Five Wonderfully Bizarre Attractions in Las Vegas

Tormented by unfulfilled childhood – and adolescent – fantasies? Then Las Vegas is of course the place to go. Whatever obsessions lie scattered and abandoned on your path through life, in Las Vegas you can resurrect and finally experience them in their full, bizarre glory. Here we've gathered a small selection of the most curious and unexpected, but there are plenty more if none chime with your tastes: pray for luck by dropping casino chips into collection cups in a Catholic Cathedral; learn about the development of atomic energy at the National Atomic Testing Museum; and so on, and so on....

See 7 tips, like when to book your ticket, from the Hopper research team that can save travelers hundreds on their flights to Las Vegas.

Tear up the earth with some heavy machinery at Dig This

If you’ve ever walked by a construction site and felt a twinge of envy at the workers manipulating heavy machinery, then Dig This was made for you. The owners have taken a square of sand and rubble and created a unique playground. Choose between a bulldozer and an excavator, then roam the space in your new toy, tossing around sand and stone and tackling challenges set by your instructor.

Families traveling to Las Vegas can also check out these five great attractions for teenagers in Las Vegas

Play five decades of pinball at the Pinball Hall of Fame

For anyone who spent chunks of their adolescence in pinball arcades, the Pinball Hall of Fame offers an intensely nostalgic experience. A vast hall is lined with machine after pinging machine, themed on Dr. Who, Guns ‘n’ Roses and Jurassic Park among myriad others, ranging from the 1950s to the 1990s. And visiting the Pinball Hall of Fame is an unusually guilt-free experience for the city of sin: the organisation is run on a non-profit basis, so excess revenue is donated to the Salvation Army.

Las Vegas has quite a few quirky museums worth checking out. Take a look at Hopper's picks for the five best offbeat museums in Las Vegas

Immerse yourself in one of the twentieth century's great tragedies at Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition at the Luxor

The Titanic exhibition has 250 artifacts recovered from the wreck site of the Titanic, alongside a number of other activities which help bring these objects to imaginative life. Visitors walk through a giant model of the ship, exploring the engine rooms, the dormitories of the lower-class passengers, and ascending to the more opulent living areas of the upper class. Several twists and turns enliven your journey through the exhibition. Overall, it is an unexpectedly moving experience.

If the exhibition makes you nostalgic for the film, why not see Celine Dion? Her show is on our list of the five best live shows in Las Vegas

Step into the role of detective at Csi: The Experience at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino

Whether you’re a fan of the American crime drama or not, CSI: The Experience has been put together with sufficient thoughtfulness to make it an enjoyable way to pass a couple of hours. You take on the role of a Crime Scene Investigator, attempting to tackle a series of murders with your intuition and rapidly-gained understanding of forensic science. Videos featuring cast members from the TV show and real-life scientists provide advice, guidance and the odd red-herring.

Don’t ask too many questions at the Mob Museum

Look into the world of the mafia at this criminally good museum. Mafia crime is central to a lot of Las Vegas’ past and is also a huge part of films set there (Casino anyone?), so it makes sense to have a place to learn about it. In the museum there are both historical and gory artifacts, but also some fun exhibits too, like the interactive Tommy Gun simulator.

Make the Rat Pack proud and pay homage to LV's gangland past by doing Las Vegas like a gangster