Destination: Las Vegas
Two More Bookstores Beloved by Travelers to Close
by Michael Yessis | 02.18.08 | 12:27 PM ET
Candida’s World of Books, Washington D.C.‘s only travel bookstore, opened to the public for the last time this past weekend, and the Reading Room, the only literary bookstore on the Las Vegas Strip, announced it will be closing as soon as March.
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Yahoo! BuzzMonte Carlo in Las Vegas to Reopen Friday
by Michael Yessis | 02.11.08 | 2:13 PM ET
Three weeks after a three-alarm fire broke out on the top floors of the Monte Carlo in Las Vegas, the hotel and casino will reopen on a limited basis Feb. 15. Most of the rest of the hotel will reopen the following week, according to Reuters.
Fire Breaks Out at Monte Carlo in Las Vegas*
by Michael Yessis | 01.25.08 | 1:46 PM ET
The three-alarm fire started on the roof of the hotel and casino around 11 a.m. Las Vegas time, according to an early report from the AP.
Chop Wood, Carry Water, Party in Vegas
by Jim Benning | 01.03.08 | 1:25 PM ET
Operators of Prive at Planet Hollywood recently asked a Buddhist monk to bless the new Las Vegas nightclub. The club’s managing director told the Los Angeles Times: “He burned sage and blessed the club, worked with us on our energy, got our minds focused right. We did meditation and had acupuncture for all our key employees. It is important to us that there is no ego and we work as a team.” Top that, Club Tao.
Photo of Buddha statue in Japan by aakaakaakaakaak via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
What’s Your Travel ‘Dealbreaker’?
by Eva Holland | 12.19.07 | 3:09 PM ET
Not long ago I went for drinks with a few girlfriends and, of course, before too long we gave in to stereotype and turned the conversation to bad dates, bad ex-boyfriends, bad-boys in general. One friend told a story about a relationship that had been rolling along smoothly—until she suggested that the two of them visit Paris together. “I’ve been to Paris,” her soon-to-be ex said casually. “They have one in Vegas.”
Las Vegas Mob Museum in the Works
by Michael Yessis | 12.11.07 | 11:47 AM ET
It’s such a good idea I can’t believe the museum doesn’t already exist. But it looks like its creators are doing it up right, which makes sense since two of the drivers of the project are Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, a former mob attorney, and Ellen Knowlton, a former FBI agent in charge of Las Vegas. The FBI supports the museum because “you can’t tell the stories of Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel, his banker, [Meyer] Lansky, casino boss Frank ‘Lefty’ Rosenthal and others without telling the story of the lawmen who pursued them.”
Ice Skating Las Vegas
by Jim Benning | 12.10.07 | 5:30 PM ET
Friend of World Hum and Los Angeles Times travel blogger Jen Leo laces up her skates at the floating ice-skating rink at Lake Las Vegas. What, Jen, the man-made waterfalls and look-alike lakes and faux volcanoes on the Vegas strip weren’t enough for you, so you had to find some machine-made ice?
Writer on Las Vegas Coverage: Enough With the Sin City Clichés!
by Jim Benning | 11.15.07 | 10:54 AM ET
R.I.P. New Frontier, Las Vegas Strip’s Second Hotel
by Jim Benning | 11.13.07 | 12:01 PM ET
Photo: AP
Las Vegas lost a piece of history early this morning. The New Frontier hotel-casino, which opened in 1942 and hosted Elvis Presley’s first performance in the city, was imploded to make way for a new megaresort scheduled to debut in 2011. The hotel’s destruction, along with that of the Stardust earlier this year, is part of a “dramatic, and expensive, facelift for the northern Strip,” writes the AP’s Ryan Nakashima. Real estate prices nearby have skyrocketed and several billion-dollar condo and resort developments—including one backed by Dubai World—are scheduled to open in the next several years.
Macau vs. Las Vegas: The Battle to be the ‘Capital of Excess’
by Michael Yessis | 08.29.07 | 11:36 AM ET
The gargantuan Venetian Macao Resort (pictured) opened yesterday with celebrations and excessive media coverage about the excesses of the new venture. It’s the largest casino in the world and it cost $2.4 billion to build. It’s the second-largest building in the world, after the Boeing manufacturing plant in Washington, according to the AP. If the Venetian Macao succeeds, Reuters reports, the annual gambling income of Macau—or Macao, if you’re so inclined—will rise to approximately $13.7 billion by 2010. That’s a staggering figure for a place that, as we posted earlier this year, surpassed Las Vegas in annual gambling revenue in 2006, $6.95 billion to $6.5 billion.
‘European-Style’ Topless Swimming Pools in Las Vegas
by Jim Benning | 08.16.07 | 7:07 AM ET
Last week, we noted a guide to the top family friendly pools in Las Vegas. This week in the San Francisco Chronicle, World Hum contributor Matt Villano offers a guide to a very different Las Vegas pool experience: the topless pool. A few high-end Las Vegas resorts are now offering such pool areas—often set back behind foliage—for what can be a pretty hefty charge. “Dubbed ‘adult bathing,’ this phenomenon is an attempt to bring ‘European-style’ topless tanning to age-appropriate Vegas pools,” Villano writes. “Properties such as Caesars Palace, the Mirage and Mandalay Bay each have opened venues in the past 18 months; admission ranges from free to $30 for women and as much as $50 for guys, depending on the day.”
Family Friendly Las Vegas Swimming Pools
by Jim Benning | 08.07.07 | 2:43 PM ET
The Los Angeles Times offers its take on Las Vegas’s top six pools for families. Among those making the list: Flamingo Las Vegas (“a 15-acre tropical oasis with four pools amid pounding waterfalls and mature foliage”); Golden Nugget (“teems with real sea life and a three-story water slide”); MGM Grand (“five pools in a 6.6-acre water complex”); and Mandalay Bay (“kudos for putting 6-foot-high swells in the middle of the desert”). For the true budget-minded Vegas pool connoisseur who delights in variety, of course, there’s always pool-crashing.
JetBlue’s New Blogger: C. Montgomery Burns
by Michael Yessis | 07.02.07 | 12:30 PM ET
It’s a publicity stunt, sure, but one that might help JetBlue get back some of its mojo after its February meltdown. As part of the massive hype for the upcoming The Simpsons Movie, C. Montgomery Burns—known best as Homer Simpson’s boss at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant—has taken over the blog of former JetBlue CEO David Neeleman. From his first entry: “Smithers entered my chambers this morning, toting wretched tales of congenial customer service and overly indulgent amenities on your JetBlue Airways. And for what… your precious passengers? Soon, the riff raff will demand ‘fair treatment’ from all corporate overlords, like myself. Well, not in my chemically prolonged life-time.”
Sin City Weighs New Slogan: ‘Your Vegas is Showing’
by Michael Yessis | 06.26.07 | 3:23 PM ET
Ooh. It’s seems racy, but, when you think about it, it’s really not, just like Las Vegas’s current hall-of-fame marketing slogan: “What Happens Here, Stays Here.” Las Vegas isn’t getting rid of what might be the most successful tourism slogan ever. According to the AP, it’s just looking for a complimentary slogan. If Las Vegas should ever tire of the “What Happens Here…” campaign, we might see the new slogan take its place. Or, maybe the city will turn to one of the many suggestions that have popped up in the last few years.
Las Vegas Gets Its First Frank Gehry Building
by Jim Benning | 06.07.07 | 6:00 PM ET
And no, it’s not a one-third scale replica of his Bilbao museum for a new Spanish-themed casino and hotel. It’s not even on the Strip. But the 67,000-square-foot Lou Rivo Brain Institute—Gehry’s first in the city—is sure to become a tourist attraction. Construction began in February and it’s scheduled to open in late 2008.