The Best Things to See and Do in Nevada

The Stratosphere is the tallest tower in Las Vegas and perhaps the best vantage point to appreciate the city’s vast glitter. While an observation deck and rides are there for those who need to maximize their thrills, the 107 Sky Lounge offers a more sophisticated viewpoint. Located directly above the Top of the World Restaurant, it offers specialty cocktails as well as live music and/or DJs to up the atmospheric ante. Happy hours feature two-for-one drinks (helpful for those uneasy with heights) and half-price appetizers from Top of the World.

A little over a half an hour and an entire world away from Las Vegas is the Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area. The mountains fill the skies on the western edge of the valley, providing a backdrop for exquisite desert sunsets painted with the full spectrum of nature’s colors. Drive up into the mountains in the late afternoon to take in the majesty without distractions.

Located in the MGM Grand, Level Up is where nerds are high rollers. The arcade has all types of games, from pool to esports, pinball to virtual reality. The VR is courtesy of Zero Latency and offers several virtual worlds to interact with, from a tiki-tinted fantasy of wandering amongst floating temples to full-on zombie attack first-person shooters. It’s set up for groups, so you and your friends can chase parrots or battle the undead together. Put on those goggles and go!

Elko’s Western Folklife Center hosts exhibits, events, and concerts related to the Old West and also serves as the headquarters for the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. Now in its 34th year, the gathering celebrates storytelling and local traditions with concerts and readings, as well as workshops to develop your own tales. It’s not just your traditional cowboys either: Northern Nevada’s Basque heritage is also celebrated with song, dance, and food.

The Golden Tiki proves that theme-ing did not die with the camels of the Sahara and the cowboys of the El Rancho. The bar is over-the-top tiki, replete with shrunken heads, blowfish lamps, fishnets, and a “talking” pirate skeleton. Nightly entertainment ranges from surf and jazz combos to burlesque acts and Elvis impersonators, as well as Rex Dart spinning soul, garage, and other oddities.

For over three decades, the Great Reno Balloon Race has filled the skies of Northern Nevada with all manner of fantastic sights. Taking place in early September, it’s the largest free hot air balloon event in the world, with over 100,000 attendees over a three-day period admiring balloons of all shapes and colors. There are airborne blackjack tournaments, nighttime light shows, and, of course, balloon races.

Truly a wonder of modern engineering, the Hoover Dam is over 700 feet (213 meters) high and contains over four million cubic meters of concrete. Thousands of workers labored for five years to build the Dam, which was completed in 1935 and is a landmark of Art Deco design, from the enormous Gotham-esque towers to the elaborate Native American mosaics inside. The nearby Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, which opened in 2010, is also an impressive achievement, containing the largest concrete arch in the Northern Hemisphere.

The “last neighborhood bar in Las Vegas,” Dino’s has been pouring since the 1960s. Karaoke night at Dino’s may be the city’s finest, though it is indeed a crapshoot. You can get an inebriated bachelorette woozing her way through “Rhiannon,” or you can get an off-duty Strip performer delivering a “My Girl” that would make Berry Gordy stand up and holler.

Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park is a lush, green spot for picnicking, boating and hiking during the temperate part of the year, but in the cold months, it offers plenty of activities worth putting on gloves and a hat for. Spooner Backcountry has miles of trails to hike as well as backwoods skiing and snowshoeing. Van Sickle offers opportunities for winter hiking and cross-country skiing.