By Samah Khan.
Islamic Travel Columnist

Las Vegas. Probably one of the last locations to come to mind of any Muslim planning a vacation in the USA, but that’s not surprising. When advertisements for Las Vegas are shown, images of people dancing at high-end clubs, winning big at casinos and enjoying alcoholic drinks usually dominate and it gives a clear reason for Muslims to steer clear of this place. After all, as a place that is usually referred to as Sin City, it’s enough to make any Muslim think twice.

However, my friends and I didn’t have to. Las Vegas had been a place that I had been longing to go for years, but for all the right reasons. I wanted to taste the authentic Mexican food that Vegas had become famous for, visit the famous water-immersed mall and just go sight-seeing in general.

During the 2013 winter holidays, my friends and I took a two week vacation to California, but we also planned a day trip, within those two weeks, to Las Vegas since it was located nearby.

We had prayed Fajr and hopped on the coach bus spending the five hour-long commute excited about what we would do once we got there. Praying on the bus posed an issue since we could not stand up, so we compensated by praying salah al Qasr sitting down. Once we had arrived, we flagged a taxi that took us to an open mall. We shopped in familiar stores such as Forever 21 and Michael Kors and continued waking on our way, mainly just sigh seeing and taking photos. We had prayed travelling salah, taking turns in a corner of one of the shops.

Every shop was decorated with Christmas decorations and it was a bit strange seeing palm trees and sunny weather along with a gigantic Christmas tree in the center of the mall. We continued strolling down the strip and took pictures of places that stood out, such as Senor Frog, a restaurant that was already decorated for New Year’s Eve, the famous Palazzo hotel and Caesar’s Palace. We were getting hungry and decided to dine in a well-known restaurant that specialized in Mexican cuisine.

After dinner, we headed over to MGM studios to watch the David Copperfield Show, which was a two hour long magic show. It was a bit boring for the most part, but it got interesting near the end when David Copperfield asked a few audience member to join him on stage, one of which was my friend. He made them sit on chairs and covered them completely with cloths. He then proceeded to mutter some words and yelled, “TA DA”, as we watched at the cloths crumple over the chairs. Surprised at where our friend had gone, we made our way outside, after the show ended, only to find her waiting for us near the exit. Fueled with curiosity we asked her multiple times where she had gone, but she kept repeating that she was told not to tell anyone. What we managed to get out of her was that someone had whispered to her saying, “go through here”, and she felt as though she was going through a dark alleyway. So much for magic.

After the show, we hurried our way to the Venetian’s Grand Canal Shoppes to take a relaxing ride in a gondola. We made it there only to find out that it was closed. Slightly disappointed, we made our way to back to the coach buses and headed on our way back to California. Las Vegas had ultimately been an unforgettable experience.

Having traveled to Las Vegas, I can say that there are numerous activities that Muslims can do once there. Looking at Las Vegas in a Muslim context, everyone that we had interacted with were very friendly and hospitable. There is much more to the city than clubbing and gambling and can definitely be Muslim-friendly.