Fremont Street and Downtown Las Vegas

The Fremont Street Experience

In 1994 five blocks of Fremont Street, from Main Street to Las Vegas Boulevard, closed to cars for good, and on December 14, 1995, a vaulted canopy over the new pedestrian mall switched on its first light show. The canopy is about 1,375 feet (419 m) long and 90 feet (27 m) high at its peak. Its display, called Viva Vision, was rebuilt with LEDs in 2004 and again in 2019, when it gained more than 49 million LEDs, bright enough to show images in daylight. The shows run in the evening, free to watch; check the official site for the current schedule.

Under the canopy are some of the oldest names in town: the Golden Nugget, opened in 1946; Binion's; the Four Queens; the Fremont; the Golden Gate; and the D. At the west end, Circa, opened in October 2020, was the first new resort built downtown in four decades, and it houses the restored Vegas Vickie sign. Across from it, Vegas Vic still hangs on the old Pioneer Club. Live bands play on the street's stages every night, and the SlotZilla zip line runs overhead.

• Fremont Street Experience: Five-block pedestrian mall under an LED canopy with free evening shows. official site
• Vegas Vic: The 1951 neon cowboy on the former Pioneer Club.
• Vegas Vickie at Circa: The 1980 kicking cowgirl, restored and installed inside Circa in 2020. official site
• Golden Nugget: Opened in 1946 and one of downtown's oldest casinos, known for the Hand of Faith gold nugget on display. official site

Fremont East

East of Las Vegas Boulevard, Fremont Street opens to the sky again. The city created the Fremont East Entertainment District in 2002 and rebuilt its streetscape in 2007, adding four new neon signs in the median, designed to recall the classics rather than to copy them. Today the district covers about six blocks between Las Vegas Boulevard and Eighth Street, with bars, small music venues and restaurants.

Its anchor is the El Cortez, which opened in 1941 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Also in the district is the Downtown Container Park, a small shopping and dining complex built from stacked shipping containers.

At the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont Street, the restored Hacienda Horse and Rider gallops above the traffic, the Neon Museum's first restoration from 1996.

• El Cortez: Hotel and casino opened in 1941, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. official site
• Hacienda Horse and Rider: Restored 1967 sign at Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont Street. official site
• Downtown Container Park: Open-air shops and restaurants built from shipping containers in Fremont East. official site

The Mob Museum

A short walk north of Fremont Street, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, better known as the Mob Museum, opened on February 14, 2012, in the city's 1933 former post office and federal courthouse. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places, and its second-floor courtroom hosted one of the Kefauver Committee's hearings on organized crime in 1950. The museum covers both sides of the story, the mobsters and the agents who pursued them, and since 2018 its basement has held a working speakeasy and distillery. Tickets and hours are on its official site.

• The Mob Museum: Museum of organized crime and law enforcement in the 1933 federal courthouse at 300 Stewart Avenue. official site

The Arts District (18b)

South of downtown, roughly from Hoover Avenue south to just past Colorado Avenue, between Commerce Street and Las Vegas Boulevard, with Charleston Boulevard running through the middle, is the Las Vegas Arts District, also known as 18b after the 18 blocks it originally covered. It grew from the Arts Factory, a studio building that opened in 1997, and today is a mix of galleries, vintage shops, murals, bars and restaurants. On the first Friday of each month, the free First Friday street event, running since 2002, fills the neighborhood with art stalls and music.

Look for Dennis Oppenheim's oversized paintbrush sculptures along East Charleston Boulevard. The district is about a mile south of the Fremont Street canopy.

• 18b Las Vegas Arts District: Downtown neighborhood of galleries, studios and restaurants, home to the monthly First Friday event. official site

North to the Neon Museum

The Neon Museum is not on Fremont Street but about a mile north of it, at 770 Las Vegas Boulevard North. On the way you pass several of the restored signs the museum has set along the Boulevard medians, including the Silver Slipper just outside its gates. The walk is not long, but the stretch is mostly traffic and parking lots, and many visitors prefer a short ride, especially at night or in summer. The museum has been planning a move to a larger downtown site since 2024, so check neonmuseum.org for tickets, tours and any changes.

• The Neon Museum: Outdoor collection of retired Las Vegas signs, with a 1961 motel lobby as its visitor center. official site
• Silver Slipper sign: Restored 1950s slipper sign in the Las Vegas Boulevard North median outside the museum. official site

Downtown casinos, oldest first

Downtown kept its older buildings longer than the Strip. The Golden Gate traces its building to 1906; El Cortez has stood since 1941.