This article “Vegas on the Cheap” was reprinted in the Denver Post from L.A. Time’s Rosemary McClure.  Some obvious info on when to visit, but also lists three off but near strip hotels including The Artisan on Sahara, the historical (for Vegas) Binions, and the South Point Hotel.  I like her description of Binions:

My room reflected that past. Remember when people smoked and sometimes burned the furniture with their cigarettes? Check. Remember the mauves and turquoise and sea foam greens of a 1980s dental office waiting room? Check. Remember when bathrooms were so tiny that the doors had stoppers about knee high to keep them from smashing into the toilet? OK, I don’t actually remember that as a style, but it was part of this room.

From CNN’s Julie Clothier:  Heliskiing in far east Russia.  Very cool.

In Kamchatka, skiers stay in accommodation in downtown Petropavlovsk, a 20-minute drive from the helicopter base.  From there, they are transported to the slopes of a volcano range. Each run is, on average, 1,400 vertical meters long (4,600 vertical feet), roughly taking an hour to ski down depending on how fast you travel. The longest run in Kamchatka is 4,000 vertical meters (13,100 vertical feet).

Morland’s favorite part of a skiing trip is seeing the looks on people’s faces when they land in the snow for the first time.  “You go from the sound of the helicopter to the sound of absolute solitude in the space of a few seconds.  “You’re surrounded by untouched slopes in the wilderness with just you and your friends. There are no chairlifts and the helicopter is at the bottom waiting for you when you ski down,” he says.

“It’s incredible. It’s like landing on another planet. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. There are volcanoes smoking everywhere, you can ski right down to the beach, down to sea level. Some of the runs go on for what feels like for ever. It’s the wild-west of heli-skiing.”