What to See in Las Vegas, United States: Free Audio Guide

Looking for things to do in Las Vegas beyond the casinos? Downtown Las Vegas brings together neon history, museums, historic buildings, art spaces, wedding chapels, sports venues, and unusual attractions. The city’s story stretches from the 1850s Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort to the spectacular Fremont Street Experience and the city’s famously theatrical skyline. Neywo offers a free Las Vegas audio guide with 19 narrated places.

Las Vegas is in Nevada, in the United States. For another city in Nevada, explore Reno; Boulder City offers another perspective on the state.

What to See in Las Vegas

Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort

Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort State Historic Park contains the remains of an 1850s fort built by Mormon missionaries. Completed in 1855, it was the first permanent structure in the area that later became Las Vegas.

The fort stood beside a creek connected to the Las Vegas Springs, allowing settlers to create irrigation ditches for their crops. Despite its name, it was not built for military purposes. It served as a refuge from attacks, while later uses included mining, ranching, and an office during the construction of the Hoover Dam in 1929.

Las Vegas Natural History Museum

The Las Vegas Natural History Museum, a private nonprofit museum in the downtown Cultural Corridor, covers dinosaurs, marine life, mammals, and ancient Egypt. Its “Treasures of Egypt” exhibition includes a recreation of Tutankhamun’s tomb, documentaries about his life, and replicas of the Golden Shrine and Golden Throne.

The Marine Life Gallery combines lifelike models with live animals. Sharks and stingrays can be seen in a 3,000-gallon aquarium, while smaller tanks feature exotic fish and marine plants. The museum also includes displays of spiders, snakes, lizards, and scorpions.

Neon Museum

The Neon Museum preserves the signs that once shaped Las Vegas’s streetscape. Its main exhibition area, the Neon Boneyard, is a two-acre outdoor space displaying more than 150 original signs, mainly from the 1930s through the 1980s.

The museum’s history began with an effort launched in the late 1980s, followed by a Las Vegas City Council vote to fund the project on September 18, 1996. Some signs are selectively illuminated during evening visits or special programs, while most remain on display as historic objects.

Las Vegas Post Office and Courthouse

The Las Vegas Post Office and Courthouse is a neo-classical building listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places. Built in 1933, it later became the home of the Mob Museum, which opened there on February 14, 2012.

The building once served as a federal courthouse and hosted hearings by the Kefauver Committee, which investigated organized crime in the United States. Inside, the restored courtroom preserves the setting where testimony helped reveal the reach of criminal syndicates. Museum exhibits include wiretapping equipment, surveillance tools, and other evidence connected to criminal investigations. The Underground Exhibit opened in the basement in April 2018.

Fremont Street Experience

The Fremont Street Experience is a pedestrian mall covering the westernmost stretch of Fremont Street. Its defining feature is a barrel-vault canopy that rises 90 feet and extends for roughly four blocks, or about 1,375 feet.

The canopy hosts Viva Vision light-and-sound shows. Before each performance, the surrounding building façades and casino lights are turned off, drawing attention to synchronized visuals and music overhead. The attraction is also home to SlotZilla and serves as the setting for the city’s annual New Year’s Eve celebration.

El Cortez

El Cortez opened on Fremont Street on November 7, 1941, and has operated continuously ever since, making it one of the oldest active casino resorts in Las Vegas. Its original structure reflects Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, while the façade was modernized in 1952.

The property’s history is also connected to organized crime. In 1945, it was acquired for $600,000 by Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Gus Greenbaum, and Moe Sedway. For Siegel, El Cortez provided experience in casino management before his later involvement in larger projects on the Strip.

Downtown Container Park

Downtown Container Park is an outdoor shopping and entertainment venue built from repurposed shipping containers and locally made Xtreme Cubes. Conceived by Tony Hsieh and his Downtown Project, it opened on November 25, 2013, with 34 tenants.

The venue includes independent boutique shops, casual eateries, bars, and cafés around an open central space with a stage for live music, performances, film screenings, and public events. At the entrance, a 40-foot praying mantis sculpture by Kirk Jellum periodically shoots flames from its antennae.

Las Vegas Academy of the Arts

Las Vegas Academy of the Arts is an arts-focused magnet high school located on the site of the city’s first high school, built in 1930. Two original buildings remain on the campus and are recognized as historic landmarks for their Art Deco architecture.

The school reopened as the Las Vegas Academy for International Studies and Performing Arts on August 23, 1993, later adding visual arts. Its programs include music, dance, theater, and visual arts.

The Arts Factory

The Arts Factory is a cultural hub with more than 30 artists and art galleries, studios, performance spaces, and a labyrinth. Its program includes contemporary and traditional art across different media, as well as musical concerts, poetry readings, and live theater.

The venue also contains 18Bin bar and restaurant and the Gallery 2 Go art vending machine, where visitors can find a small art souvenir.

Zak Bagans’ The Haunted Museum

Zak Bagans’ The Haunted Museum occupies a property associated with stories of restless spirits, previous occupants, and alleged dark rituals in the basement during the 1970s. The attraction leads visitors through more than 30 rooms built around paranormal objects and unsettling stories.

Among its best-known exhibits are the Dybbuk Box, described as the world’s most haunted object, the VW death van associated with Dr. Jack Kevorkian, and the “Propofol chair” from Michael Jackson’s death room.

Wedding chapels

Las Vegas’s wedding chapels are part of the city’s distinctive cultural landscape. A Little White Wedding Chapel opened in 1954 and is known for its Drive-Thru Tunnel of Vows, alongside the Chapel of Promises, Chapel d’Amour, Crystal Chapel, and Gazebo. The venue has been associated with quick celebrity weddings.

Mon Bel Ami Wedding Chapel began in the 1950s as the Silver Bell Wedding Chapel and was modernized and reimagined in 2003 after a fire in 2002. Its past ceremonies included Burt Bacharach and Angie Dickenson in 1965, and Rodney Dangerfield and Joan Child in 1993. The chapel also appeared in Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas and Lost in America.

Cashman Field

Cashman Field is a downtown stadium connected to the Cashman Center complex. It is primarily used for soccer as the home field of Las Vegas Lights FC of the USL Championship.

The stadium originally served baseball and hosted the Triple-A Las Vegas Stars, later known as the 51s, from 1983 to 2018. It also hosted the Vegas Vipers of the XFL in 2023. The complex is named after James “Big Jim” Cashman and his family, longtime Las Vegas entrepreneurs.

Stratosphere Tower

The Stratosphere Tower is one of Las Vegas’s most prominent skyline landmarks. Rising 350.2 meters, it is described as the tallest observation tower in the United States and the highest tower in Las Vegas.

Its rides turn the height into the attraction. Big Shot is positioned at 329 meters and combines a rapid ascent with a free-fall descent. Insanity extends over the edge at 270 meters, while X-Scream creates the sensation of tipping over the skyline from a track at 264 meters.

Explore Las Vegas with Neywo

Neywo has two walking tours for Las Vegas. Fremont Street: old downtown Las Vegas covers 1.29 km in about 39 minutes and includes five narrated stops: the Las Vegas Post Office and Courthouse, Fremont Street Experience, SlotZilla, El Cortez, and Downtown Container Park.

The Ultimate Las Vegas: the Mormon fort to the Arts District covers 5.97 km in about 147 minutes and includes 14 narrated stops, including Cashman Field, Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort, Las Vegas Natural History Museum, Neon Museum, Las Vegas Post Office and Courthouse, Fremont Street Experience, SlotZilla, El Cortez, Downtown Container Park, Las Vegas Academy of the Arts, and Mon Bel Ami Wedding Chapel.

Download Neywo and explore Las Vegas at your own pace. The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, with no group and no schedule. Narration is available in 11 languages.