How To Live Large In Las Vegas Without Spending Big

Las Vegas is a fun destination to visit when you have some spare cash to blow. There are many luxury hotels to choose from, not to mention amazing restaurants, great nightclubs, and boutique shops galore, and plenty of casinos to gamble at. However, if you want to take a trip to Sin City without breaking the bank, there are plenty of low-cost activities that you can enjoy.

Here are some of our favorites that you should definitely add to your itinerary:

Fremont Street Experience

One of your first stops when you arrive in Las Vegas should be the renowned “block party” on Fremont Street in the downtown area, near the Plaza Hotel and Casino. The Fremont Street Experience attracts more than 25,000 people every day, and provides visitors with free live entertainment that won’t be forgotten in a hurry.

The four-block corridor of Fremont Street is lined with restaurants, bars, specialty kiosks, and vintage hotels, and it’s covered by a humungous digital screen. The largest projection screen in the world, the Viva Vision canopy sits 90 feet above the ground and covers the approximate size of five football fields. The screen features over 12 million LED modules and a massive sound system, and enthralls visitors with a fantastic light show that runs every hour for about six minutes.

In addition, the Fremont Street Experience includes free live concerts on each of the stages where musicians, artists, and contortionists impress with their skills (or entertain with their lack thereof!). You can also do plenty of people watching, particularly at night when the alcoholically lubricated crowd gets quite wild.

Alternatively, you may want to see everything from above by enjoying the zip-line tours run by SlotZilla. While you do have to pay for this experience (prices start from $25), SlotZilla is something out of the ordinary that won’t set you back nearly as much as a night out drinking or playing blackjack. A 12-story, multi-million dollar zipline attraction inspired by slot machines, SlotZilla is the largest slot machine in the world, and features all sorts of oversize Vegas icons like showgirls, coins, dice, a martini glass, a pink flamingo, and more.

The service provides customers with two ways to fly across Vegas. The Zipline is the lower option (in both height and cost), and starts off 77 feet up in the air. Take this course and you will land halfway down the Fremont Street Experience pedestrian promenade.

For a higher and longer trip, take the Zoomline. It takes off more than 114 feet above the ground, and speeds flyers all the way down the Fremont Street Experience (about 1,750 feet), to a landing platform at the historic Golden Gate casino. The Zoomline sees customers flying “superhero-style” above the street, for an added experience, and hitting speeds of up to 40 miles per hour. The Zoomline costs $45, but you can save $5 on either of the two lines if you choose to ride before 6pm.

Hershey’s Chocolate World

Once you’ve worked up an appetite, another one of the cheap Las Vegas activities to check out is Hershey’s Chocolate World, located in the New York-New York Hotel & Casino. Sure to be the sweetest store on the Vegas strip, this chocolate and candy shop is the flagship retail space on the West Coast for the brand, and spans a whopping 13,000 square feet.

Inside the two-story shop you’ll find more than 800 different products you can purchase, including numerous exclusive gifts and treats that are sure to satisfy your sweet tooth. The interactive space enables customers to try out new sweets, customize their very own chocolate bars, create keepsake photos, and even star in a television ad for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

While you’re in the store, make sure that you check out the enormous Hershey replicas of the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. The building is made from 1,800 milk chocolate bars, while the statue has been created using close to 800 pounds of pure chocolate.

Neon Museum and Boneyard

Another attraction that’s easy on the wallet yet lots of fun to visit is the Neon Museum and Boneyard, which is located just north of downtown Las Vegas, on the east side of Las Vegas Boulevard. Sin City was known for many years for its neon signs, particularly the iconic “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign that has greeted visitors since 1959. However, while the neon signs were introduced to Vegas back in 1929, and were widely popular from the 1930s to the 1980s, more recently LED and LCD screens have taken over and most of the old neon signs have been removed.

If you feel sad about the loss of these classically Vegas items, don’t worry — you can still see many of them at the Neon Museum and Boneyard, where more than 150 have been gathered in one place for preservation. Established in 1996, the museum continually adds new signs which are taken from remodeled or imploded properties. You can take a guided tour of the space, or check out the museum’s Visitor Center.

The attraction is open during the morning and evening, and costs from $19 for adults.