Las Vegas
United States
A city built to take your money, and extremely good at its job
Photo by Julian Paefgen on Unsplash
Photos by Thomas Haas, David Lusvardi, David Vives and Matthias Mullie on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of United States
March to May, October to November
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 23mm in Feb
Where it is
36.17°N, 115.14°W Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Walk the Strip once, at night, the whole length
- See a show — Cirque, a residency, or whatever is at the Sphere
- Eat in Chinatown on Spring Mountain Road
- Drive out to Red Rock Canyon in the morning
- Play the cheapest table you can find and stop when the drink arrives
- Go downtown to Fremont for the older, stranger version of the place
Las Vegas travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget United States
ExpensiveThe price you are quoted is not the price you pay, twice over: sales tax is added at the till, and nearly every hotel on the Strip charges a "resort fee" of $35-60 a night that is not in the booking price and cannot be declined. Read the fee before you compare rooms, because a $60 room with a $50 fee is a $110 room.
ATMs & cards
Casino ATMs charge the worst fees in America — often $8-10 plus your own bank’s. Withdraw at a bank branch off the Strip, or better, pay by card everywhere, which works for everything except tipping. Never use the currency conversion the machine offers.
Avoid these
- casino ATMs, which charge $8-10 a withdrawal
- the machine’s own currency conversion
Use these instead
- Chase
- Bank of America
- Wells Fargo — off the Strip
The bigger cost is the resort fee, $35-60 a night, added at check-in and not in the room price you compared.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of United States
Reasonably safeThe Strip and Fremont are heavily policed and busy at all hours; the blocks between them, and the streets a little east and north, are not somewhere to wander. The real hazards are the ones nobody warns about: 39°C in July with no shade, alcohol at that temperature, and how far it is between two casinos that look adjacent. Carry water, and take a taxi rather than walking back at 3am.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (6 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- The blocks between the Strip and Fremont on foot
- Anyone offering a free show ticket or a timeshare tour
- Heat in July and August, which kills hikers at Red Rock every year
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa United States visa rules
Travel authorisation requiredup to 90 days$40
ESTA under the Visa Waiver Program. Romania was admitted in 2025 and then suspended again, so Romanian passports currently need a full visa — this one has flipped twice, so check the official link rather than trusting anything written down, including this. Bulgaria and Cyprus have never been in the programme. ESTA is refused if you have travelled to Cuba, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia or Yemen since 2011 — those trips mean a full visa instead.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 180 days
Visa required in advance$185
A B1/B2 visitor visa, with an in-person interview. Waiting times run to many months in some countries — start early.
How to get it: Apply for ESTA at esta.cbp.dhs.gov at least 72 hours before travel. Every other site charging for this is a reseller.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Before you fly: travel authorisation
ESTARequired
At least 72 hours before you fly. Most come back in minutes, some take days.
Have these in front of you before you start:
- passport
- a credit or debit card
- your employer's name and address
- any other citizenships you hold
The page calls itself the "Official ESTA Application Website" in its own title, because the trade in charging for this is large. Valid two years, not per trip.
Use the official link above. Sites that charge a "service fee" to submit one of these for you are not the government, and they want the same passport details the real form does.
Health & emergencies all of United States
LimitedRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
Getting treated
The care is excellent and the bill is the risk. There is no universal system, an ambulance ride alone can run into four figures, and an uninsured hospital stay can be genuinely ruinous. Comprehensive travel insurance with a high medical limit is essential — this is the one destination where skipping it can cost more than the trip by an order of magnitude.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodThe buffet is not what it was and the good eating is now the chef restaurants and, better, the strip malls off the Strip: Chinatown on Spring Mountain Road has the best food in the city by a distance, and costs a quarter of what the casinos charge. Free drinks while you gamble are still real, and the tip is a dollar a drink.
Nightlife
A city built entirely around it. Pool parties from noon, clubs with resident DJs, and a bill that arrives faster than anywhere else on earth.
- The Strip — the megaclubs, and the pool parties
- Fremont Street — downtown, older and much cheaper
- Arts District, Las Vegas — the version locals use
Closing: Never. Bars and casinos are 24 hours.
A beer in a bar: $8–15
Cover charges of $50–100 and drinks at $20 are normal in the Strip clubs; the Arts District is a different city at a fifth of the price.
Getting around
Workable- UberWorks here
- LyftWorks here
- BoltNot here
- From the airport
- JFK to Manhattan $70–95 by app, against a flat $70 yellow-cab fare plus tolls
- Against a taxi
- In most American cities there is effectively no taxi trade left to compare with.
The price on the screen is before tip, and a tip is expected.
Time zone and your working day
America/Los Angeles — 3 hours behind you
5 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 12:00–17:00 your time, 09:00–14:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 12:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 12:00–20:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of United States
Why these are United States's numbers and not Las Vegas's
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 2.4× the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Fast. Enough to work from a cafe or a beach on a hotspot all day. Mobile runs at 1.7× the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Las Vegas, so these are medians for all of United States. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for United States, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
American English — local usage
- HelloHey / How are you doing?
- The bill, pleaseCan we get the check?
- To go, not eaten inTo go
- Fizzy drinkSoda
4 more phrases
- The undergroundThe subway
- QueueLine
- Ground floorFirst floor
- Thank you very muchThanks so much
Religion
Christian majority, no state religion
Constitutionally separated from the state, and enormously varied by region — the south is far more observant than the coasts.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Tip 18-20% at restaurants and bars — servers are paid below minimum wage and depend on it
- Expect sales tax to be added at the till, not shown on the shelf price
- Make small talk with strangers; friendliness is genuine and not a prelude to anything
- Carry ID if you look under about 35 and intend to drink
Don't
- Do not skip the tip to make a point — take it up with the manager instead
- Do not discuss politics, guns or healthcare with strangers unless invited
- Do not stand too close; personal space is larger than in Europe or Latin America
- Do not joke about security at airports or borders
Where to stay in Las Vegas
No Holistay rentals in Las Vegas yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Las Vegas on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Harry Reid LAS
10 minfrom the airport· 10 km as the crow flies
10 min to the Strip.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
