Viewing Vegas

It is the one true bane of Las Vegas living: the endless stream of family, friends -- and that casual acquaintance of your second cousin by marriage's once removed in-laws -- who turn up on your doorstep looking for their own personal escort around town.

You know what you have to do -- embark on the standard Las Vegas Experience: take the dam tour, chow a buffet, inspect the pyramids, ride the Manhattan Express, shop Roman-style, one more go-round of been-there, done-that volcanos, tigers and pirates.

There has to be another way.

So we took an informal poll of both longtime locals and professional tour guides to highlight their favorite off-the-beaten-track tourist spots that save their sanity and entertain guests who've already seen (almost) everything Las Vegas has to offer.

First, the locals: Here is a compilation of suggestions for a Las Vegas tour you won't find when you go Greyhound:

* Begin with some history: For those with morbid curiosity, locals suggest showing visitors the spots where mob and gangsta hits went down, such as the Marie Callender's restaurant where "Lefty" Rosenthal's car bomb went off or the site of Tupac Shakur's assassination on Koval Lane and Flamingo Road, which took place two years ago this month.

* Skip the slots: For true insight into the gaming culture, try showing them the shocking (to outsiders) sight of supermarket slot zombies. Continue on to the Gambler's General Store on Main Street, where antique slot machines are on display, and finish at the Gamblers Book Shop on 11th Street, which may house every known gaming publication ever printed under the eye in the sky.

* Meal time: Forget feeding your own face -- why not nourish other creatures? One native often takes friends to feed bread to the carp swimming under the dock at the Lake Mead Marina. And for a sweeter snack than 99-cent shrimpy shrimp cocktails, another suggests cooling off with a treat from Luv-It, a small frozen custard stand that sits coolly in the shadows of the steamy Olympic Garden strip club.

* Just like in La-La Land, some love to take tourists on our own "Homes of the Stars" tour, stopping by the abodes of celebrities such as Wayne Newton for a glimpse of his stables, Mike Tyson, Siegfried & Roy and Lonnie Hammargren's own museum of natural history, which houses a planetarium, dinosaur bones and astronaut spacesuits.

* For a final overview: Rather than the Stratosphere's (pay to view) outlook, locals suggest the (free) view from the top of the Rio's Voodoo Lounge patio, the Polo Towers' Polo Lounge, or while dining at Sun City's Summit Restaurant at the top of Lake Mead Drive.

Now, the professional tour guides: These folks make their living showing other folks around town. Here is a sampling of spots they like to show on their own time:

* "My favorites are the celebrity homes. The best house is the Underground House near Spencer and Flamingo, which is something phenomenal. (A) family had three of those built around the world. Underneath there's heat and food, beds, except it's underneath. It's rented out to private parties for an enormous fee. Also, Howard Hughes' original bungalow house is still standing to the right of Channel 8's driveway (off Desert Inn Road). It's maintained, and guests of the station sometimes stay there. We advise people to go see it, and look through the fence."

-- Barbara King, owner, Drive-Yourself Tours

* "The railroad hiking trail starting at Lake Mead Visitor's Center. It follows the old railroad tracks, goes through three or four old tunnels. It's about three miles round trip, and you get a nice view of the lake the whole way. A lot of people like to do it in the moonlight. Just watch out for snakes!"

-- Carol Ferguson, a Hoover Dam tour guide

* "Wheeler Pass at the north end of Mt. Charleston. There are charcoal kilns three stories high left over by the early miners in the area who made charcoal out of Ponderosa pines. It's hard to find, you gotta know where to look for them. You'd have to have a map."

-- Rick Lund, owner of Desert Action Jeep Tours

* "Calico, the ghost town (near) Barstow, to see the mines, mining trains, stuff like that. And Area 51. To eat, Ho Wan's on Desert Inn for egg foo young, and Bob Taylor's Ranch House -- the tourists don't know about it."

-- Scott Hozman, professional chauffeur and tour guide

* "I'd rather take them to see the Grand Canyon's north rim rather than the south rim. Even though it's a seven-hour drive to the north and only five hours to the south, I think the views are better."

-- Danny Young, manager, Oriental Tours

"I like to do the Rebel Adventure Tours' Hummer and river raft tour, where you take a 10-person raft ride starting from Willow Beach and ride in a Hummer through the desert afterwards. It's great -- especially for outdoorsy types. You can get off and swim in the water. Also, Bonnie Springs Old Nevada. It's an old country town, they left it the way it was with all the old-time shops. They have melodramas and hangings and shootings in the middle of the street, and a petting zoo, restaurant, and horseback riding."

-- Dale DeBone, general manager of Las Vegas Tour and Travel

* "Ron Lee's Clown World offers a free factory tour down on Warm Springs of their clown dolls. It's nice to see how they're actually made. I've taken my granddaughter there."

-- Ed Kadian, What's Free Las Vegas, a tourist information service

* "I like to bring people to Red Rock when the sun is setting and you can see the whole city. Everybody's so amazed, the rocks are red, and the whole city is lit up. It's gorgeous. Also, the dragon at the Excalibur. I've always loved that ... it was just amazing to me. Nobody knows about it. We didn't even know it was there. It's the most simple thing, but it's neat."

Nerissa Nugent, tour representative at the Nevada State Tourist Center

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