere Las Vegas | The Cosmopolitan | The Mirage | The Palazzo | The Venetian | Treasure Island Hotel and Casino | Tropicana Resort & Casino | Wynn Las Vegas
The south end of The Strip. Approximately one third of the entire Strip is
represented here.The Las Vegas Strip (also known as The Strip)
is 4 mi (6.7 km)
of
Las Vegas Boulevard South partly in
Las Vegas, Nevada,
United States, that has been designated an
All-American Road. Many of the largest
hotel,
casino and
resort
properties in the world are located on The Strip. Over the years, Las Vegas
Boulevard South has been called
Arrowhead Highway, Salt Lake Highway,
U.S. Highway 91, and Los Angeles Highway. The Strip was reportedly
named by
police officer Guy McAfee, after his hometown's
Sunset Strip, in Los Angeles.
The Strip runs from the
Stratosphere at the northern end, to the
Mandalay Bay on the southern end. Of the 4 miles, nearly 3.5 miles of it is
located in the township of
Paradise, Clark County, only a small portion is within the city limits of Las Vegas.
McCarran Airport is located at the southern end of The Strip, along with the
famous
Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign.
In addition to the large hotels, casinos and resorts, The Strip is home to a
few smaller casinos, motels, and other attractions, such as M&M World, Adventure
Dome and the
Fashion Show Mall. Starting in the mid
1990s, The Strip became a popular New Year's Eve celebration destination.
History
The first casino to be built on Highway 91 was the Pair-o-Dice Club in
1931.
The first hotel to be built on what is today's Strip was the
El Rancho Vegas, opening on
April 3, 1941 with 63 rooms and standing for almost 20 years before being
destroyed by fire in 1960. Its success spawned a second hotel on what will
become The Strip, the Hotel Last Frontier, in 1942. The
Flamingo opened a few years later, on
December 26, 1946.
In 1968, Kirk Kerkorian purchased the
Flamingo and hired Sahara Hotels Vice President Alex Shoofey as President.
Alex Shoofey brought along 33 of Sahara's top executives. The Flamingo was used
to train future employees of the International Hotel, which was under
construction. Opening in 1969, the
International Hotel with 1,512 rooms, would become the largest hotel in the
world, and begin the era of mega-resorts. The International is known as the
Las Vegas Hilton today.
1973 added a new
resort to The Strip. The (original)
MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, also a Kerkorian property, opened with 2,084
rooms, ranking as the number one hotel in the world by number of rooms at that
time. On November 21, 1980, the MGM Grand suffered the worst resort fire in the history of Las Vegas,
killing 87 people (84 in the fire and three more due to injuries) as a result of
electrical problems. It reopened eight months later.
In 1986,
Kerkorian sold the MGM Grand to Bally Manufacturing and it was renamed
Bally's.
The opening of
The Mirage
in 1989 set a new level to the Las Vegas experience, as smaller hotels and
casinos made way for the larger mega-resorts. These huge facilities offer
entertainment and dining
options, as well as gambling and lodging. This change impacted the smaller,
well-known and now historic hotels and casinos, like
The Dunes and
The Sands.
Las Vegas Strip at night from
I-215
In an effort to attract families, resorts offered more attractions geared
toward youth, but had limited success. The (current)
MGM Grand opened in 1993 with Grand Adventures amusement park, but it closed
in 2000 due to lack of interest. Similarly, in 2003
Treasure Island closed its own
video arcade and abandoned the previous pirate theme,
adopting the new ti name.
Downtown Las Vegas hotels and casinos suffered heavily from the Strip's boom.
They have funneled money into remodeling the
facades of
casinos, adding additional security and new attractions, like the
Fremont Street Experience and
Neonopolis (complete with movie theaters).
Wet and Wild water park, located next to the Sahara hotel, closed permanently
at the end of the 2004
season.
Announced in 2004 was
Project City Center on the Las Vegas Strip. This 66
acre (600,000 mē), $6 billion, project on the site of the Boardwalk hotel and
adjoining land is planned as a multi use project. It is the largest such project
announced in the United States. It will consist of hotel, casino, condo, retail
and other uses on the site. The first elements of this project are expected to
be available in 2009.
On July 8, 2005, news reports
(1,
2) said that film actors
George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt will be working with actress/model
Cindy Crawford's husband Rande Gerber to design and build a new casino hotel in
Las Vegas just off the Strip. Gerber is the man behind Green Valley Ranch resort
and spa's Whiskey Sky, so he is already involved in the Las Vegas entertainment
market. Groundbreaking is expected to begin in January 2006. Clooney filmed
Ocean's Eleven at the Bellagio, and spends vacation time at the Green Valley
Ranch resort and spa. The official announcement came on August 29, 2005. The
hotel, condo, and casino property will be called Las Ramblas, and will be built on Harmon Avenue next to the
Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.
Getting around
Las Vegas Strip at night with the Aladdin and Paris hotels
While not on The Strip itself, the
Las Vegas Monorail runs on the east side of The Strip from Tropicana Avenue
to Sahara Road.
Cat Bus provides both a standard route (stops at each resort, 24 hours a
day) and an express route (only stops 8-9 times total in 7 miles, 12 hours a
day, 5 days a week) bus service on the Strip.
A tourist trolley service travels up and down The Strip and stops at various,
but not all, Strip hotels, along with a stop at the Fashion Show Mall. The fare
is $1.75 per ride, exact change required. Trolleys are scheduled to arrive every
15 minutes.
Two small
light-rail services, referred to as trams, operate on
the Strip. One runs between Treasure Island and The Mirage. The other provides
service to
Mandalay Bay,
Luxor,
and
Excalibur.
Compared to major roadways in other cities, the Las Vegas Strip is becoming
pedestrian-friendly. New casinos design their
facades to
attract walk-up customers and many of these entrances have become attractions
themselves - the Fountains at
Bellagio, the volcano at
The Mirage,
and the
Treasure Island (TI) Pirate Show are the most well-known. People gather on
the sidewalks in front of the casinos to watch these shows.
To alleviate traffic issues at popular intersections, footbridges have been
installed to help pedestrians more safely cross the roads. The
Tropicana - Las Vegas Boulevard footbridges were the first to be installed,
and based on the success of this project additional footbridges have been built
on Las Vegas Boulevard at the Flamingo Road intersection; between The
Mirage/Treasure Island and The Venetian; and the latest ones at the Las Vegas
Boulevard-Spring Mountain and Sands Avenue intersection connecting the Wynn with
the Fashion Show Mall.
Free Shuttles
Major hotels, casinos and resorts on The Strip
Listed from north to south:
| Name |
Rooms |
Opened / Notes |
Stratosphere
2000 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
2,444 |
April 30, 1996 |
Sahara
2535 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
1,720 |
1952 |
Circus Circus
2880 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
3,770 |
October 18, 1968 |
Westward Ho
2900 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
744 |
1963 Closed on November 17, 2005 |
Riviera
2901 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
2,100 |
April 20, 1955 |
Stardust
3000 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
1,500 |
July 1958 |
New Frontier
3120 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
1,000 |
October 30, 1942 |
Wynn Las Vegas
3131 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
2,716 |
April 28, 2005 |
Treasure Island (TI)
3300 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
2,900 |
October 27, 1993 |
The Venetian
3355 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
4,049 |
May 3, 1999 |
The
Mirage
3400 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
3,049 |
November 22, 1989 |
Casino Royale
3411 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
152 |
Nob Hill
1979
Casino Royale
1992 |
Harrah's Las Vegas
3475 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
2,616 |
1992 Previously known as the Holiday Casino |
Imperial Palace
3535 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
2,700 |
1980 Previously known as the Flamingo Capri |
Flamingo
3555 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
3,642 |
1946 -
known as the Flamingo Hilton from 1974-99. |
Caesars Palace
3570 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
3,348 |
August 5, 1966 |
Barbary Coast
3595 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
200 |
1979 |
Bellagio
3600 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
3,000 |
October 15, 1998 |
Bally's
3645 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
2,814 |
Bonanza Hotel
The factual accuracy of the following date is unclear. Please
view
Bally's talk page.
July 5, 1973 as the
MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, largest in the world with 2,084 rooms.
Sold in 1986
and renamed. |
Paris
3655 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
1,900 |
September 1, 1999 |
Aladdin
3667 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
2,567 |
1963 as
the Tally-Ho.
Rebuilt and reopened on
August 18, 2000. |
Boardwalk
3750 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
654 |
1968.
Rebuilt and enlarged in the
1990s.
Plans being developed to remove this hotel as part of a larger project.
Closed on
January 9, 2006. |
Monte Carlo
3770 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
3,002 |
June 21, 1996 |
New York-New York
3790 Las Vegas Blvd South |
2,024 |
January 3, 1997 |
MGM Grand
3799 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
5,044 |
December 18, 1993 |
Tropicana
3801 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
1,800 |
1957 |
Excalibur
3850 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
4,032 |
June 19, 1990 |
Luxor
3900 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
4,407 |
October 15, 1993 |
THEhotel at Mandalay Bay
3950 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
1,117 |
2004
On November 17, 2005 the hotel started to change the signage to set this
hotel apart from the Mandalay Bay. |
Mandalay Bay
3950 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
3,700 |
March 2, 1999 |
Four Seasons
3950 Las Vegas Blvd. South |
424 |
1999
Top four floors of Mandalay Bay's main building. |
Major shopping attractions on The Strip
| Name |
Description |
Bonanza Gift Store
2440 Las Vegas Boulevard South |
World's largest gift store, Purveyors of Las Vegas Pop culture |
Fashion Show Mall
3200 Las Vegas Boulevard South |
|
Grand Canal Shoppes
3355 Las Vegas Boulevard South |
A canal, with gondolas and singing gondoliers, winds along in front
of many of the shops. |
Desert Passage
3667 Las Vegas Boulevard South |
1.2 miles of shopping with 140 stores, located at the Aladdin.
Features an hourly indoor thunderstorm. |
Forum Shops at
Caesars Palace
Las Vegas Boulevard South |
|
Golf
courses
In recent years, all the on-Strip golf courses, except the Desert Inn Golf
Course, fell prey to the mega-resorts need for land and were closed. Developer
Steve Wynn, founder of previously owned
Mirage Resorts, purchased the Desert Inn and golf course for his new company
Wynn Resorts. In 2005, he opened
Wynn Las Vegas, complete with remodeled golf course providing tee times to
hotel guests only.
In 2000, a new
public golf course opened just south of Mandalay Bay on the Strip. Catering to a
high-end golf enthusiast, the
Bali Hai Golf Club is easly seen by drivers on I-15.
Demolished Strip hotels
-
Desert Inn (and golf course): Demolished, now the Wynn Las Vegas.
-
The Dunes (and golf course): Demolished, rebuilt as Bellagio
-
El Rancho Vegas: Burned down in 1960. The Hilton Grand Vacation Club
timeshare now exists on the south edge of the site where the resort once
stood.
-
El Rancho (formerly Thunderbird/Silverbird): Demolished, now Turnberry
Place condominium complex.
-
Glass Pool Inn was called Mirage Motel until 1988 when forced to
change name due to The Mirage opening down The Strip in 1989.
-
Hacienda: Demolished, now Mandalay Bay
-
Marina (hotel and casino): Westward pointing tower (known as the West
Wing) of the MGM Grand
-
The Sands: Demolished, now The Venetian
- Vegas World: demolished and rebuilt as the Stratosphere; parts of the
old Vegas World still remains.
External links
Sources
-
Yahoo! Maps listing distance from Stratosphere to Mandalay Bay.
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