22 Best Sights in South Strip, Las Vegas

There are two reasons to ride the Coney Island–style New York–New York roller-coaster (aka the Big Apple Coaster): first, with a 144-foot dive and a 360-degree somersault, it's a real scream; and second, it whisks you around the amazing replica of the New York City skyline, giving you fabulous views of the Statue of Liberty and Chrysler Building—you climb to peak heights around 200 feet above the Strip. Get ready to go 67 mph over a dizzying succession of high-banked turns and camelback hills, twirl through a "heartline twist" (like a jet doing a barrel roll), and finally rocket along a 540-degree spiral before pulling back into the station.

This attraction is perfect for individuals and groups of adults who like to play in a life-size sandbox—and use big toys to do it. In this case, the toys are heavy construction machinery: bulldozers, excavators, backhoes, mini-excavators, and skid-steer track loaders. Guests don hard hats and spend about 90 minutes driving the equipment on a big dirt lot, moving around giant tires, digging holes, and more. You can even crush a car, in an Aggression Session. There are 15-minute experiences for kids as well.

The "mountains" of Seven Magic Mountains aren't actually mountains at all; instead they're towers of multicolor stacked boulders standing more than 30 feet high. The art installation from renowned Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone is a commentary about human presence in the desert, and it stands tall about 10 miles south of town near Jean Dry Lake. Visitors to the site can walk right up and pose with the towers. As such, the spot has become a popular place for selfies. The exhibit opened in 2016 and was only scheduled to run until 2018, but due to public demand, it's been extended. Watch for signs on I-15 directing you to the parking area. 

Your journey through Mandalay Bay's long-running Shark Reef Aquarium begins in the mysterious realm of deep water at the ruins of an old Aztec temple. It's tropical and humid for us bipeds but quite comfy for the golden crocodiles, endangered green sea turtles, water monitors, and other 2,000 creatures in residence. Descend through two glass tunnels, which lead you deeper and deeper under the sea (or about 1.6 million gallons of water), where exotic tropical fish and other sea creatures swim all around you. The tour saves the best for last—from the recesses of a sunken galleon, sharks swim below, above, and around the skeleton ship. The Undersea Explorer VR Theater lets you swim with whales or dive with sharks. Elsewhere you'll find a petting zoo for marine life, a Komodo dragon exhibit, and a special jellyfish habitat. Animal-feeding add-ons are available.

For years after the razing of The Boardwalk casino in the early 2000s, the space between New York–New York and the Monte Carlo (now Park MGM) sat vacant, a veritable eyesore on the south end of the Strip. Finally, in 2015, landowner MGM Resorts decided to do something about it. The result, inventively dubbed The Park, is a small public park that runs from the Strip itself back west to T-Mobile Arena, home to the city's first professional sports franchise, the Vegas Golden Knights hockey team. Along the way, The Park offers natural touches such as desert vegetation and rock from local quarries. It also has features such as a water wall, shade structures made to look like trees, and a 60-foot-tall statue of a dancing naked woman named "Bliss Dance." Restaurants on the New York–New York side offer outdoor seating and games for patrons to play while they relax. On the Park MGM side, Dolby Live indoor amphitheater is a spacious venue for musical concerts.

This neon-and-incandescent sign, in a median of Las Vegas Boulevard south of Mandalay Bay, is one of Sin City's most enduring icons. The landmark dates back to 1959 and was approved for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. Young Electric Sign Company leases the sign to Clark County, but the design itself was never copyrighted and currently exists in the public domain. (This, of course, explains why you see so many likenesses all over town.) The parking lot in the median just south of the sign was expanded in 2015. If you prefer to go on foot, expect a 10-minute walk from Mandalay Bay.

The massive Harley-Davidson dealership on the south end of the Strip is mecca for hog lovers. You can shop, rent, or even buy a bike right off the showroom floor. There’s also a specialized service department and a riding academy for newbies. And if you’re looking for Harley merchandise—from vests to T-shirts to onesies for babies—you aren’t likely to find a better selection anyplace else. Check out the Recharge Zone, a convenience store within a store.

Chocoholics rejoice at the sight of the two-story West Coast flagship of Hershey's Chocolate, which is a part of the streetscape fronting New York–New York. The attraction includes an 800-pound Statue of Liberty made of chocolate, a retail store, a café, and a tester area where visitors can sample some of Hershey's newest confections. Visitors can also personalize Hershey's chocolate bar wrappers, star in a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup TV ad, or put together a bag of different-flavored Hershey's Kisses chocolates wrapped in a variety of different colors.

Tucked just inside the main Strip entrance to the MGM Grand resort, this expansive space is essentially an arcade for hipsters, combined with a great bar. Games include everything from Pop-A-Shot and foosball to shuffleboard and more; most cost about $1 apiece. There also are three virtual-reality experiences for teams of up to eight: Zombie Survival (about the inevitable apocalypse); the military-space challenge Singularity; and Engineerium, set in a world of oversize floating mythical creatures. Plus there are live sports on giant screens, theme nights, and live music or a DJ nightly.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the rustic Little Church of the West, where wedding ceremonies have been performed since 1942, is a landmark on the South Strip. Its doors are often thrown open to provide views of the candlelit interior. Regular packages range from the few-frills Ace of Hearts to the Supernova Love (with a dozen roses, classic wedding music, and a walk down the aisle), and you can have the ceremony performed by a minister, an Elvis impersonator, or a Johnny Cash impersonator. Premium packages include a limo, video broadcast, and more.

Welcome to the land of the Egyptians—Vegas-style. This modern-world wonder is topped with a xenon light beam that burns brighter than any other in the world and can be seen from nearly anywhere in the Valley at night; it's supposedly visible even from space. The exterior is made with 13 acres of black glass. Forget elevators; climbing the slanted walls of the Luxor pyramid requires four "inclinators" to reach guest rooms. Above the casino is the world's largest atrium—you get the full impact of the space from the second floor, where Bodies. . .The Exhibition gives guests an eerie view of the human body. This atrium also is home to Fantasy, a seductive adult revue that's fun to share with your significant other, and Carrot Top, who—believe it or not—is still performing live shows in Vegas after nearly 20 years. Or take in Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition. For something entirely unique, head outside the casino, walk past the porte cochere, and follow the sidewalk inside a replica of the Great Sphinx of Giza. Only in Vegas.

Mandalay Bay is famous for a few things: the House of Blues, which brings in some epic concerts throughout the year; the Shark Reef aquarium, which boasts a 1.6-million-gallon saltwater tank with more than 2,000 different animals; and an A-list of restaurants. Additionally, international flavors are tasty attractions here, among them the authentic Emerald Isle experience at Rí Rá Irish Pub and the exquisite Japanese food, framed in delicate Asian ambience, at Morimoto. Technically the complex is three separate brands: Mandalay, Delano Las Vegas, and the Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas. If you're into design, the lobby for Delano incorporates natural features from around the Vegas Valley and is one of the sharpest lobbies you'll find in Nevada. Also worth noting: minus5° Ice Bar, which is located in the Mandalay Place shopping corridor that connects Mandalay Bay with Luxor; for the price of admission you get to borrow a parka, waltz into a subzero drinking establishment, and throw back vodka from a glass made of ice.

Take to the skies and head to points near or far in one of Maverick’s fleet of futuristic ECO-Star helicopters. You can float along above the Las Vegas Strip, go to Red Rock Canyon or the Grand Canyon (South or West Rim), or combine experiences; there are even tours with dining options. You can even have a wedding in the sky or at one of the company’s destinations.

Ever wanted to be a mermaid? The Silverton hosts classes for kids, adults, and families (with cheaper rates for kids of course). Would-be mermaids need to be strong swimmers, but equipment, including goggles, is provided. Just bring a swimsuit or towel and prepare to dive into the resort’s 117,000-gallon saltwater aquarium.

A regal, bronze rendering of the roaring MGM lion mascot fronts the four emerald-green, fortresslike towers of the MGM Grand, one of the largest hotels in the world. Over the years, the property has become synonymous with big fights, most of which take place in the hotel's Grand Garden Arena. In recent years, the property also has added Hakkasan, an upscale restaurant and nightclub; Level Up, a hipster arcade with booze; Topgolf Las Vegas, a state-of-the-art driving range; and Brad Garrett's Comedy Club, where the beloved comic from Everybody Loves Raymond performs regularly. The hotel also has its share of restaurants from celebrity chefs, including Morimoto's first foray into Las Vegas.

The mini-Manhattan skyline that forms the facade of this hotel is one of our favorite parts of the Strip—there are third-size to half-size re-creations of the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, and the Chrysler Building, as well as the New York Public Library, Grand Central Terminal, and the Brooklyn Bridge. Inside, portions of the casino floor have been made to look like neighborhoods of the real New York City. The Little Italy/Greenwich Village area is such an accurate replica that many New Yorkers momentarily get confused. Without question, the big attraction is the Big Apple Coaster. A close second: Hershey's Chocolate World. Then, of course, there's The Park, which sits just north of the back side of the hotel and stretches from the Strip all the way to T-Mobile Arena.

The resort formerly known as the Monte Carlo was reborn at the end of 2018 as Park MGM, an homage to The Park just outside its door. The property features dozens of nods to nature, including a lobby sculpture designed to replicate the roots of a tree from below. The resort also features a hotel within a hotel: the NoMad's foray into Las Vegas. On-site food and beverage options such as Eataly and Roy Choi's Best Friend make the property stand out further. Dolby Live, a spacious indoor amphitheater, has been home to residencies by artists including Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, and the Jonas Brothers. The hotel still connects to CityCenter and Bellagio via a tram; on hot days, this is a great way to minimize outside time as you travel the Strip on foot.

It's hard to miss this place; the "Pinball" sign is so big, we swear it can be seen from space. This fun facility has more than 25,000 square feet filled with games created between the 1950s and the 1990s, including old wood-rail models. Though it may sound more like an arcade than a museum, the local club is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to preserve these pieces of Americana and share the joy of the silver ball with as many folks as possible. All excess revenues go to nondenominational charities.

Churchgoers staying in the South Strip area stagger into this beautiful Roman Catholic church for mass seven days a week. Among the more popular offerings: the four Sunday masses in English and one in Spanish.

Frustrated after a losing streak in the casinos? This Town Square spot offers a “rage room” (in which customers pay to smash stuff to smithereens), axe-throwing, and splatter-paint experiences. Talk about a way to work out a bit of aggression. You can smash for as few as 10 minutes or as many as 25, or organize smash parties for four, six, or more. The one-hour axe-throwing sessions (no experience necessary!) incorporate projected targets, and up to six people can splatter-paint canvases in two sizes. There's also an Airsoft training course, and you can bundle activities.

T-Mobile Arena has probably become most widely known beyond Las Vegas as the home of the National Hockey League's Vegas Golden Knights, an expansion team that reached the Stanley Cup finals during its inaugural season. It's also a popular concert venue, attracting acts from George Strait to Ariana Grande to Kiss. And it's rich in amenities, with a variety of restaurants, bars, and guest services. When there's downtime, you can tour the arena's backstage areas, but these tours are offered only sporadically.

Travel down to the bottom of the North Atlantic where the "ship of dreams" rests after grazing an iceberg in 1912. The 25,000-square-foot exhibit inside Luxor Las Vegas includes a replica of guest compartments, the grand staircase, and a promenade deck that movie fans will recognize from a little film by James Cameron. Among the 350 emotionally arresting artifacts: luggage, clothing, a bottle of unopened champagne, and pieces of the ship, including a massive section of the iron hull, complete with bulging rivets and portholes.