I’ve been going to Las Vegas since Defcon 7 in Summer 1999. I’ve probably spent 500 nights there in a little over two decades. My lifetime gambling is probably less than $10k in total bets, on $2k or so cash-in (mostly pass line minimums with odds, and some random slot machines), and I’m approximately break-even or slightly up. I started learning poker last year and it’s fun, but I’ve never played at a casino. It’s a city I know better than almost anywhere I’ve actually lived, despite never officially living there. I’ve attended 30+ firearms classes in Las Vegas and Pahrump, 30+ conferences over the years, and had some of the best food I’ve had anywhere. It’s interesting to me when people say they hate Las Vegas, as we tend to have very different experiences leading to different outcomes.
I mostly avoid the Strip itself, except for nice hotels (often very inexpensive Sunday to Thursday, or during off-seasons like Thanksgiving, early December, or Summer). I’ve got Caesars Diamond status, so the “no resort fees” and casino rates, valet parking, etc. make Caesars, Paris, and Planet Hollywood pretty good options, and often $50-120/night. Cosmopolitan is another nice hotel, and part of the Marriott program, and I tend to get upgraded to a suite. The new ResortsWorld is a complex of 3 Hilton hotels and also quite nice. Trump International Hotel is an amazing value, even on the weekends, and is for a variety of reasons underpriced and understated compared to the rest of the strip — the 1BR suites are among the nicest residential rooms in the city, the staff are friendly, and as a non-gaming property, it’s quite civilized. Caesars and Paris have the best location (Trump and ResortsWorld are too far from everything), but Cosmopolitan is part of a huge CityCenter complex and has the best stuff directly connected (Caesars is a bit tired except for the Apple Store). However, I nearly always rent a car, so it really doesn’t matter to me.
Las Vegas used to be the home of cheap food and hotels subsidized heavily by gaming (the “polite” term for gambling…), but in the 2000s they tried to do “Family friendly Las Vegas”, which failed, but succeeded in raising prices for everything. Now, it’s overall more expensive than other places, at least for everything tourist-focused; meals in Strip casino hotels are more expensive than comparable meals in New York City. There are some great deals to be had, however — my favorite is Chinatown. Spring Mountain Road, about 1 mile West of the Strip, and extending for 2-3 miles, has some of the best Asian food in North America — on par with Vancouver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or New York. Prices range from $5 to $500, open until 4am in a lot of cases, with ample parking. I have a “to eat” list of restaurants in Las Vegas but also check the Eater 38 Las Vegas frequently. Lots of great non-Asian food as well. I rarely have a bad meal in Las Vegas. (There’s also a Whole Foods on the Strip near the airport, my favorite place to stock up when coming to town.)
My favorite restaurants are all in one shopping center on Spring Mountain Road: 5030 Spring Mountain Rd. Raku (a Japanese robata grill), Kabuto sushi, an Italian-Japanese place, shave ice, and several more. Across the street is the best Xiao Long Bao I’ve had in North America at Xiao Long Dumpling (there’s also a Din Tai Fung on the strip), and several great Sichuan restaurants.
Las Vegas remains a very easy place to do a conference or other event, at least if within-the-US is acceptable. Easy to book lots of hotel rooms, or for people to find hotel rooms, lots of meeting spaces, and a well rehearsed machine. It’s easy enough to do a 20-30 person meeting anywhere if people are already local, but if you need to accommodate 100 people from 10 cities, Las Vegas is an easy choice, but one of a reasonable list. If you need to accommodate 1000+ people, Las Vegas is the easiest choice, and one of a very short list. For 10000+ people, one of the only options. As a result there are many security conferences, firearms industry events like SHOT Show, general electronics, construction, etc. events.
Aside from luxury hotel rooms, food, and conferences, I used to do firearms training out at Front Sight in Las Vegas, but they’ve sadly shut down due to rampant mismanagement and fraud by the founder (which itself is a huge story). There’s a new school opened in the same facility, but I’ve been going to Sig Academy and Thunder Ranch and other places instead for a few years. The Las Vegas shooting ranges for tourists aren’t bad if you just want to try something out, but they get expensive fast — I strongly prefer outdoor ranges anyway, and there’s a beautiful Clark County range complex north of Las Vegas, as well, but Range 702 near the airport is pretty nice for an indoor range. Nevada gun laws are pretty relaxed — one oddity is the state has a 0.08 BAC limit to drive, but a 0.10 BAC limit to carry a concealed firearm with a permit (including into bars). “Car carry” is also unregulated, even if the firearm is concealed in the car. Over the past few years laws have gotten worse for transfers and state background checks, however, and in general the state has been taken over by Las Vegas and is shifting leftward politically (and becoming a larger/more involved government generally.)
LAS airport itself is quite good in a lot of ways — flights are heavily subsidized relative to the size of the city itself by all the tourism, and while it’s an annoying shuttle ride to the rental car facility, it has a good selection of cars. There is also pretty ample self-parking, lounges (including an Amex Centurion lounge), and some OK restaurants.
There are some great day trips to take from Las Vegas — the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Hoover Dam on the border, Death Valley, Red Rock Canyon right outside Las Vegas, etc. It’s also an easy drive to Los Angeles, and a longer but still fairly easy drive to San Francisco.
(San Juan, PR - 20 minutes)