Vaccines & Vaccination

The City

Las Vegas, Nevada is a vibrant pulsating city. The only major city in the American West to have been founded in the 20th century, Las Vegas grew from a tiny, desert-bound railroad service centre at the outset of the 20th century to the country’s fastest-growing metropolis at century’s end. This transformation—made possible by a combination of shrewd entrepreneurship, access to water, an extensive transportation network, and permissive state laws—has created the city now often known simply as “Vegas,” a place of vast casinos, elaborate hotels, and spectacular entertainment venues that attracts masses of visitors from throughout the world.

Today, Las Vegas annually ranks as one of the world's most visited tourist destinations. The city's tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of Sin City, and has made Las Vegas a popular setting for literature, films, television programs, and music videos.

Las Vegas is a place of million-lightbulb signs and fantastic architecture, of readily visible wealth and carefully hidden poverty. It is a place of superlatives, both positive and negative. Within the city stand the largest glass pyramid in the world; one of the largest hotels in the country, with more than 5,000 rooms; and one of the most expensive hotels ever constructed, the Bellagio. The area along Las Vegas Boulevard and its adjoining near-downtown streets—the famous “Strip”—is the “City Without Clocks,” whose multibillion-dollar economy is devoted to servicing a wide array of impulses and addictions of many kinds. It is this Las Vegas, the flashy playground unofficially known as “Sin City,” that the American novelist and essayist Joan Didion once termed.

Beyond the bright lights of the Strip, however, lies a perfectly ordinary Western city, with neighbourhoods, churches, shopping centres, and strip malls. It is that city, and not the hotels and casinos, that draws thousands of new residents each year.

Climate

Las Vegas is hot and dry for most of the year. The average daily temperature is 68 °F (20 °C); the average high is 80 °F (27 °C) and the average low is 56 °F (13 °C). January is the coldest month, with average daily temperatures ranging from 57 °F (14 °C) to 37 °F (3 °C); freezing temperatures are uncommon in the valley but normal for the surrounding foothills. July is the hottest month, with average daily highs and lows of 104 °F (40° C) and 78 °F (26 °C).

Culture

The city is home to several museums, including the Neon Museum (the location for many of the historical signs from Las Vegas's mid-20th century heyday), The Mob Museum, the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, the DISCOVERY Children's Museum, the Nevada State Museum and the Old Las Vegas Mormon State Historic Park.

Las Vegas Entertainment

Since the time of Bugsy Siegel, Las Vegas has been renowned not only for its gambling, but also for its free flowing liquor, its fine dining and its extravagant entertainment especially at the Las Vegas Shows. All these original ingredients are still available in even greater variety and quantity in modern-day Las Vegas.

The famous old Las Vegas Shows were typically variety shows featuring headline entertainment, well known bands, scantily-clad dancing girls and ribald humor. You can still find some of those shows on the Strip. The afternoon performances and the early evening performances are usually toned-down family-oriented presentations, while the late night performances are more adult oriented featuing nudity, risque humor and adult themes.

Las Vegas Dining

Good food in large quantities has been the staple of Las Vegas hospitality since the early days, and the all-you-can-eat buffet was a renown attraction at nearly every casino. They are still popular and almost universally available. The more isolated and the less popular casinos offer their buffets at ridiculously low prices just to attract gamblers to their gaming tables. The newer casinos often feature higher priced buffets with better quality foods. All of them provide unlimited quantities.

For more serious dining, Las Vegas provides hundreds of good restaurants in the casinos and throughout the city. Each of the large casinos offers at least four or six restaurants ranging from inexpensive snack bars and all-you-can-eat buffets to high-class, expensive, five-star restaurants.

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