When we decided to go to Las Vegas we were bombarded with recommendations of places to go by friends and colleagues who had already visited. One place which came up more than once was M&M's World, which was described by one (quite obviously insane) friend as being one of the best free things to do in Vegas. Although I made a mental note to make a visit, at no point did I actually ever question what M&M's World was! I'd seen a picture on a website somewhere of a building with a huge yellow M&M packet on the front and (wrongly) assumed it was some sort of amusement type place dedicated to M&M's chocolate. Perhaps that's why I was so disappointed...

M&M's World is located on Las Vegas Boulevard (AKA The Strip) towards the south end, opposite the Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino. It was easy to get to and of course the giant M&M packet and M&M characters on the front make it easy to spot.

As we entered M&M's World, we were greeted by what can only be described as the biggest selection of M&M branded tat I have ever seen in my life. Now don't get me wrong, I like M&M's (only the chocolate ones though, not the peanut ones!) - but never in my life have I felt the need to buy an M&M branded teapot, soap dispenser, bath towel, cup and saucer or for that matter any of the other products set out before me. Obviously though others did as we saw people carrying the distinctive yellow M&M shopping bags all throughout our stay.

I would love to tell you that the M&M gift shop was only confined to the ground floor of M&M World, however we had to endure three more floors of it. I was expecting that the other floors would offer something different, but no, not really. There are escalators and lifts up to the other floors and one thing I did find interesting was paintings of how the M&M characters have looked throughout the years which are painted onto the wall alongside the escalator. I hadn't realised they had been around since the 1960's, I thought they were an 80's or 90's thing.

On the subject of the characters, there are several places on each floor where you can have your photo taken with a large plastic M&M character. These are mocked up with different backgrounds, so you can for example have your photo taken in front of the Vegas sign whilst cuddling a huge plastic M&M, should that float your boat. We also on a separate occasion saw a person dressed as an M&M standing next to the entrance posing for photos with shoppers, I don't envy that job since it was 100 degrees outside.

Other than being a gift shop M&M World does have a few extra features I should mention. For example, you can see a short 3D film featuring the M&M characters on the third floor. We missed the showing when we were there, but obviously it is aimed more at children anyway and I seem to recall from the sign that it only lasts around 10 minutes. As well as the film, on the top floor of M&M World was an M&M sponsored NASCAR. I have no interest in NASCAR, but this certainly seemed popular and there were lots of photos being taken of it.

Aside from all the insanely overpriced plastic tat, M&M World does of course sell M&M's and the whole place has a rather chocolatey aroma to it, which is nice when you walk in, but nauseating after a while. There is a whole M&M wall on one floor, where you can fill a cup with a multitude of colours and flavours of your choice. You can of course then buy one of the many M&M dispensers located around the store to put them in too!

Another thing you can do at M&M world - which was one of its only redeeming features for me - was to make personalised M&M's. This is done at a kiosk where you can either write your own message or select an image from a range of clip-art to have printed onto the sweets. As we had just got married we thought it would be quite funny to make some personalised M&M's as thank you gifts. The kiosk is very easy to use, you simply choose four designs then print out a slip and take it to the till. We chose 'Thank You', our names and then clip art featuring the Vegas sign and two wedding rings. We were asked to choose a cup from four sizes (we chose the largest) and then had to fill it with M&M's of our colour choice. You then tip them into a machine which prints them with your designs. It wasn't cheap at $20 for the smallest and $50 for the largest cup, but I thought it made a unique, if somewhat tacky gift! The staff at M&M World were also really nice, the ladies at the counter noticed the designs we had chosen and wanted to know all about our wedding.

Although I was happy with our personalised M&M's (despite still not having fully recovered from the price tag on them!), on the whole I wasn't so impressed with M&M World. I think perhaps if it had more interactive features and less branded tat it might be more worth a visit, because really it's just like a giant gift shop at the moment with a few extras thrown in. I personally wouldn't go back and overall, I think I could only recommend M&M world to die hard M&M fans or those who want to fill their house with novelty chocolate themed items!