Las Vegas is not exactly renowned for
its healthy lifestyle, but if you
start to feel the need for exercise,
opportunities do exist. For visitors,
the highest profile activity these
days is
golf . The city
currently boasts around forty golf
courses, and is adding more at a
ferocious rate. Most casinos do at
least have a
swimming pool ,
with the larger ones on the Strip
offering full-service
spas and
tennis facilities as well.
"Locals" casinos, on the
other hand, usually out in more
residential neighborhoods, specialize
in offering popular year-round indoor
pursuits such as
bowling and
ice-skating
.
As for spectator sports ,
despite the best efforts of Mayor
Goodman - who's on record as saying
that "until you have major league
sports, you'll always be thought of as
a minor-league town" - Las Vegas
lacks high-profile professional teams.
Although tourists flock from all over
the nation to watch events like the
Super Bowl on large-screen TVs - and
of course, bet on them - the only
sport to regularly draw sizable crowds
for live action is championship boxing
.
Spas
Most of the major Strip casinos
offer their own luxurious spa
facilities, open as a rule to guests
and non-guests alike, but
occasionally restricted to guests
only on weekends. Typical rates
start at around $25 per day, with a
vast range of more expensive
treatments available. The best is
widely recognized to be the Canyon
Ranch Spa at the
Venetian
(daily 5.30am-10pm; tel 414-3600).
Among its closest rivals are:
Aladdin ; daily 8am-7pm;
tel 785-5772.
Bellagio ; daily 6am-8pm;
tel 693-8080.
Caesars Palace ; daily
6am-8pm; tel 731-7110.
Mandalay Bay ; daily
5am-10pm; tel 632-7777.
Grand ; daily 6am-8pm; tel
891-3077.
The Monte Carlo ; daily
6am-9pm; tel 730-7590.
Paris ; daily 6am-7pm; tel
946-4366.
Indoor sports and activities
BOWLING
Castaways 2800 Fremont St
tel 385-9153. Daily 24hr.
At 106 lanes, the Castaways boasts
the largest bowling alley in the US,
and plays host to the Showboat
Invitational Bowling Tournament, the
oldest pro event in the country,
each Jan.
Gold Coast 4000 W Flamingo
Rd tel 367-4700. Daily 24hr.
During the week, the usual low rates
at the superbly equipped 72-lane
Brunswick bowling center drop even
lower between midnight and 8am. On
Sat nights, however, it's taken over
by a giant "bowling disco
party."
Orleans 4500 W Tropicana
Ave tel 365-7111. Daily 24hr.
Adult rates at the Orleans '
70-lane upstairs bowling arcade are
$2.50 per game.
Sam's Town 5111 Boulder
Hwy tel 454-8022. Daily 24hr.
This bright 56-lane downstairs
bowling center plays host on Fri and
Sat nights (from midnight until 4am)
to "extreme bowling";
basically, it becomes a nightclub,
with music, lights, dry ice, and, of
course, bowling. For the rest of the
week, rates drop between midnight
and 8am.
Santa Fe Hotel & Casino
4949 N Rancho Drive tel 658-4995.
Daily 24hr.
The Santa Fe 's sixty-lane
bowling alley, back-to-back with the
ice arena, features Bowlervision, an
electronic device that tracks the
path of your ball.
GYMS AND HEALTH CLUBS
Las Vegas Athletic Club
2655 S Maryland Parkway tel
734-5822, . Daily 24hr.
The city's largest health-club
chain, with four different valley
locations (not all 24hr) that
feature indoor and outdoor pools,
exercise equipment and classes,
saunas and spas, and other sports
facilities. Membership $10 per day,
$25 per week.
Las Vegas Sporting House
3025 Industrial Rd tel 733-8999.
Daily 24 hrs.
In addition to a full gymnasium and
fitness center with all the latest
equipment, the Sporting House offers
tennis, squash, and handball courts
plus an outdoor pool. Membership
costs around $15 per day or $50 per
week, but check to see if your hotel
has special privileges.
ICE-SKATING
Santa Fe Ice Arena
Santa Fe Hotel & Casino ,
4949 N Rancho Drive tel 658-4993.
Hours vary.
Las Vegas's only casino ice rink
charges $5 admission, with skate
rental for $1.50, and offers a
varied schedule of pick-up hockey
games, figure skating, and so on.
Outdoor sports and activities
BUNGEE JUMPING
A.J. Hackett Bungy
Circus Circus , 810 Circus
Circus Drive tel 385-4321. Hours
vary.
Should you feel the urge to plummet
approximately 200 feet toward but
not into a swimming pool, attached
to a rubberized rope, look no
further. It's $49 for your first
jump, $25 each for the second and
third, and nothing at all for the
fourth.
GOLF
Angel Park Golf Club 3145
Las Vegas Blvd S tel 733-4290, .
Beautifully set in Summerlin, at the
western edge of the valley, the
public facility features two Arnold
Palmer-designed full-size courses,
plus a twelve-hole par 3 course and
an eighteen-hole putting course,
both of which are floodlit at night.
Green fees start at $65.
For reservations at most of Las
Vegas's forty or so golf courses,
call Golf Reservations of Nevada Inc
tel 732-3119 or 1-800/627-4465, .
Bali Hai Golf Club 100 S
Rampart Blvd tel 1-888/446-5358, .
Extraordinarily lavish water-themed
course, not far southwest of Mandalay
Bay , seen as an expanse of
vivid green from planes coming in to
land; the golf carts even have
satellite global positioning
systems, while Wolfgang Puck's Cili
is the clubhouse restaurant.
Standard green fee is $260.
Las Vegas Golf Club 4300 W
Washington Ave tel 646-3003.
Busy city-owned course that offers
exceptionally cheap rates for
locals. Non-residents can play
eighteen holes for $80 Mon-Thurs,
$90 Fri-Sun.
Las Vegas National Golf Club
1911 E Desert Inn Rd tel 796-0016.
Originally the Sahara Country Club,
and home to the Las Vegas
Invitational Tournament, this
appealing course, a couple of miles
east of the Strip, charges the
general public $85 Mon-Thurs, $110
Fri-Sun.
HORSE RIDING
Cowboy Trail Rides tel
838-3001, .Hours Vary.
Ninety-minute riding expeditions in
the Spring Mountains, in either the
Red Rock Canyon area or higher up on
Mount Charleston, for $69.
RAFTING
Black Canyon Raft Tours
1297 Nevada Hwy, Boulder City tel
293-3776 or 1-800/696-7238. By
reservation, Feb-Nov only.
One-day rafting trips downriver from
Hoover Dam as far as Willow Beach,
for $95 per person including hotel
pickup.
SKIING AND SNOWBOARDING
Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard
Resort Hwy-156, Mount Charleston
tel 385-2754, . Late Nov to early
April only. Lifts operate Mon-Fri
& Sun 9am-4pm, Sat 9am-4pm &
4.30-10pm.
Las Vegas's only ski slopes are
almost fifty miles from the Strip.
Three chair lifts lead to ten
different slopes, graded from novice
to advanced; lift passes cost $28
per day, and equipment rental is
available.
SKYDIVING
Skydive Las Vegas 1401
Airport Rd, Boulder City tel
759-3483 or 1-800/USKYDIV, . By
reservation.
Leap from an airplane 12,500 feet
over the Nevada desert, strapped to
an instructor, then free-fall and
parachute for a total of well over
five minutes, for $175.
WATER SPORTS
Las Vegas Bay Marina Lake
Shore Rd, Henderson tel 565-9111.
Hours vary.
Among water craft available for
rental at Las Vegas Bay Marina, at
25 miles out the closest point on
Lake Mead to the city, are jetskis
at $50 per hour or $150 for four
hours, and speedboats at $50 per
hour or $300 per day. Similar
facilities are offered by Lake Mead
Marina near Boulder City (tel
293-3484), and Callville Bay (tel
565-8958) and Echo Bay (tel
394-4000), on the north shore of the
lake.
Spectator sports
BASEBALL
The Las Vegas 51s , a
class AAA team affiliated to the San
Diego Padres, have in recent years
repeatedly triumphed in the Pacific
Coast League. They recently changed
their name from the Las Vegas Stars,
in honor of Nevada's legendary Area
51, and play around seventy home
games between April and Labor Day
each year at Cashman Field, 850 Las
Vegas Blvd N (tel 386-7200, ).
Admission prices start at $4.
BOXING
In the last 25 years, Las Vegas
has taken over from New York as the
world capital of boxing . A
heavyweight title fight brings so
many high-rollers into town that the
major casinos will pay almost any
purse to the boxers concerned
(upwards of $20 million per in some
cases), and they're still doing so
despite fiascos like the infamous
ear-biting bout between Mike Tyson
and Evander Holyfield.
The three principal players have
long been Caesars Palace ,
which for big fights erects an arena
in its back lot capable of holding
up to 30,000 people; the MGM
Grand , with its 15,000-seat
Garden; and the Mirage. Mandalay
Bay has ventured into hosting
championship boxing as well, and
some fights also take place at the
University's Thomas & Mack
Center, 4505 S Maryland Parkway (tel
895-3761). Ticket prices depend
completely on demand; the cheapest
seats for a welterweight fight can
be as little as $50, but for Mike
Tyson they're more likely to range
between $500 and $2500.
It was just after a Mike Tyson fight
at the
MGM Grand that rap
star Tupac Shakur was shot, on
September 7, 1996. He died four days
later.
In addition, the Orleans ,
4500 W Tropicana Ave (tel 365-7570),
stages Friday-night boxing roughly
once a month in its Mardi Gras
ballroom, featuring three men's
bouts and one women's, with tickets
priced at $15 to $40.
COLLEGE SPORTS
The University of Nevada, Las
Vegas, plays its home basketball
games at the Thomas & Mack
Center, 4505 S Maryland Parkway (tel
895-3295), from November to May, and
home football games at Sam
Boyd Silver Bowl Stadium, Boulder
Hwy (tel 895-3900), between
September and December.
