I grew up just outside of Las Vegas. Here are 8 of my favorite things to do and see around town that don’t involve the Strip.

Author Salomée Levy grew up outside of Las Vegas in the nearby town of Henderson. Salomée Levy/Kit Leong/Shutterstock If you’re looking for activities in Las Vegas that don’t involve the Strip, you don’t have to go far. I grew up 15 miles outside of Las Vegas in Henderson, Nevada, which has a host of unique attractions.

From water parks to shopping and karaoke cafes, here’s what I recommend for a break from the Strip.   I grew up in the city of Henderson, Nevada, which is around 15 miles south of Las Vegas. The author at Lake Las Vegas, a lake outside of Las Vegas with resorts and golf courses.

Salomée LevyLas Vegas is most known for the Strip, which is the city’s main street full of world-famous hotels, casinos, and nightlife venues — sites that attract 32 million tourists each year.  The Strip can be exciting to visit, but as a local I rarely go there — instead my friends and I enjoy nature, recreational activities, and supporting local musicians and small businesses in our town of Henderson, a beautiful city of 334,000 people about 15 miles from Las Vegas. Since I moved to upstate New York for college, it’s been exciting coming back to my hometown for a break and rediscovering all of my favorite things to do.

There are endless hidden gems outside of the Strip to enjoy — here are some of my favorite off-the-radar places to see and fun activities that I recommend visitors add to their Las Vegas itinerary. For less-crowded shopping, I go to the District Green Valley Ranch mall. Shop without the crowds at the District Green Valley Ranch.

Kit Leong/ShutterstockI live right next to the District Green Valley Ranch, which is a casual outdoor mall in Henderson about 15 minutes from the Strip. Although the stores aren’t as upscale as those at the popular Fashion Show Mall, there’s still plenty of shopping and dining options and I prefer to come here to avoid throngs of tourists. There are casual sit-down restaurants like the Cheesecake Factory and P.

F. Chang’s, and there’s also a casino called the Green Valley Ranch that’s popular with locals as it’s not as hectic as the casinos on the Strip. I like to come here on the weekends instead of the Strip to shop and eat with friends because it’s much less crowded and has more space to walk around.

In late summer and early fall, we like to attend the mall’s concert series called Music in the Courtyard, where local musicians perform on Friday and Saturday evenings in the mall’s main courtyard. In my experience, the District makes for a much more enjoyable shopping experience than stores on the Strip.  I love wandering the botanical garden and grounds at Springs Preserve.

Learn about desert plants and wildlife at Springs Preserve. Salomée LevyAs a kid, Springs Preserve was one of my favorite places to go for elementary school field trips. Located six miles away from the Strip, it’s a 180-acre nature preserve that has unique gardens, galleries, outdoor events, and several miles of nature trails.

Every time I come back to Nevada for a break from college, I make it a point to visit Springs Preserve and always learn something new about nature, whether by visiting the butterfly habitat or reading signs about the plants in the Mojave cactus and succulent collection.  I usually just walk around the gardens at my own pace, but there are also guided tours held Thursday through Monday for visitors interested in learning more about the local plants and wildlife. I recommend reserving tickets online as there’s a limited number available each day, and try to plan your visit for a cooler day — the guided tours are canceled when the temperature outside reaches 105 degrees.

For an adrenaline kick, try flyboarding over Lake Las Vegas. Lake Las Vegas is home to resorts, restaurants, golf courses, and more. Kit Leong/ShutterstockLake Las Vegas is a manmade lake about a 30-minute drive outside of Las Vegas, surrounded by resorts, luxury real estate, restaurants, golf courses, and boats.

I like to take friends and family visiting from out of town here for an outing, and they always tell me they’d never heard of Lake Las Vegas before I showed them. If you’re looking for adventure, I recommend trying flyboarding with Lake Las Vegas Water Sports. It’s a 25-minute experience that includes 10 minutes of instruction and 15 minutes of flying over the lake.

Despite being someone who’s never done water sports and is terrified of getting on a skateboard, I wanted to go flyboarding because I figured the worst that could happen would be falling into the water. It took me a minute to get comfortable with being so high in the air, which was both scary and thrilling, but it was definitely worth it to feel like I was flying. The experience costs $79 per person, and is a great way to squeeze in an adrenaline rush on your trip.

If you’re missing your pet at home, visit with cats available for adoption at Rescued Treasures Cat Cafe. Visit with adoptable pets at Rescued Treasures Cat Cafe. Cathy VandivortRescued Treasures Cat Cafe is a cafe located about 20 minutes north of Las Vegas that lets visitors play with cats available for adoption.

It’s run by Protecting Animal Life Nevada, a local organization dedicated to helping unwanted and abandoned animals. I’m not a cat person, but I knew I wanted to check out and support this cafe since I admire their mission to care for stray cats. For $12 per person, you can book a one hour cafe session with the cats.

There are food and drink items available for purchase, and two free snacks (I had a soda and a bag of chips) are included with your reservation. I played checkers with one of the cats during a game-night themed event last year, and currently the cafe hosts yoga sessions with the cats on Sunday and Monday. Be sure to make reservations online before visiting.

 Town Square is one of my go-to malls, and it has an Instagram-inspired museum that’s perfect for photoshoots. Town Square has shopping and dining, a movie theatre, and the Selfie WRLD museum. Kit Leong/ShutterstockWhen I was shopping at the Town Square mall with friends, we decided to check out Selfie WRLD, an interactive, Instagrammable museum that opened last year.

It has a variety of themed rooms designed to take pictures in. My friends and I had great time exploring the different rooms — there’s one decorated to look like the interior of a private jet, another filled with neon lights, and another resembling a 1950s diner. We played with props like old telephones in the Hotline Bling room and handcuffs in the Fashion Jail room, and pretended we were in a television series.

Whether you want to come here to shoot aesthetic photos for your Instagram feed or just to feel like you’re in a music video, Selfie WRLD is an entertaining stop.  I visit the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory when I’m craving something sweet.

Tour the Ethel M Chocolate factory to sample small-batch sweets and see chocolatiers at work. Kit Leong/ShutterstockI fell in love with chocolate when my kindergarten class took a tour of Henderson’s Ethel M Chocolate Factory. It’s been open since 1981 and produces hand-crafted, small-batch chocolates.

I recently visited the factory again and took myself on the free self-guided tour, which led past the viewing aisle where I saw into the kitchen and admired the chocolatiers preparing truffles with caramel filling. They sell a variety of premium sweets, from truffles and chocolate bars to pecan brittle. Outside of the factory, there’s a botanical cactus garden that’s decorated with holiday lights between November and January — I love to visit the garden this time of year to admire the lights with a cup of fresh hot chocolate in hand.

On extra hot days, I cool off on the water slides at Cowabunga Bay. Spend a relaxing afternoon in the wave pool at Cowabunga Bay. Salomée LevyDuring the summer for an escape from the Nevada heat, my friends and I like to go to Cowabunga Bay, a 23-acre water park in Henderson less than 20 miles from Las Vegas.

Cowabunga Bay has kid-friendly splash and wave pools, as well as more thrilling waterslide rides for big kids and adults. Our favorite ride is the Wild Surf slide, which is a raft ride where you slide 60 feet down into a massive wave. The Surfin’ USA is another waterslide that you ride down face-first, and I also always lounge in the Surf-A-Rama wave pool and the lazy river.

I recommend Cowabunga Bay to visitors looking for a full- or half-day activity that won’t break the bank — the Any Day Ticket is $33 per person and includes access to the park’s attractions, live entertainment, and free tubes all day to use in the pools. There are several beverage and food stands throughout the park, offering items like burgers, hot dogs, salads, and more — I usually get a hot dog with some fries from Duke’s Surfside Snacks. For a Friday night outing, my friends and I enjoy karaoke at Back to the ’80s Cafe.

Enjoy milkshakes and burgers in this ’80s-style cafe. Ron E. MullinsI grew up in the 2000s but have always loved watching ’80s movies, so Back to the ’80s Cafe in the town of Paradise, about 15 minutes south of Las Vegas, is one of my favorite places to go out.

This cafe makes me feel I’ve traveled back in time — the interior is designed like an ’80s style diner with light blue booths, pink walls, a black and white checkered floor, posters of artists from the ’80s, and neon colored tables. The servers also dress in ’80s fashion. The cafe has karaoke on Friday nights, which is when my friends and I usually go to sing our favorite oldies.

The menu has diner-style eats like chicken wings, sandwiches and burgers, and signature milkshakes. I usually get tater tots and the Captain Crunch milkshake, which is Captain Crunch cereal blended with vanilla ice cream and topped with whipped cream and caramel. I also recommend the Captain Crunch cake ice cream sandwich for those with a sweet tooth — it’s Captain Crunch baked into a cake, deep fried, and made into an ice cream sandwich.

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