Hotel at a Glance: Golden Nugget Las Vegas

The Golden Nugget Las Vegas has many of the attractions the Sin City is known for—a casino, a spa, high-end restaurants and lounges—and none of them disappoint. Their spa offers the height of luxury with a sauna, jetted tub, and steam room as well as workout facilities. The casino also features a poker room with 13 smoke-free tables and special promotions throughout the year. If gambling isn’t your strong suit, there are many different shows and entertainment to choose from including dancing at the Gold Diggers nightclub or take in some live music with the 52 Fridays Concert Series.

• Eat, drink, and be merry at the hotel’s more than 15 high-end restaurants and lounges; at Gold Diggers, for instance, you can hit the dance floor inside or sample a signature cocktail on the balcony with views of the Fremont Street Experience.
• Views of the Strip are visible from Rush Tower rooms, which are 20% larger than Gold and Carson Towers rooms. All accommodations have luxurious amenities such as marble bathrooms and flat-screen TVs.
• Game on: The hotel’s casino has won numerous awards from Casino Player magazine, including Best Casino, Best Service, and Luckiest Casino. The expansive gaming floor is filled with slot machines, as well as blackjack, roulette, and mini baccarat tables.
• Extra perk: all of this deals options come with $25 resort credit per stay, which you can use towards any activity you fancy.

Beyond the Las Vegas Strip: Old Vegas, Red Rock Canyon, and the Hoover Dam

It can feel like the entire city of Las Vegas revolves around the Strip if you never venture beyond that neon-lit corridor. But there’s plenty to see and do once you step off Las Vegas Boulevard. You can find a taste of Old Vegas on Fremont Street, where vintage signs and showgirls crowned with headdresses recall the days of Sinatra and Martin. Beginning at dusk, a canopy of more than 12 million LED lights erupts in a psychedelic light-and-music show every hour. For an aerial view, zoom down the center of Fremont Street on a zipline.

Nature puts on its own show at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, a landscape of fiery-red sandstone formations and limestone cliffs just 17 miles outside the city. Motor down the 13-mile scenic drive or ditch the car and strike out on any of more than 20 hiking trails that course through the region’s otherworldly topography.

Hoover Dam, a marvel of modern engineering, lies just 35 miles away, near the Nevada–Arizona border. Take the 30-minute power-plant tour or the 60-minute dam tour, which takes visitors inside the dam’s narrow passageways. You can actually kayak down the Colorado River from the base of the dam—just be sure to arrive early, as only 30 permits are issued per day.