IF you're a traveller interested in Las Vegas and its environs, some recent studies reveal lively facts that can help make your next trip more enjoyable.

There are two publications whose entire editorial focus is based on what's happening in the state with the 25-hour day. In fact, one of them is aptly titled What's On - The Vegas Guide. Published every two weeks, around 200 pages focus on nightclub acts, personality pieces, restaurants, shops, gambling tips, local and state-wide attractions.

The other is Nevada Magazine, a colourful monthly collection of the entire state's offerings. It explores not only Las Vegas, but remote mining towns, unique frontier museums and features pioneer tales worthy of Hollywood attention.

Both regularly cover what seems to be the most universally popular subject in the state . . . even more than casinos . . . the best breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets. In truth, so much emphasis is put on food here that I'll wager some visitors never get near a roulette wheel or blackjack table. One such visitor is writing this article, in fact!

Nevada Magazine is just out with its annual, stop-the-presses "Best of Nevada" readers' awards. It's interesting that the best buffet award once again goes to Rio's Carnival World Buffet in Las Vegas. It's been a few years since I first asked my taxi driver - that most versatile of all information services - where he takes his wife for a special dinner.

"No question . . . it's Rios." So off we went and learned bountiful was a gross understatement. It continues to "reign supreme" in this category. Be warned: bring a big appetite, also a dose of some Gavison-like product since it takes rare supreme will-power not to overindulge.

In Reno, readers voted Peppermill's Island Buffet a winner. I'm personally partial to Eldorado's, whose buffet rooms resemble a Tuscan garden. Top choice in the state's rural area was Canon Cove Buffet at Cactus Pete's in Jackpot.

Okay, now you're well fed and ready to walk off those excess calories. How about a museum? For the fifth consecutive year, as long as these "readers' best" choices have been printed, Liberace Museum was voted Southern Nevada's best, with its collection of "glittering costumes, dazzling jewels, spectacular pianos, exotic cars and rare antiques".

Sounds like a lot of adjectives, doesn't it . . . but remember this is Las Vegas, home of glitter. Nothing here is low- profile.

RENO'S National Automobile Museum was voted tops in the north and Tonopah's Historic Mining Park received accolades for the rural category. Tonopah covers 130 acres of the original mining district and includes both mines and equipment.

Best hotel is a very personal choice. Bellagio narrowly surged ahead of Mandalay Bay, with Peppermill voted best in Reno and Caesar's Tahoe just edging out Harrah's Lake Tahoe in the popular Stateline-Tahoe area. Minden's Carson Valley Inn was a repeater as best rural hotel.

This writer's preferences included Las Vegas' Four Seasons and Tahoe's Embassy Suites, partly because they don't have casinos and are quieter retreats.

Okay, so you're not going to Vegas to retreat. If it's adventure you're seeking, Lake Mead Cruises with its jet ski tours, eco-tours and paddle-wheeler cruises was rated a winner.

Best saloon was Brew Brothers at the Eldorado in Reno, with Sundance helicopters flying off to the Grand Canyon best in its category.

Rio rated tops among readers as not only the friendliest casino in Vegas, but the place where voters like to place their bets. Carson Valley Inn captured those same categories in rural Nevada.

Again, best entertainer is a very personal choice . . . but for the fifth year in a row, Wayne Newton took top honours. Although I've never seen his show, I did have dinner at his large ranch, admired his prize thoroughbred horses and was impressed by his very modest demeanour and gracious attention as a host.

You soon learn from reading Nevada Magazine and What's On there's a lot more to life in this state than gambling and glittering nightclub shows . . . although both cover that side of the story in very glossy detail. They're also big on profiles, ranging from actors who were there so much it seemed like their second home . . . Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Dean Martin to name a few.

What's On focused on Charo's new act and the ageless vitality of the Spanish-born "cuchi cuchi" girl. I first saw her with husband Xavier Cugat's Latin-beat band in the States eons ago and most recently in Hawaii where she regularly performed. This time around the ageless bundle of energy is at the Sahara Congo Room.

What's On strongly emphasises the entertainment side of the fast-growing city, just about everything that happens there. It's like a very complete, constantly updated guidebook including everything from the cost and hours of a specific buffet to best places to shop and what to buy.

Nevada Magazine on the other hand focuses on the entire state of Nevada and a mining frontier history with enough plots to fill a whole library full of Hollywood productions . . . which it definitely has. They recall many of those films, write about the stars, what they did, where they filmed.

THEIR publication tends to divide attention between Las Vegas and what some like to all "the real Nevada". So much worldwide attention is focused on the neon strip that people tend to forget Nevada is a vast, super-scenic mountain state with regions so undeveloped that a sort of competition exists to discover "the loneliest road in America" there.

There's obviously a reason why it's called "The Silver State". Great Basin National Park sprawls across this state's border into Utah, the Pony Express regularly galloped through parts of it and portions of that route can still be retraced by adventure travellers. The Union Pacific Railroad played a role in its early history and, of course, Hoover Dam helped harness the Colorado River as part of a western-wide dam building project that now is under review. Depending on the security level of alert, visitors can drive out from Las Vegas to view the dam and visit its museum.

If you're bound for Death Valley, the most super-scenic way to get there is via the back-country gravel road connecting out of Beatty. And who hasn't heard of Area 51, the mysterious, off-limits government area that parallels what UFO enthusiasts call "the Alien Highway". Expect to find plenty of observers out there with binoculars and night scopes at the ready.

The 3.5 million-acre expanse of Nellis Air Force Base stretches nearly to Death Valley and the California border. H-bombs, Stealth fighters, U-2 spy planes and who knows what else have called this top-secret testing ground home.

There are a number of resorts on Lake Mead, as well as houseboat rentals. The Valley of Fire certainly deserves a visit, and so does Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. These two consistently vie for top honours, with Red Rock a narrow winner this year. There are rodeos, camel races in historic Virginia City and superb boating on Lake Tahoe. What we haven't yet mentioned is golf. Bali Hai Golf Club south of Mandalay Bay on the Las Vegas Strip rated best in this survey. In northern Nevada the Red Hawk Golf Club in Wingfield Springs north of Sparks was the golfers' choice. Best rural course was Golf Club at Genoa Lakes, which also won last year.

THIS year the mining town of Goldfield celebrates its centennial. In its glory days, mines there produced $15 million in gold during their first two years of operation, starting in 1902. Skiers flock to Heavenly whose challenging ski slopes also lure between-season summer hikers to Lake Tahoe.

Mark Twain helped put Virginia City on the map and it's still there. In fact, it was the overwhelming choice as "best historic site" in the recent survey. It still has wooden sidewalks and frontier storefronts.

Lake Tahoe was way up top in categories "Best Place To Take A Photograph . . . Horseback Ride . . . Boat . . . Take Kids and Camp". We've barely scratched the surface. Louis' Basque Corner was Reno's best Basque restaurant and Meadowood Mall was a Reno choice for shoppers.

Reno itself was voted friendliest town (but I still vividly remember signs in every hotel and motel parking lot there warning car owners to beware of car thieves). We finally opted to stay outside town at a new Residence Inn.

There's still more to cover yet another time.

Factfile: If you're a real Vegas addict, What's On is published every two weeks. For subscription information call 1-880-494-2876; web site: http://www.ilovevegas.com

Nevada Magazine, published bi-monthly; www.nevadamagazine.com; 1-880-495-3281. Unfortunately, overseas rates are pricier than domestically because of air mail postage, but these can be picked up by travellers at newsstands in Nevada.

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