Try it at night
My most memorable arrival in Vegas was at night, via freight train from Salt Lake city. Miles and miles and miles of nothing but dark empty desert in ever direction.
Then, waaaaaayyyy up ahead you could just make out this bright, neon glow that got bigger and bigger and bigger . . .
It felt like something out of a fantasy novel, like coming up on a secret kingdom that had just magically sprouted out of nothing in the middle of a wasteland.
And with free alcohol!