It is difficult to choose what to do to celebrate the New Year in Las Vegas. Because you are spoilt for choice, with so many, indeed too many, opportunities to figure out how best to spend the transition between the old and the new year. The idea I had after being in Sin City for the first time in 2017 was confirmed in the past few days when I returned to the city of perdition to watch the NBA Cup. Gigantic structures, hotels as big as cities, attractions of all kinds, lights that brightly illuminate every area of the main streets, are some of the traits that make Las Vegas a city without equal.
Thousands of tourists from all over the world, especially Americans, arrive here every day to spend money, seek their fortune in the casinos, shop in huge malls and eat delicious food in the many luxury restaurants. Because in Las Vegas, luxury is there, you can see it and feel it.
Naturally, therefore, spending New Year’s Eve here is a special experience, difficult to repeat elsewhere. A concept that applies whether or not one likes the glitz and crazy prices that characterise all the places in the city built in the Mojave desert.
Although cold, even on December nights, the temperature doesn’t drop below freezing; dress code is important in Vegas, especially if you choose parties or theme nights, so elegance is a great calling card (often even obligatory).
The place where the essence of Atomic City – one of the Nevada city’s many nicknames – converges is the Strip, which, on the last day of the year, closes to traffic from 6 pm until 2am. During those hours, up to 300,000 people pour onto the street, partying with singing, chanting and toasting, enjoying the light shows offered by the various hotels. Before midnight, the countdown is triggered to welcome 2025, baptised by 10 minutes of fireworks displays, with over 80,000 fireworks fired from eight hotels: MGM Grand, Aria, Planet Hollywood, Caesar’s Palace, Treasure Island, Venetian, Resorts World and STRAT. It’s a totally free show, which is a rarity in Vegas.
Another cult spot is Freemont Street, the beating heart of Downtown and the city’s first paved street, founded in 1905. Still nicknamed Glitter Gulch, to remember when in 1937 it was flooded with lights thanks to the electricity generated by the Hoover Dam, here is the walkway of mega Christmas trees, neon signs and lights that enliven every corner. The right way to feel the Christmas atmosphere and discover the oddities of the Neon Museum.
Looking for something more astonishing, Las Vegas is the city of helicopter tours. This is a perfect option to enjoy the view from above, even better if you are heading to Red Rock Canyon. This natural park offers a surreal and evocative panorama thanks to the red rock formations that emerge on the ground. A few words are enough to guess that this is a destination to visit, even before or after the last day of the year.
Unparalleled musical experiences
For music lovers, Las Vegas offers a rich menu, both in terms of artists and the chance to enjoy a sound experience in magical places. The newest is The Sphere, which I was only able to visit from the outside and which impressed me with its spherical shape, size (112 metres high and 157 metres wide) and the image quality guaranteed by the approximately 1.4 million LED panels covering the outside surface. In this place, which cost 2.3 billion dollars and has 9 floors inside, U2 often performs, but every day, there are shows and interactive shows to try the experience of listening rich in special effects on one of the more than 10,000 seats, which integrate tactile technology to involve other senses besides sight and hearing.
Las Vegas is always full of great artists. On the evening of 31 December alone, there are concerts by Gwen Stefani at the Venetian Hotel, Bruno Mars at Dolby Live and the Killers at the Cosmopolitan. These are all exceptional events with tickets sold out or a few remaining tickets at steep prices ($500 and up), but then again, if you’re in Vegas, you have to take that into account.
However, the New Year’s Eve menu includes a lot more than just the casinos, which remain the number one attraction for most tourists. There are the fountain shows at the Bellagio, the chance to climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower with an American twist, or to welcome in the New Year by celebrating at the Stratosphere Tower, the highest point from which to view the city from its two observatories 350 metres above the ground. Among so many options, in short, there is only one certainty: getting bored in Las Vegas is very difficult. Getting bored on New Year’s Eve is practically impossible.
