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Easter Island, Machu Picchu, and other celebrated wonders of the world are certainly impressive. But Las Vegas…Las Vegas is a land where jungles thrive and fountains dance in the middle of the desert. It's a place that unites medieval England and ancient Egypt with modern-day Venice, Paris, and New York. It's a never-ending source of irony and improbability where you can turn a chip and a chair into a million dollars, or celebrate your shotgun wedding by shooting machine guns. Where else does such a wonderland exist? Nowhere. But. Vegas.
The smallish city (geographically) is larger than life, with a collective energy (and excess) that somehow feels intimate. Maybe it's the agreeable chimes and intermittent cheers from the casino floor that fade to tranquillity when you enter a sumptuous spa. Maybe it’s the fish flown in nightly from the Mediterranean that lands on your plate. For each individual, Vegas is an equation where you + more = more of you: more chances to explore aspects of your personality that may be confined by the routine of daily life. It's for this reason alone that the "what happens here stays here" phenomenon is shared by so many visitors.
The city itself has a number of different faces. For a dose of history, head Downtown and explore everything from old casinos to a museum that pays homage to the mobsters who built them. For fun, glitz, and glamour, head to the Strip, which itself has three distinct sections (South, Center, North). For outdoor adventure, head west and south, either to the Spring Mountains beyond Summerlin or out to Hoover Dam and Lake Mead—man-made accomplishments of an entirely different sort. Along the way, you can pamper yourself at world-class spas and restaurants, engage in retail therapy at some of the best shopping spots in the world, dance the night away at rocking nightclubs, or—of course—court Lady Luck long enough to strike it rich. With the right itinerary, Vegas even can work for families with young kids.
The museum also offers virtual tours of the 1,375-square-mile Nevada National Security Site (larger than the state of Rhode Island) and is the starting point for occasional in-person group tours of the test site, which is still operational 65 miles northwest of Downtown. These tours book as much as a year ahead, with museum donors getting first chance.
Revel in the fabulousness of Demi Lovato, Post Malone, Travis Barker, and Bad Bunny as you explore the open showroom filled with an ever-changing array of uncanny celebrity wax portrayals of people from the worlds of show business, sports, politics, and everywhere in between. Crowd-pleasers include Lizzo, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jack Harlow, Megan Thee Stallion, Steve Aoki, Snoop Dog, Captain America, and Miley Cyrus. In the Marvel Universe 4-D film, you can actually feel (as well as watch and hear) your heroes save the world. Hit the bar at The Hangover Experience to immerse yourself in a storied Las Vegas romp and enjoy a cocktail while you're at it. Or get a wax model of your very own hand for a truly unique souvenir.
"Fat Mike" Burkett of NOFX is behind this two-story, 12,000 square-foot tribute and repository of in-your-face rock. The displays are organized by geography and eras—such as "1970s Los Angeles" or "1980s San Francisco Bay Area," complete with QR codes linking to relevant playlists. Along with the expected array of photos, stage get-ups, guitars, T-shirts and hand-written set lists (London Calling by The Clash), you'll find surprises such as monster masks, a partial bottle of Jack Daniels waiting for the late "Lemmy" of Motorhead, and even a . . . melodica? Yes, it was played onstage by Big D & The Kids Table. Something else you might not expect: it's pretty quiet. Because the music changes from room to room, nothing rattles the walls. The museum occasionally hosts stand-up comics, and guided tours are offered several times a month by veteran rockers. The full-service museum even hosts weddings and a tattoo studio. An indoor/outdoor bar called The Triple Down is a spin-off of the punk-enough Double Down near the UNLV campus.
