Fashion Show Mall

North and Center Strip are full of high-falutin' shoppin' options these days; Crystals at City Center and the Bellagio and the Wynn offer high-priced outlets like Tiffany's, Louis Vuitton and a Ferrari showroom. But if you're on a more modest budget or homesick for the kind of shopping experience that your hometown mall offers, there's always the Fashion Show Mall, under the big UFO-shaped thing (they claim it's a Cloud) up towards the northern end of the Strip, between Treasure Island and the Trump.

It's anchored by familiar names like Macy's, Nordstrom, Dillard's, Nieman-Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. If you can locate the Concierge Desk, you can pick up a coupon book full of discounts for food and shopping (and it's bound, Ace Double style, back-to-back with a similar coupon book for the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian across the street). The two-for-ones and other discounts for the food court and other dining locations (including a Jamba Juice) are especially good values.

They call it the Fashion Show Mall, by the way, because there really are fashion shows held on a runway down the center of the mall on weekends. We were lucky to be there for their Christmas spectacular, featuring this fetching but really odd use of showgirls.