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Gambling and glitz are a great draw to Las Vegas, but they're not necessarily the best part about a Las Vegas vacation. Of course, the big time gamblers, called whales by Vegas moguls, find the best part about their Las Vegas vacations to be the thrill of betting thousands of bucks on the turn of a card or toss of the dice.

Ordinary citizens with limited budgets may consider the best part of a Las Vegas vacation to be the great variety of bargains offered by Sin City. Luxury hotel rooms that cost $400 a night in New York, London or Tokyo go for $100 at Strip resorts. The sumptuous $25 dinner buffets in Las Vegas would cost $90 in typical tourist city restaurants. Tickets for the Broadway-style shows, reviews and famous entertainment star performances in Vegas sell for $80. For New York City's Broadway, they'd cost at least $300.

Another best part of a Las Vegas vacation is that visitors can enjoy the many absolutely free features of the city. For example, every night downtown on Fremont Street, there's an enormous multi-media extravaganza in the sky above six blocks of the city. On the Strip, on a man-made lagoon in front of the Treasure Island Resort, there's a nightly simulated sea battle between two, full-sized replicas of 18th Century warships. One is crewed by actors portraying uniformed British Navy seaman and the other by skimpy-costumed girl pirates.

Nearby on the Strip, the Mirage Hotel puts on a spectacular, authentic-looking, lava-spewing volcano every night. Another hotel, the Bellagio, features a large lake in front, and at night it spouts with dancing water fountains 100 feet high in rhythm with popular music. Just below the ceilings high above the slot machines and gambling tables, three hotels present free acrobatic circus acts. They're the Rio, Circus Circus and Tropicana.

Another best part about a Las Vegas vacation is that many of the hotels' architecture and interiors reflect famed structures in other cities around the world. For example, the Luxor Resort is a huge Egyptian pyramid, with a large statue of the Sphinx at its entrance. The Excalibur Hotel resembles a medieval castle, while the Paris Resort features three-quarter sized replicas of the Arch of Triumph and the Eiffel Tower. The New York New York Resort resembles a condensed version of high-rise buildings in the Big Apple, complemented out front by a replica segment of the Brooklyn Bridge.

For all visitors, particularly families, the best part about a Las Vegas vacation is that the city is near two of America's most popular tourist sites. Boulder Dam is a 30-minute drive to the massive man-made structure on the Colorado River. A 45-minute helicopter trip takes visitors to one of the world's greatest natural structures, the Grand Canyon National Park.

Just a 30-mile drive away is the red-rock-hued Mount Charleston. It's a great area for hiking and biking in warm weather, and to enjoy the ski slopes when the mountaintop is covered with winter snow.

The best part about a Las Vegas vacation is that it offers visitors non-stop opportunities for entertainment, sightseeing, dining and just about any other kind of enjoyment.

Learn more about this author, Ted Sherman.
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