Haha - I think I would DISLIKE Vegas for all the reasons @conmama loves it - I don’t care about bars, not a show fan, don’t like to dress up or playing any of the games!
BUT if you are going to include the hiking trips and outdoor life outside of the city, I’m IN for a visit. When it’s not terribly hot!
@cypresspat I am a runner, too, and found that you have to leave the strip and run to UNLV and past it. There is a good track there, too, but you can also run in the neighborhoods past UNLV and not be murdered or run over.
I absolutely love Las Vegas. I go about once a year by myself for a couple of nights. I don’t drink or shop (other than a T-shirt sometimes) but I love to play some of the table games. Rarely drop a nickel in a slot machine, though. I stay at the Flamingo on the strip where Donny and Marie perform, but they are never there when I am. I love the dry desert air. It is such a nice change from the humidity where I live. I usually go in early March so it is not hot yet. I wear jeans and flats or other comfortable, casual clothes. It’s just a great getaway for me and cheap, too. I have packing down to a science and can forgo the baggage fees so my flight is usually around $100. Free room (ha) except for the $35/night resort fee. When I get tired of playing, I walk around. I have never felt unsafe there. In early March, the nights are very cool. I get a laugh watching the young ladies in their strapless mini dresses walking/staggering in their very high heels with their teeth chattering and skin purple from the cold night air. I guess wisdom does come with age.
Although I like to gamble, I only do it once a year when I go to Vegas. There are casinos within 100 miles of my home, but I can’t remember the last time I went to one. When I go to Vegas, it feels like vacationing and not gambling.
We LOVE Vegas!
Besides the fact that we get our suites comp’ed now, with great views of the strip, we have a great time!
We don’t drink alcohol, don’t smoke, don’t really gamble.
We shop, go to all of the comedy shows (Seinfield puts on a great show-and we found out he only comes out twice a year-our favorite comedian ATM is Fluffy), see our favorite bands, rent cabanas (this is our daughter’s favorite pampering activity), go to the gyms, go to the spas and sing Karaoke with new found friends!. It’s the craziness of it all that is too funny and great! We’ve seen young people have weddings at midnight!(who does that???); we “people watch” the gamblers. We were there for the grand opening of Eataly and got a bunch of freebee samples. There are some great little bands, in the hotels, that play old school music and it sounds fresh, PLUS it’s free!!!
My kids meet us there since they really like the outlet shops and day trips to the desert, etc.
The spas are wonderful! I love my massages and treatments. My husband says I work hard all year and that I need a little pampering. Every staff member I’ve encountered there has been hardworking and accommodating. (I know I pay for the services, but dang it they couldn’t be sweeter. Their non alcoholic fruity drinks in the spas are always fresh, creative and delicious!) All of the spa products (and other manufacturers’ products) are there for me to try in the spa and I get to see what I like and what I don’t like.
We don’t do the buffets, because it seems like a trough, but we do make reservations at the really good steak and other restaurants.
Maybe it’s just us, but we actually like making our own “vacation” there exciting.
I used to go once or twice a year for big events. The events and shows have been spectacular and very professionally done. And the restaurants are terrific too. Unfortunately I can’t stand to go any more because of the excessive amount of cigarette smoke in the casino hotels. It literally makes me sick.
It depends on the hotel. There are a number of large hotels that know that the numbers of non-smokers are huge.
I’m not a Vegas fan but go there from time to time. It’s gotten much bigger and more sprawling than I remember it from the 70s & 80s. Just went there in November with my H & D for a conference. It was OK but honestly we have better or as good food in HNL.
I’m not a gambler nor a shopper. I’m not all that into huge shows, though have enjoyed a few over the years.
For a nongambler like me, there isn’t all that much attraction to going there often. That said, I know a lot of folks who just love going there and go several times/year or at least annually.
Don’t like it one bit – have zero interest in going there.
Not my place at all. I traveled there a few times when family members lived there but not since. No interest in returning.
I’m sorry to have never been and travel is quite difficult now. Our kids have been and loved their visits. They’re foodies and enjoyed some incredible meals there. Their focus was on food and shows. The only negative they mentioned was getting accosted on the street by very aggressive people promoting/selling a variety of things and experiences.
@abasket I suspect our families would enjoy traveling together. 
I also hate cigarette smoke, but I have found I run into fewer smokers nowadays. I have been going at least once a year for more than 25 years and the smoke used to be a lot worse. Of course, I was traveling with my mom, then, who was a chain smoker.
When there, I usually go down to the Paris Casino when out walking around and there seem to be a lot of cigar smokers there. Ugh.
Any where with smoking allowed would be a deal breaker for me.
Some one mentioned the spas - my niece who is 37 goes 2-3 times a year to Vegas just for the spas and food and maybe a concert. She has no interest in casinos.
Some one share with me how you get discounts on rooms or rooms “comp’d”. Is it because you’ve been several times? Always book at the same place? Spend regularly at casinos?
My 85 year old mom loves to go to the casino and just play the cheap slots. She drops a hint about once every other month for me to take her to Vegas. I try to make mom happy but this feels like a TORTURE trip to me! I would want to keep an eye on her but casinos are just so unpleasant to me - the noise, lights, people - ugh its so outside of my comfort zone. I keep telling myself I should do it for her but it’s a struggle…
My mom goes to various casinos around her in NY and Ontario and always has rooms comp’d and/or free food. They send these offers out to those who spend enough money with them. The longer she stays away, the more she gets for free - including gambling money sometimes. When we go to Niagara Falls or the Bahamas or wherever, she does the casino and we do things attractive to us. I’ve gone into casinos at her insistence a couple of times and even won some money playing with the free money they often give newcomers, but it’s just way too boring for me. Mom’s now content if we split up - or she goes with a friend or her sisters who also enjoy gambling. When we go we’ll set times for meeting for dinner, etc, and we all know where the room is so can come or go there as we like. It works.
After reading the posts in this thread, I wonder why Las Vegas Casinos even bother offering gambling & alcohol.
I wonder if some are confusing Las Vegas with Salt Lake City & Provo.
As a young adult, I loved Vegas. My friends and I would finish our shift at midnight, get in the car, drive for 4 hours, drink, gamble, eat (in that order), then turn around and drive home at 8 am. Ha! We loved it.
Now, I can’t stand Vegas, though I can see why a day or two of insanity might be fun. To me, it’s a convenient place to fly into if you want to explore Zion, Bryce, and the Grand Canyon. Otherwise, why people go there for anything longer than a couple of days is beyond me.
No. I’ve been there enough to know I don’t like it any more than I like Disney anything. Not that LV is Disney.
You can get a good meal there for not too much money, and the hotels are affordable. But being inside a restaurant or hotel is not that much fun for me. And the strip area is just tawdry and sleazy. Even the Bellagio fountains are weird, protected from the sidewalk hustlers by security guards or whatever agreements have been reached - like being on the inside of the shark cage looking out.
Driving from Hoover Dam to Vegas was instructive - you understand why the US chose Nevada for the nuclear waste depository, and can’t figure out how or why Harry Reid fought that so hard and so successfully. A desolate wasteland.
@Publisher I’d place a bet that most folks supporting Las Vegas via their gambling and drinks don’t even know CC exists.
A few others might feel it’s not “good” to express their likes online here for whatever reason, but even if they decided to quit to “fit in” with their online “peers” it wouldn’t even budge the overall stats of Vegas’ trademarks I suspect.
I have been several times because the pet industry can’t have a convention/trade show where there isn’t gambling. Therefore I have also been to Atlantic City and Mohegan Sun! It is a point of pride by now that I never ever gamble. Even when a show at Mohegan gave booth cash-back in chips, I cashed them in immediately! I actually think the desert is an interesting place – and I have been able to get off the strip and see some of the Red Rock and Hoover Dam. I prefer to stay off the strip if possible – and my pro-tip is to avoid the pyramid thing hotel, especially the upper floors where the AC does not reach. If the budget allows, the Four Seasons is spectacular and I’d stay there again in a heartbeat.
On a hiking trip last fall, the group flew in & out of LV.
One woman, who arrived a few days early, said the Mob museum was fascinating and added she is not even museum person & loved it.
She & her sister, both in their late 60s, also participated in a Virtual Reality game (fighting off attacking robots) & had a blast.
I would totally be up for something like that.