I only saw Elvis once.  My selections from one of the infamous buffets—hush puppies and roast turkey in particular—were astoundingly high-quality and tasty.  But the un-walkability of The Strip is what truly surprised me.  Somehow, over the years I had chosen repeatedly not to go to Las Vegas, no matter what basketball event my husband and/or son were attending, I had imagined the Vegas Strip as Hamburg's Reeperbahn crossed with Myrtle Beach meets Times Square — full of neon lights, drama, characters in and out of costume, and tourists galore, but always infinitely walkable.  Not so!

Due to major construction that has supposedly stalled as a result of the recent economy, walking on one side of the Strip is as unpleasant as any construction site anywhere—cordoned, detoured, walled-off narrow sidewalks every pedestrian wants to get beyond.  On the other side, the sidewalk can not begin to handle the volume of people, making detours off the curb and into the street inevitable, and dangerous, if you actually want to get anywhere.  Figuring out which overhead crosswalk goes where can be a bit confusing, but more would be welcome, for the worst pedestrian design of all is the length of the blocks.  Since the strip is several car lanes going each way, and always incredibly jammed with vehicles, not even an inebriated zombie would consider crossing at street-level anywhere but the pedestrian cross walks, but just in case, a chain-mail fence divides the middle of the street.  (Attractive.)  So if you don't know the exact location of your destination (we didn't), even though you're close enough to throw a rock across the street and hit it, you find yourself walking several minutes beyond it before you can cross the street to turn around and walk back the way you just came.  The heat doesn't help. 

This may be on purpose.  Most of the resort hotels—like The Bellagio and Caesar's Palace, two I explored—are all-inclusive villages in and of themselves.  Management no doubt hopes you will stay away from the mayhem outside and stay put inside.  For the most part, when I wasn't watching my son play basketball in the Adidas tournament that had brought in hundreds of teams from across the continent, I happily stayed put a few blocks off the Strip in the non-smoking, no casino, all-suites Platinum Hotel.  From this classy, peaceful vantage point, I didn't dislike Vegas anywhere near as much as I expected to...and that was the sweetest surprise of all.