New York-New York Hotel and Casino

Vegas takes on Manhattan in this fantasy version of Gotham City. The mini-Manhattan skyline is one of our favorite parts of the Strip—there are third-size to half-size re-creations of all the biggies: the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, the Chrysler, Seagram, and CBS buildings, the New York Public Library, Grand Central Terminal, and the Brooklyn Bridge. A wrought-iron fence near the model of a New York fireboat has items donated by people from all over the world in a tribute to the victims of 9/11. Looping around it all is the Manhattan Express roller coaster. The Big Apple flavor continues inside: walk through an art deco lobby, play virtual reality games at an arcade reminiscent of Coney Island, chow down at a surprisingly good food court patterned after Greenwich Village, and all the while keep your eye out for details such as names on mailboxes and brownstone apartment façades with air-conditioners in the windows.