Smart Phone

First, the good news. There are a ton of new Las Vegas travel apps for your mobile device. The bad news? There are a ton of new Las Vegas travel apps. Some are useful but many are little more than time-sucking screen clutter. Amid the profusion, we’ve picked out a few winners.

Best of the best

Our pick for the best Vegas travel app is Viva Las Vegas, Baby! In this handy tool, guidebook author and Sin City junkie Sara Benson offers up witty and well-informed reviews of all things Vegas, from nightclubs and new restaurants to dive bars and desert cycling. Illustrated with thousands of high-quality photos, this app’s up-to-date calendar listings, hidden gems and tourist trap warnings are especially useful. (Beware “free” limo rides to strip joints and poker tables with 6:5 odds.) And here’s a killer feature: Send a question or comment to the author and get a personal reply within 24 hours.
$2.99 for iPhone, iPad and Android

Public art

There’s no law that says you can’t get a side dish of culture with your heaping plate of wanton excess. Las Vegas has an impressive array of free public art, but it helps to know what you’re looking at. The “Statue Guide” on the Caesars Palace app offers intelligent descriptions of all those reproductions of Greco-Roman statues scattered about the property. (The headless gal wading in the pool? Nike, the Greek goddess of victory.) The CityCenter Fine Art Collection app, meanwhile, is a pocket museum docent, with in-depth details about works by Maya Lin, Claes Oldenburg and more than a dozen other prominent artists.
Both free for iPhone and iPad

Wynn Poker

Wynn Las Vegas has one of the classiest poker rooms in Vegas. So it’s little surprise that the Wynn Poker app sets the standard for all competitors. It’s all live, so you’ll find out how many games and of which type are going on 24/7, as well as the odds for each game and the number of players on the waiting list.
Free for iPhone and iPad

—Anne Burke, Custom Publishing Writer