Step aside, slot machines. These are your best bets for the city, beyond the casino.

Visit the Valley of Fire

Las Vegas may be one of the world’s tourism capitals but it is guilty of selling short its natural wonders. Approximately one-hour’s drive from the Strip is Valley of Fire, a landscape of almost alien strangeness and grandeur. A drive around the park is enough for most but there are also many hiking trails.

Enjoy Artistic and Culinary Masterpieces at Picasso

There are few places you’ll feel more glamorous than Picasso. The Michelin two-star flagship restaurant of Spanish-American chef Julian Serrano features walls covered in real Picassos worth tens-of-millions of dollars and the museum-like dining room is a just setting for a guided tour of culinary masterpieces. 

Qua Baths & Spa

Qua is the biggest spa in town and, in addition to about half a dozen pools, spas and hot tubs, as well as a tea-and-snacks chill-out room, Qua offers a huge menu of treatments, ranging from exotic massage techniques and Ayurvedic therapies to full-blown hippie chakra balancing and something called a “diamond magnetic body ritual”.

Stumble Upon the Fountains of Bellagio

Chances are you’ll probably just bump into the legendary Fountains of Bellagio because they’re pretty hard to miss. Technologically unprecedented when they opened in 1998, these musical water jets dance and shoot almost 140 metres into the air to create song. Oh, and no environmental lectures please: the 22-million gallons of water are entirely recycled. Shows are daily.

Instagram at The Neon Museum

This collection of vintage neon signage is one of the most beautiful and unexpectedly affecting sights in Las Vegas. Set outdoors under the blinding Vegas sun, the Neon Boneyard is a kind of pop-art graveyard and a monument to a dying art form. Viewable by guided tour only, you can also visit at night when some of the restored signs are illuminated. Pack your camera.

Wherever you go, take us with you. Follow @qftravelinsider.

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