Las Vegas is considered to be the entertainment and convention capital of the world and has historically hosted over 42.5 million visitors that attend about 25,000 conventions and trade shows each year. A number of the largest hotels in the world are located in Las Vegas. There are approximately 150,000 available hotel rooms with an annual average occupancy of about 85% and an average room rate of about $150 per night. However, that all ended in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic reached Las Vegas and closed almost everything, causing Las Vegas to become a modern ghost town.
Las Vegas Boulevard runs through the City and then extends all to way to the community of Jean, which is only 13 miles from the Nevada-California border. However, the section of Las Vegas Boulevard from the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Nevada" sign to the historic downtown area is known as "The Strip" and contains the bulk of large hotel/casinos. Typically it is next to impossible drive up-and-down "The Strip" to take pictures of the buildings because there are always people driving and walking around 24-hours a day, 7-days a week. Normally, because of the large crowds you would have to be crazy to ride a bike up and down "The Strip" or try to walk/jog on the sidewalks. All of that changed with the Covid-19 pandemic. Since most parks and recreation areas in and around Las Vegas are now closed, and there is a lack of traffic and visitors in Las Vegas, "The Strip" has now become a favorite walking/jogging/biking area for area residents. Therefore, we have joined many other Las Vegans and visited "The Strip" on various occasions for biking and hiking. For security reasons, the general public is not allowed on any of the hotel/casino properties and must remain on the sidewalks or on the streets. The Attached pictures were taken on different days, starting at the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada" sign and traveling north toward the historic downtown area.
To the east of the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada" sign are retail buildings, vacant land, historic structures, and McCarran International Airport. One parcel of vacant land is partially improved with a failed version of the London Eye, a large observation wheel. The project was stopped when a similar observation wheel called "The Linq" was built farther north and closer to the main tourist area.
To the west of the sign is the Bali Hai Golf Club that was constructed on government land and involved a lot of controversy. The builder was sent to prison for illegal stock trading and there have been several proposals to change the land to a more intense use, which may happen some day.
Located north of the Bali Hai Golf Club is the Mandalay Bay Hotel/Casino complex that contains over 3,200 hotel rooms. One of the hotel towers is operated as the Delano Hotel and floors 35-39 of the main building are independently operated as the Four Seasons Hotel. Also located on the site is the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, which is the 5th largest convention center in the United States and contains over 2.1 million gross square feet of meeting and exhibit space.
On October 1, 2017, a gunman shooting from a Mandalay Bay 32nd floor hotel room shot and killed 58 people and wounded an additional 546 people that were attending the Route 91 Harvest Festival. The shooting ended when the gunman committed suicide. This was the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in U.S. History.
Luxor Las Vegas is just north of Mandalay Bay and is probably the most recognized building on "The Strip." The 30-story pyramid and associated towers contain over 4,400 rooms and have been renovated and expanded several times. Substantial portions of the Egyptian themes have been removed over the years, but is is really difficult to retheme an Egyptian pyramid.
At the time the pyramid was constructed it was believed that Las Vegas would become a family destination, so a number of family oriented attractions were included in the original construction. When the Luxor first opened it was possible to pay for each attraction individually, or you could purchase a discounted pass that allowed you to do all of the attractions for one price. Although you would not know it now, there was originally a canal that ran around the inside of the pyramid and you could ride an early Egyptian style boat around the canal system as part of the "In Search of the Obelisk" adventure. Most of the other family attractions were located one floor above the casino. However, the Las Vegas family destination idea did not work as planned and instead Las Vegas picked up the motto "What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas," which is typically not family oriented.
I stayed in the pyramid shortly after it opened and had a room near the the top. It was really a strange feeling to view down from the inside of the pyramid toward the family attractions located above the casino floor. Rooms in the pyramid are reached by "inclinators," which are inclined elevators that travel up-and-down the 39-degree angles formed by the four sides of the pyramid faces. Each "inclinator" only services certain floors, so you have to remember which corner of the pyramid you have to go to find the "inclinator" that will take you up to your room. The disadvantage, of course, is that it is not possible to add more than four inclinators for hotel guests.
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| Panoramic Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
The Excalibur is located north of the Luxor at the southwest corner of "The Strip" and Tropicana Avenue, which is also known as "The New Four Corners." (Actually, that is a term that was used 25 years ago - I have not heard it used recently.)
In 1975 the site was planned for the 1,730 room Xanadu Resort, which would have been the first mega resort in Las Vegas, but the developer could never obtain approval from the County for such a large project. About 15 years later, the County approved the 4,000 room Excalibur Hotel/Casino, which was the largest hotel in the world when it opened June 19, 1990. The Excalibur is now the 7th largest hotel in Las Vegas.
At the time the Excalibur opened, all of the newer hotels in Las Vegas were theme-based. Therefore, many of the Excalibur buildings were constructed in the form of a castle, using a Medieval theme that included the mythical sword of King Arthur and a wizard figure of Merlin that was visible watching "The Strip" from a high turret in one of the castle towers. The interior contained family oriented exhibits and programs. As Las Vegas moved away from the family destination idea, most of the family-oriented exhibits, statues, scenery and programs were removed. Even Merlin lost his place in the tower turret and was replaced with an advertising sign.
It was at this casino that John Ford of Los Angeles hit the largest Megabucks jackpot in the world to date - $39.7 Million.
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| Panoramic Picture by Kolohe |
Directly across "The Strip" to the east from the Excalibur is the Tropicana Hotel/Casino. Although the "New Four Corners" intersection has the most hotel rooms of any intersection in the world, by Las Vegas standards the Tropicana is a fairly small hotel with only 1,467 rooms.
In 1955 a developer from Miami Beach started construction on the Tropicana, but the project had problems right from the start. Construction ran over budget and the anticipated completion time was delayed several times. When the hotel was finally completed, the developer leased the property to Phil Kastel. However, the Gaming Control Board was concerned with Kastel's links to organized crime and mobster Frank Costello, so the property was sold to the owner of the Las Vegas Club. Due to its location and size, the Tropicana did not do well financially and sold several times over the years. In 1979 the property was sold to Ramada Inns because the FBI discovered that the Tropicana was being managed as a mob skimming operation. Joe Agosto, owner of the Follies Bergere show, oversaw siphoning of money from the cashier cage to a Kansas City crime family, and the FBI discovered that Agosto could not legally manage the property because he did not even have a gaming license. Over the years the Tropicana has sold numerous times and in April 2020 the current owners sold the land only to a spin-off company for $337.5 million. It was anticipated that the existing structures would be demolished and a much larger and more modern hotel/casino would be developed on the site, but since the Covid-19 pandemic it is unclear what will happen with the property.
BONUS PICTURES OF "THE STRIP" - By Kolohe
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