The majority of the Strip's attractions stretch along Las Vegas Boulevard from Sahara Avenue to Russell Road. Las Vegas itself is quite spread out, so a car is necessary for any excursions beyond the Strip, downtown and their immediate surroundings. Single fare tickets are $5, and they offer 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7-day passes. Tickets may be bought online or from machines located at the stations. The Las Vegas Monorail will convey you in cool comfort back and forth along the Strip between 7am and 2am (until 3am Fri/Sat/Sun and until midnight Mon). It costs $6 for two hours, or $8 for a day pass, and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The double-decker Deuce Bus is a great way to travel between the Strip and downtown. A number of walkways take pedestrians over busy Las Vegas Boulevard and nearby streets. The best way to take in The Strip's many attractions is by foot. Bus routes 1 08 and 109 provide direct service to and from the airport. Most hotels offer a shuttle bus to and from the airport.Īnother option to get downtown is the fleet of buses operated by the RTC, or Regional Transportation Commission. Many taxi companies serve LAS and fares are set by the Nevada Taxicab Authority. McCarran International Airport, is roughly three miles southeast of the Las Vegas Strip and about five miles from downtown. Much of the city's gay nightlife centers around two strip malls - the Fruit Loop and the Village Square Commercial Center - off the Strip, but residents are scattered across the whole valley. Las Vegas doesn't have one gay neighborhood.
Same-sex couples holding hands in the glittery casinos and well-built gay men dancing the night away at the most popular bars and clubs are increasingly common sights on the Strip. But Sin City is constantly reinventing itself, touting family-friendly resorts one year and its massive concert venues and outreach to the gay market the next.Īttractions continue to satisfy the growing number of gays who flock here each year. See the Visit Las Vegas, City of Las Vegas, and Southern Nevada Health District websites for local updates.Ī hedonistic reputation, flashing neon lights and over-the-top spectacles make Las Vegas one of the world's most popular tourist destinations. See the CDC website for details and updates. There are restrictions on the entry of some travelers into the United States in an effort to help slow the spread of COVID-19. Gay Las Vegas has come a long way, but it still isn’t Sin City.Emergency measures in the wake of Covid-19: Local-friendly promos run up and down the busiest portion of the Boulevard at spots such as Bond inside the Cosmopolitan, Revolution Lounge at Mirage, the Tropicana Beach Club and Luxor’s Oasis Pool.Ī few blocks west, the isolated Share Nightclub has lapdances on offer for those in more prurient pursuit, though the bottoms, as it were, stay on the dancers. Krave, former king of the gay clubs in Las Vegas, is now back mid-Strip at the Tommy Wind Theatre after a failed attempt at a downtown expansion. The pink elephant in the room is the Strip, its gaiety limited but evolving by the season. Sadly, lesbian bars in Las Vegas don’t open here-or anywhere. South of downtown, the aging Commercial Center represents the gay alternative, hosting everything from poker bars ( Badlands Saloon and Spotlight Lounge) to a trans-friendly dive ( Las Vegas Lounge) to cruising facilities (Entourage Spa and Hawk’s Gym) to a boys’ clothing/accessory store (The Rack) with an attached performance space attached ( Onyx Theatre) and ample LGBT programming. Over in revitalized downtown-home to the new $4-million Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada-the only out-and-proud drinkery is the 38-year-old Snick’s Place, though lively East Fremont piano bar Don’t Tell Mama and hip Arts District urban lounge Artifice are unofficial homo hangs.
The UNLV-adjacent “Fruit Loop,” the original gay hub, still draws boys to Piranha, the least pretentious of the gay clubs in Las Vegas, and girls to FreeZone, the city’s honorary lesbian club. And the latter reflects the clustered nature of gay bars in Las Vegas. The former is symptomatic of the city’s transitory population and its LGBT scene’s relative youth the Las Vegas Pride parade, for instance, is barely two decades old. Which, of course, only fuels complaints about disconnection and a lack of a true gayborhood. Like the housing developments and strip malls that cover the Vegas map like glitter on a go-go boy, the local gay and lesbian community is impressively spread throughout the valley, all but screaming: we’re here, we’re queer, we’re everywhere. For a young scene in a mid-sized city, gay Las Vegas boasts some serious sprawl.