Las Vegas grew famous as the ultimate guy's town--an entire city dedicated to the excesses that men like best. There was free booze, legal gambling, endless buffets of inexpensive guy food, even golf. And there were plenty of girls. Cigarette girls. Showgirls. Call girls. Strippers. Waitresses. All sorts of girls.
Now history is repeating itself. Everybody's favorite Sin City has rediscovered its roots. Frank and Dean--R.I.P. Their spirit lives on in guys like Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Trey Parker--because Vegas is again a guy's town, the place to let loose. You can weave down the street nursing a three-foot daiquiri. Street vendors hand out ads for escort services. Even the malls are geared toward guys. Better yet, everywhere you look there are beautiful women, the type of women who either have a personal trainer or don't need one. They come to Vegas for the same reason men do--to have fun.
When Vegas first faced competition from Atlantic City, seedy riverboats on the Mississippi and Indian casinos, it reinvented itself as a family destination where aging boomers could take the kids to Circus Circus. As those boomers got richer, Las Vegas wooed them with luxurious hotels like the Bellagio and the Four Seasons, first-class spas and a lineup of restaurants that reads like a Zagat's all-star team.
Now Vegas uses its marketing smarts to make sure its newest target audience--hip young men who know how to have a good time--is happy. In today's Vegas, Bens, Brads, Leos and their less famous counterparts rule the town. They spend late nights at new clubs that rival anything in Los Angeles or New York. They play new-generation games of chance made for the Nintendo-inclined. They have their own hotels and casinos where they won't end up playing blackjack next to some Homer who splits 10s and wears a souvenir T-shirt. This new Vegas hasn't been lost on young women, either. It has become, quite simply, the ultimate party town for the young and restless.
