Wanting to travel to Africa and see animals in their natural habitat, or go on a rocket ship and walk on the moon? Can’t afford the time or money? A new exhibit in Las Vegas, Illuminarium at the famous Area 15 will allow you to do that in less than a couple of hours, and for 1/100 of the money. Beautiful artwork created by Georgia O’Keeffe gives you the chance.
I toured Illuminarium this week just after they opened at 11 a.m. with the group sales manager, Susan Thomason. She let me wander through the adventures before it opened to the public. This brand new $30 million dollar building next to Area 15, when it comes to parking, is a great new venue and adventure to see if you are in Las Vegas. It offers the latest in technology, presenting an immersive 360-degree cinematic entertainment experience. The attraction has larger-than-life projections, which integrates a sensory space of sight and sound. Their video is shown in a 10,000 square-foot room, letting guests see through the use of 4K laser projection, 3D audio, in-floor vibration, and even scent.
The CEO Alan Greenberg describes Illuminarium as “a place that can take you any place. It’s a combination of design, technology, content, and partners that all come together to do that, and it’s a combination of sight, sound, and sense of scale. Those things come together with extraordinary content.”
The room is 220-feet long. There is limited seating, but it is best to walk around the room from end to end as the video is playing. Every few feet gives a whole new angle. You can see the sights and sound of a beautiful landscape, no matter which of the experiences you are viewing. There are no 3D glasses with this experience, simply the giant screens. Guests may take their time as they wander inside the attraction, which will last approximately 45 to 60 minutes.
The attraction opened in late April and offers four unique experiences: SPACE: A Journey to the Moon and Beyond, WILD: A Safari Experience, O’KEEFFE: One Hundred Flowers, and Illuminarium After Dark.
In WILD: A Safari Experience you come right up close with the world’s most exotic animals in their natural habitats. Majestic landscapes such as a Savanna sunrise and a Kenyan sky lit up by stars. The animals are featured in their native environments across Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya, and Rwanda along with rare silverback mountain gorillas, elephants, giraffes, lions, hippos, and gazelles.
SPACE: A Journey to the Moon and Beyond is a trip across the galaxy. Guests fly through a technicolor nebula, see Saturn’s rings up close and shoot through an asteroid belt.
Illuminarium After Dark is a nightly nightlife experience for those over 21, and is in the next room. Visitors can time their own experience going to either of the rooms. In the After Dark space different locations are recreated, including the night markets of Tokyo, the floral gardens of France, and deep underground crystal caverns. A full bar serves a selection of specialty cocktails and small bites from Lumin Café and Kitchen.
O’KEEFFE: One Hundred Flowers is an explosion of color recreating one of the best-selling art books of all time by the same artist. A series of evolving visual landscapes shows many of her art works.
James Beard Award-nominated husband-wife business partners Elizabeth Blau and Chef Kim Canteenwalla of Blau + Associates created Lumin Café and Kitchen.
The menu offers breakfast items such as a breakfast sandwich, Greek yogurt parfait, and berry smoothie; fish and chips and Korean fried chicken; Lumin burgers; dark chocolate chip cookies, s’mores nachos and milkshakes; and late-night items such as hot chicken sliders and crispy arancini.
General admission tickets for the shows are $40. After Dark tickets, which include a show and one cocktail, are $60. Plan a visit to the Illuminarium Las Vegas to experience an out-of-this-world trip.
