USA > Nevada > Las Vegas Travel Guide
Las Vegas Travel Guide:
Welcome to our visitors guide to Sin City! Las Vegas was founded in 1905 as a sleepy town in the midst of the scorching Mojave desert. The city really started to boom in the 1930s as gambling was legalized and the Hoover Dam was built nearby fixing both the electricity and water shortages of the era. The Downtown neighborhood quickly turned into a sea of neon, filled with bootleggers, entertainers, and gamblers. Over the decades, Las Vegas quickly outgrew downtown and spilled out onto the four-mile stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard known as the Strip. Sin City has since become a place where all of your vices can be indulged, within legal limits obviously!
Our FREE Las Vegas Tours:
To help you get the most out of your trip to Las Vegas we made the following free walking tours.
1. Las Vegas Strip Walking Tour
2. Downtown Vegas Walking Tour
Historical Timeline Of Las Vegas:
In the late 1820s a Spanish explorer came across an oasis in the Mojave Desert and named it Las Vegas after its field of wild grass, Las Vegas means “the meadow”.
1855 Mormon adobe fort was built in downtown by Mormons needing a stopover point between Utah and Cali and also a base to try to convert local Paiute Natives to Mormonism. Parts of this old fort can still be seen today
1869 gambling legal, 1910 made illegal, 1931 made legal again during the depression as lawmakers thought the extra tax revenue would help the state.
1905 first downtown casino as the city is officially founded
1931 to 1935 the Hoover Dam is built nearby to harness the power of the Colorado River
1941 El Rancho becomes the first casino on what is now called the strip
Flashes of mushroom clouds could be seen from the Nevada Test Site in the early 1950s. Was made into a tourist attraction, but public unrest got the US Government to move the testing underground as of 1963.
Getting Around Town:
One of the most beautiful things about Vegas is that while it doesn’t have a subway system, you still don’t need a car to see all the sites. Most of Vegas’ sites are very compact to one another, allowing you to walk whether you’re just bumming around or hardcore clubbing. If you are just sick of walking, the city buses are a great alternative to cabs. The strip itself has a monorail, but it has very limited service and isn’t worth the high price. I didn’t know about the buses until my third visit to Vegas, but now I use them all the time. A $5 ticket will get you an unlimited 24 pass for all routes (Route details coming soon. For a printable full route bus map click here).
