Compare Las Vegas holidays

Want somewhere nice and restrained? Try the next town.

From Kardashian-packed all-nighters to multi-million-dollar poker tournaments, Las Vegas is anything but subtle. This is America's playground, a place where people come to party, and boy does it know it.

Every last element of Las Vegas is gloriously, thrillingly overblown - right down to The Mirage's nightly-erupting model volcano, and its pina colada-scented lava.

In terms of weather, March to May and September to November are the safest bets for holidays in Las Vegas in 2020: it'll be warm enough to generate a nice tan, but not the sweat-box that is summer.

Price-wise, great package deals to Las Vegas are available year-round, with weeknights (Tuesday to Thursday) a better bet than weekends for bagging short and cheap Las Vegas trips.

Las Vegas is a trip: inside each of these mega-casinos is an entire world. Past the slot machines and blackjack tables you'll find zoos and ziplines, boxing bouts and beaches, spas and shark parks.

At the Venetian, there are canals and singing gondoliers. The Luxor is shaped like a massive pyramid, and Caesars Palace has a 4,300-seat Colosseum. A 46m (150 ft) model of the Statue of Liberty towers above New York-New York.

Home to the city's original, old-school casinos, Downtown Las Vegas has undergone a renaissance in recent years, becoming a hip destination in its own right via galleries and cool art spaces.

Trips to Las Vegas should also include time beyond the Strip. Las Vegas is also a superb base for explorations of nearby Death Valley or the Grand Canyon, ideal for adding some outdoor variety to Las Vegas family holidays and those typically-indoor casino experiences.

For all that, the Strip is near impossible to ignore, and far too fascinating to overlook. Expect to gasp when you first spy it such is the incongruence of multi-billion-dollar extravagance rising up from the scrubby Mojave Desert and to make memories for life.