What Laughlin is and who it suits
Laughlin is a one-road town of nine casino-resorts strung along the west bank of the Colorado River at the southern tip of Nevada, where the state meets Arizona and California. Don Laughlin bought a bankrupt motel here in 1966 and the town that grew around it kept his name and his idea: cheap rooms, cheap food, looser slots and a river to sit beside. It is the anti-Strip — no resort fees at some properties, $50 weeknight rooms, buffets at prices the Strip abandoned a decade ago and a crowd that skews older, RV-borne and unhurried.
Who should go: anyone who wants a slow riverside day at a fraction of Strip prices, snowbirds and retirees who like the pace, motorcyclists (the Laughlin River Run in spring is one of the largest bike rallies in the West), and travellers driving on to Arizona or the Route 66 corridor anyway. Who should not: first-time visitors with three days who want the Las Vegas experience; you will spend four hours in a car to reach a smaller, quieter version of what you left. It is a good overnight and a reasonable day trip, not a headline attraction.
The drive: 95 miles and 90 minutes south
From the Strip, take I-11/US-93 south past Boulder City and over the Colorado at the Hoover Dam bypass bridge into Arizona, continue on US-93 for about 40 miles, then turn southwest on AZ-68 through the Black Mountains to Bullhead City and cross the Laughlin Bridge back into Nevada. Total about 95 miles and 90 minutes to two hours. The alternative via US-95 south through Searchlight and NV-163 is a few miles shorter and entirely in Nevada, with a wild descent through the Newberry Mountains at the end; both are good two-lane roads, and doing one out and the other back makes a loop.
Fuel and food are available in Boulder City, Searchlight (a single station and café) and Bullhead City, which has everything. Arizona does not observe daylight saving time, so from March to November Bullhead City and Laughlin are effectively on the same clock, while in winter Arizona is an hour ahead; it only matters if you book anything on the Arizona side. There is also a scheduled coach from the Strip to Laughlin, which some casinos subsidise as a "fun bus" for gamblers, and a small airport in Bullhead City that some resorts serve with charter flights from other cities.
What to do: the Riverwalk, the water taxi and the river itself
The town's spine is the Laughlin Riverwalk, a paved promenade along the bank linking most of the casinos, shaded in places and lit at night; walking it end to end is about two miles and passes every property. Water taxis shuttle between the casino docks for a few dollars a ride and are the pleasant way to hop between them. The river is clear, cold (it comes straight from the bottom of Davis Dam, a few miles upstream) and swimmable in summer from the small beaches by the Riverside and the Edgewater; in the heat, floating a few hundred yards downstream on a rented tube is the local sport.
Beyond the casinos: the Riverside's classic car collection and vintage slot displays (free), the Colorado Belle's paddlewheeler shell (now closed, but still the town landmark), the Laughlin Outlet Center for bargain shopping, and the Big Bend of the Colorado State Recreation Area just south of town, a quiet beach and boat launch with a modest day-use fee. Davis Dam, at the top of town, has a viewpoint and is the reason Lake Mohave exists upstream; a short drive to Katherine Landing on the lake gives you boat rentals and a marina café.
Jet boat tours to Lake Havasu and the London Bridge
The best excursion out of Laughlin is the jet boat run south down the Colorado to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and its famous relocated London Bridge — the 1831 original, bought and rebuilt stone by stone in 1971. The boats leave from the casino docks in the morning, cover 58 miles of river in about two hours each way through the Topock Gorge (bighorn sheep, cliffs, wild burros) and give you two to three hours in Lake Havasu City for lunch and the bridge before returning in the afternoon. As of 2026 the round trip runs roughly $90–$140 per person; check operators for the current schedule, which typically runs from spring to autumn.
Shorter options include 45-minute to 90-minute river sightseeing cruises from the docks (roughly $20–$40) and dinner cruises on selected nights. Kayak and paddleboard rentals are available at the Riverside and along the bank; the current is gentle enough to paddle upstream toward Davis Dam and drift back. Fishing for striped bass and trout below the dam is a serious local pursuit; a Nevada or Arizona licence is required depending on which bank you fish from.
Oatman and the Route 66 detour
Twenty-five miles southeast of Laughlin via AZ-95 and the old Oatman Highway is the town that makes a Laughlin day trip worth it for many people: Oatman, Arizona, a gold-mining camp on the original Route 66 where the descendants of the miners' burros wander the single street begging carrots from tourists. It is unashamedly touristy — staged gunfights on weekends, souvenir shops in the old assay office, the hotel where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard honeymooned — but the burros are real, the road up through the Black Mountains is genuinely dramatic and the Sitgreaves Pass beyond it is one of the finest surviving stretches of the Mother Road.
Allow two to three hours for the round trip from Laughlin including an hour in town. The road is paved but narrow and twisty, unsuitable for RVs and nerve-testing for anyone who dislikes drop-offs. Buy burro feed in town (roughly $2–$5 a bag) rather than offering them anything else, and keep an eye on small children — the burros are pushy. Combined with the river, Oatman turns Laughlin from a casino stop into a real Southwest day.
Tour versus self-drive, costs and time needed
Self-drive is the answer here. The roads are easy, a rental car is the only way to add Oatman or Katherine Landing, and the day is built around stopping. The casino-sponsored coaches from the Strip are cheap (sometimes effectively free with a slot voucher) but run on a fixed schedule with a long stay at one property; guided small-group tours combining Laughlin with Oatman and Route 66 exist but are rare, typically around $150–$250 per person as of 2026; check operators. Our car rental guide covers rental costs.
Laughlin is cheap once there: rooms roughly $40–$120 a night midweek and $80–$200 on weekends and rally dates as of 2026, buffets and casino cafés at $15–$30, water taxis a few dollars, the river free. The Lake Havasu jet boat is the one big-ticket item. Time needed: a day trip is seven to ten hours door to door with the Riverwalk, a river cruise and Oatman; an overnight lets you add the jet boat and the sunset on the bank, which is the town at its best. Peak crowds come in winter (snowbirds) and during the River Run and other rally weekends, when rooms triple; summer weekdays are empty and very hot.
Best season and what to pack
October to April is the comfortable season and the busy one; the river town is a winter refuge for the RV crowd. Summer is brutally hot — Laughlin regularly posts the highest temperature in Nevada — but the river is 60°F and the casinos are air-conditioned, so a July visit works if you treat it as a swim-and-slots day and do Oatman at 8 a.m. Spring brings the bike rally and the river's best swimming; autumn is quiet and pleasant.
Pack a swimsuit and water shoes (the riverbank is rocky), sunscreen, a hat, a light jacket for the air-conditioned casinos and winter evenings, cash for the water taxis and burro feed, and photo ID for everything on the casino floor. If you drive the Oatman road, bring a full tank and patience. The general packing list covers the rest, and our budget guide explains why a night here can subsidise the rest of a trip.
Combining Laughlin with Hoover Dam and beyond
The US-93 route passes within minutes of Hoover Dam, so a dam tour in the morning and Laughlin by early afternoon is a natural pairing, returning via US-95 and Searchlight after dark. Boulder City is the breakfast stop. Travellers heading for the Grand Canyon can use Laughlin as a base: Kingman and the I-40 corridor to Williams and the South Rim are two to three hours away, with the Route 66 towns of Seligman and Peach Springs on the way, and the West Rim is reachable back up US-93.
The Lake Havasu jet boat covers the river south; for the river north, Lake Mead and the Black Canyon kayak trip are the better option and closer to the Strip. If your time is short, our day trips ranking will tell you honestly that Laughlin comes after the parks — but for a cheap overnight with a river and a road trip through Oatman, it earns its place.
