While I'm a lurker on this forum who registered for the coaster vids, as a local and former tourist I feel the need to kind of weigh in here. The guy way up above, he may mean well but some of the stuff he reccomends I wouldn't waste my time with and most other Vegas vets wouldn't waste their time with either.
I mean, seriously, the "Sirens" spectacle outside Treasure Island? That's close to one of the worst things that's happened to the Strip since the 9/11 downturn. 98% of the people who see it don't like it and want the old show back. It's cornier than all get.
As far as boobs/nudity/etc go:
Most of the Strip hotel boobie shows are pretty bad. Fantasy at Luxor is one that I can honestly tell you is decent, but if you're experienced enough seeing phony boobs, that seeing them live and in person is not very exiting, then you won't get as much enjoyment out of these as, say, a virgin who's never been around a naked woman. I haven't seen Headlights & Tailpipes, although I have seen the cars used out in the hotel parking lot, but I wouldn't want to see it. These former Playboy girls have their names in all the advertising, so you can Google their name and see their, uh, work.
Strip clubs are more, uh, eventful than the nudie production shows, but I can't speak for any of them because I don't ever go to them. I can tell you what everyone who does always reports though: The cabbies will try and long-haul across town to some cruddy joint for a huge commission (this may have changed as the clubs are trying to cooperate to put a stop to the comission arms race), drinks will be overpriced, unless you're spending money like mad on drinks and dances the girls will ignore you, and you're bounced if you do so much as even WANT to get closer with them than they choose to. It's just not a happy time, and some of the establishments are run by modern-day mob figures with bouncers who are known to send you to the hospital, so why bother?
Skintight at Harrah's does not exist anymore. It is now a western-themed show called Bareback. The guy behind those shows also produces nudie shows at the Rio and other hotels and they're all pretty bad. Again, every boobie show in the hotels are pretty darn cheesy, I just thought Fantasy was less cheesy than the others I've witnessed.
As far as normal tourist stuff goes:
I'm a bit of a Cirque du Soleil fan thanks to the shows in Vegas and I can reccomend any of the shows except for LOVE at Mirage and Zumanity at NYNY. The reason I can't reccomend LOVE (a 60s/Beatles themed show) is because it's brand new and I haven't seen it yet. The reason I can't reccomend Zumanity is because it's so bad it not only disappointed me as a Cirque fan, but I walked out. There is a lot of design and costuming in Cirque that can be naturally quite sexy (I want one of the zebra-striped girls from O, heh) but they tried too hard with this show.
As far as the regular Cirque shows, O is very artsy-fartsy as Cirque normally is, and doesn't seem to have any kind of conclusive idea of story, it's just a bunch of pretty scenes for no good reason why. Mystere is another semi-typical Cirque show with a stronger element of story, but KA has heavy storytelling for a Cirque show, the stagecraft and technology is STUNNING to watch in motion.
Before you make decisions on where to go and what to do, get yourself acquainted with CheapoVegas. These guys are serious cheapskates and they don't pretend you'll agree with them on what's the best way to take a vacation (they like to stay in the kind of dumps I have difficulty even walking past) but even despite their tastes they put on a pretty good list of the hotels, what can be done there, and leave it to you to decide if it's worth your time.
(cleaned up some crude language)
