Bored and broke? There are plenty of things to do in Las Vegas

Las Vegas can't get your money if you don't have any. The bad news, of course, is that your entertainment options are somewhat limited.

But they still exist. You just have to know where to look. Here are some free and inexpensive ways for you to spend your days (or, ahem, years) off.

CRYSTALS AT CITYCENTER

3720 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Hours: 10 a.m.-midnight daily

Cost: Free (590-9299)

Forget New York-New York. The real Manhattan experience has finally hit Vegas. Crystals is 500,000 square feet of dramatic architecture and Museum of Modern Art-worthy sculpture. Inside is a 21st-century park with hanging gardens and flower carpets, high-end eateries and 23 shops -- including Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton, Cartier and Porsche Design -- that sell things even some millionaires can't afford.

If you feel extra broke around all this excess, there's comfort to take. CityCenter isn't exactly flush with cash, either.

HISTORIC RAILROAD TRAIL

Lakeshore Drive, a quarter mile south of U.S. 93, Boulder City

Hours: Dawn to dark daily

Cost: Free (293-8990)

The tracks were dismantled in 1962. But you can make your own -- by foot or bike -- through five former railroad tunnels used to help construct the Hoover Dam. You'll see bighorn sheep, ravens and lizards -- and hopefully no oncoming headlights -- on your 4.5-mile hike to Lake Mead.

THE ATTIC

1018 S. Main St.

Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays

Cost: Free (388-4088)

Less a store than a 10,000-square-foot time portal, The Attic features thousands of vintage-clothing articles as well as museumlike pieces including a 1945 Zenith tabletop radio, 1940s Westinghouse electric stove and a 1969 Rockola jukebox.

SOUTHERN NEVADA ZOOLOGICAL-BOTANICAL PARK

1775 N. Rancho Drive

Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily

Cost: $9, $7 for kids 2-12, free for kids younger than 2 (647-4685)

Everyone knows about the wild animals on the Strip (both in cages and at craps tables). But this is Las Vegas' real secret garden and habitat. Hundreds of critters dot its 3 acres -- including a lion, six Barbary apes, American and Chinese alligators, and Terry the chimpanzee.

PLANETARIUM

College of Southern Nevada

3200 E. Cheyenne Ave., North Las Vegas

Hours: 6 and 7:30 p.m. Fridays, 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays

Cost: $6, $4 for seniors, students and children younger than 12 (651-4759)

It has been here 30 years. Still, many valley residents don't realize they have a planetarium. (Then again, some planets have been around billions of years and astronomers are only discovering them now.) The domed theater, which seats 70, is showing "IBEX: Search for the Edge of the Solar System" (7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays); "Molecularium" (6 p.m. Fridays); "Larry Cat in Space" (3:30 p.m. Saturdays); and "Stargazing" (every performance time).

MILLION DOLLAR DISPLAY COUNTER

Binion's Gambling Hall, 128 Fremont St.

Hours: 10 a.m.-11:30 p.m. daily

Cost: Free (382-1600)

You may need money to earn money, but not to take a photo with it. Binion's allows anyone 21 or older to say cheese with the $1 million cash it has placed in a locked acrylic pyramid atop a poker table. From 1963-2000, the display consisted entirely of $10,000 bills. Now it's a less-special mix of hundreds, twenties, tens, fives and ones. But, you'd better act fast. There's no telling how much longer Binion's can let this sit here, considering the hotel and coffee shop it had to shutter last month.

PINBALL HALL OF FAME

1610 E. Tropicana Ave.

Hours: 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays, 11 a.m.-midnight Fridays and Saturdays

Cost: Free

No matter what the casinos claim, the slot machines with the biggest payoffs are here. This pinball collection allows would-be Tommys not only to relive their acned childhoods, but to do it at the same price: 25 cents for models from the '50s to '80s, 50 cents for the newer ones. And this 10,000-square-foot room actually has windows and a clock!

TROPICANA CINEMAS

3330 E. Tropicana Ave.

Hours: Vary

Cost: $1.50 daily, $1 on Tuesdays (438-3456)

They may not be first-run, but nowhere else in Vegas -- other than the library and basic cable -- will you find cheaper flicks. This week's movies include "Law Abiding Citizen," "Ninja Assassin" and "Planet 51."

BAUMAN RARE BOOKS

The Shoppes at the Palazzo, 3327 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Hours: 10 a.m.-11 p.m. daily

Cost: Free (948-1617)

View documents signed by Lincoln and Napoleon, and not only view but actually leaf through rare tomes such as F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender is the Night" (1934), Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1876) and Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There" (1872). Wash your hands first, though, or your visit may be far from free.

BIRD VIEWING PRESERVE

2400 B Mozer Drive, Henderson

Hours: 7 a.m.-2 p.m.

Cost: Free (267-4180)

This trip's for the birds -- the thousands of migratory waterfowl and feathered desert-dwellers who stop for a different kind of Vegas drink. A .75-mile paved path -- accessible by wheelchair -- winds by nine ponds. This time of year, sightings are heavy on ring-necked, ruddy, wood and other wintering ducks.