Champagne and caviar. Thumping beats and bottles of vodka. Live bands and lively crowds. New Year's Eve is the most Vegas of holidays, an evening entirely devoted to one of the city's key strengths: celebration. How should you ring in 2019? Take your pick from decadent dinners, epic parties and unforgettable concerts or mix and match for a choose-your-own New Year's Eve adventure with the best of Las Vegas.
Feast!
If eating is your favorite hobby and restaurants your destinations of choice, a fabulous meal is the best way to end the year and launch a new one.
Zuma at the Cosmopolitan is serving a New Year's Eve tasting menu paired with Dom Perignon.
At Zuma inside the Cosmopolitan, diners can indulge in a special omakase menu, with 12 to 15 dishes like black truffle toro tartare and A5 Japanese wagyu paired with Dom Perignon for $425. MB Steak at the Hard Rock is serving a four-course, prix fixe featuring steak, crab legs and risotto with truffles for $125 with an optional wine pairing for $59, and the Bellagio's Picasso will welcome guests for two different seatings, with the second offering a special gala menu as well as live entertainment from 9 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. for $460. At the MGM Grand, chef Jimmy Lisnard of the L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon is serving a seven-course tasting highlighting opulent ingredients like foie gras, osetra caviar and Kagoshima beef for $325. A Champagne pairing costs extra, but you might as well splurge. It is New Year's, after all.
Dance!
Picturing your countdown surrounded by young partiers in their sequined best with servers wielding sparklers and bottles of bubbles? The Strip's clubs can paint that.
At the MGM Grand's Hakkasan, J. Cole is manning the main room, helping revelers ring in 2019 with a wild night. Omnia at Caesars Palace has booked a trio of DJs for its three spaces, with Mark Eteson on the terrace, Bamboozle in the ultralounge and Calvin Harris conducting the main dance floor. Other celebrity bookings include Gucci Mane hosting at Tao at the Venetian and French Montana at the Cosmopolitan's Marquee, with both clubs' parties promising a two-hour open bar, appetizers and a midnight Champagne toast for the ticket price. At the Wynn, a pair of big name acts will count down to 2019 inside the resident hot spots, with the Chainsmokers running the show at XS and Dillon Francis in the booth at Intrigue. Finally, at the Park MGM, new Houston Brothers club On the Record will celebrate its grand opening Dec. 28, before throwing down for a New Year's Eve bash with a special surprise guest performance and table service packages starting from $1,500.
Listen!
The entertainment capital of the world would hardly deserve that title without some big-name acts on stage on the biggest party night of the year.
At the Park MGM, that means Lady Gaga's "Enigma" residency playing before an intimate crowd at the Park Theater, while just across the plaza, Bruno Mars and Boyz II Men are teaming up for a pair of special New Year's weekend shows at T-Mobile Arena. Maroon 5 will take the stage at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, and Celine Dion will serenade guests inside Caesars Palace's Colosseum, while Living Colour plays Brooklyn Bowl and Tenacious D rocks the Joint at the Hard Rock. Or you could spend New Year's Eve at Gwen Stefani's "Just a Girl" show at Planet Hollywood, closing out 2018 with one very excited crowd.