Cheap flights to Las Vegas

Quick summary

History

From a railroad water stop to the entertainment capital of the world

Las Vegas was officially founded in 1905, when 110 acres of railroad land were auctioned off to create a stopover town for the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad. The city stayed a modest desert outpost of a few thousand people until Nevada legalized gambling in 1931, the same year construction began on the Hoover Dam nearby — an influx of workers that gave the local economy its first real boost. What followed decades later was the rise of the Strip itself, built up through the 1940s to 1960s with resorts like the El Rancho Vegas, the Flamingo and the Sands, financed in no small part by mob money before state regulators and corporate hotel chains took control of the industry from the 1970s onward.

A city of roughly 650,000, inside a metro of over 2 million

The city of Las Vegas proper counts around 650,000 residents, but the wider Las Vegas Valley — including Henderson and North Las Vegas — is home to more than 2 million people, most of whom work in and around a tourism economy that welcomes tens of millions of visitors every year.

Beyond the casino floor

The Neon Museum and the Mob Museum

Las Vegas has a real cultural side once you step off the gaming floor. The Neon Museum, in Downtown, keeps a boneyard of more than 250 retired signs from casinos that no longer exist — the Stardust, the Moulin Rouge, the Desert Inn — with around two dozen fully restored and lit for evening tours, a genuinely striking way to trace the city's visual history sign by sign. A few minutes away, the Mob Museum occupies a former federal courthouse and post office and traces organized crime's grip on the city through original courtroom exhibits, a crime-lab simulation and a working speakeasy hidden in the basement. Between the two, the Atomic Museum covers Nevada's Cold War-era nuclear testing program, a stranger chapter of local history most visitors never expect to find here.

Not to be missed

Fremont Street, where Las Vegas actually began

Long before the Strip existed, Fremont Street was Las Vegas — the city's first paved road, laid out in 1925, and home to its earliest casinos: the Golden Nugget, opened in 1946, and Binion's Horseshoe among them. Today the five-block stretch is a pedestrian zone covered by the Fremont Street Experience, a canopy of roughly 12.5 million LED lights that runs free synchronized light-and-sound shows overhead every night. It's also where SlotZilla sends riders down two different zip lines shaped like a giant slot machine, right over the crowds below — a far more old-school, downtown feel than the resort corridor a few miles south.

The Strip

Bellagio fountains, the Eiffel Tower replica and 24-hour resorts

Las Vegas Boulevard South — universally known as the Strip — technically sits outside city limits, in unincorporated Clark County, a quirk most visitors never realize. What it does hold is one of the highest concentrations of huge hotels on the planet: the free Bellagio fountain show remains the single most photographed moment on the Strip, choreographed to music every 15 to 30 minutes, within sight of the Paris Las Vegas' half-scale Eiffel Tower and the Mirage's volcano. Casino floors, restaurants and shops here never close, and the whole corridor is walkable end to end, if you budget for it taking longer than it looks on a map.

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Getting around & budget

Monorail, the Deuce bus, and what things actually cost

Harry Reid International Airport sits about 6 kilometers south of the Strip — resorts at the south end, like Mandalay Bay and the MGM Grand, are barely a 10-minute rideshare away, while the far north end can take closer to 20 to 25 minutes depending on traffic. The Las Vegas Monorail links several east-side Strip resorts in under 15 minutes with a train every 4 to 8 minutes, while the 24-hour "Deuce" bus runs the full length of the Strip down to Fremont Street for a few dollars a ride. On budget: a casual meal in town runs roughly $25 per person, groceries average $350 to $450 a month for a single visitor cooking for themselves, and hotel rates on the Strip swing enormously between midweek off-season deals and weekend or convention pricing — one of the reasons flight timing matters just as much as the room itself.

Excursions

Red Rock Canyon, Hoover Dam, and the Grand Canyon within reach

Red Rock Canyon, twenty minutes from the Strip

This national conservation area sits about 20 to 30 minutes west of the Strip, with a 13-mile scenic loop drive and photo stops at the Calico Hills — an easy half-day trip and a sharp contrast to the neon a few miles behind you.

Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon's West Rim

Hoover Dam is roughly 37 miles southeast, about 40 to 45 minutes by car, and can be combined with Red Rock Canyon or Lake Mead in a single 6-to-7-hour day. Las Vegas is also the most common launch point for the Grand Canyon: the West Rim is around 130 miles away, roughly a 2 to 2.5-hour drive and genuinely doable as a day trip, while the more dramatic South Rim runs closer to 280 miles and 4.5 hours each way, usually better suited to an overnight stay.

Food

Buffets, chef-driven tables, and bottomless brunch

Nearly every major Strip resort runs its own all-you-can-eat buffet, from the seafood-heavy spreads at the Bacchanal at Caesars Palace to the more design-forward Wicked Spoon at the Cosmopolitan — a format Las Vegas basically popularized and still does better than anywhere else. Beyond the buffet halls, the city has quietly become a real fine-dining destination, with outposts from internationally known chefs staying open late into the night, and weekend bottomless-mimosa brunches that have turned into something of a local ritual in their own right.

By length of stay

What to do in Las Vegas depending on how long you stay

Airport

An airport minutes from the Strip

When to go

When to visit Las Vegas?

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions about flights to Las Vegas