I flew across the country to spend 48 hours in Las Vegas. Here are 4 things that were worth it and 4 that weren't.

This weekend, F1 fans can expect a visually enthralling experience, as custom real-time content tracks across the world’s largest LED screen of the Sphere, as part of the official broadcast for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

The newest new thing in Las Vegas is the glow dome, the Sphere. Some 18,000 fans a night have made the pilgrimage to see U2 at the Sphere since September. Yet when the band shot their new music video, “Atomic City,” U2 went to downtown Las Vegas, founded 1905, to film in front of the Plaza Hotel and its Carousel Bar.

Maybe this inaugural Formula 1 race in Las Vegas isn’t going to be the boon that people thought it was. 

A potential strike that could have crippled the Las Vegas Strip was averted when Caesars Entertainment, MGM Resorts and Wynn Resorts was able to cut deals with the Culinary and Bartenders Unions. 

I visit Las Vegas every year, sometimes for business and other times for vacation.

When my grandmother proposed a girls' trip to Las Vegas to celebrate her 91st birthday, I knew I had to go with my mom, three of my aunts, and my cousin.

Next Saturday at 10 p.m. local time—that’s 1 a.m. on Sunday for East Coast night owls—Formula 1 racing will return to Sin City after a 40-year hiatus with the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix. Set against a neon-drenched cityscape, the high-octane spectacle will see 20 drivers take 50 laps around the 3.8-mile street circuit, with its 17 turns winding past the new MSG Sphere. After two quick bends and a hard left, it’s a straight shot down the Las Vegas Strip at speeds up to 212 m.p.h., racing past the Venetian and Caesars Palace and zipping between the famed Bellagio fountains and the Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas.

I’m a U2 fan. So when tickets went on sale on April 27 at a new, not-yet-open dome-shaped Las Vegas entertainment facility called The Sphere, I went to the Ticketmaster Web site. I ended up with four seats for the Irish band’s October 27th show. Tickets in the near-nosebleed 400 section were a reasonable $140, including Ticketmaster’s notorious fees.

It's easy to think MGM Resorts is playing a game of financially troublesome whack-a-mole.

Las Vegas likes to gamble, and the opening of The Sphere arena in September was certainly a gamble for its operator. Fresh data shared on Wednesday highlighted the risks and potential rewards.

At 27 years old, I completed my wanderlust dream of traveling to every country in the world as a solo female traveler. To be exact, I've visited all 193 sovereign nations — plus Taiwan, Kosovo, and Palestine. Then, by the age of 30, I achieved my athletic dream of becoming an Ironman. I find great fulfillment in inspiring and educating young women to get out and pursue their passions — or whatever gets them excited in life.  

The city of Las Vegas is so enamored with hosting a Formula 1 Grand Prix race that it is willing to make alterations as needed.