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Inspired by the "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" attitude, and that it usually happens after dark, nightlife impresarios keep dipping into their vast pockets to create over-the-top experiences where party-mad Visigoths—plus, well, you and me—can live out some wild fantasies. The number of high-profile nightclubs, trendy lounges, and sizzling strip bars continues to grow, each attempting to trump the other to attract not just high rollers, but A-list celebrities and the publicity that surrounds them.
Many of the newest clubs even have gambling. Though, we ask, Why bother when you can lounge beside the pool by day and bellow at the moon by night while dancing half clad at a club until noon the following day (when it's back into the pool you go)?
In the late 1990s, once the Vegas mandarins decided that the "family experience" just wasn't happening, Sin City nightlife got truly sinful again, drawing raves from clubbers worldwide. A wave of large dance clubs, such as the Luxor's (now-defunct) Ra, opened their doors, followed by a trendy batch of cozier ultralounges—lounges with dance floors and high-tech amenities.
The game of one-upmanship has continued—recent additions that have kept the city hopping include the massive Omnia at Caesars Palace and more intimate Intrique Nightclub at Wynn Las Vegas. What's more, bawdy 1950s-era burlesque lounges are continuing their comeback with a gaggle of clubs now dedicated to the art of striptease.
Few cities on Earth match Vegas in its dedication to upping the nightlife ante. So with all these choices, no one—not even the Visigoths—has an excuse for not having fun, however you define the "f" word.
The 80,000-square-foot Vegas haunt is one of the iterations of the nightclub brand that started in London. The space is one part nightclub, one part modern Cantonese restaurant—five floors in all, with three dedicated to nightlife. To fill this space, the venue has booked some of the biggest DJs in the world, including Lil Jon, Calvin Harris, Steve Aoki, and Tiësto. For a more casual experience, head to the third-level Ling Ling Club.
As the name suggests, the nightclub at Park MGM is all about sound. The brainchild of L.A.'s Houston brothers brings in live DJs and offers three hidden karaoke rooms, as well as a hidden vinyl bar in the middle of the club. Perhaps the coolest detail is the hallway lined with cassette tapes. Don't miss the double-decker bus in the open-air courtyard either; it's like nothing at any other club in town. On the Record is open Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday nights.
Nowhere else in Vegas furnishes you with the four Ds—dining, drinking, dancing, and drooling—in quite as alluring a mix as this multilevel (and multimillion-dollar) playground. The ground floor and mezzanine levels are exquisite enough (you almost tumble into the women in rose-petal baths before you're in the door), but once you get off the elevator at the top floor, where an army of dramatically lighted stone deities greets you, the party truly begins. Chinese antiques, crimson chandeliers, and a so-called Opium Room set the mood. It's still one of the best dance clubs in Vegas. In spring and summer, Tao Beach opens with daytime pool parties.
This club backs up onto a pool that converts into one of the most spacious open-air dance floors in town. The resort's signature attention to detail shines through with motifs throughout evoking "the sexy curves of the human body," such as walls imprinted with golden naked body casts (the waitresses reportedly modeled for them). At the pool are cabanas, another bar, and outdoor gaming, where the sexiest croupiers in town ply their trade. Excess is a pretty good word for all of this.
Ayu Dayclub, part of the opulent outdoor oasis that is Resorts World’s pool area, is designed to bring to mind the islands of Southeast Asia. The 41,000-square-foot space features music from a variety of genres, including EDM, hip hop, R&B, and new wave, from artists including Tiesto, Cash Cash, and Louis the Child. The DJs curate special playlists for big-event weekends.
A staircase leads revelers straight from the Paris casino floor up to this French-inspired nightclub on the roof of the resort. It's bordered with glass walls to provide optimal views of the Strip—and allow for lots of Instagram-worthy photos. The Rooftop has VIP tables, bottle service, and plenty of room for dancing under the stars. It's open from 10 pm to 2 am, Friday and Saturday, and reservations are required; call or book online.
Victor Drai wants your business day and night, and he nabs it with his multiuse space 11 stories up at The Cromwell. Drai's boasts a rooftop day- and nightclub with eight pools and cabanas for basking in the sun or dancing to the beats under the moon. It's huge, too, clocking in at 70,000 square feet with 7,000 square feet of digital screens, two VIP balconies, four bars, and every imaginable seating option. Go ultraswanky at one of 150 VIP tables.
The innovations continue in Las Vegas, and this incarnation includes full concerts from hip-hop stars like French Montana, Nelly, Future, Fat Joe, Trey Songz, and even Chris Brown. The 70,000-square-foot venue sits on top of the resort, replete with a pool with some pretty amazing views of the Strip.
This cavernous joint boasts three distinctive spaces and seven bars spread across two levels. In The Main Room, stadium-style seating surrounds the dance floor, and four-story LED screens and projection walls display light and image shows customized for every performer. For a more intimate experience, check out The Boom Box, a smaller room (usually featuring something other than house music) with windows overlooking the Strip. On the top level, The Library provides a respite from the thumping downstairs with dark wood, books (actual books!), and billiard tables. A new feature on Sundays is Night Circus with, as the name implies, live circus acts. In spring and summer, the hot spot opens Marquee Dayclub, which features two pools, several bars, a gaming area, and DJs all day long.
Las Vegas club operators are always looking for that perfect party that will appeal to everyone and Omnia definitely goes the distance, with numerous experiences for club-goers—"Omnia" does, after all, translate to "all." This is a 75,000-square-foot behemoth of a club from nightlife heavyweight Tao Group, where the music comes from celebrity DJs like Steve Aoki and Alesso. There's a big emphasis on interactive technology, which extends to the 22,000-pound kinetic chandelier with eight rings that dance with light to the music. The lines to enter stretch through the casino floor with gaggles of trendy youth. The weekend brings Deseo Latin Sundays for that rare Latin experience at a Strip nightclub.
Revelers pack this gorgeous spot every night of the week, and with good reason, given that it's the only true gay dance club in town (at least until the Gipsy returns next door). Each night of the week offers a different drag show or theme. Although the dance floor at Piranha is legendary, the best spot in this labyrinth of rooms is the spacious, fireplace-ringed open-air patio out back. The Piranha's owners are backing the new version of the fabled Gipsy club next door, so the new arrival might be more of an expansion than a competition.
What do you get when you fill a country-theme Texas saloon with slick dance-music-crazed nightclubbers? Madness—10-gallon-hat madness. Behind the Texas-shape neon sign, Stoney's Rockin' Country has all the glam hot-spot fixings: one of the largest dance floors in Nevada, private tables, a VIP lounge, bottle service, and music that can segue from Merle Haggard to Jay-Z. You can't beat the prices either. The location in Town Square makes the club convenient to visit from casinos on the Strip. A smaller Stoney's has reopened at Santa Fe Station in the northern 'burbs.
Zouk is, as you would expect from Las Vegas’s newest resort, a pulsating, throbbing bazaar of more than 2,000 dancing bodies, bright big-city lights, strobes, and lasers in what the operators say is the most technologically advanced club in town. Kaskade is the resident artist, and the club also books superstars such as Tiesto, Ludacris, Zedd, and Slander.
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