The Vegas Day Trips Nobody Tells You About
Everybody knows about the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam. Fewer people realize you can spend a day hunting for UFOs, descending into a 160-year-old gold mine, riding horseback to a cowboy breakfast, or road-tripping all the way to a second famous city and back. These are the offbeat trips -- the ones that make a Vegas vacation memorable for reasons that have nothing to do with a casino floor. Here are four worth the drive.
Area 51 Tour
The Area 51 Tour leans all the way into the mystery. It starts with a stop near Harry Reid Airport to spot the unmarked jets of Janet Airlines -- the fleet that has quietly shuttled workers to and from Area 51 for decades, hiding in plain sight -- then heads out by SUV across the stunning High Desert. Along the way you explore a mysterious dry lake bed known for UFO sightings and cruise a stretch of the famous Extraterrestrial Highway.
This is the pick for anyone who grew up on conspiracy lore and wants a day that is equal parts scenic desert drive and pure, grinning novelty. You will not come home with proof of aliens. You will come home with a great story.
Departs: Strip hotel pickup | Style: Full-day SUV desert tour | Highlights: Janet Airlines jets, Extraterrestrial Highway, UFO dry lake bed
Eldorado Canyon Gold Mine Tour by Pink Jeep
The Eldorado Canyon Gold Mine Tour by Pink Jeep drops you into a genuine slice of the Old West. At the Techatticup gold mine -- worked from 1861 all the way to 1942 -- a local expert walks you through the tales that built and broke this place: gold fever, claim jumping, disastrous floods, fortunes won and lost, and some genuinely wild frontier politics. There is even a private collection of old cars, memorabilia, and props left over from movies filmed on site.
This is the pick for history buffs and anyone who finds a real ghost-town gold mine more thrilling than another scenic overlook. Atmospheric, story-rich, and unlike anything on the Strip.
Departs: Strip hotel pickup | Style: Half-to-full-day Pink Jeep tour | Highlights: Techatticup gold mine, ghost-town relics | Ages: 3 and up
Wild West Horseback Adventures
Wild West Horseback Adventures trades the neon for saddle leather. After a complimentary hotel pickup, you head out to a ranch and ride just like the cowboys who made the American West famous, with majestic mountain views the whole way -- then sit down to an authentic Western meal. Choose the breakfast ride (eggs, cowboy potatoes, pancakes, bacon) or the dinner ride (steak or mesquite-grilled chicken, baked potato, corn, and apple pie).
This is the pick for couples and families who want peace, big desert scenery, and a proper cowboy meal -- the most relaxing way to leave the Strip behind for an afternoon or a morning.
Departs: Strip hotel pickup | Style: Ranch horseback ride with a Western meal | Ages: 6 and up
Hollywood Tour
The Hollywood Tour is the boldest swing on this list: an entire second city in a single day. After hotel pickup, you take a scenic drive from Las Vegas to Hollywood, California -- past high desert, dry lakes, mountain ranges, the southern edge of Death Valley, and Joshua Tree forests. You stop at the Guitar Center on Sunset Boulevard, where rock legends have left their handprints, then get hours on your own to walk Hollywood Boulevard and hunt for your favorite stars on the Walk of Fame.
Be clear about what this is: a long, full day with real windshield time, because you are crossing two states and back. But if the idea of stacking Las Vegas and Hollywood into one trip appeals to you, nothing else in the catalog delivers two icon cities in a day. This is the pick for the traveler who wants maximum bragging rights.
Departs: Strip hotel pickup | Style: Long full-day trip to California | Highlights: Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Practical Truth
Choose your flavor of offbeat. The Area 51 tour is the novelty road trip with a wink -- desert scenery and UFO lore in equal measure. The Eldorado Canyon gold mine is the atmospheric history trip, a real ghost-town mine with stories to match. Wild West Horseback is the relaxed, scenic escape with a genuine cowboy meal attached. And the Hollywood tour is the big, ambitious two-cities-in-one-day swing for travelers who do not mind a long ride for a great story. None of these is the obvious Vegas day trip, which is exactly the point. Check the booking section below for current departures.
