When you’re consistently at the top of Sin City’s must-visit lists, it’s a little bit of a stretch to call yourself ghostbar, but things do get pretty spirited at the Palms 55th-floor lounge, so we’ll let it slide.

In fact, of all the nightclub and nightlife offerings at the Palms, ghostbar might just be the most low-key-in-a-high-energy way of all of them. Didn’t follow that? We’ll explain.

Ghostbar isn’t huge. It’s around the size you wish your living room were, if you were going to throw a house party that felt intimate, yet still included 300 of your closest friends.

Like we mentioned, it’s 55 stories up and, for obvious reasons, this lends itself to an amazing view. You get the Vegas panorama, from outside or inside, but the best view in the whole place doesn’t look out, but down.

The ghostbar patio has a transparent floor section that looks down on to the pool area. You can stand on it and conquer your fear of heights in one crazy Vegas night. Or you can make your fear of heights worse, but at least you have a neat story and maybe a new Facebook picture.

There’s a lot of debate on dancing at ghostbar – we’ve seen it, but don’t count on it. The whole place is more of a lounge than anything – despite the presence of tunes (mash ups, hip-hop, rock) that usually lead to awkward feet shuffling or that thing other people do where they move in time to the music and it looks really cool.

The furniture, lighting, decorations, everything, all look like something out the future as it was envisioned in the 1960s – defined shapes and bold or metallic colors.

In a strike against whoever decided that sitting down in Vegas nightclubs was a no-no, there’s ample seating at ghostbar, although we will say that it’s not the easiest in the world to get. Your best bet? Shelling out for a table with bottle service.

The ghostbar customers, as we’ve witnessed them, are usually two types of people:

• People who have already done and are already over the traditional Vegas nightclub scene, but still want to party
• People who have no interest in the traditional Vegas nightclub scene, but still want to party

From that, it’s pretty easy to figure out what’s at the heart and soul of ghostbar – a nightclub, but without all the hassle. You still need to put on a nice shirt and upgrade your Chuck Taylors to some dress shoes, but it’s not the three-ring circus that some of the mega-clubs are.

Basically, there are people who believe in ghostbar and people who don’t. And just like real ghosts, you have to see it to believe it.

– Review by Jamie Helmick