From cutting-edge entertainment to world-class dining and unforgettable nights out, Las Vegas proves it still delivers the ultimate sensory escape, whether it’s your first visit or your fifth.
Las Vegas has a reputation for excess, but with international tourism currently a little softer (thanks to the worst president the country has ever seen), the city feels calmer without losing any of the spectacle it’s famous for. Hotels are better value, moving around the Strip is easier, and there’s space to actually enjoy what’s in front of you.
Vegas On A Budget
Vegas doesn’t require constant spending to be entertaining. Some of the city’s best moments are completely free, and often just as memorable as the ticketed ones.
We loved the simple pleasure of picking up a beer from CVS and walking the Strip at night. It felt rebellious, and a great way to get your bearings. The Strip itself becomes the entertainment, and carrying alcohol purchased elsewhere doesn’t stop you from entering any of the hotels or casinos. As the Southern couple next to us proclaim in thick Tennessee drawl, “there are no rules here!”
The Bellagio remains one of the best examples of how much the city offers without charging a cent. The Conservatory displays are meticulously produced and change seasonally, while outside, the fountains are one of the Strip’s must-see features. Every 15 minutes the jets launch 460 feet in displays timed with music (both Classical and Pop) and crash back down, with an immensely satisfying crunch.[Text Wrapping Break][Text Wrapping Break]Free evenings like these, and visiting the wild Fremont Street Experience, which uses the world’s largest video screen (nearly a mile long) as its neon ceiling, make it easier to justify splurging on standout shows and dining on other nights.
Flamingo Las Vegas: The Camp Classic That’s Central To Everything
Where you stay in Vegas matters, and for us Flamingo Las Vegas (caesars.com/flamingo-las-vegas | @flamingovegas) proved to be an excellent base. Its central Strip location means it’s easy to duck back to your room to reset before heading out again.
What stood out most, though, was how calming it felt once you stepped away from the casino floor. The gardens and water features provide genuine relief from the heat and noise, especially in summer.
With its 80th anniversary this year, Flamingo also sits comfortably within contemporary queer culture as the home of RuPaul’s Drag Race Live! Elegant art deco renovations are refreshing the property without stripping away its personality, and new restaurants and bars from Gordon Ramsay and Lisa Vanderpump ensure you don’t need to leave the lobby to have a memorable night out!
You’re Guaranteed Divas, Darling
Since Celine Dion’s record-breaking residency in the early 2000s, Las Vegas learned they needed Divas to complement their line-up of crooners and bring the gays. Britney would follow in Celine’s footsteps, and while both have since bid the Strip ‘adieux’, Vegas now always keeps queens in rotated residency.
During our four-night December stay, we are lucky enough to check out Mariah Carey and Leona Lewis. Jennifer Lopez is currently warming the stage, and Kelly Clarkson, Cyndi Lauper and Gwen Stefani all have dates announced over NZ’s autumn and winter.
Seeing Mariah Carey perform at Dolby Live (mgmresorts.com | @dolbylivelasvegas) highlights just how well-designed Vegas music venues are. The theatre manages scale without sacrificing intimacy, with excellent sound and strong sightlines. While the larger T-Mobile Arena up the road offers high-end fast food brands like Shake Shack and Pizza Forte as its F&B vendors, notching up the quality of your concert experience with every bite.
We see Leona Lewis at Voltaire (voltairelv.com | @voltaireshow), a small, plush, luxurious venue that famously opened in 2023 with a residency from Kylie Minogue. It’s hard to imagine that you could see an artist of Kylie’s stature in a venue with a maximum capacity of 1,000 people. Every seat has a fantastic view and table service, and even though we’re not particularly close to the stage, Lewis brushes past our seats numerous times during the show. This makes Voltaire feel very special. If an artist you love is playing there, it’s worth planning a trip around it.
The Sphere: A New Kind of Spectacle
The Sphere (thespherevegas.com | @spherevegas) has quickly become one of Vegas’ most successful recent additions – it regularly has audiences applauding, even when there is no-one on stage.
We experience The Wizard of Oz, with the 1939 classic movie remastered for the 160,000-square-foot, 16K resolution LED screen. The Sphere is a reminder of how breath-taking new technology can be, as industrial fans send leaves, scents and sprays spinning around, turning Dorothy’s tornado into a multi-sensory experience that makes you feel like your glasses are about to fly off. The scale is immense.
With its own production arm ‘Sphere Studios’ now established, the Sphere will adapt more films specifically for its screen, alongside hosting concerts from legacy artists like the Backstreet Boys. If shows are sold out when you visit, this landmark still offers stunning displays on its exterior for free. One night we spend an hour just watching it from the Flamingo’s car park – it’s that impressive!
Eating At The Best Restaurants
The number of world-class restaurants in Vegas is extraordinary, but securing reservations during peak hours can be challenging. The incredibly popular and ever-expanding Lip Smacking Foodie Tours (lipsmackingfoodietours.com | @lipsmackingfoodietours) offer a practical solution.
These multi-award-winning tours (the Vegas Review-Journal’s ‘Best Tour’ nine years in a row) move guests between several top restaurants in one evening, letting you enjoy a course at each. We did the Savours of the Strip tour, which takes us around some of Aria’s top restaurants, but other tours they offer take you off the beaten path to explore culinary delights in Vegas’ Downtown, Chinatown and Arts District.
Our guide was extremely knowledgeable, passionate and knee-deep in Vegas’s food scene – telling us about restaurants that hadn’t opened yet that he was already booked in to try. The other foodies on the tour were fun, and the dishes we tried were sublime.
Our Most Romantic Moment
If there’s one dinner that felt like true Vegas magic, it was High Steaks at the Rio (highsteaks.vegas | @highsteakslv), where we dined after our wedding – still in our tuxedos!
Perched on the 50th floor of the Masquerade Tower, the restaurant delivers one of the most dramatic vantage points in the city: wide-ranging views of the Strip and valley that stretch out like a glittering ribbon below you.
High Steaks is the creation of Vegas’ most celebrated born-’n’-bred chef, James Trees, who is credited with helping to transform Vegas’ dining landscape. Menu highlights include the Wild Game Tartare, their signature Tomahawk, and the Mint Hot Chocolate Soufflé. Fine dining at its best!
The Heart of the Gay Scene
For queer travellers, the Fruit Loop, just east of the Strip, is a compact cluster of LGBTQ+ bars and clubs. We arrived still in our tuxes — with lots of the locals congratulating us and sharing their wedding stories.
We start at Gipsy (gipsylasvegas.com | @gipsylv), which proved to be the ideal entry point. Smaller and more intimate, it’s a venue where drag performances and DJ sets coexist with actual conversation.
From there, we cross the road to Piranha (piranhavegas.com | @piranhavegas), a multi-room club that leans heavily into EDM and Latin music. Operating for 20 years, Piranha has long been part of Vegas’ queer nightlife mythology, with icons like Britney Spears visiting to let her hair down. We have our own celebrity sighting that night, spotting Mariah Carey’s longtime make-up artist, Kristofer Buckle, catching up with friends on the large outdoor patio.
If you want to extend your night further, the Fruit Loop makes it easy. Quadz Video Bar runs 24/7 and works well as both a starting point and an end. All the bars are minutes from each other, so no planning required.
Low Energy, Big Reward
The day after our wedding called for a different kind of Vegas — something celebratory but low effort, so it was ideal that the Flamingo’s Pinky’s by Vanderpump (caesars.com | @pinkysbyvanderpump) was the new place to have brunch on the Strip.
Unlike some Strip venues that lean dark and enclosed, Pinky’s has floor-to-ceiling windows that bathe this opulent art deco-inspired space with natural light.
The cocktail menu was fun and naughty, featuring the ‘Pump & Bump’ caviar martini, and the stunning ‘Less Depresso’ espresso martini. On the food menu, must-tries include the indulgent lobster rolls and the baked Alaska, which arrives with just the right sense of theatre. The polished, playful experience we needed.
By this time, our legs are done with walking the Strip, so Vegas’ long relationship with seated spectacle makes a lot of sense. Cirque du Soleil (cirquedusoleil.com | @cirquedusoleil) remains central to that tradition, having shaped the city’s modern entertainment identity for more than 25 years. From Mystère — one of the earliest Cirque productions created specifically for Vegas, built around pure acrobatic spectacle — to newer formats like Mad Apple, which folds in cabaret and comedy for a looser, variety-style experience.
Cirque has consistently evolved alongside the city, which has helped open doors for other producers like Spiegelworld (spiegelworld.com | @spiegelworld), whose award-winning shows Absinthe and Atomic push performance even closer to nightlife, capturing something Vegas does particularly well: treating entertainment as something you inhabit, not just observe.
The last stop on our Vegas itinerary is the F1 Arcade (f1arcade.com/vegas | @f1arcade). This space is a luxury gaming lounge meets nightclub, and it’s beautifully finished. The DJ booth is one of the most stunning I have ever seen, and you don’t need to be a Formula 1 obsessive to enjoy it. The simulators are intuitive, and the staff guide you through the experience. It’s a smart option for anyone wanting a club-like experience without the energy for a wild night out.
Why Vegas Still Works
Las Vegas endures because it adapts. Right now, with the city operating at a slightly gentler pace, that flexibility alongside its cutting-edge, innovative entertainment options feels like its greatest asset. Whether it’s your first visit or a return trip, Vegas still knows how to deliver golden moments that feel genuinely hard to replicate anywhere else. Despite Trump’s tyranny, this city has created its best era ever.
