Don't Make This Common Walking Mistake When You Go To Las Vegas For The First Time
When thinking of Las Vegas, a city known for entertainment and convenient, exciting U.S. destination weddings, it's easy to imagine strutting down Las Vegas Boulevard to take the city by storm. From afar, it seems like all of the buildings practically run into each other — especially at night when the glittering lights bring the architecture to life. Larger-than-life attractions and buildings make you feel like an ant. Though, like an ant at a picnic, a blanket could be much bigger than you imagined.
Sin City might seem small to the naked eye, but your poor feet will be aching if you try to walk The Strip every day of your trip. Don't get us wrong; Vegas is super pedestrian-friendly in its tourist-heavy areas. The Strip is super walkable, though better served in moderation — an ironic statement for Vegas. Keep in mind that, for at least five months of the year, the average high temperatures sit in the 90s and 100s. If you're visiting anytime from May to September, you may want to rethink your plan to get everywhere on foot.
The Las Vegas Strip is much larger than it seems
When plotting your Vegas adventure, consider what you want to do while choosing your hotel. If you're staying along The Strip, it's important to know that the boulevard is 4.2-miles long end to end. So, if you decide to stay at Luxor or Mandalay Bay at one end, you'll need at least 90 minutes to hoof it to the Sahara at the other end. Over the course of a day, four miles isn't much, though you probably won't want to walk the entire Strip all at once more than once.
Walking everywhere just isn't practical. According to the 2023 Las Vegas tourism statistics from Gitnux, the average visitor walks five miles daily in Vegas. For first-timers who insist on walking everywhere, walking the Strip a day alone would nearly double that number. We highly suggest packing comfortable shoes for those mega-walking days, and you can make room for them by using some game-changing packing hacks.
Something else to consider is that while you're technically walking along the boulevard path, walking The Strip isn't always a flat line. You may get turned around going up and down pedestrian walkways or be otherwise detoured. When folks say this part of Vegas is walkable, they mean that you can walk to get to certain amenities like food or stores, not necessarily that it is convenient.
Take advantage of the public transit in Las Vegas
Remember how it can take 90 minutes to walk the entire Vegas Strip? Well, aboard the Monorail, it only takes about 15 minutes. Despite all the images of folks walking the Boulevard from popular media, Vegas also has several public transit options to take advantage of as well. Besides the monorail, you also have the city's buses, which run all day long. You could even hop a ride from the Deuce — Vegas' double-decker buses that run up and down The Strip.
Although the hours are much shorter than the city buses, the City of Las Vegas also operates free downtown shuttles you can utilize. Rather than servicing The Strip, these shuttles take you around other parts of the city's downtown. From the bustling old-style Vegas area known as the Fremont Street Experience to other activities like the Mob Museum and Brewery Row. When in doubt, you can always rely on rideshare or taxi services in Vegas to get you where you need to go. Be sure to have those downloaded along with the other apps for making your travel plans before you leave for your vacation.
Like the neverending entertainment options, Las Vegas has many ways to get around. When your feet get tired of schlepping the concrete, or it's just too darn hot to make the walk work, you can still see the city in style. Just with a little less pavement pounding on your part.