Viva Las Vegas!

I have been to Las Vegas before but it was some 18 or so years ago when the pyramid shape of the Luxor hotel was the largest building on the horizon, but I was very interested to go back and see how much the city had changed.

We stayed in the 5* Encore which is an all suite hotel, attached to its sister hotel the Wynn. The rooms I have to say are the largest ‘standard’ rooms I have ever stayed in and are probably as large as the ground floor of my 4 bedroom house! The property is huge and you need a map to orientate yourself or trust me you will get lost!

It is situated on the Strip so well located for all that Las Vegas has to offer. It also has a golf course, several swimming pools, theatres, restaurants and entertainment venues so is a mini resort in itself.

One of the main reasons for wanting to go back to Las Vegas was to take a trip over the Grand Canyon, but for someone with a touch of claustrophobia, this was going to be a bit of a challenge! However at 6am one morning, we set off as a small group for Henderson airport where we were all weighed, checked in and allocated seats on a very small plane. Fortunately the sky was blue, there was no wind and we had an amazing 90 minute flight over Lake Powell, the Hoover dam and the Grand Canyon. My camera has an aerial photography setting which I had never used before and I got some amazing shots.

Another key reason for going back to Las Vegas was to see some of the shows. Tickets can be expensive out there, but the shows are outstanding. I managed to see two amazing performances: Cirque du Soleil’s ‘Viva Elvis’ at the Aria Resort and Casino which was really excellent and more of a tribute history, and ‘Le Reve’ at the Wynn theatre which was really superb with some amazing effects. Most shows cost from about £80 per ticket but you can get discounted tickets on the day from several outlets in the city.

Our visit to Las Vegas coincided perfectly with England’s match against the USA in the world cup, so where else would we watch it but at the Venetian/Palazzo’s very own sports bar – Lagasse’s stadium. What a great venue! We enjoyed excellent private dining surrounded by countless large television screens, and an upper gallery of US fans! It was probably just as well it was a draw!

Amongst all the fun, we did get to do some work. We did a few hotel inspections, and I managed to see the Bellagio, Venetian and the Palazzo. My favourite was probably the Bellagio in all honesty: I think the rooms were more my style, although they are small compared to those at the Encore. I also liked the public areas and the pool area was beautiful.

However Las Vegas is one of those places where you can stay in one hotel, but visit many for dining and entertainment. The key is to get out and about and experience lots of what the city has to offer. I haven’t mentioned the gambling here but it is everywhere and you can opt to take part in it or not. It is more obvious in some hotels rather than others, and the stakes can be high. However this is not all Las Vegas has to offer. I was in a small group of travel counsellors who flew BA from Heathrow, and the flights both ways were on time, the aircraft was brand new, clean and the crew were quietly efficient. I think the only issue was that they are still struggling with getting the catering on track so we only had two choices of main meal, but overall an excellent experience. I also like Terminal 5: This was my first experience here and the valet parking which I used was superb. Just ask me for details.

This was just a short break of 4 nights and we managed to squash a lot in. It is an amazing place and can be combined with anywhere else in the US, so make a plan to include it in your future American holiday itinerary!