Heading to Vegas for a getaway weekend in mid-December. Its my first visit to SinCity and am looking for recommendations beyond Cirque du Soleil and Celine Dion. Aside from some gambling, l'm looking for some great strip bars and other fun places.
Recommendations?
Here's maybe some more offbeat recommendations...
1) If you plan on doing a lot of stuff on the Strip at various hotels, it's well worth it to get the three-day, $20 bus pass. There are two buses that run up and down the Strip all day so it's very convenient. You can get them via vending machine at all the bus stops.
2) Take a cab from the airport to the Strip. The shuttle is lame because they wait till they get enough passengers on the bus before they let it go, so you could be leaving right away or you could be waiting indefinitely.
3) The Wynn dinner buffet is spectacular. Not cheap at $40 but the value for the money is amazing.
4) Up and down the Strip are discount ticket outlets called Tix4Tonight that sell cheap show tickets that day. If you are not particular about exactly which show you want to see but just want something good, you can typically get at least 30% off your ticket.
5) The outlet mall that Sexy Melina (a girl who likes Lacoste... excellent

) is referring to is the Premium Outlet North, which you can get to by taking the SDX bus which goes up and down the Strip (see Tip #1). Don't think the Premium Outlet South will be the same as the store selection is very different and not nearly as nice.
6) If you are going to play slots and want to win more (or at least play longer), go to the crappy hotels. Hotels can adjust the slot payouts rates, so at the end of the day it's all rigged anyway, but the cheap hotels will have looser slots to entice people to go there.
Side note... Vegas is a very tip-driven economy, so if you don't want to look like an ass, Google "tipping in Vegas" to get a rough idea of how much to give to whom.
I probably shouldn't admit this made me a little weepy, but the fountains at Bellagio played "Time to Say Goodbye" the night before I left and I was very moved by it. It was so beautiful...