Free Walking Tour Las Vegas: MGM Grand to Sphere

Your Las Vegas Walking Tour Along the Strip, Stop by Stop

1. 1

   MGM Grand

   

   You start at the MGM Grand, and the first thing to grasp here is scale. When it opened on December 18, 1993, its more than 5,000 rooms made it the largest hotel in the world, and its 171,500 sq ft casino was the world's largest too. Most of the building rises 30 stories; one 14-story section is older and first opened in 1975 as the Marina Hotel. The resort is open around the clock and free to walk through, so take a lap of the casino floor before you head out.

   The man behind it was Kirk Kerkorian, and this was his second MGM Grand. The first one opened on the Strip in 1973, became Bally's in 1986 and has carried the name Horseshoe since 2022. Planning for this one began in 1989, and together with its theme park the project cost $1 billion.

   That theme park, MGM Grand Adventures, covered 33 acres northeast of the resort and closed in 2000; the land now holds The Signature at MGM Grand, a condo hotel, and a Topgolf. The original look was pure Wizard of Oz, after the 1939 MGM film, until a two-year renovation starting in 1996 removed the theme. Keep that film in mind: it turns up again at the very end of the walk.

   Inside, the names tell the story: restaurants from chefs such as Emeril Lagasse, Michael Mina and Joël Robuchon, the MGM Grand Garden Arena, long runs for Kà and for magician David Copperfield, and a Studio 54 nightclub full of memorabilia from the New York original, which opened in 1997 and closed in 2012. Give it about 20 minutes, then set off on the longest leg of the route: 1760 m, about 25 minutes on foot to the Bellagio Fountains.

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free to walk through

   Location

   MGM Grand on Google Maps ↗

2. 2

   Bellagio Fountains

   

   The lake in front of the Bellagio is man-made, covers 8.5 acres, and the show it hosts is free. 1,214 water nozzles and 4,792 lights work in time with the music, and the highest jets shoot up to 460 feet. Find a spot on the sidewalk in front of the lake, wait for the music, and watch the whole surface move at once.

   Timing matters. The shows start in the afternoon, earlier on weekends and holidays, and run into the night, coming more often after dark. Within show hours you never wait more than half an hour, so if you arrive just after one ends, stay for the next.

   The show was Steve Wynn's idea, and it was built by the design firm WET, which had never taken on a project this large before. Work began in 1995, and the fountains opened with the resort on October 15, 1998, on the former site of the Dunes hotel-casino. At $40 million it became one of the most expensive fountains in the world, and it remained the largest fountain show anywhere until The Dubai Fountain, also by WET, opened in 2009. It has turned up in numerous films and is among the most photographed places in the United States.

   By October 2018 the lake had staged more than 240,000 shows, and in 2019 a special edition for the final season of Game of Thrones ran for two weeks. Wynn himself left the Bellagio in 2000 and later built water shows at his Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace resorts. From the lake it's 670 m, about 10 minutes, to the Conservatory inside the Bellagio.

   Hours

   Mon–Fri 15:00–19:30 (every 30 min) & 20:00–24:00 (every 15 min); Sat–Sun & holidays 12:00–19:30 (every 30 min) & 20:00–24:00 (every 15 min)

   Price

   Free

   Website

   bellagio.com ↗

   Location

   Bellagio Fountains on Google Maps ↗

3. 3

   Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Gardens

   

   Behind the Bellagio's lobby area, the desert drops away. The Conservatory is a full botanical garden kept indoors, open 24 hours a day and free. A crew tears it out and rebuilds it five times a year, with one installation each for spring, summer, fall, winter and Lunar New Year.

   That rhythm has more in common with stage design than with gardening, and it's exactly why the room belongs on a walk along the Strip: like the fountains outside, it's a show built to be replaced. Outside the changeovers the display is fully installed, and in summer the room doubles as a cool break between the long sidewalk legs.

   One honest trap is the changeover itself. Between seasons the display comes apart for five or six days, and no sign at the entrance warns you. The next one in 2026 begins on November 8 and lasts six days. If your visit falls into such a gap, keep this stop short and give the extra minutes to the fountains instead.

   Back outside, it's 980 m, about 13 minutes, to Paris Las Vegas.

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free

   Location

   Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Gardens on Google Maps ↗

4. 4

   Paris Las Vegas

   

   Paris Las Vegas packs a city into one resort: a half-scale Eiffel Tower rising 540 feet, plus replicas of the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, the Paris Opera House and the Musée d'Orsay. The resort is open 24/7 and free to walk through, with a 95,263 sq ft casino, a 1,400-seat theater and a string of restaurants.

   The site once held the Galaxy Motel and a small strip mall with the Little Caesar's casino and a stand-alone sports book called Churchill Downs. Bally Entertainment announced the project in May 1995, but Hilton bought the company in late 1996 and fired the construction manager amid the change of ownership. Building finally began on April 18, 1997, and the resort opened on September 1, 1999, at a cost of $785 million and with 4,200 workers on staff.

   The VIP party before the opening had a guest list that sums up Las Vegas in 1999: Nevada governor Kenny Guinn, Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman, French actress Catherine Deneuve and businessman Donald Trump. Today Caesars Entertainment runs the resort, and in 2024 one of the towers of the neighboring Horseshoe, Kerkorian's first MGM Grand, was renovated and folded into Paris.

   The Eiffel Tower Viewing Deck charges admission. Go up if you want to stand inside the landmark rather than just photograph it; if not, the tower is just as recognizable from the sidewalk for free. From here it's 1080 m, about 16 minutes, to Caesars Palace.

   Hours

   Resort open 24/7; Eiffel Tower Viewing Deck daily 16:00–24:00 (last entry 23:30)

   Price

   Free to walk through; Eiffel Tower Viewing Deck from $27-$37

   Location

   Paris Las Vegas on Google Maps ↗

5. 5

   Caesars Palace

   

   Caesars Palace is the oldest resort on this walk. Jay Sarno and Stanley Mallin opened it in 1966, with Kirk Kerkorian, the man behind the MGM Grand, as their landlord. They wanted opulence and a sense of life in the Roman Empire, and what you see is Rome as Hollywood imagined it: statues, columns and a 20-foot statue of Augustus Caesar near the entrance.

   From the start, Caesars aimed at high rollers. The casino offers blackjack, craps, roulette, baccarat, Spanish 21 and Pai Gow, a 4,500 sq ft poker room open 24 hours, and rows of slot and video poker machines. The hotel now counts 3,960 rooms and suites in six towers, and the resort is open 24/7 and free to walk through.

   Its stages carry a roll call of names: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Judy Garland, Liberace, Diana Ross, Cher, Elton John and Adele, among many others. Boxing matches have been held here since the late 1970s, and in 1981 and 1982 the resort even hosted the Caesars Palace Grand Prix. The main venue, The Colosseum, seats 4,296 people on a 22,450 sq ft stage built in 2003 for Celine Dion's show “A New Day...”.

   If you walk through only one casino on the route, choose this one for its long history. Then it's 1080 m, about 15 minutes, to The Mirage.

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free to walk through

   Location

   Caesars Palace on Google Maps ↗

6. 6

   The Mirage

   

   The Mirage is permanently closed: it shut on July 17, 2024, so this stop is a look from outside. Hard Rock International, which took over operations in 2022, plans to reopen it as Hard Rock Las Vegas, expected in late 2027, after a complete renovation and expansion. A new guitar-shaped hotel tower is to take the place of the volcano.

   That volcano was the point. When Steve Wynn opened the Mirage on November 22, 1989, after two years of construction, the artificial volcano erupted nightly in front of the resort as free entertainment. Inside were habitats for dolphins and tigers and an indoor tropical forest. At $630 million it was the world's most expensive resort.

   More important for what you've already walked past: the Mirage was the first megaresort on the Strip, and its success set off the 1990s building boom along it. Wynn's company bought the land in 1986 and demolished the Castaways hotel-casino to make room.

   The stage history is just as big. Siegfried & Roy performed their magic show here for nearly 14 years from 1990, Cirque du Soleil opened its first Las Vegas show, Nouvelle Expérience, here in 1992, and returned in 2006 with Love, set to music by the Beatles. Hard Rock also became the first tribal gaming operator on the Strip when it took over. Only 500 m, about 7 minutes, separate the site from The Venetian Resort.

   Status

   Permanently closed

   Location

   The Mirage on Google Maps ↗

7. 7

   The Venetian Resort

   

   The Venetian Resort brings Venice to the desert, with replicas of the city's landmarks and a canal with gondolas. The resort is open 24/7 and free to walk through.

   Gondola rides run both indoors and outdoors and cost extra, with private rides available at a higher price. Worth it if you're celebrating something; on a tight budget, watching the boats glide along the canal costs nothing.

   The resort was Sheldon Adelson's project, built by his Las Vegas Sands on the site of the old Sands Hotel, which closed and was demolished in 1996. Construction began in April 1997, and the Venetian opened on May 4, 1999, with parts still unfinished and work continuing until the end of the year. Subcontractors later filed liens for unpaid work, which led to lengthy litigation, and Adelson's decision to open as a non-union resort started a feud with the Culinary Workers Union.

   Adelson built it with convention-goers in mind, a group he felt Las Vegas underserved. It opened with 3,036 suites in a 35-story tower; the 12-story Venezia tower followed in 2003, and the sister property The Palazzo in 2007. Counted together, the complex has about 7,100 rooms and ranks as the second-largest hotel in the world. It also housed the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, which opened in 2001 and closed in 2008, and shows such as Blue Man Group and Phantom. From here it's 700 m, about 10 minutes, to the High Roller.

   Hours

   Resort open 24/7; Grand Canal Shoppes Sun–Thu 10:00–21:00, Fri–Sat 10:00–22:00; Gondola rides daily from 10:00 (indoor) / 11:00 (outdoor)

   Price

   Free to walk through; optional Gondola rides from $34-$39 per person ($156 private)

   Location

   The Venetian Resort on Google Maps ↗

8. 8

   High Roller Observation Wheel

   

   The High Roller Observation Wheel stands 550 feet tall with a diameter of 520 feet, across Las Vegas Boulevard from Caesars Palace. When it opened on March 31, 2014, it was the world's tallest Ferris wheel, 9 feet taller than the Singapore Flyer; since October 2021 it ranks second behind Ain Dubai. It was the centerpiece of Caesars Entertainment's $550 million The LINQ.

   There are 28 cabins, each holding up to 40 people, 1,120 passengers in total. Every cabin is turned by its own electric motors so the floor stays level all the way round; each has 300 sq ft of glass and eight flat-screen TVs. At night a system of 2,000 LEDs lights the rim in solid colors, moving patterns or custom designs for holidays and special events.

   The engineering is worth a thought while you queue. Arup, which had consulted on the Singapore Flyer, was the structural engineer. The wheel turns on two custom spherical roller bearings weighing about 19,400 lb each, and the rim is made of 28 sections, each 56 feet long, held in place during construction by pairs of 275-foot struts before cables secured them.

   A ride costs extra: daytime tickets are cheaper than anytime tickets, there are reduced youth tickets, and the youngest children ride free. Then it's 1030 m, about 14 minutes, to Sphere.

   Hours

   Mon–Thu 12:00–24:00 (last entry 23:30); Fri–Sun 12:00–02:00 (last entry 01:30)

   Price

   From ~$28-$35 adult daytime, ~$38-$43 adult anytime; youth (4-12) from ~$10-$20; children 3 and under free; Happy Half Hour (21+) from $53-$70

   Website

   caesars.com ↗

   Location

   High Roller Observation Wheel on Google Maps ↗

9. 9

   Sphere

   

   The walk ends at Sphere, just off the Strip and east of the Venetian. It measures 366 feet high and 516 feet wide, and its exterior carries 580,000 sq ft of LED displays, the largest in the world. The outside is what you came to see on foot, and it costs nothing.

   Inside, 17,600 seats face a 16K wraparound LED screen, with speakers using beamforming and wave field synthesis and 4D physical effects; total capacity is 20,000. Designed by Populous and announced in February 2018 as the MSG Sphere, it cost $2.3 billion, the most expensive entertainment venue ever built in the Las Vegas Valley. Las Vegas Sands contributed the 18-acre site.

   Sphere opened on September 29, 2023, with U2 starting a 40-show residency, and Darren Aronofsky's docu-film Postcard from Earth followed on October 6, 2023. The Eagles, Dead & Company, Phish, the Backstreet Boys, No Doubt and Metallica have played residencies since. It now also screens an immersive 4D version of The Wizard of Oz, the 1939 MGM film that once themed the MGM Grand where your walk began.

   Sphere is event-only, so you only get inside with a ticket for a show. The Sphere Experience film shows are the cheaper way in, while concert residencies cost considerably more. If a show fits your evening, this is the place to end the day inside; otherwise, the exterior is your finish line.

   Hours

   Event-only (doors and onsite concierge open 1 hour before showtime; closed on non-event days)

   Price

   From ~$99-$129+ for The Sphere Experience (immersive film shows); concert residencies vary ($175-$3,500+)

   Website

   thesphere.com ↗

   Location

   Sphere on Google Maps ↗

Shorter Ways to Walk the Las Vegas Strip

Not every trip has six hours to spare. Each of these cuts keeps the route's order, so the GPS navigation still leads you from stop to stop.

Bellagio and Paris for an afternoon

Stops: 1, 2, 3, 4

For first-timers who want the big picture in a short window. You walk 48 minutes in total, from the MGM Grand to the fountains, the Conservatory and Paris. Everything is free except the optional Eiffel Tower Viewing Deck.

The free classics, Bellagio to the Venetian

Stops: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

For anyone on a tight budget who still wants the famous names. You walk 61 minutes from the fountains past the Conservatory, Paris, Caesars Palace and The Mirage to the Venetian. Walking through costs nothing; skip the deck and the gondolas and you pay no entry at all.

Caesars to Sphere for the evening

Stops: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

For travelers staying around the middle of the Strip who want a ride and a show. You walk 46 minutes from Caesars Palace via The Mirage and the Venetian to the High Roller and Sphere. Paid extras here are the gondolas, the wheel and any Sphere event.

How Long Does This Las Vegas Tour Take, With and Without Tickets?

The pure walking time is 1 h 49 min, but the Strip is not a place you walk past. With short looks inside the resorts and no tickets, plan a little over four hours. Add the Eiffel Tower deck, a gondola ride and the High Roller and it grows to about six.

A sample weekday plan: leave the MGM Grand at 15:20, reach the fountains at 15:45 and catch the next show, arrive at the Conservatory at 16:20 and at Paris at 16:53. Give it 45 minutes, reach Caesars Palace at 17:54, pass The Mirage at 18:39 and spend 45 minutes at the Venetian from 18:51. You're at the High Roller at 19:46 and, after a ride, at Sphere around 20:45.

The afternoon cut from the MGM Grand to Paris takes about two hours, or two and a half with the deck. The free classics from the fountains to the Venetian need about three hours. The evening stretch from Caesars Palace to Sphere also runs about three hours if you ride both the gondola and the wheel.

Before You Set Off on the Strip

• Start: The MGM Grand is the recommended start, because the walk then moves from the 1990s megaresorts toward the newest building on the route. You can join at any stop.
• Finish: Sphere, the end of the 7.9 km. Driving on to the coast afterwards? Los Angeles and San Diego have their own walking routes.
• Best time: Start mid-afternoon, so the fountain shows and the Eiffel Tower deck are running when you get there. Sphere opens its doors only on event days.
• Costs: The route, map and GPS navigation in your browser are free. The AI Tour Guide starts with 100 free credits; after that you choose between this tour all-inclusive for €19.99 with no time limit or €5 per hour. On site, only the deck, the gondolas, the wheel and Sphere events cost money.
• Closures: The Mirage is closed, so it's a look from outside, and the Conservatory goes dark for a few days at each seasonal changeover.

Common Questions About Walking the Strip