Nightlife is Las Vegas' best-known pastime. The casinos and hotels may be open by day but only under the cover of night does the city's burst of lights set the atmosphere buzzing. Casinos, restaurants and bars are packed with tourists from all over the world, most in a friendly and genial spirit. Casino hotels tend to house not only the best-known stage shows but also all the late-night bars, nightclubs and live music.

Once again, the city is split between the Strip and Downtown, both of which offer an overwhelming assortment of evening activities. Downtown offers smaller, sometimes more charismatic, venues, while the enormous hotel complexes of the Strip offer a wide variety of entertainment options at each individual complex.

Las Vegas is a 24-hour city. Alcohol can be bought at any time of day or night, in restaurants, bars and shops. The legal drinking age is 21 years. Dress at most casinos is casual, but  more and more lounges do impose a dress code; for example most clubs deny entry to individuals wearing running shoes (trainers) or flip-flops (thongs). Unsurprisingly maybe, the rules are applied more strictly to men than to women. Some clubs waive admission charges for female patrons.

Listing of virtually every kind of entertainment that Las Vegas has to offer can be found online (website: http://lvindex.com/rolodex.htm). Another good website (www.vegas.com/nightclubs) has a selection of the more popular nightclubs in the city, along with a listing of upcoming events. Also try the 2AM Club Guide from Nevada's largest alternative newsweekly, Las Vegas Mercury, available online (website: www.lasvegasmercury.com/2am/index.html)

Bars: All night-time entertainment happens within the hotel-casino complexes. Most bars in Las Vegas feature such extravagant entertainment that they rival the largest nightclubs of other cities. Nevertheless, in Las Vegas, they are simply bars when compared to the lavish shows put on in the theatres and clubs there. The Bellagio's Baccarat Bar, 3600 Las Vegas Boulevard South, serves luxurious cocktails against a backdrop of live piano music. Serving over 100 varieties of vodka, Mandalay Bay's Red Square, 3950 Las Vegas Boulevard, creates an opulent mix of pre-/post-revolutionary Russia with its giant decapitated statue of Lenin and blood red velvet curtains, an 8m- (25ft-) long ice bar and vodka tastings in their walk-in freezer.

The Bar at Times Square, New York-New York Hotel and Casino, 3790 Las Vegas Boulevard South, aims to recreate the feel of an old New York city pub with polished wood floors and nightly entertainment. The Mix Lounge is proving to be one of Las Vegas' hottest watering holes. Settled high atop THEHotel at Mandalay Bay, expectant tourists and locals alike queue up in their street-chic attire for a chance to 'be seen' in what is being touted as the 'highest and hottest nightlife destination' in the city.

Casinos: To gamble, visitors must be at least 21 years old and have proof of age and identity in the form of a driving licence, passport or other photo identification. Most casinos in Las Vegas do not impose a dress code, although shoes and shirts are required. Some casinos worth visiting (not mentioned in the Key Attractions section) include the new Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino, 3667 Las Vegas Boulevard South, and Palms Casino Resort, 4321 West Flamingo Road, a popular playground for the young and moneyed party crowd.

The slightly dingy but intimate Gold Spike, 400 Ogden Avenue East, offers low table limit and penny slots, giving a taste of what the city was like in the 1970s. The Golden Nugget, 129 Fremont Street East, has been a fixture of Downtown since 1946, and features the largest gold nugget in the world, weighing in at 23kg (61lb). New York-New York, 3790 Las Vegas Boulevard South, is a recreation of New York, while Paris Las Vegas, 3655 Las Vegas Boulevard South, aims to import a touch of European class and sophistication.

Clubs: A number of state-of-the-art clubs are offered by the major hotel-casinos. The minimum age for entry is usually 21 years and a dress code is also often in place. One of the best-known clubs is yet another Las Vegas recreation of somewhere else - Studio 54, MGM Grand, 3799 Las Vegas Boulevard South (website: www.mgmgrand.com). Modelled on the legendary New York nightclub of the 1970s, Studio 54 features live dancers, dance music and a collection of photographs taken at the original club. Pure (website: www.purethenightclub.com), inside Caesars Palace, 3570 Las Vegas Boulevard South, is one of the most popular clubs on The Strip. The 3,400-sq-m (36,000-sq-ft) venue offers clubbers the choice of three environments, themes and sounds, with all rooms interconnected by intimate passageways and an elevated glass-enclosed VIP room at the heart of the action. It also tends to have long queues, so visitors are encouraged to arrive early.

The Palms Casino Resort houses another of Vegas' popular nightclubs, Rain, 4321 West Flamingo Road (website: http://rain-las-vegas.n9negroup.com). This 2,600-sq-m (28,000-sq-ft) adult-only playground features an elevated dance floor lit by a 4m (14ft) fireball and dancing fountains of water throb in time with the DJ. Rain is also infamous as the place where Britney Spears partied hard before, during and after her first very short-lived marriage. Reservations are required (tel: (702) 942 6832).

Live Music: Live music is another one of Las Vegas' legendary forms of entertainment - the city is the former home to superstars like Sammy Davis Junior, Frank Sinatra and Liberace. The Theater for the Performing Arts, Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino, 3667 Las Vegas Boulevard South (website: www.planethollywoodresort.com), headlines major touring rock and popular acts. The Orleans Arena, The Orleans Hotel and Casino, 4500 West Tropicana Avenue (website: www.orleansarena.com), has hosted touring pop acts such as Willie Nelson, Neil Sedaka and Jerry Lewis. The Mandalay Bay Events Center, 3950 Las Vegas Boulevard South (website: www.mandalaybay.com), is a 12,000-seat sport and entertainment complex, the setting for superstar concerts, major sporting events and television specials. It has featured everyone from Steely Dan to Stevie Wonder to Paul McCartney and Wings.