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Las Vegas: Best things to do that aren’t gambling in a casino

Simon Calder’s Travel

It’s almost impossible to visit Las Vegas without at least passing through a casino. Whether you’re grabbing breakfast or heading to a big-bucks show, you’ll likely have to navigate past roulette tables and flashing slot machines in the lobbies of most of the mega-hotels that dominate the famous four-mile Strip.

Yet there’s plenty to do in Vegas without actually gambling a cent. The world’s brashest, flashiest and trashiest city has reinvented itself as a fun-forward, anything-goes entertainment haven where losing your life savings is now strictly optional.

Beyond the neon-lit, 24-hour casinos, there are exceptional restaurants, rooftop cocktail bars, world-class music and theatre shows, quirky museum and independent galleries, and even family-friendly attractions, all with the Mojave Desert on the doorstep for otherworldly views and sun-soaked hiking trails.

Here’s how to steer clear of the clattering casinos and enjoy everything else Las Vegas has to offer.

Take a Downtown food tour

Explore Downtown by its food
Explore Downtown by its food (Getty Images)

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The Strip is chockful of big-name chains and restaurants from celebrity chefs, such as Wolfgang Puck and Gordon Ramsay – head to newly hip Downtown to eat where the locals do. Sign up for a Lip Smacking Foodie Tour to sample dishes and drinks in the best spots, including cosy 7th and Carson, Mexican restaurant La Mona Rosa and Downtown Cocktail Room, the city’s first craft cocktail bar. Along the way, you’ll also discover the best vintage clothing shops, a fire-breathing art installation from Burning Man festival, a secret bar-within-a-bar called Laundry Room and a container park filled with independent boutiques, galleries and restaurants.

Act like a big kid

The most fun new bar in Las Vegas is hidden deep inside the Luxor hotel’s 30-storey pyramid. Opened in January 2024, PLAY playground features 20 hands-on games for some friendly competition between cocktails. Think bouncy castles, oversized shape-sorting against a timer, neon-lit obstacle courses, a large-scale version of classic board game Operation and a giant dart board that players launch themselves at from a trampoline while wearing a Velcro suit (it’s a lot harder than it sounds).

Delve into Sin City’s shady history

Delve into the criminal side of US history at The Mob Museum
Delve into the criminal side of US history at The Mob Museum (Getty Images)

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