Shopping in Vegas -- Nirvana or an endless Sisyphean repetition of every mall you've ever been to? Depends on your viewpoint. If you are looking for quaint, clever, unique stores, this isn't the town for you (with a few notable exceptions, most of which will require you to drive some blocks off the Strip). But if you are looking for general shop-till-you-drop fun, this is your kind of town. In addition to some extensive (and recently revamped) malls, many hotels have comprehensive, and sometimes highly themed, shopping arcades. The most notable of the arcades are in Caesars Palace, Planet Hollywood, and The Venetian (details below). Thankfully, catering to the weird schedules kept by many Vegas visitors, most shops in the major hotel malls stay open until 11pm or midnight, so your spending isn't curtailed by limited retail hours. However, given the unstable Vegas landscape, to save you a potential inconvenience, if you are interested in a particular shop listed at a specific mall, shopping arcade, or especially an outlet, you probably should call first to ensure that the establishment in question is still there.
In addition to exploring the malls, outlets, and shops, you might consider driving Maryland Parkway, which runs parallel to the Strip on the east and has just about one of everything: Target, Toys "R" Us, several major department stores, major drugstores (in case you forgot your shampoo and don't want to spend $8 on a new bottle in your hotel's sundry shop), some alternative-culture stores (tattoo parlors and hip clothing stores), and so forth. It goes on for blocks.
Factory Outlets -- Las Vegas has a big factory-outlet center just a few miles past the southern end of the Strip . If you don't have a car, you can take a no. 301 CAT bus from anywhere on the Strip and change at Vacation Village to a no. 303. You can see from the review below that it doesn't do much for us, which is why we usually head to the Fashion Outlets in Primm to drop more money than we do at the tables (Williams-Sonoma outlet, how we love you).
