Viva-ing Las Vegas: The Neon Museum

 

This weekend we went to a delightful little corner of Las Vegas:  The Neon Museum, aka the Neon Boneyard (because it's where neon signs go for their final resting place).  Apparently, this place was also made famous by this season's finale for The Amazing Race?  Sweet!

The Museum is basically a giant collection of old signage from all around Las Vegas - going back around 80 years - all artfully arranged in a big junkyard.  So, it's awesome.
The only way to visit is by guided tour, which I at first thought was sort of annoying, but as it turns out, our guide was fantastic and the anecdotes and unique history of Vegas she provided were so fascinating and so much fun to listen to.  There is so much nostalgia with all those old (now defunct) hotels and casinos!

One of my favorites was the sign from Vegas' Moulin Rouge.  They have rearranged the letters of it, though, so that it says "in love" - how precious is that?!  The tour guide said people get married in front of it all the time.  Awwww!

Another fun part was this HUMONGOUS skull from the old pirate show in front of Treasure Island.  The tour guide said if we wanted to see it's face, to go to Google Maps satellite view and zoom in...
So I did, of course:

We chose to go on a night tour to see everything lit up, but I actually think a day tour would be just as much fun and you would be able to see more details of all the signs and probably catch quite a few things you couldn't see in the dark!  Also, it's like half the price :)

The Neon Museum is on Las Vegas Boulevard, just north of the Strip and not far at all from Fremont Street area, so it would be super easy to make a stop by here even if you were just on the regular Vegas vacation down on the Strip!