Laughlin

Laughlin has a reputation, when it has one at all, as a discount cousin of Las Vegas, and that reputation does it a disservice. The town sits at Nevada’s southernmost tip, right on the Colorado River across from Bullhead City, Arizona, founded in the 1960s when a Missouri businessman named Don Laughlin bought an eight-room motel here and built a casino empire around it. What sets it apart from the Strip, Lia noticed within the first hour, is the water — the Colorado runs directly behind the casino row, close enough that you can walk out a hotel’s back door and be in the current within minutes.

Tubing the Colorado River

We rented inner tubes at a shop near the Riverwalk and let the current carry us south along the town’s waterfront, drifting past the backs of casino towers with drinks in hand and absolutely no schedule to keep. The river here moves at an easy, forgiving pace, cold water against desert heat that made the whole afternoon feel less like a casino trip and more like a lazy Sunday in a river town that just happens to have slot machines. We climbed out an hour and a half downstream, sun-baked and thoroughly won over, and caught the free water taxi back to where we’d started.

The Riverwalk after dark

At night the Riverwalk transforms, string lights strung along the promenade and the river throwing back neon from a dozen casino facades. We ate fish tacos at an outdoor stand and watched paddleboats cut slow wakes across water that mirrored the whole skyline, a much smaller, gentler version of what the Vegas Strip tries to do with far more noise. It’s an odd, likeable town — part retirement destination, part biker rally stop, part quiet river escape — and none of those identities seem to bother the others.

Getting There

Laughlin has its own small airport (IFP) with limited seasonal service, but most visitors fly into Harry Reid International in Las Vegas (LAS) and drive about 100 minutes south on US-95. A car is essential for the drive down, though once you’re in Laughlin itself, the Riverwalk and water taxis make it easy to get around without one.