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US Airways Flights from Salt Lake City (SLC) to Las Vegas (LAS)
Orbitz is pleased to offer airline tickets on US Airways, which operates 2 non-stop flights from Salt Lake City (SLC) to Las Vegas (LAS) departing at 10:00pm on select days of the week. Usually a Canadair Regional Jet or Boeing 737-300 is flown for this route. The average travel time from Salt Lake City, UT to Las Vegas, NV is 1 hour and 25 minutes.
During your Las Vegas vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:
Las Vegas Natural History Museum
Conveniently located across the street from the Lied Discovery Children's Museum (described below), this humble temple of taxidermy harkens back to elementary-school field trips circa 1965, when stuffed elk and brown bears forever protecting their kill were as close as most of us got to exotic animals. Worn around the edges but very sweet and relaxed, the museum is enlivened by a hands-on activity room and two life-size dinosaurs that roar at one another intermittently. A small boy was observed leaping toward his dad upon watching this display, so you might want to warn any sensitive little ones that the big tyrannosaurs aren't going anywhere. Surprisingly, the gift shop here is particularly well stocked with neat items you won't too terribly mind buying for the kids.
Tropicana
Not quite as good-looking as it once was, and, yes, highly tropical, with gaming tables situated beneath a massive stained-glass archway and Art Nouveau lighting fixtures. In summer it offers something totally unique: swim-up blackjack tables located in the hotel's 5-acre tropical garden and pool area. Slot and table-game players can earn bonus points toward rooms, shows, and meals by obtaining an Island Winners Club card in the casino. A luxurious high-end slot area has machines that take up to $100 on a single pull. Numerous tournaments take place here, and free gaming lessons are offered weekdays.
Bellagio
The slot machines here are mostly encased in marble and fine woods. How's that for upping the ante on classy? In all fairness, Bellagio comes the closest to re-creating the feel of gambling in Monte Carlo (the country, not the next-door casino), but its relentless good taste means that this is one pretty forgettable casino. After all, we are suckers for a wacky theme that screams "Vegas," and European class just doesn't cut it. Then again, we brought a pal of more refined sensibility, and she adored it, finding it the perfect antidote to New York-New York. Sure, there are good touches -- we always like a high ceiling to reduce the claustrophobia index, and the place is laid out in an easy-to-navigate grid with ultrawide aisles, so walking through doesn't seem like such a crowded collision-course maze. (Tip: The main casino path is identified with black carpets.) And we won big here, so there's that. Anyway, the cozy sports book has individual TVs and entirely denlike leather chairs -- quite, quite comfortable.
Make your reservations for discount hotel rooms in the
Las Vegas area, including:
The Mirage
Even though it has become somewhat eclipsed by the very hotels whose presence it made possible, we still really like this place. From the moment you walk in and breathe the faintly tropically perfumed air (we think it's vanilla) and enter the lush rainforest, it's just a different experience from most Vegas hotels.The Mirage was Steve Wynn's first project built from the ground up. It seems funny now, but back in 1989, this was considered a complete gamble that was sure to be a failure. That was before the hotel opened, mind you. On opening day, the crowds nearly tore the place down getting inside, and The Mirage soon made its money back. Now it is the model upon which all recent hotels have been based.Occupying 102 acres, The Mirage is fronted by more than a city block of cascading waterfalls and tropical foliage centering on a "volcano," which, after dark, erupts every 15 minutes, spewing fire 100 feet above the lagoons below. To be honest, it's not very volcano-like; if you've seen any of the lava-saturated volcano movies, you'll be disappointed. Instead of lava flow, expect a really neat light show, and you won't mind a bit. (In passing, that volcano cost $30 million, which is equal to the entire original construction cost for Caesars next door.) The lobby is dominated by a 53-foot, 20,000-gallon simulated coral-reef aquarium stocked with more than 1,000 colorful tropical fish. This gives you something to look at while waiting (never for long) for check-in.Next, you'll walk through the rainforest, which occupies a 90-foot domed atrium -- a path meanders through palms, banana trees, waterfalls, and serene pools. If we must find a complaint with The Mirage, it's with the next bit, as you have to negotiate 8 miles (or so it seems) of casino mayhem to get to your room, the pool, food, or the outside world. It gets old, fast. (On the other hand, the sundries shop is located right next to the guest-room elevators, so if you forgot toothpaste, you don't have to travel miles to get more.)The rooms have recently been redone to a strong color palette that is oddly similar to the rooms' original tropical decor scheme. Frankly, it's here most of all where The Mirage isn't holding up its end; the rooms are nice, but there are nicer -- and larger -- ones all over town now, and the bathrooms are a little too cramped for what's supposed to be a swanky hotel.Off the casino is a habitat for Siegfried and Roy's white tigers -- yes, still in place despite the recent unpleasantness, a plaster enclosure that allows for photo-taking and "aaaahhhs." Behind the pool is the Dolphin Habitat and Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden -- at this writing, Montecore had been taken off this exhibit -- which has a separate admission.The superb Renoir, the Italian food at Onda, and the Mirage Buffet are detailed in Restaurants.The highly prominent production show by Danny Gans is reviewed in chapter 10, and The Mirage has one of our favorite casinos.Out back is the pool, one of the nicest in Vegas, with a quarter-mile shoreline, a tropical paradise of waterfalls and trees, water slides, and so forth. It looks inviting, but truth be told, it's sometimes on the chilly side and isn't very deep. But it's so pretty you'll hardly care. Free swimming lessons and water-aerobics classes take place daily at the pool. The Mirage Day Spa teems with friendly staff anxious to pamper you, bringing you iced towels to cool you during your workout and refreshing juices and smoothies afterward. The gym is one of the largest and best stocked on the Strip.Facilities: Casino; showrooms; 14 restaurants; beautiful outdoor pool; fitness center and spa; concierge; tour desk; car-rental desk; business center; shopping arcade; 24-hr. room service; laundry service; dry cleaning; nonsmoking rooms; executive-level rooms.
Crowne Plaza
An upscale sister of the Holiday Inn chain, this business-oriented hotel is right next to the Hard Rock, but is hardly a Gen-X destination. Each room is technically a suite, but apparently after building its five-story atrium, the hotel didn't have a lot of space left for the rooms, and so each is on the small side, made more so by the sheer amount of stuff crammed into them. Expect a wet bar, a sitting area complete with convertible sofa bed, a fridge, and a desk. Summertime can find calypso bands playing by the pool, making it a party spot for the many flight crews who regularly stay here.
California Hotel/Casino & RV Park
This is a hotel with a unique personality. California-themed, it markets itself mostly in Hawaii, and since 85% of its guests are from the Aloha State, it offers Hawaiian entrees in several of its restaurants and even has an on-premises store specializing in Hawaiian foodstuffs. You'll also notice that dealers are wearing colorful Hawaiian shirts. The rooms, however, reflect neither California nor Hawaii; they have mahogany furnishings and attractive marble bathrooms.
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