Bars and nightlife in Las Vegas

Consistently the top earning nightclub in the world, XS at Encore Las Vegas is exclusive, expensive, and for those who flock there for super-powered residents like Diplo, the Chainsmokers and Marshmello, worth the high price tag. The décor is over the top (gold bas reliefs, a rotating chandelier over the dance floor). And on Sunday nights its Night Swim party, which opens up the pool to clubgoers, is the hottest party in town.

Address: 3131 Las Vegas Blvd S

MGM Grand’s 80,000-square-foot Hakkasan rises up over five levels and can fit a crowd of 3,000 partiers. Start with dinner at Hakkasan Restaurant, for contemporary Chinese food in a scene-y setting, then graduate into the club. One of the wildest experiences you can have is dancing under the kinetic light installation (the largest in the US), the Hakkasan Grid. If you need a civilized escape, duck into the Ling Ling Club, a more intimate lounge on the third floor. Hakkasan continues to attract some of the hottest DJs in the business, like Steve Aoki, Alesso, and Afrojack.

Address: 3799 S Las Vegas Blvd

A dozen years after it opened (which makes it a historic classic by Vegas standards), Marquee Nightclub still attracts a hard-partying crowd to its seven bars and three separate rooms, as well as to its adjoining pool space for Marquee Dayclub. Its Drenched After Dark party helps you wind down the week with a little cabana life with famous DJs.

Address: Located inside The Cosmopolitan, 3708 Las Vegas Blvd S

Nearly two decades is a good run for any nightclub, but it’s unprecedented in Las Vegas. TAO Las Vegas in The Venetian has managed to attract virtually every celebrity birthday party since it opened. Enter the cavernous multi-level, 60,000-square-foot complex past models lounging in rose petal-strewn baths to TAO Asian Bistro. Upstairs, private sky boxes overlook a dance floor presided over by resident DJs like Steve Aoki, Martin Garrix, and Alesso. It’s a formula that continues to pack in the party people.

Address: 3377 S Las Vegas Blvd

Victor Drai is the OG of Vegas nightclubs, having started his after-hours party long ago when today’s Cromwell hotel was two iterations ago as The Barbary Coast. Today, his Drai’s nightclub occupies the entire rooftop of The Cromwell, 11 stories above the Strip. Here around a palm-tree-lined oasis of eight pools is the center of Vegas’ hip-hop scene, attracting talent like Wiz Khalifa, French Montana, and 50 Cent. Drai’s Afterhours still operates its subterranean lounge on the weekends until 7 am, welcoming industry folk who blow off steam after their shifts and vacationers who don’t want it to end.

Address: 3595 S Las Vegas Blvd

Imagine swirling down the legendary “staircase to nowhere” Morris Lapidus built for Miami’s Fontainebleau in the 1950s so women could glide down in their furs. Or the lavish, palm-filled Cocoanut Grove in LA’s Ambassador Hotel in the 1940s. That’s the vibe at Delilah, the no-details-spared supper club at Wynn Las Vegas, anchored by 40-foot-tall cast brass palms. This is where the beautiful people are, enjoying dinner near a stage of singers and live performers that gets just a little rowdier as the night wears on. You never know who will hop on stage: We’ve seen everyone from Justin Bieber and The Kid Leroi to Jimmy Fallon.

Address: 3131 Las Vegas Blvd S

If you’ve been to the original Beauty & Essex on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, you get the idea of its Vegas counterpart in The Cosmopolitan. Walk in beyond the pawn shop storefront and you’ll find a low-key blingy restaurant and lounge serving creative, shareable dishes like grilled cheese dumplings and tuna poke wonton tacos along with signature cocktails like Earl The Pearl (baku vodka, Earl Grey tea, lemon and mint) and The White Whale, a mezcal-based cocktail with Dolin blanc vermouth, cocchi americano, honeysuckle and peppercorn. Every time you enter you’ll feel like you just (re)discovered a secret.

Address: Cosmopolitan of, 3708 S Las Vegas Blvd

Waves lap softly below your yacht’s chrome taffrail as you hold your cocktail and enjoy the evening’s breeze. As you might imagine, this is not actually a yacht but a new lounge at Wynn that so handily approximates the experience, you’ll wonder if you aren’t really off the French Riviera. Aft’s cocktails reflect its jet-setting sensibilities, such as its Rio de Janeiro, a play on a Caipirinha; its rum and Amaro-based Havana, and an espresso martini-like Ibiza. Suspend your disbelief and enjoy the ride.

Address: 3121 S Las Vegas Blvd

The newest big nightclub, Zouk at Resorts World, came out swinging with a DJ roster that has included Tiesto and Zedd, Kaskade, and DeadMau5 among many others. Mindblowing technology combines with world-famous performers to create a truly new experience. Around 2,100 people can fit into the 36,000-square-foot club. Interactive 3D booking maps let you see exactly where you’ll be sitting, and unlike many clubs, you’ll have an unrestricted view of the sprawling space. The center of this experience is “The Mothership,” a roving mechanism of lasers that can travel across the ceiling over the dance floor.

Address: 3000 S Las Vegas Blvd

A pocket-sized, Art Deco-inflected bar just off the gaming floor at The Palazzo is one of the most intimate and sophisticated little hidey-holes in the resort. Come here for classic, grown-up-feeling cocktails, and the Champagne button. Yes, you can push a button every time you need someone to offer you more bubbly or bring you bottle service. It’s also well-known for fresh, seasonally-driven cocktails made with fresh fruit, and a secret menu that wouldn’t be secret if we told you what was on it (plus, it changes). Ask for it when you arrive.

Address: 3325 S Las Vegas Blvd

This sleek bar and lounge on Waldorf Astoria’s 23rd floor (which is actually the lobby floor; you have to travel up to check in) is intimate, civilized, and has views for days from its floor-to-ceiling windows. It’s a favorite with discreet locals and Waldorf residents, but less well-known with the general public. This means you can enjoy the views and your company without jockeying for bar space. Look for Vegas history-inspired cocktails like the “Prohibition” (WhistlePig 10 whiskey, maple syrup, tawny port, aromatic bitters and Luxardo cherry).

Address: 3752 Las Vegas Blvd S

This library-inspired study-meets-cocktail lounge at The Venetian provides great refuge from the casino when you need it. The gilded brass and oak bar is the perfect place to while away an hour or two, or book The Cage, a 12-person private room, where you can order your drinks in convivial punch bowls. The most delightful part of this lounge is a special fireplace you can put your hands right into and not get burned. This is as cozy as it gets.

Address: 3355 S Las Vegas Blvd #200

An eight-seat tequila bar is hiding inside Cosmopolitan. Find the green exit door with the pink donkey in Block 16 Urban Food Hall. Inside, you can indulge your love of tequila, mezcal and nachos all at their most high end. Think low-key, backroom fiesta with a mezcal-based smoked corn and coconut Manhattan in one hand with a fistful of truffle nachos in the other.

Address: 3708 Las Vegas Blvd S The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Level 2, Boulevard Tower

What was once an open lounge on Wynn’s casino floor is now a private little room that looks out toward the Lake of Dreams but is protected by curtains from the prying eyes of passersby. Inside, you’ll find a nuanced design that blends European elements and tropicalism, as well as mythical hybrid animals—a bunnyfish sculpture. Its witty sensibility extends to cocktails like The Brando, a play on a New York sour made with WhistlePig rye whiskey, lemon, cardamom and malbec, and several cocktails that are mixed and then spritzed with edible perfume to create even more complexity.

Address: 3131 Las Vegas Blvd S