New Years

New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas — the mere concept can make one tingle with anticipation at the prospects: carte blanche to enjoy the finest drinking, 24-hour dining, and dancing in the Entertainment Capital of the World with 300,000 of your closest friends and more celebrities than a year’s worth of TMZ. The key to making New Year’s Eve 2022 – 2023 in Vegas successful is planning ahead. So if you’re choosing to join the masses ringing in 2023 in Sin City, be prepared with these tips:

• Book hotels in advance. Hotel rooms sell out early and prices can soar for the holiday. Make sure to book your room as soon as possible to get the best prices and your first choice of accommodations.
• Arrive to the Strip early. Traffic can be challenging in Vegas on a regular day and when you throw in hundreds of thousands of extra people to the mix, it can be downright nasty. If you’re planning to party on the Strip, get there early, even if you’re going to attend an event or party within a casino
• Be aware of road closures. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police shut down Las Vegas Boulevard (better known as the Strip) between Sahara Avenue and Russell Road to cross-traffic as early as 4 p.m. If you need to travel across the Strip (east-west), use the Desert Inn super-arterial (which runs under the Strip). For north-south travel (parallel to Las Vegas Boulevard), try Frank Sinatra Drive to the west or Koval Lane to the east.
• Parking is limited. If you have a car and want to park in a hotel garage, you might want to choose one that’s near one of the ends of the Strip rather than in the middle. It’ll be easier to get out once you decide you’ve had enough and want to head back to your hotel.
• Don’t drink and drive. RTC, the local bus system, is providing free rides for everyone who plans on drinking till after the ball drops. They’ll be driving 39 fixed routes from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m., so you can have all the fun you want without having to worry about a permanent smudge on your record. If you want to be a hot mess in private without the consequences, pull up your Lyft app and split the fare with your friends.
• Use Taxis or Rideshares to get around. If you decide to stay on the Strip, the best ways to get around on New Year’s Eve are by taxi, walking or using the Las Vegas Monorail.
• Make dinner reservations and party plans ahead of time. The city is very busy this time of year and everyone needs to eat. Make dinner reservations well in advance, especially if you plan to dine at a swanky steakhouse or an on-strip eatery. You’ll feel better with a good meal in your stomach so you can last until midnight. Also, most clubs, lounges, and party venues hold ticketed events. If you have a particular bar or nightclub in mind, do your research and know their requirements for New Year’s Eve. We’d hate to see you get turned away at the door.
• Go Downtown for a unique experience. Ring in the New Year under the dazzling lighted canopy of the Fremont Street Experience which rivals that of New York’s Times Square. You can party all night to the sounds of several popular live bands and watch fireworks on a gigantic Viva Vision LED screen.
• See a concert or show. If you’re not a fan of huge throngs of people dancing or huge throngs of people standing around drinking then don’t pick a club, Las Vegas Boulevard or the Fremont Street Experience as your New Year’s Eve headquarters. A lot of the shows in town do something special for the occasion, too, so you could catch a Broadway show and then toast another year with a bunch of like-minded people.
• Bring a warm coat. This is Vegas and while the sun is almost always shining during the day and the temperatures can be quite pleasant, it is still the desert and it does cool off quite a bit at night, so be prepared if you’re going to join the party outside on the Strip. Bundle up and save your cute little black dress for the indoor parties.
• Some hotels are only open to paying guests. Be aware that if you’re trying to get into one of the jam-packed hotels on New Year’s Eve, you could run into some technical difficulties. A number of Strip hotels, in an effort to keep the crowds inside within occupancy limits set by county officials, will allow only those with proof they are guests of the resorts to enter the properties during the height of the festivities outside.
• Be courteous of others and follow the law. A lot of people look at Las Vegas as a place where bad behavior stays isolated, but we assure you, some things are inescapable. Hundreds of Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officers will be on the Strip in full force for New Year’s Eve, so if you decide Sin City is the perfect place to get drunk and assault somebody or get drunk and drive, those stupid ideas will follow you home, and probably back here for a court appointment and jail time. Keep the partying peaceful and everyone will have a good time.
• Find a high place to view the fireworks. Fireworks are a great New Year’s experience, but if you’re squeezed between a bunch of people and tall buildings on the street, you’re not going to see much. Check out places like the tops of parking garages or other buildings for the best view. Do not climb a lamppost. Those people make the news (and the trip down to the police station) every year.
• Drink plenty of water. Enjoy yourself but be smart! Remember to drink some water in between cocktails. You’ll be grateful waking up with no hangover.
• Get home safely. It’s officially the new year. The last firework has exploded, the final piece of confetti has drifted to the ground and your hangover has started to kick in. The city will begin to clean up the streets almost instantly, but that doesn’t mean the party is over. Head indoors to get a bite to eat at one of several 24-hour cafes inside the hotels, join the party at a nightclub, or test your luck at the tables. The Strip typically stays closed until well after midnight. If you’re in a hurry to leave, you will want to heed our earlier advice on New Year’s Eve transportation and travel. Otherwise you may as well plan on spending the first few hours of 2021 stuck in a traffic jam.