iconic Vegas sights

Water that dances like ballerinas. Cannons that shoot water hundreds of feet in the air. Yes, the fountains that span the artificial lake in front of Bellagio Las Vegas have become one of the most iconic Vegas sights. It’s no wonder this is where the characters from the 2001 version of “Ocean’s 11” met to celebrate their big heist. The spectacle, designed by a company poetically named Wet, opened with the property in 1998 and today comprises more than 1,000 fountains in all, some shooting spray more than 450 feet into the air. The fountains go off weekdays every 30 minutes between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., and every 15 minutes between 8 p.m. and midnight. They are even more frequent on weekends.

Unless you’ve got a bird’s eye view from a balcony suite at The Cosmopolitan, arrive early to secure a prime standing-room only spot along the Strip.

Other things to see : In old downtown Las Vegas, Fremont Street is a pedestrian-only area with all kinds of unique sites. A five-block section of Fremont Street is covered over with a canopy of LED lights that illuminate the sky in a spectacle of different colors and designs as you walk below. Known as the Fremont Street Experience, each night a fantastic music and visual show takes place overhead. Street performers and special entertainment acts often perform outdoors in this area. Fremont Street is in downtown Las Vegas, a few kilometers from the Strip. It is best to take a taxi to reach this area. Or, if you want to truly experience Las Vegas at night, take the 3.5-hour Las Vegas Lights Night Tour, which includes the Fremont Street light show and highlights along the Strip.

Free things to do in Vegas :

You can’t actually join Cirque du Soleil-which currently has a mind-bending eight resident shows on the Strip-unless you can turn yourself into a pretzel or swing from vertiginous heights aided only by a few pieces of silk. But beginning in late August, the KA Theatre in MGM Grand opens its doors to the public every Tuesday between 11 a.m and 11:30 a.m. for the ultimate insider tour of the mechanics of this $165 million production.

The world’s largest permanent circus can be found at Circus-Circus. Rides aren’t cheap, but you can watch death-defying stunts by unicyclists and acrobats high above the casino floor at no charge every half hour.

On weekends starting at 7 p.m., join the Carnival-like parade of dancers and acrobats in fabulous costumes that dance down the Rio’s main course hourly during the Masquerade in the Sky at Rio.

And of course the casinos … You can teach yourself how this games plays, before visiting Las Vegas here at Mega Moolah Isis.

Las Vegas is famous for its shows, whether that’s Cirque du Soleil or big-name music performers like Britney Spears. Advance tickets can set you back hundreds of dollars, but you can pick up discounted tickets from one of the nine Tix4Tonight outlets which are spread along the Strip and through downtown. They only sell tickets for performances which are happening that day, so you don’t know what will be available, but you can save up to half price on the face value. Get in there when they open at 10am for the biggest selection of tickets.

Or check out some of the free shows at the casinos. The most famous is the Bellagio Fountains with over a thousand fountains choreographed to music. The show takes place every 15 mins from 8pm-midnight (7pm-midnight) on Sundays and every 30 mins during the afternoons.