Sure bet shape up - Las Vegas offers travel opportunities for health enthusiasts - includes related information

American Fitness, May-June, 1994 by Elizabeth Harryman, Paul Lasley

From the city that never sleeps, Las Vegas offers a wealth of win-win activities.

Stay fit in Las Vegas? That denizen of smoky casinos, where the most strenuous exercise seems to be pulling on a one-armed bandit? True, you can gamble 24 hours a day if you like, but this splashy neon oasis in the Nevada desert also offers a wealth of less sedentary activities. The warm, dry climate and more than 300 days of sunshine a year make this area prime territory for outdoor sports. Las Vegas has 24 golfcourses and more than 200 tennis courts, and many of the hotels and resorts now have lavish spas and health clubs.

The city's most popular activity may simply be walking along the world-famous Strip, that four-mile stretch of glitz and glitter along Las Vegas Boulevard. The terrain is flat, and because this is a city that never sleeps, you can walk, run or jog along The Strip in relative security almost any hour of the day or night.

Las Vegas has some of the best golfcourses in the country. You can play on legendary links like the classic course at the Sheraton's Desert Inn, original home of the PGA Tournament of Champions from 1953 to 1966. Although the driving range is open to the public, the 18-hole course is reserved for hotel guests and is probably the most challenging in the city. The championship course at the Sahara Country Club, with a tee of 6,815 yards, is good for the advanced golfer. You can also play at municipal parks like Craig Ranch, a course considered good for beginners, and Angel Park, with two 18-hole courses and an 18-hole putting course.

If tennis is your racket, try the courts at Bally's, the Sheraton's Desert Inn, The Tropicana or the Las Vegas Hilton. The city also has several public courts, including those at the East Las Vegas Park and Recreation Center and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

If you're more at home in the water than on land, Las Vegas has plenty of pools to keep you in the swim. Almost every hotel and motel has a pool, and the city's municipal pools are open every day in the summer months.

summertime in the City

When doing any outdoor activity in Las Vegas, be careful about the heat. October through April offers the most comfortable weather for open-air exertion. The rest of the year, try to play golf or tennis either early in the morning or late in the day. Mid-day is just too scorching. And drink plenty of water. The dry, desert air can deplete your body's water supply at two or three times the rate in more temperate climates.

To beat the heat, take advantage of some of the city's indoor, air-conditioned sports. You can go bowling 24 hours a day at the 106-lane Showboat Lanes, said to be the largest bowling alley in the world. You can also bowling alley in the world. You can also bowl at Arizona Charlie's and the Gold Coast Hotel.

If working out in a high-tech gym or just soaking in a whirlpool bath is more your speed, check out the health club at some of the hotels and resorts. The Sheraton's Desert Inn has a sauna and steam room, a fitness center with weight training equipment, aerobics classes and a jogging track. At the Spa, you can indulge in a facial, an herbal wrap, a salt glow body scrub with sea salts or a Swedish massage. Facilities at Caesars Palace include a jogging trail behind the hotel and a racquet ball court. The Mirage hotel also has a full-service spa.

The city's newly opened hotels sport the latest in fitness facilities, with saunas, whirlpools and well equipped gymnasiums for exercise classes or weight training. The Grand Health Club & Spa at the MGM Grand Hotel Casino & Theme Park has a large swimming pool with a sandy beach. The Health Club, Spa and Beauty Salon at Treasure Island, a sister hotel to The Mirage, offers a wide range of beauty treatments. Spa Luxor at Luxor, a hotel modeled after the temples and pyramids of ancient Egypt, has free weights as well as machines for strength training and features beauty products from the Clarins Institute.

Las Vegas Adjacent

More opportunities for exercise and reaction are an easy day's drive from Las Vegas. Lake Mead, created by Hoover Dam, is 115 miles long and 589 feed drop, one of the largest man-made in the world. It straddles the border between Nevada and Arizona, about 26 miles southeast of Las Vegas, and the shorelines stretches along some 550 miles of beaches and woodland.

You can take a cruise on a 250-passenger paddle wheeler, or rent a boat and do your own navigation into the lake's myriad inlets and bays. You can even rent a houseboat and stay awhile. The lake offers swimming, water-skiing, sailing, windsurfing and fishing. Catfish, largemouth bass, rainbow trout and striped bass are abundant, but you need a fishing license. You can also go hiking and camping in the 1.5 million-acre Lake Mead Recreation Area which encompasses the lake and extends about 140 miles along the Colorado River.

West of the upper reaches of Lake Mead is the Valley of Fire State Park, with rock formations in brilliant shades of scarlet, purple and gold. Wind and rain have sculpted the desert sandstone into the strange, fanciful shapes that shimmer like fire in the sunlight. You can stop for a picnic lunch and search for ancient petroglyphs, prehistoric rock drawings that decorate the canyon walls and tell the story of early civilizations. It is believed the Anasazi here from as early as 300 B.C.