Tips for visiting The Neon Museum

If you’re looking for an off-the-strip activity, The Neon Museum is where it’s at. This place is cool – & I mean it! I have been wanting to go here for years and never came around to doing so. It has been on my bucket list, I mention it to friends and family all the time, and find myself pinning pictures from strangers that have been here on the reg. Finally, I decided to pull the plug and look for tickets online. To my surprise, the tickets were pretty cheap and the availability blew my mind. I thought that there was no chance I’d find tickets for a good hour, but low and behold it happened people. Usually, you need to buy tickets a month in advance…

Before I get into my experience here, let’s break down the price, things you should know, and ticket types.

General Admission: This is what I did and highly recommend it. Not only do you get the leisure of walking at your own pace, but you get to take as many photos as you’d like without the worry of keeping up with a group. This option is available (most days) between 9am and 4pm. You get an hour to roam around, but we stayed over an hour and no one said a thing! Yes, we spent over an hour at this museum.

Guided Tour: I thought about this option, but I really wanted to do my own thing here. With the guided tour you a have an interpreter guiding you throughout sharing stories and history of all the signs. Sounds pretty cool if you can listen to someone speak about history for an hour. Not for me, but if you’re into that I have heard nothing but great things and was told the stories are actually pretty cool. I made up my own with each sign. Just saying.

Brilliant: I’ll be honest and say that I have not heard much about this one. According to their site, it is a 30-minute show in their North Gallery that uses light projection to illuminate unrestored signs. They even incorporated music and archival footage into the history of Las Vegas. *incorporates flashing and strobe lights.

Combo: If you’re into listening to someone speak, history, and flashing lights than this one is for you. The combo option basically incorporates the Brilliant ticket along with the guided tour.

Which one will you be doing? I’m curious! 

I highly recommend booking your tickets online and in advance.

Nevada residents, Seniors, Students, Veterans, Active Military, and children (ages 7-17) get in for $17. Regular adult admission is $22. Valid ID required at check-in.

The museum is very close to the Las Vegas Strip and especially close to Downtown. In fact, I believe it is technically considered “Downtown.” Parking is free and located right across from the entrance of the building. Don’t worry, it is easy to find and there seems to always be parking. They say to be sure that you check in on time, but we came a few minutes late and it was not a problem.

Keep in mind that they are quite strict here. Photography is for personal use ONLY. No photoshoots, wedding photography, bar/bat mitzvah pictures allowed…unless given permission. Cameras ARE allowed, but tripods and selfie sticks are forbidden. There words, not mine.

If you’re there for a guided tour, video and any form of recording are not allowed.

My experience at the Neon Museum

My friend and I went together around noon. We showed up a little late as I mentioned above…whoops. It was totally fine and they even let us walk around a few minutes after our hour was up. You will get a feel for when your time is up because everyone you walked in with will have disappeared and a new group is now in taking the same shots you were taking 45 minutes ago. Wild.

I thought I had an idea of what to expect, but I was kind of blown away by it all. It is a lot to take in so I worked really hard on appreciating the history behind it all. The sizes of the signs are incredible and the neon lights are huge! I definitely had some photo ideas in mind because I had been looking at everyone’s shots prior to coming, but decided once I was there to just do my own thing and vibe with the signs I liked. Pretty sure everyone “vibes” with the same-ish signs though…

The Stardust one is pretty popular and can I just say, MASSIVE!!!

Anything pink is my jam so I headed straight for those and practically begged my friend to take a million shots of me before I got the right one. 🙂 Oh, and right as you walk in is where I got one of my favorite shots in front of the old Sahara sign.

Keep in mind that this is outside, so if the weather is wonky or if you’re looking for that great Instagram shot find a good time during the day to go.

Ok, my rant is over! Have you been? I would love to hear your thoughts.

♥, Sivan