I was in Las Vegas recently for a week of vacation, and had a great time just looking around the mega-hotels, which are humongous labyrinths of casino, hotel, and shopping mall. I quite recommend just wandering around, gawking at the lobbies, hallways, and other common areas, some of which are gorgeous, and as richly designed and ornamented as palaces. If you want to get away from the crowds of other gawkers, you often don't have to go further than the nearest "convention center." But the real fun begins when you start infiltrating.

If you limited yourself to unmarked and unlocked doors, ignoring all those that politely advise you "Authorized Personnel Only," "Staff Only," "Emergency Exit Only," etc., you'd still find a million to try. I only went through a couple dozen, but I managed to discover all kinds of interesting places, including a cavernous storage room (a former or unfinished ballroom?), a rooftop pool and wet lounge, an abandoned theatre, a rusting incomplete hotel tower under a faux-facade tarpaulin, a penthouse restaurant and club being renovated, and a couple of exclusive members' lounges with free food and drink (I helped myself to a little free food). Of about eight hotel roofs that I tried to get onto, I succeeded with two (including the tallest building in Vegas, which is almost exactly as tall as the tallest skyscraper here in Vancouver). One out of four is a pretty good ratio. Indeed, security in Vegas seems more lax than most office buildings here. These hotel resorts are so huge, and have so much traffic moving through them at all hours, that it's probably impossible to keep them really secure. A few hotel guest elevators have security guards stationed outside of them, who ask to see your keycard, and a few have employees stationed at the entrance to their courtyard pools, but there are many back doors or roundabout POEs for just about anywhere you want to go. Very few elevators seem to require keycards, and you can usually get access to them from another level (try the convention level, or the spa). I enjoyed being clever and indirect, but I think you could also get a lot of mileage by simply staggering obliviously past people or through doors, with a beer bottle in hand. It's what everybody else in Vegas seems to be doing.

p.s. The Riviera, closed since May but apparently in semi-use by police and firefighter trainees, would be tremendous fun to get inside. Even more so the massive never-quite-completed hotel to the north of it, which surely must be the largest empty building I have ever seen. I circled it longingly in the sweltering heat several times, but the sight of onsite security at the open gate deterred me from trying to hop any fences. Though I don't think it would be impossible. If I were a local, I'd be cruising that place once a week.

The easiest rooftop I've ever accessed:

To be honest, this photo was not taken from the rooftop, but from the penthouse Gold Members' Lounge.

And this one from a stairwell.

And for good measure, one from the basement of the domestic terminal.

One of my new favorite places to explore. There's a lot to see, but also a lot of people around, so I didn't whip out my camera much. I was amazed by how many off-limits areas are "secured" by nothing more than a do-not-enter / authorized-personnel-only sign. (To be fair, I don't think I ever found myself on the far side of security.) And I found a lot of unlocked or improperly closed doors. Next time I'll dress a little less like a tourist, a little more like an office drone, or perhaps a construction worker.

I broke my own rule, and wandered inside an (newly) active condo, which was just too appealing with its doors propped open.

Inside the "Lantern" at the top of the building

I'd been up here once before, at night, before construction was completed.