15 Best Nightlife in West Side, Las Vegas

Perched atop the Palms, this apex of ultralounges was one of the first in Las Vegas to put a public area on top of a hotel tower to offer a glassed-in view of the city. Step outside and you'll find that the outdoor "Ghostdeck" is cantilevered over the side of the building, with a Plexiglas platform that allows revelers to look down 450 feet. For the views of the Strip skyline from the 55th floor alone, it's worth the effort. GhostBar opens as early as 7 pm, allowing older patrons equal opportunity before the younger club crowd keeps it hopping until 3 am.

The Palms' comfortable midsize concert venue has an inventive layout to create great sightlines, and the host property has easy access and parking. Small wonder locals have rooted for its effort to stay in the game as more and more venues open on the Strip. When the hotel relaunched under new ownership, the Pearl was off to a promising relaunch as well, with shows roughly once a month including Kenny Loggins, Counting Crows, and Iggy Pop.

At the Rhino, as everyone calls it, you can expect a veritable onslaught of gorgeous half-clad women and an international name brand trusted by both dancers and customers alike. The place got a late start in Vegas, but it grew fast, expanding its original space to more than 20,000 square feet in 2019. There's an adjoining shop for lingerie, sex toys, and various other implements of physical naughtiness. The Rhino is open 24 hours, and while that's not an exclusive claim, it's the only topless club in the industrial corridor that's known for having daytime/lunch traffic, and—especially if you call ahead to inquire—a chance of seeing a dancer onstage before dark.

This classic mid-century tiki bar might remind you of Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic's. It's part of a crazy-busy strip mall in Chinatown, with a cocktail menu spilling over with nostalgic classics. Cautiously sip a Dole Soft Serve Float or jump into the deep end with a Blue Lagoon or Painkiller. Hop a rideshare back to your hotel after a Navy Grog with three rums. The roomy decor is full of surprises if you look around, including such treasures as an animatronic skeleton of the mythical privateer and legend behind The Golden Tiki, William Tobias Faulkner. A tiny stage and dance floor host occasional DJs and live bands. There's an appetizer menu and now a Captain's Brunch with waffles and burritos on weekends.

The builders of this club might have never anticipated the windfall headed its way in the form of Allegiant Stadium, which turns out to be within walking distance. Crazy Horse was already in the top tier of the local skin game. The name that stuck (after previous incarnations as Sin and the Penthouse Club) is an homage to the bygone Crazy Horse II, which long ruled in the industry's smaller more downscale era. This version now has a center stage in-the-round and the more typically plush trappings of the modern era, as well as a kitchen to serve up pizzas and a "Taco Tuesday" promotion. Checking the website in advance might pay off with package deals that include limo transportation and drink credits.

Both the name and the scale of this one might be familiar to those who visit topless clubs in their home towns. Déjà Vu is part of a national chain, and the single-stage club is small compared to its increasingly grandiose competitors. But this branch has been spruced up with new carpet and the like. It also stays competitive with its $30 cover (compared to $50 or more at the splashier clubs) and is arguably within walking distance of the Strip—at least from the Fashion Show mall. The place is absolutely packed on Tuesday when all drinks are $2, and Sunday brings a uniquely popular "Sunday School" promotion in which the gals wear naughty schoolgirl outfits and bottles are $99.

You want Polynesian tiki-bar culture, Vegas-style? You want grass huts, carved wooden furniture, and cocktails such as the Green Gasser, the Thurston Howl, the Lava Letch, and the Bearded Clam? You'll get it all here, and more, 24 hours a day in this small, windowless but thoroughly charming tiki bar that is utterly committed to its theme. The tiki mugs are all original, and if you love yours (and trust us, you will), there's a "merch hut" where you can buy one to bring the spirit of aloha home with you.

Classic cocktails are the name of the game at this bar off the Strip and worth the cab ride. Each cocktail comes with a story and quite a show while it's being made. Crack open the menu to learn the history behind each libation from the Prohibition era. This is the place to rub elbows with bartenders from other joints, who often visit when finished with their shifts on the Strip. An appetizer menu includes shrimp cocktails and mussels, and if you stay for dinner they under-promise and over-deliver on their claim to make "pretty good steaks."

The late porn mogul Larry Flynt’s name is displayed prominently on this massive (70,000-square-foot) three-story den of iniquity, allowing the whole second floor to be a VIP area with sky boxes. The main floor, lined with discretely curtained lap-dance areas, has a circular main stage, a pod stage, and even two (covered) dancers on top of the main bar top. There’s an attached Hustler Hollywood store with all manner of exotic clothing and sundry sexual accessories. The high-profile location—it's right alongside Interstate 15 with its name in giant lights—may also help explain cover charges around $50 a person. Thursday through Saturday find the Kings of Hustler male revue up on the rooftop deck, where "girls night out" parties can watch male dancers in G-strings against a panorama of the Las Vegas skyline. The rooftop also hosts the Terrace Mediterranean restaurant and a revolving slate of performances such as a Motown revue.

Tucked into a grungy strip mall between a Blueberry Hill diner and Krab Kingz lies a real treat, a new(ish), dedicated jazz club, which is rare enough in Las Vegas, but even more valuable for folks who want to hear live music before the late evening: the bands start at 7 pm nightly (except Tuesday). The club caters to its performers, with a stage spanning the width of one wall and a real grand piano for musicians, who often play on nights off from their "real" jobs on the Strip. There’s one catch for early-birds: it’s not a “supper club” (though it is a sushi bar). Those who come hungry or aren’t fans of sushi might want to dine before, as the menu isn’t laden with filling entrees. A $25 minimum can be applied to both drinks and food.

This festive room with an "outdoor piazza" vibe is a worthy Italian restaurant in its own right (it has family ties to Nora's a block or so away). But what really sets it apart is the live entertainment on weekends and select weeknights. The place turns into more of a cabaret, starting after the dinner rush at 8:30 pm. The house songstress is co-owner Naomi Mauro, but likeminded jazz vocalists and trios round out the calendar.

Sapphire is billed as "the world's largest gentlemen's club," and until willing volunteers comb the globe to verify the claim, there's no disputing it here. After all, Sapphire was once a gym, which explains the 70,000-square-foot sprawl and the adjacent swimming pool, which operates seasonally as Sapphire Day Club (it's not topless, but there's plenty of indoor-outdoor commerce if you find a dancer you like outside working on her tan). There are no bargains here beyond the usual free-transportation and VIP-upgrade promotions, but the sheer spectacle when you first walk in may well justify the inflated drink prices and $50 cover. The adjacent El Dorado Cantina shares an owner and many customers but is a worthy enough 24-hour Mexican restaurant in its own right. Resorts World is now across the street and has brought a crosswalk and traffic light to the intersection just across from the club at Industrial Road—an addition only more likely to keep Sapphire at the top of the jiggle-joint heap.

This out-of-the-way "secret" lounge is a sort of upscale version of the Peppermill. The vibe is relatively chill even on weekends, so it can serve as a tonic to the usual Vegas lunacy. The interior is filled with gilt-framed paintings (and sometimes frames without the paintings), which are even on the ceiling. Ordinarily, a crazy ceiling stunt like this one would seem silly, but the muted romantic ambience here (candlelight, soft music, dark wood, comfy leather couches) makes it work. Host hotel The Lexi, reopened in 2023, is billed as the first "cannabis-friendly" hotel in Las Vegas.

Topless club veterans could be a little confused here: the location of one mainstay, Cheetah's, has (thanks to a new owner of three Southern California clubs) assumed the whimsical name of a bygone East-Side institution (advertised by a highway billboard slogan every school kid could recite: "Dozens of gorgeous librarians"). Cheetah's was featured in that pinnacle of late-20th-century cinematic excellence Showgirls, and The Library preserves its competitive policy of cover charges lower than the bigger, fancier clubs in the same area.

For decades the home of off-Strip rock and blues, this Las Vegas institution lies tucked away in an office park so bland as to be invisible by day. Its fortunes have risen and fallen over the years, but the place is riding high enough now that a second location opened Downtown, inside the Plaza. Once a pitch-black joint where you could choke on cigarette smoke, The Sand Dollar is lighter and brighter these days, with a friendly center bar separating the “pool table side” from the “music side.” The bands vary by genre, but the larger umbrella is the “Austin sound” of rootsy blues and rock. Good pizza helps soak up the beer.