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Las Vegas Sun
One of the main attractions at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville is the volcano that erupts periodically during the evening.
Saturday, March 2, 2013 | 2 a.m.
When planning a trip to Las Vegas, there’s no shortage of travel books and critics guides to help shape your experience. But if you prefer to go the way of popular opinion, look no further than Foursquare’s “Best of” list.
The location-based social networking site crunched the numbers from more than 3 billion location check-ins across the U.S. and tens of millions of user ratings and tips to rank the popularity of restaurants, bars, clubs, music venues and more visited by more than 30 million people worldwide.
Foursquare has published lists for 30 major U.S. cities, including Las Vegas. The rankings are based on users of the site and its mobile app, and factors in location feedback including tips and comments, likes, dislikes and popularity (frequency and number of check-ins) for an overall numerical rating out of 10.
So what are the most popular Las Vegas hotspots among Foursquare users? Here’s a look at the breakdown by site category:
Top Food:
• American: Margaritaville - 9.2
• Steakhouse: Gallagher’s Steakhouse - 9.2
• Asian: Social House - 9.1
• Burgers: Holsteins - 9.0
• Mexican: Pink Taco - 9.1
• Seafood: Rick Moonen RM Seafood 8.9
Top Nightlife:
• Nightclub: Surrender - 9.3
• Bars: Crown & Anchor - 9.3
• Cocktails: Vesper - 8.9
• Beer: Nine Fine Irishmen - 9.2
• Sports bars: Blondies Sports Bar & Grill - 8.3
Top Things to Do:
• Entertainment: Pinball Hall of Fame - 9.3
• Great outdoors: Eiffel Tower Experience - 9.3
• Performing arts: "The Beatles' Love" - 9.1
Best of Resorts:
• The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas - 9.6
• The Bellagio - 9.5
• Palms - 9.4
• Caesars Palace - 9.4
• Encore - 9.4
For a look at the full list, visit Foursquare’s Best of Las Vegas page.
Follow Andrea Domanick on Twitter at @AndreaDomanick and fan her on Facebook at Facebook.com/AndreaDomanick.
The list is pretty meaningless. You have to take into account the type of people who are typically Foursquare users.
Top entertainment: the Pinball Hall of Fame.
Seriously? Who voted for this? I went to that place once last year and I would bet 30 percent of the machines were broken or the flippers were so lazy as to make the games unplayable. I was embarrassed to have stopped there with my out-of-town guests. I felt like apologizing when we left.
In a city like Las Vegas, I'm pretty sure there must be 100 "entertainment" places that rank above this pinball dive.