Las Vegas Guide

Until the early 1980s, when the Fashion Show Mall (3200 Las Vegas Boulevard South, NV 89109, +17023698382, www.thefashionshow.com) introduced the city to department store powerhouses Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, shopping choices were limited to hotel boutiques or run-of-the-mill shopping malls.

Until the early eighties, when the Fashion Show Mall – www.thefashionshow.com – introduced Las Vegas to shopping mall powerhouses Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus, you choices of shopping were often limited to a couple of hotel boutiques.

The instant success of the Fashion Show paved the way for Caesars Palace to open its impressive Forum Shops – www.parkplace.com – Currently, up and down the stip, you can find everything from world class designer boutiques like Armani, Gucci and Prado to less known shops like Aveda, Max Studio and Z Gallerie. Those interesting shops making a trip away from the Strip well worthwhile are a bit harder to locate.

Just look closer and you will find kooky ethnic grocery stores, kooky clothes shops and esoteric bookshops, apart from the many places selling Vegas collectibles. As for classier shopping, it’s better to stick with the casino malls.