Not Only Casinos (Las Vegas)

Member Name: Bridgend boy

Product:	Las Vegas
Date:	02/05/02 (258 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hot, Fun

Disadvantages: Could lose all your money

Vegas. The very name conjures up images of Elvis in his jump suit, Sinatra with his rat pack and massive hotels with anything can be bought for the right price.

It’s been described as America’s playground or a Disney World for adults. A place where you can take time out from the hum drum of normal life and become someone else for a few days. Someone cool. Someone sharp. Someone more suited to the movie lots and hot spots of Hollywood than the sales section of D. Sproggit and Son, Hull.

Las Vegas is all these things and more. It’s currently the fastest growing city in the USA, with over 5,000 people a month moving in. Although the official statistics fail to mention how many people move out after they learn the hard way that they can’t get their pay check past the casino door.

The size of the city is the second thing that hits you as you fly into McCarren International Airport at the south end of the world famous strip. The first is the strip itself, which can be seen from many miles away. Huge hotels all themed differently and lit up spectacularly at night, which is when you should aim to arrive if possible. There’s the Luxor, the pyramid shaped hotel shooting out the most powerful beam of light on earth straight into the sky. There’s the MGM, the emerald coloured giant. The worlds biggest hotel with over 4,000 rooms and it’s own theme park. There’s the Bellagio with it’s dancing fountains, there’s the Mirage, with it’s erupting volcano and there’s Caesars Palace, perhaps the most famous of them all.

All these sights greet you while still on the plane. Imagine what’s on the ground. Slot machines. These bleeping, flashing, coin laden teases are one of the first things you see when you walk out of baggage claim. Ignore them and head for the hotels. That’s where the real pleasure lies.

A couple of years ago, friends of mine who’d just
returned from a five day break to Vegas were explaining how they’d spend their evenings wandering from one hotel to another, occasionally having a gamble, maybe grabbing a free drink from a cocktail waitress, but usually just walking and watching. At that time, I thought they were a bit odd. Fancy going somewhere and just walking around the local hotels. Very strange! But it turns out they were justified in their entertainment choice. These monster hotels have everything you could wish for on a holiday. Caesars Palace alone has over 2,500 rooms, a casino area of xxx, 16 restaurants, countless bars and two shopping areas (one of which is one of the most expensive and sought after retail sites in the whole of America). The main shopping area is home to such names as Gap, Banana Republic, Gucci, Virgin, The Disney Store, Planet Hollywood, Ralph Lauren and Vesace. Enough to keep the most hardened shopper going. If you consider that Caesars Palace is just one of over 15 such hotels located on the strip, you’ll understand how just visiting the hotels can keep you going for your entire holiday.

Of course the casinos are one of the main attractions for people coming to Las Vegas. The lure of that one lucky role of the dice, or that killer hand or just that lucky dollar in the right slot machine at the right time. It’s what attracts the people in the first place, it’s what keeps them coming back and it’s worth remembering it’s also what makes the hotel owners rich.

But don’t stop there. Play some golf on one of the world class courses that surround the city, take a helicopter tour of the Hover Damn and the Grand Canyon, take in a show by one of the worlds top performers, perhaps even get married by Elvis. The list is endless, but money is required, so just watch you don’t hand all of it over to the casino on your first night.

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