If you like to wager, Indio is home to the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, which has 2,000 slots and video poker and 40 table games, including bingo. To learn more about the area, visit the Coachella Valley History Museum on Miles Avenue. The Indio golf menu, please: Heading the list of places to tee up are The Golf Club at Terra Lago, Eagle Falls Golf Course, Indio Golf Course, and Indian Palms Country Club.Ī fun family-oriented activity is the Shields Date Farm, a great educational experience where you can learn how dates are grown and sample a date shake. A unique combination of year-round temperate weather, distinctive desert and mountain terrain, and exceptionally high maintenance standards rewards golfers with fantastic play experiences in and near Indio. The Coachella Valley is home to golf-happy communities like Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, Indian Wells, and La Quinta. Known as the “City of Festivals”, Indio has annual festivals that celebrate Native American culture, hot air ballooning, art, and food. Set in the picturesque Coachella Valley, Indio boasts spectacular panoramas with distant foothills, soft blue skies, and easy access to phenomenal golf courses and other outdoor activities. What Laughlin lacks in Vegas glamour, it makes up for in affordability, scenic beauty and aquatic fun.

If the slots are calling, you'll find plenty of gaming houses, with water shuttles running between them 24/7. Hiking, anyone? Grapevine Canyon awaits you, famous for the Indian markings - some 800 years old - carved into its boulders. For a taste of the Wild West, head to nearby 100-year-old Oatman, where you can catch a mock gunfight and guzzle beer in an old-time saloon. Golfers will enjoy beautiful courses where reasonable green fees stretch their dollars. Not only does Laughlin have the Colorado River for boating, swimming, fishing, waterskiing and other sports, but it also has gorgeous Lake Mohave offering much of the same on a grander scale.

Plus, there's much to do here besides gambling.

Las Vegas? No, but this small gambling town on the banks of the Colorado River offers a taste of Vegas minus the glitz, traffic and high costs.

Hit the casinos, watch big-name entertainment and stay at a themed hotel.

Phoenix area casino resorts