Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In terms of meals, Las Vegas does not have the same abundance of “early bird
specials” that you'll find in cities largely populated by seniors. What it does have
are heaping portions, and my father, Arthur Frommer (now over age 70), insists
that with age comes a diminishment in appetite. His advice to seniors, which I pass
along here, is to share food: One appetizer and one entree are what he and Roberta,
his wife, have when they go out to dine, and they leave perfectly satisfied.
STAYING WIRED
Like everything else in this town, the philosophy seems to be: Why give it away
for free when we can make a buck off it? So while a handful of hotels offer free
Internet access, most charge $9.95 per day for the privilege. Depending on the
hotel, this will be Wi-Fi, dial-up, or a choice of either.
Hot Zones, where Internet access is free, are nil in the tourist areas. However,
you will have access to computers and the Internet at any of the business centers
at the large Strip hotels; or at the
Cyber Stop Internet Café
(3743 Las Vegas Blvd.
S., at the Polo Towers Plaza;
%
702/736-4782; open 7am-2:30am).
The many
free-standing
Starbucks
(www.starbucks.com)
sprinkled about town also offer
Internet access for a price to those carrying their own laptops. Those Starbucks
located inside casinos never have Wi-Fi.
One warning:
You should not carry a computer or anything resembling a com-
puter into a casino, unless you have a yen to meet the security guards (briefly, as
they'll boot you out swiftly, with accusations of cheating). Even cellphones are
verboten in the Sports Books, so “de-gadgetize” before leaving your hotel room.
RECOMMENDED BOOKS & FILMS
From Mormons to miners to mobsters, Las Vegas boasts a colorful, intriguing his-
tory. The topic that have best captured its idiosyncratic nature and past are:
u
Casino
by Nicholas Pileggi. A rollicking, detailed, almost novel-like account
of the rise and fall of mob-controlled Vegas that was later turned into a movie
by Martin Scorsese (see p. 320).
u
Super Casino
by Pete Earley. Starts where Casino left off, telling the story of
how corporations took over Vegas after the mob was pushed out by the Feds.
Filled with insightful and ultimately moving portraits of a wide gallery of
characters who called Sin City home in the late '90s.
u
A Short History of Las Vegas
by Barabara Land, Myrick Land, and Guy Louis
Rocha. This is just what it says it is: a concise but sweeping tale of the area,
from the Native American settlements here through the Hoover Dam con-
struction days, and all the way up to the millennium.
u
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Okay, Hunter S. Thompson's masterpiece is
not a history per se, but it captures better than any other book out there the
surreal soul of the city, its excesses and hideous underside (actually, it could
be said it does the same for the author). Briefly, Thompson recounts his
drug-addled adventures in Las Vegas while covering a national police con-
vention and desert race.
