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LAS VEGAS IN LUXURY
Think Las Vegas. Think gambling, glamour and the Mob. Think fastest-growing 24-hour city on the planet. And then think of the
10-hour flight to get there from Britain, arriving there bedraggled and ready for bed rather than the roulette table.
Not anymore.
The East Anglia countryside might seem an unlikely starting point for a rock n roll trip to Las Vegas, although the Elvis impersonator helps
set the scene.
But it is now possible to catch an all-business class service from Stansted to the ultimate party city of excess, and I jumped at the
chance to sample it.
When your destination is Las Vegas, this is surely the only way to travel.
MAXjet, which has been transporting business travellers between Stansted and New York JFK since November 2005, is now flying direct to the
entertainment capital of the US.
Arriving at the airport, even Elvis Mark One, the King himself, would be hard pressed to prepare you for the contrast from humdrum airport terminal to the Strip.
Las Vegas Boulevard - with its cacophony of sights and sounds, its concentration of neon lighting and vertiginous hotels - is as much of a
culture shock as I can imagine in an English-speaking country.
Truthfully, there is no escaping that Las Vegas is a bit of a fraud. Nothing is real. Wandering down the Strip you can take in the Eiffel
Tower, the Sphinx and the Colosseum, all within about 20 action-packed
minutes.
It all looks highly impressive, especially at night when the Strip is like a beacon set against the barren Nevada desert.
A hundred years ago, Las Vegas didnt exist. Now its population is racing upwards of two million as it expands exponentially into the
desert. This growth has resulted from the citys single-minded pursuit of entertainment heaven.
The result is big and brash. London looks thoroughly quaint by comparison.
Everything revolves around the hotels, which hold thousands of people at a time and accommodate casinos where in any other town there would be a
reception. Only in Las Vegas do the restaurants and rooms in a hotel feel incidental to the main focus: gambling.
Even if gambling is the heartbeat of the hotels, however, many remain incredible for their detailed themes, taking as their subject
destinatations as diverse as Rome, Luxor and New York.
Wandering around the Venetian, for example, the painted ceilings are hardly Caravaggio. But the sheer size and attention to detail - right
down to the Rialto Bridge and Doges Palace facade outside - more than justify the project.
The skyscrapers of the faux Manhattan area must be half the height of the originals, but when they are a short crowded walk from a Sphinx in
front of a pyramid they assault the senses just the same.
Newer developments are shying away from the themed hotels, but Venice, New York and Egypt are here to stay.
If youre going for the slot machines, remember that the lower end of the market is probably as much fun on Brighton Pier. The difference here
is that the casinos never close and a tiny minority can walk away with million-dollar jackpots.
But its what goes with the gambling thats most exciting - while the one-cent slot machines exude little glamour, there is a more
sophisticated side to Las Vegas that requires exploration.
Superb haute-cuisine restaurants, designer shopping (often at preferential prices, especially given the weak dollar) and
get-away-from-it-all spa treatments abound.
And then, of course, there are the shows.
I saw Cirque du Soleils Love, the famous troupes 21st century tribute to The Beatles, which alone is worth a trip to this fantastic city in
the American south-west.
Those with a day to spare should take the opportunity to visit the Grand Canyon. As the closest city, Las Vegas is a handy place from which to
visit.
What Las Vegas offers in millennial commercialism, the Grand Canyon - over the state border in Arizona - matches in natural wonder.
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