How to get to Las Vegas
America’s Favorite Spontaneous Road Trip Destination is About to Get Even More AccessibleTransportation to Las Vegas is easy: there are two ways to get in and out—fly and drive. A high-speed train to Los Angeles is on the horizon, but until then, drive-in travelers will need to game the I-15 to beat traffic.
Las Vegas as we know it today began as a railroad town. If you go to the Plaza Hotel at 1 Main Street in Downtown Las Vegas, you’ll be standing on the original spot where the city was incorporated in 1905—the former Union Pacific depot that was a halfway point between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, operating passenger rail for nearly a century. Planes and cars eclipsed train travel in popularity, and the rail ceased operations in 1998. Las Vegas today is the second largest city in the US after Phoenix without passenger rail service. All this is expected to change in 2027, when the high-speed electric train Brightline West is anticipated to open, connecting a station just south of the Strip with Los Angeles and cutting travel time in half. For now, and with a couple of little-known alternatives, the only way to drive here is via Interstate 15, a highway that connects Southern California with Alberta, Canada to the north. Through Las Vegas, it runs parallel to Las Vegas Boulevard: drive north and you’ll reach the Utah border and drive south to reach Southern California. To give you a sense of the volume: nearly 46,000 cars cross the California/Nevada border on I-15 each day, and nearly 53 million passengers land at Harry Reid International Airport each year.
Explore more articles
Getting to Las Vegas by Air
Arriving in Vegas by air is easier than ever these days. Harry Reid International Airport (formerly McCarran) (LAS) has expanded steadily over the years, adding a third terminal a decade ago, and has added nonstop service at record speeds in recent years, becoming the seventh largest domestic airport. It now serves 131 US cities with nonstop service and 18 international nonstops.
The Wedding Capital of the World opens a pop-up marriage license bureau in Terminal 1 each February near the baggage claim area so you can spend more time on vacation and less time in paperwork.
Since the airport is serving record numbers of flyers—over four million each month—so getting to the airport at least two hours before an international flight is crucial. But once you’re in, there’s no reason to curtail your Vegas vacation. There are more than 1,400 slot machines in the airport’s terminals. Or wind down in one of the six lounges, including a recently expanded Centurion Lounge in Terminal 1. Upstairs in Terminal 1, there’s an aviation museum with historical artifacts from aviation’s earliest days in the area. If you have a long layover, get a day pass to the ZEROlevel gym below the baggage claim area, or take a nap in ZEROlevel’s wellness center nap rooms.
Give yourself ample time to get between terminals: You can’t walk them, but the free shuttle runs between Terminals 1 and 3 every 20 minutes or so.
Getting to Las Vegas by Private Plane
More and more travelers are flying semi-privately to Vegas these days—an option that doesn’t have to break the bank. Unlike typical passenger airlines like Delta or Southwest, semi-private flights like JSX fly out of the nearby FBO (fixed-base operator) terminal. You can roll right up to the terminal (and even park there), skip the security lines of the commercial airport, and hop on a 30-seat Embraer to cities along the West Coast starting at around $250 one way. Gamble enough and one of the casinos may drop you off at home in a G5, but for the rest of us, semi-private is a good option.
Driving to Las Vegas
There’s one major artery in and out of Las Vegas: I-15. It serves a massive number of cars, especially on the well-traveled route between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. In theory, this drive should take about four hours, but people headed to Vegas for the weekend or back to LA on a Sunday afternoon know better, and driving at peak times can add hours to your trip.
If you love a quirky roadside attraction, the world’s tallest thermometer is in Baker, and you can see the mercury rise to well over 100 degrees F from I-15—since it stands 134 feet tall.
Practiced Vegas roadtrippers know to start a trip mid-week, or at least before Friday. Similarly, leaving Las Vegas at the crack of dawn on Sunday has been a decent option in the past: While others are sleeping off a hangover or at a multi-hour-long brunch, you’ll be halfway to the coast. Still, others have caught on to this strategy, so if you can skip Sunday and leave on a Monday, you’ll generally have smoother sailing.
There are two ways to bypass the business part of I-15 on the border. You can take State Road 160, a two-lane road that travels past Red Rock Canyon, through Pahrump, and around to Baker where you’ll merge again with I-15. It adds about 40 miles to the trip but can eliminate at least some aggravation.
Another detour takes you 234 miles around Las Vegas and through Henderson, curving south through dry lake beds, and eventually emptying into the I-15 Barstow. It adds 77 miles to the trip. Keep in mind that cell service can be spotty on both routes, but if you want to avoid a jam, they can be good options.
Getting to Las Vegas by Bus
In recent years, bus companies have sprung up between Los Angeles and Vegas, such as FlixBus, which offers inexpensive seats, free WiFi and power outlets on rides to Phoenix, LA, and San Diego starting around $25 for a one-way fare. You can even pay extra to travel “neighbor-free.” Travel times are longer than driving your own car, up to six hours or so, but they can be a good alt mode of transport for those who have work to do or just don’t want to be behind the wheel of a car.