Las Vegas Strip
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- This article is about The Las Vegas Strip area in the state of Nevada. For other uses, see Las Vegas (disambiguation).
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The Las Vegas Strip (also known as The Strip) is 4 mi (6.7 km) of Las Vegas Boulevard South in Las Vegas, Nevada 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.
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.
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History
The first hotel to be built on what is today's Strip was the El Rancho Vegas, opening on April 3, 1941 and standing for almost 20 years before being destroyed by fire in 1960.
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.
July 5, 1973 added a new resort to The Strip. The (original) MGM Grand, 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 electriclal 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.
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 and 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.
Getting around
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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 current list of fares (http://www.rtcsouthernnevada.com/cat/fareinfo.htm) is available.
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 use the sidewaks 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 Flamingo Road and another at the Las Vegas Boulevard-Spring Mountain and Sands Avenue intersection.
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. Steve Wynn, founder of previously owned Mirage Resorts, purchased the Desert Inn and golf course. Wynn Resorts is building Wynn Las Vegas, a hotel and casino, complete with remodeled golf course and will provide tee times to hotel guests only.
Major hotels, casinos and resorts on The Strip
Listed from north to south:
| Name | Rooms | Opened / Notes |
| Stratosphere 2000 Las Vegas Blvd. South | 1,500 | April 30, 1996 |
| Sahara 2535 Las Vegas Blvd. South | 1,720 | 1952 |
| Circus Circus 2880 Las Vegas Blvd. South | 3,770 | October 18, 1968 |
| Riviera 2901 Las Vegas Blvd. South | 2,100 | April 20, 1955 |
| Westward Ho 2900 Las Vegas Blvd. South | 744 | 1983 |
| Stardust 3000 Las Vegas Blvd. South | 2,340 | 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 |
| Caesars Palace 3570 Las Vegas Blvd. South | 2,456 | 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 | July 5, 1973 as the MGM Grand. 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 in August 2000. Purchased by Planet Hollywood in 2004. |
| Monte Carlo 3770 Las Vegas Blvd. South | 3,014 | June 1996 |
| 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. |
| MGM Grand 3799 Las Vegas Blvd. South | 5,044 | December 18, 1993 |
| New York-New York 3790 Las Vegas Blvd South | 2,024 | January 3,1997 |
| 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 |
| THE hotel at Mandalay Bay 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. South | 1,120 | 2004 |
| Mandalay Bay 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. South | 3,700 | March, 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 | An extention wing of the main casino at Caesars Palace, this was the first destination mall on The Strip. It features a ceiling painted as the sky that goes through a 24 day every hour. Realistic appearing stone statues in the fountains of the mall, come to life and perform several times throughout the day. |
Previous 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 until 1988. The Mirage opened in 1989.
- Hacienda - Demolished, now Mandalay Bay
- Marina (hotel and casino) - Westward pointing tower (known as the Emerald Tower) of the MGM Grand
- The Sands - Demolished, now The Venetian
- Vegas World - Demolished and now the Stratosphere
Arrowhead Highway
The Arrowhead Highway was the first road from Los Angeles, California to Salt Lake City, Utah.
External links
- Virtual Tours of the Las Vegas Strip and Hotels (http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/nevada/las-vegas/las-vegas.php)
- Maps: [1] (http://www.pcap.com/et-map-strip.htm), [2] (http://www.hot-maps.de/north_america/usa/nevada/las_vegas/homede.html)
- Las Vegas Strip Photo Gallery (http://thelasvegasboulevard.com/photo-gallery.html)
- Las Vegas Strip Hotels (http://www.las-vegas-hotel-tours.com)
Sources
- Yahoo! Maps (http://maps.yahoo.com/dd_result?ed=01Sx4uV.wildgvTpXzAo37Igh32VIfwFISAj9AnxVqzIEup0c.d7PyBXOIiKN.fZ_ewayeuVQKxvlx28Mw--&csz=Las+Vegas%2C+Nv&country=us&tcsz=Las+Vegas%2C+Nv&tcountry=us&oerr=3003&terr=3003) listing distance from Stratosphere to Mandalay Bay.