Quirky Las Vegas

If Las Vegas is anything it is quirky, and what that means to visitors can be summed up in three words: surprising, serendipitous, seductive. With a visitor count of more than 42 million last year, and hotel occupancy hovering around 90 percent, the city brings back repeat visitors and tantalizes new ones with its range of attractions—many of them odd and worth the exploration.

Downtown Las Vegas

The lion’s share of oddities can be found in Downtown Las Vegas, where the city started at the turn of the last century.

Start with the 24-foot bong at Cannabition, a new museum at Neonopolis on Fremont Street. Marijuana was legalized in Nevada in 2017, and although the museum does not sell consumables, it celebrates cannabis culture. Among the treasures: gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson’s “Red Shark” Chevrolet Caprice convertible.

A walk around the Downtown area delivers the Container Park, a collection of shipping containers turned into boutiques and cafes, a park for kids and a stage for live entertainment. A 55-foot-tall metallic praying mantis shoots fire from its antennae.

Nearby, the Mob Museum gives insight into the birth of the Mob, the Mob’s “greatest hits,” the Kefauver hearings and how crime labs work today. General admission is $26.95.

Around the corner is the Neon Museum, which has a special “Lost Vegas” exhibition through mid-February celebrating the filmmaker and artist Tim Burton’s link to Las Vegas’ historical neon heritage. General admission during the exhibition is $30.

Sin City Ziplines

Las Vegas has four Ziplines. Downtown, SlotZilla’s flights over Fremont Street can be done seated, seven stories above ground for two blocks ($20 or $25) or superhero style, 11 stories above ground for five blocks ($40 to $49).

Fly Linq features 10 side-by-side ziplines that can be engaged simultaneously from a 14-story tower to a second 54-foot landing tower 1,121 feet away. The ride takes around half a minute; rates start at $25.

The VooDoo Zipline at the Rio is a 70-second ride running from Rio’s 50-story Masquerade Tower to the Ipanema Tower and back backwards. Rates start at $25.

A fourth zipline can be found near Boulder City, in Bootleg Canyon, at Flightlinz, with tours over the desert that start at $159.

Nearby, Boulder City, located approximately 40 minutes from the Las Vegas Strip, has a 1950s flavor and the Boulder Dam Hotel, a must for those with an interest in ghosts and a curiosity about the making of Boulder Dam. A free museum in the hotel basement tells the tales. Boulder City Express, a new shuttle from National Park Express, takes guests between the Strip and this historic area to visit Hoover Dam on their own.

Social Media Moments

On the way back to Las Vegas, visitors can pass the Seven Magic Mountains: neon-painted cairns towering more than 30 feet, created by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone. The stop off the I-15 attracts road trippers in search of selfie moments.

Finally, a must-stop is the Las Vegas sign on the ride into town, where visitors can line up for the ultimate Las Vegas selfie. Or, they can take the ride with Photo Tours Vegas instead, with a guide who knows about all of Las Vegas’ best quirky spots.