At first, I wasn’t entirely convinced I could find balance in Sin City: My last pre-pandemic trip here was a nightlife-fueled itinerary for a friend’s 40th birthday party that took days to recover from. Mapping out my trip, I started with the obvious: The palatial spas for which the city is famous. And when I looked beyond them, I was surprised to find so many appealing options that I had to narrow down what a restorative trip might look like for me: Encounters in nature, eye-opening art exhibits, and dining that’s both nourishing and exciting.

Turns out, that is the trend these days: Experiences beyond the spa are part of a new, more holistic definition of wellness that focuses more on balance than restriction, according to Shannon Stringert, the senior director of spa, salon, and fitness at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. I met Stringert in the penthouse spa suite of the resort’s sprawling Sahra spa, inspired by desert cultures around the world. The day before, I had Sahra’s miraculous Decadent Youth Glow Facial that gave my face a noticeable radiance. I was fresh from a restorative yoga class in the resort gym, and was sipping on a green juice from the resort’s Juice Standard shop downstairs.

“Honestly, this is what wellness looked like today for me,” said Stringert, nodding at the quad-shot iced latte in his hands. “You might want to enjoy a night out, but the next morning still make it back into the gym. Sometimes it’s not always about doing the most high intensity workout; some days it’s just about moving your body. Wellness just kind of changes given the environment you’re in, how your body is feeling that day, and what your goals are.”

I considered what Stringert told me about balance the next day at the Spa at Encore as my massage therapist led me down a grand hallway lined with latticed metal lamps made in Morocco. My treatment used warm stones that relaxed my body so thoroughly that it led to one of the most restorative sleeps I’ve had in recent memory. But the next day, all blissed out from a string of spa treatments, yoga classes, nature hikes, and green juices, I realized that it was time to let loose in a different way.

For this, I knew I could count on my brother, a longtime resident who knows where locals play. Justin and I went to Area 15, the city’s new entertainment complex, where we strapped on VR sets and went in search of a lost diamond skull. While there, we also visited Omega Mart, a massive exhibit created by New Mexico-based art collective Meow Wolf. We lost ourselves in the supermarket installation—checkout counters and multistory slides included—which both entertained us and got us thinking about the relationship between product branding and reality. After hours on our feet, we fortified ourselves on generous amounts of flavor-packed siu mai and har gao dumplings at Ping Pang Pong, which took us straight back to our childhood days in Hong Kong.

We continued that celebratory feel on my last night in town at Nobu Restaurant & Lounge in Caesars Palace, tasting the jewel-like presentations of sashimi, including chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s famous yellowtail with yuzu and jalapeño. That such a luxurious, indulgent meal could simultaneously make us feel light and good was the exact kind of happy medium I had traveled for—and found—in Sin City.