Things to see in Las Vegas

Cashing in on the recent trend towards Euro-opulence, the Bellagio sits on its own four hectare (10 acres) 'oasis', featuring a mock northern Italian village on the shore, behind which looms the bulking mass of the large hotel. The hotel offers 3,200 rooms and suites, 17 restaurants, six lounges, botanical gardens and six Mediterranean pool settings. Its 9,000-sq-m (100,000-sq-ft) casino features over 2,000 slot machines and electronic games and over 100 table games. The Bellagio also has a fine art gallery, as well as a 9,000 sq m (100,000 sq ft) glass-encased shopping mall.

Located Downtown, near the Plaza Hotel, Fremont Street is a favourite flocking ground for the city's tourists. Ten casinos, over 60 restaurants and countless bars and lounges offer Old Las Vegas style enticement. Peddlers sell silver jewellery and crafts from their pushcart stalls by day and night, when Fremont Street comes alive with The Fremont Street Experience. Perched nearly 30m (90ft) above Fremont Street is a hi-tech overhead light and sound show stretching for five blocks over 425m (1,400ft) composed of one of the world's largest and longest LED screens. Fremont Street is open 24 hours with shows starting at 2030, running hourly between 2100 and 2400.

The Las Vegas Natural History Museum brings the natural world of local Nevada wildlife to life, as well as dinosaurs, marine life and more, through exhibits, displays and live exhibitions. The museum's dinosaur exhibit features mechanical dinosaurs, including a 10m (35ft) long Tyrannosaurus Rex, as well as exhibits detailing the evolution of life. The Wild Nevada Room explores the diversity of life from the state's own Mojave Desert. Replicas include rattlesnake, bighorn sheep, desert tortoises and burrowing rodents. The museum also has live animals on display, such as a gopher snake, a tarantula, a boa constrictor and scorpions.

Of all the mega-casinos that line the Strip, the Mirage provides the biggest outdoor spectacle. The evening sees queues of people taking in the artificial volcano that erupts every 15 minutes from 19.00-24.00. The setting is completed by a lagoon with 54 waterfalls that flow down the side of the volcano. As visitors go inside, they enter an indoor tropical rainforest, a dolphin habitat and a saltwater tropical aquarium. The hotel also boasts a pool and spa, eight restaurants, four lounge bar areas, a white tiger habitat, Shadow Creek golf course and the casino, which features over 2,000 slot machines.

This US$2 billion addition to Las Vegas is yet another complex to cash in on a European theme. To some, it was a tragedy to see the demolition of the historic Sands Hotel and Casino to make way for this hotel, but no effort was spared in creating the Venetian. Much of the complex features canals, on which gondolas carry visitors up and down. The 10,800 sq m (120,000 sq ft) casino, featuring 2,500 slot machines and 122 table games, sits behind a replica of the Doge's Palace. The complex has 18 restaurants, four pools and a fitness centre.