Gambling and glitz are a great draw to Sin City, but they're not necessarily the best part about a Las Vegas experience. Of course, big-time gamblers, called whales, find the best part about their visits to be the thrill of betting thousands of bucks on the turn of a card or toss of the dice.

Ordinary citizens with limited budgets consider the best part of a Las Vegas vacation to be the great variety of bargains. Luxury hotel rooms that cost $400 a night in New York, London or Tokyo go for $100 and less at top Las Vegas Strip resorts. The sumptuous $25 dinner buffets in Las Vegas would cost at least $50 in typical tourist city restaurants. Tickets for Broadway-style shows, reviews and famous entertainment stars in Vegas sell for $50. For New York City's Broadway, they'd cost at least $100.

Another Vegas vacation plus is that visitors can enjoy the many absolutely free features. For example, every night downtown on Fremont Street, there's an enormous multi-media free extravaganza in the sky above six blocks of the city.

On the Strip, the Mirage Hotel puts on a spectacular, authentic-looking, lava-spewing volcano every night. The Bellagio features a large lake in front, and at night it spouts dancing water fountains 100 feet high in rhythm with pop music. Several hotels present free nightly acrobatic acts, including the Rio, Circus Circus and Tropicana.

Another best part of a Vegas vacation is that some hotel architecture reflects famed structures in other cities around the world. And you don’t have to travel thousands of miles to get ‘em all on one street...The Strip. The Luxor is a huge Egyptian pyramid, with a large Sphinx at its entrance.

The Excalibur resembles a medieval castle, while the Paris Resort features very realistic three-quarter sized replicas of the Arch of Triumph and Eiffel Tower. New York New York resembles high-rise buildings in the Big Apple, and out front is a faux hunk of the Brooklyn Bridge.

For venturesome visitors, a Vegas vacation is near two popular tourist sites. Boulder Dam is a 30-minute drive to the massive man-made structure on the Colorado River. A 45-minute helicopter trip takes you to one of the world's greatest natural structures, Grand Canyon National Park.

Also a 30-mile drive away is the red-rock-hued Mount Charleston. It's a great area for hiking and biking in warm weather, and to enjoy ski slopes when the mountaintop is covered with winter snow.

The best part of a Vegas vacation is that it offers non-stop opportunities for lodging, entertainment, sightseeing, dining and just about any other kind of travel enjoyment.