Las Vegas, 1993 (part 2: nighttime)

Part 2 of my January 1993 trip to Vegas, my first. I was there over Super Bowl weekend. Part 1 shows my ride up the Strip to downtown and back, during the daytime; this is the nighttime stuff. I arrived the day after the Dunes casino closed, spent one night at the new Excalibur, then spent one day driving out to the Grand Canyon (seeing the Hoover Dam and getting in after sunset) and one day at the Canyon itself, leaving after dark for the drive back to Vegas where I checked in to the Lady Luck downtown (part of a package) on Friday night for 3 nights. I had all day Saturday and most of Sunday to spend, then watched the Super Bowl in a giant event room at the Sahara, flying home on Monday.

Unfortunately the video isn't that great, this is an 8mm video tape converted to VHS converted to digital. I did some screen captures of the video, and below you can see them matched up with what it looks like in 2018 through the magic of Google Maps.


Thanks to Vintage Las Vegas for the dates and IDs of some of the old properties.

This video starts in my rental car along Tropicana, headed towards Las Vegas Blvd from the airport, goes up the Strip to downtown and back during the daytime. The pictures on this page cover starting at 16:35 of the video and then again at 31:53. (Note that the video has no audio, I had to strip it out due to the car radio being on.) Downtown Las Vegas on Fremont Street is eerily quiet at 2 or 3am, with no foot or car traffic. How much has changed!

 Notice the Dunes on the left is dark, it had closed the day before I got there.

I took these videos while I was staying downtown at the Lady Luck (now the Downtown Grand). It was probably about 2 or 3am, no foot traffic and no cars downtown. Compare to the Fremont Street Experience now. Fitzgerald's is now The D.