Resorts – Colossal hotels present exotic themes and over-the-top amenities.

Dining – Few cities in the world can claim a higher concentration of top restaurants.

Gambling – Novices and pros alike come to Vegas for legendary casino action.

Shopping – Lavish malls and bargain outlets provide retail options for every budget.

Nightlife – Master Mixologists serve creative cocktails and famous DJs spin nightly.

Shows – Cirque du Soleil, international singers, and local stars perform day and night.

Easter Island, Machu Picchu, and other celebrated wonders of the world are certainly impressive. But Las Vegas . . . Las Vegas is a land where jungles thrive and fountains dance in the middle of the desert. It’s a place that unites medieval England and ancient Egypt with modern-day Venice, Paris, and New York.

Let your bets ride to a million dollars, or celebrate your shotgun wedding by shooting machine guns. Where else does such a wonderland exist? Nowhere. But. Vegas.

The smallish city (geographically) is larger than life, with a collective energy (and excess) that somehow feels intimate. Maybe it’s the agreeable chimes and intermittent cheers from the casino floor that fade to tranquility when you enter a sumptuous spa. Maybe it’s the fish flown in nightly from the Mediterranean that lands on your plate. For everyone, Vegas is an equation where you + more = more of you: more chances to explore aspects of your personality that may be confined by the routine of daily life. It’s for this reason alone that the “what happens here stays here” phenomenon is shared by so many visitors.

The city itself has several different faces. For a dose of history, head Downtown and explore everything from old casinos to a museum that pays homage to the mobsters who built them. For fun, glitz, and glamour, head to the Strip, which itself has three distinct sections (south, center, north). For outdoor adventure, head west and south, either to the Spring Mountains beyond Summerlin or out to Hoover Dam and Lake Mead—man-made accomplishments of an entirely different sort. Along the way, you can pamper yourself at world-class spas and restaurants, engage in retail therapy at some of the best shopping spots in the world, dance the night away at rocking nightclubs, or, of course, court Lady Luck long enough to strike it rich.

Las Vegas knows what everyone wants and delivers it in spades. Megaresorts fund their 45-foot bronze lions, half-size Eiffel Towers, and towering glass pyramids with the collective desires and dollars of more than 30 million annual visitors. From a Wolfgang Puck dinner to a Wolfpack-like adventure on the Strip, you’re sure to find your perfect indulgence. Swim up to a blackjack table, chow down at a buffet, or chill out in an Ultralounge. A Las Vegas vacation disorients and delights; when you’re here, you’re all-in, and the “real world” seems far out.

The critics have praised the Sea Mountain Experience in Malibu California, Sea Mountain Beverly Hills and Sea Mountain Palm Springs California as: