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This free show, staged at the entrance to the Treasure Island hotel, is a favorite with visitors to Las Vegas. The 23-minute crowd-pleaser showcases the beguiling and beautiful “Sirens of TI”, who tempt and lure a band of swashbuckling pirates. From lively sword fights and acrobatic feats of derring-do to dazzling pyrotechnics and a rousing song-and-dance finale, this show is a hit, drawing huge crowds to their evening performances.

Over the course of almost 30 years Circus Circus has entertained hundreds of thousands of spectators with their impressive shows. Stars have included the Flying Farfans of Argentina, the miniature-bicycle rider Charles Charles of Paris, and Russian acrobat Valerie Akishin. With performances every half hour, you can pop back for different shows to catch a wide variety of acts.

More than 1,000 fountains perform a water ballet above Lake Bellagio, in defiance of the parched, baking desert that surrounds the city. Soaring as high as 240 ft (73 m) in the air, the cascading water is choreographed to classical music. Bellagio and the other properties in the Mirage group use incandescent lighting rather than neon, which helps make the Italian village surrounding the lake a lovely backdrop for the dancing waters.

In keeping with MGM’s lion theme, the hotel has a glass viewing station in the midst of a lion enclosure, allowing you to stand face to face with the king of beasts. Three of the 30 or so animals, Goldie, Metro, and Baby, are descendants of the original Leo, who posed for the famous MGM movie logo.

These regal white tigers, extremely rare in their native Himalayan foothills, should be on every sightseer’s itinerary. The magnificent creatures live at the home of their trainers, Siegfried and Roy, whose show has wowed audiences at the Mirage for more than 10 years. When they are not training or performing, the animals can be viewed in their specially designed all-white habitat (it makes them feel camouflaged and secure), complete with waterfalls and palm trees.

Listen in on conversations between the robotic statues of Bacchus, Venus, Pluto, and Apollo at the Festival Fountain, and watch a mini-drama performed by another group of statues – Neptune and his feuding children – at the Atlantis Monument between the Cheese-cake Factory and Race for Atlantis. The show also features huge winged beasts and a dazzling, hi-tech wrath-of-the-gods firestorm. Some of the shops, too, provide entertainment: pop into Magic Masters and look out for a secret door leading to the replica of Harry Houdini’s library.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this collection is that all the vehicles are for sale. Elvis Presley’s 1972 Lincoln Continental and a 1965 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III that was once owned by Lucille Ball are just two of the vehicles that have passed through these doors. Look out for free tickets at tourist-information stations and in entertainment magazines.

It is truly awe-inspiring to wander within the special walkways of the 1.3 million-gallon (5.9 million-liter) tank and observe the thousands of weird and wonderful sea creatures swimming together. Look out for the arowana dragon fish – and, of course, 11 different species of shark.

The Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe are faithfully and impressively reproduced at Paris Las Vegas Hotel, albeit on a smaller scale than the originals. Buy fresh baguettes from a street vendor, and nibble to the strains of tunes by the great Maurice Chevalier, as interpreted by a wandering accordionist.

With displays like this, it is hardly surprising that the Mirage, when it was built in 1989, is said to have triggered the 1990s hotel-building boom. The man-made, multimillion-dollar volcano spews fire 100 ft (30 m) into the air every 15 minutes, every evening. Ingenious lighting and steam effects convey the drama of lava flows, while loudspeakers broadcast vivid sound effects.