Nevada is known for Las Vegas Casinos and Desert Living that’s Really Hot!
It used to be that if you couldn’t stand the heat, you’d be advised not to go to Nevada, known for hundreds of miles of desert terrain. But thanks to an incredible building boom and a variety of activities that aren’t legal anywhere else, you can be whisked from the jet over to your oasis hotel on the strip and never break a sweat in Nevada, where the average temperature in this hot desert region can hover around 105 degrees for days or weeks on end. Normal daytime temperatures in June can be around 102 degrees; July 108 degrees and August 105.
But people don’t seem to mind, because the reason they go to Nevada is to gamble and see shows. Stage shows, singers, comedians, magicians and dancers are but a few of the types of acts you can expect at the casinos.
Las Vegas is the top visited city in Nevada, and the new hotels provide more reasons to go there. Sometimes the hotels, themselves are like seventh wonders of the world. With enough time and money, you can stay at the finest places and report back to your neighbors that you didn’t lose much money in the machines or games.
In Reno, another tourist destination, there’s nothing little about the Biggest Little City in the World, according to Craig MacDonald, an author of many books on the Old West and Gold Rush. He has discovered many charms outside Las Vegas in some of the ghost towns and smaller cities you can visit and enjoy.
Obviously gambling is the top sport of a state that doesn’t charge property tax to its residents. Prostitution is also legal in Nevada, which makes this state unique among the 50 that comprise the U.S. Las Vegas is sometimes to referred to as Sin City, because of its different ways. And if you find their lack of rules and regulations kind of strange, what’s event more unusual is the state’s neighbor, Utah, where the very religious Mormans live by a completely different code.
What the two states actually share are an attitude of independence in which they do things their own way.
Las Vegas, for all its thousands of hotel rooms, can actually experience near sell-outs when big conventions and events are hosted at their huge convention center. Weekends also are extremely busy and hotel rates often double on Friday and Saturday nights. Many cities eagerly seek direct flight privileges to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas because their local populations easily fill the flights heading to this desert destination.
Nevada is more than Las Vegas, but that’s the place you’ll hear about the most. Reno, Stateline in the Sierra Nevadas next to South Lake Tahoe, Laughlin, Pahrump, Area 51, and Rachel, the UFO Capital, are all Nevada attractions.
While many describe the drive through Nevada as miles and miles of dust, rock, sand and salt, if you try to escape L.A. and head to Las Vegas on a Friday, plan on spending up to eight hours in standstill traffic trying to get there. It’s difficult to understate the popularity Las Vegas especially holds in neighboring California. So our recommendation for a great Las Vegas vacation is to go weekday, check for conventions and other events that may boost the price of hotel rooms, and if you can control it, go in March – April or October – November to improve your chances of moderate, pleasant weather.
