Things to do in Las Vegas

How to split the money

The shows and the views cost real money. Most of the free things are on the Strip, so you'll pass them anyway. I'd pay for one evening show and one view and walk the free shows on the other nights. If you have to choose between Cirque and Sphere, Cirque's four shows have different dark nights, so one of them will fit your dates.

Plan for distance. Mandalay Bay to the STRAT is about 4.3 miles, about 1 hour 20 minutes on foot along the Boulevard before you set foot inside a resort. The Monorail runs on the east side of the Strip only, from MGM Grand to the SAHARA, and reaches neither the airport nor Fremont Street. Downtown is a ride on the Deuce bus (a 24-hour Strip pass is $8) or a rideshare.

Venue prices below are from each venue's own site, checked Saturday, October 17, 2026; many of them move by date and by day of the week.

The best-reviewed things to book in the city

These are the in-city tickets and tours on GetYourGuide with the strongest review records, ordered by a score that weights each rating by how many reviews back it, so a 4.8 across a thousand reviews sits above a 5.0 across a handful. Anything with fewer than 15 reviews is left out.

Sphere

Sphere, at 255 Sands Ave, has two kinds of show: films made for its wraparound screen, and concert residencies. The film on sale now is The Wizard of Oz at Sphere, about 75 minutes long, on a calendar that runs from October 2026 to May 2027. Showtimes vary by day; on Sunday, October 18 they were 11am, 2pm, 5pm and 8pm. Doors open 45 minutes before, there is no late seating, and you can't take photos during the film.

The concerts running this season are Metallica (to March 13, 2027), the Eagles (November 13, 2026 to January 23, 2027) and the Backstreet Boys (December 26, 2026 to January 2, 2027, plus an F1 afterparty show on November 21). Oprah has dates April 2 to 4, 2027 and John Mayer from April 8 to June 12, 2027.

The con is price, which moves with demand. Wizard of Oz tickets launched at about $104 in August 2025, and the Review-Journal reported a spread of $109 to $349 on one Thursday, both past prices, not today's. The film is meant for ages 6 and up and every guest needs a ticket, toddlers included. Sphere isn't sold on GetYourGuide; buy from Sphere's own show page or its Ticketmaster listing.

One correction: Postcard from Earth, the nature film many guides still describe as the Sphere experience, has no showtimes on Sphere's site, and it isn't on the current show list. Resellers still list it.

High Roller, STRAT or Eiffel Tower

The High Roller at the LINQ is an observation wheel with 28 cabins; one turn takes 30 minutes, and the LINQ says to plan on at least an hour. The STRAT has the deck and the thrill rides. The Eiffel Tower deck sits on Paris Las Vegas's half-scale replica, in the middle of the Strip.

The High Roller's anytime ticket costs $11.25 more than the daytime one, so the cheapest way up is before 6pm. The Happy Half Hour is a 21-and-over cabin of up to 25 people with an open bar for one turn. If you drink, I'd take that one; it is also the biggest saving in the price table below.

At the STRAT, the deck ticket gets you up the tower and the rides are $5 each on top. Big Shot shoots you 160 feet up at 45 mph. The rides run 2 to 10pm, weather permitting, on the days they're open. SkyJump, the 829-foot controlled jump, was $144.99 to $174.99 in October depending on the date, with 20% off from 2 to 3pm. Expect airport-style security: metal detectors, every bag searched, and no luggage, glass or outside food and drink.

From the street, the Eiffel Tower's light show is free every 30 minutes from sunset to midnight. The catch: during the F1 Grand Prix weekend, deck tickets are valid only 6 to 7pm and 10pm to midnight on November 19 and 20, and 4 to 7pm and 10pm to midnight on November 21, 2026. Only one wheelchair user is allowed on the deck at a time.

Neon Museum

The Neon Museum, at 770 Las Vegas Blvd North, keeps its main collection of signs in the Neon Boneyard, an outdoor exhibition space, and I'd go after dark. From September to May it's open 3 to 11pm (last entry 10pm); from June to August, 8pm to midnight (last entry 11pm). For 2026, daytime admission (3 to 5pm) is from $25 and evening admission (6 to 11pm) from $35. Add-ons are a 45-minute History Tour or Movies Tour, and in the evening the 45-minute Brilliant! augmented-reality show. Parking is onsite, with overflow at Cashman Center.

It sells out. Tickets for Saturday, October 17 showed sold out that day, so book a few days ahead for a weekend. Guides that quote tours from $20 are out of date; the $21 starting price is for 2027 admission, from January 1. The museum sells its own tickets at neonmuseum.org. GetYourGuide's version is a combination: an open-top bus tour of the Strip with a 45-minute Neon Museum visit and a stop at the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, for $84. That's more than double the evening ticket on its own, so it only makes sense if you want the bus tour.

Mob Museum

The Mob Museum is at 300 Stewart Ave, steps from Fremont Street, and is open daily 9am to 9pm. General Admission is $37.95 and includes entry to The Underground, the speakeasy in the basement, open 11am to 11pm Sunday to Thursday and until midnight Friday and Saturday. Deluxe ($49.95) adds one interactive experience and Premier ($54.95) adds two. Allow one and a half to three hours, and parking is $8.

I'd save it for a rainy or too-hot afternoon and stay on for an evening on Fremont Street. GetYourGuide's general admission ticket is $35, a little under the museum's own price, with 376 reviews at 4.8 stars.

Meow Wolf Omega Mart and AREA15

AREA15 is free to enter and free to walk around, with art installations and sculptures you don't pay for. Rides and experiences inside cost extra, from $31 for a pass covering 17 of them, including the Eye Dropper drop ride. Meow Wolf's Omega Mart, a surreal grocery store with hidden portals and secret rooms, is the main paid attraction: timed entry is $45 (children from $40), anytime entry $75, and a VIP package $90. Under-16s need an adult with them, and AREA15 may ask under-21s to leave after 10pm.

Reviews are mixed. Omega Mart's GetYourGuide rating is among the lowest here, 4.1 across 733 reviews. GetYourGuide's ticket costs about the same as a timed ticket from Meow Wolf and doesn't allow backpacks, large bags or selfie sticks inside.

Shark Reef Aquarium

Shark Reef is at Mandalay Bay, open daily 10am to 8pm with last admission at 7pm. Guided tours of 45 minutes, for ages 5 and up, run Monday to Saturday at 3pm and on Sundays at 1, 2 or 3pm. Mandalay Bay's ticket page didn't show a single-ticket price on October 17, so there's nothing to compare against. GetYourGuide's ticket is $30 and includes the Undersea Explorer VR experience and the processing fees; you pick a date and time and must go then. Its rating is 4.2 across 1,102 reviews, low for this list, so I'd keep it for families who want an indoor afternoon at the south end of the Strip.

Madame Tussauds at the Venetian is the other indoor standby: $29 online for Silver, open 10am to 8pm on October 17, and the same $29 on GetYourGuide. The combination ticket with an outdoor gondola ride is a poor buy this month: the Venetian's outdoor gondolas close for the season from October 26.

Cirque du Soleil and other shows

Cirque du Soleil has four resident shows in Las Vegas, each 90 minutes with no intermission. Mad Apple at New York-New York, the fifth, closed on September 5, 2026, so a list that names five is out of date. KÀ is not closing, though Cirque had said it would run through November 2026: on September 22, 2026 Cirque put 2027 tickets on sale for all four.

If you see one, I'd see O. KÀ is the cheapest. Mystère is the only one with no age limit, so it's the family pick. Watch the dark nights: O and MJ ONE are both off on Tuesdays, and Mystère and KÀ are both off on Thursdays, so on those nights your choice shrinks to two. Cirque sales are final, with no exchanges or refunds, and tickets aren't transferable, so book once your dates are fixed. MJ ONE runs a Thrillerween event from October 24 to 31.

Of the four, GetYourGuide sells only KÀ through a listing with a solid review record. Its price is $76, a few dollars above MGM Grand's own starting price of $69 (that's $50.70 plus an $18.30 fee, before tax), and late-October dates at the box office ran $68 to $88. So book KÀ here for convenience, not to save money.

For something cheaper and earlier in the evening, Vegas! The Show plays the Saxe Theater at Planet Hollywood's Miracle Mile at 5:30pm Monday to Saturday, with extra Sunday and 7pm shows on some dates. Its own site didn't show a ticket price, so there's no box-office figure to set against the GetYourGuide one.

What's free

The Bellagio fountains run until midnight every night and Fremont Street's canopy has a show on the hour from 6pm to 2am. The free things to do in Las Vegas guide has every free show with its times and a walking route between them.

Gone or changed

The Mirage volcano erupted for the last time on July 17, 2024 and has been torn out; the site is becoming Hard Rock Las Vegas, due in 2027. The Tropicana was demolished in October 2024 for the Athletics' ballpark. The Cromwell is now The Vanderpump Hotel. The free things guide lists the other closed sights that older lists still name.

When GetYourGuide beats the box office

You would expect a reseller to charge more. For several of these it charges less, and for one it charges more.

Two caveats. The STRAT's $36.95 is its online price for a Saturday; its price changes by date, and guides put weekdays lower, so the gap may be smaller midweek. And GetYourGuide's High Roller price is a "from" price, so set it against the daytime box-office ticket, not the anytime one. The Eiffel deck and Shark Reef are left out because neither venue's page showed a single-ticket price on October 17.

For adults

The adults-only options are mostly about the bar: the High Roller Happy Half Hour, Meow Wolf's Night Shift, and Omega Mart's $137 21-and-over drinks package. Shooting ranges are the other big seller, though not 21-only: Battlefield Vegas takes ages 14 to 17 with an adult.

Battlefield Vegas sells single weapons from $25 and custom packages from $125 on its own site, so the GetYourGuide beginner's package at $100 (two guns, 45 rounds, a Humvee hotel pickup) undercuts its packages, though not a single gun bought direct; bring a driver's license, and sales tax is paid on arrival. The outdoor range trip from $50 is rated 4.9 across 621 reviews, and includes the van and range fees.

A half day out of town

For one spare morning, Red Rock Canyon's scenic drive is about 35 minutes from the middle of the Strip, and so is Seven Magic Mountains, off I-15 to the south, which is free with no reservation (its lease runs through 2026). Hoover Dam is about 45 minutes; the Bureau of Reclamation calls it 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas. Valley of Fire is about 70 minutes, longer Monday to Thursday this year while its West Entrance is closed.

The Grand Canyon is a full day: Grand Canyon West is about 2 hours 15 minutes to 2 hours 45 minutes each way by car, and every helicopter tour sold from Las Vegas goes there, outside the national park. From November 1, 2026 to March 14, 2027, Arizona sites are an hour ahead of Las Vegas.

The day trips from Las Vegas guide covers all of these, the Hoover Dam tours guide compares the half-day dam tours, and the Grand Canyon tours guide and helicopter tours guide cover the longer days.