Travel News June 2014


LAS VEGAS 25 El Dorado in the Nevada Desert


Las Vegas - which means ‘the meadows’ in Spanish - was once a sleepy settlement of just 30 souls - now a thriving city famous for it’s casinos and night-life ROBIN NOWACKI finds out more...


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IKE an El Dorado rising out of the shimmering heat of the Nevada Desert – Las Vegas – the once one horse town - has grown over the last eight decades to become a dazzling city of over one million people


And the way Las Vegas has been built – no expense spared – any architectural dream or fantasy fulfilled - has made it one of the most visually spectacular and unusual cities on Earth.


Today, around The Strip – Las Vegas Boulevard - at the heart of Vegas - stand many of the world’s largest hotels, casinos, and entertainment venues.


HOW VEGAS EVOLVED


Ironically Vegas’s home State of Nevada became one of the first in the USA to outlaw gambling, but fate was to change this when one the largest engineering projects of the early 20th Century – the building of the Hoover Dam – occurred on Las Vegas’s doorstep. When the workers from the Dam started to arrive to spend their hard earned


wages – their pockets bulging with Dollars bills, the temptation to help lighten their load proved just too much and gambling was legalising in 1931, giving Las Vegas a unique status within the USA.


With the Hoover Dam soon providing abundant supplies of cheap water and electricity – everything was falling into place - the perfect desert climate combined with Vegas’s growing racy reputation – an escape from the mundane and sober lives of most Americans – made the lure of Las Vegas irresistible. People from across the USA poured into the city – they wanted to gamble, to


party, to be entertained, and soon a host of show-business legends came to look upon Las Vegas as a second home. Not least for one of the 20th centuries greatest stars, Frank Sinatra, and the other members of the famous “Rat Pack”, who in 1960 combined filming the original Hollywood movie “Ocean’s 11” during the day, with appearing live on stage at the famous “Sands” casino and hotel by night.


VEGAS TODAY


Time waits for no man and Sinatra has now become show-business history with a broad avenue in Vegas named after “Old Blue Eyes”.


Indeed today much of the Las Vegas Sinatra knew no longer stands, including the “Sands” - one of a number of famous Vegas landmarks to have been confined to history - dispatched by dynamite - in the last 20 years - to be replaced by new 21st century resort hotels massive in scale. Not least the spectacular Aria Resort and Casino, where this writer stayed on a recent visit, which opened in 2009 and has a staggering 4,004 guest rooms in two tall curved steel and glass towers - reckoned to be one of the world’s most technologically advanced and energy efficient hotels - it is a great place to stay in the city centre (www.arialasvegas.com). Visit Luxor - and experience the Vegas version of ancient Egypt – gamble under a 36 story high smoked glass pyramid surrounded by sphinxes next to a reproduction of the tomb of Tutankhamen. Or travel forward to medieval times – with a real castle, drawbridge and all - at Excalibur. Then why not go to New York – New York? So good they named it twice and reconstructed it perfectly in miniature in


The neon lights of the famous (or infamous) City of Sin


Las Vegas – see Central Park, the Statue of Liberty – and then fly at great speed over the Big Apple on the Manhattan Express roller coaster.


Or splash down into a different reality in the Grand Canal of the Venetian casino - win a million Dollars whilst gondolas complete with singing gondoliers go floating by - then lose that million and throw yourself off the Bridge of Sighs. At Caesars Palace, one of Vegas’s most famous and established casinos - play the slot machines whilst enjoying waitress service from a near naked Cleopatra - next to a full sized replica of Michelangelo’s David.


LIVE SHOWS


At the time this feature was written Celine Dion, David Copperfield, Donny and Marie Osmond, were some of the top names performing live on a long-term basis in Vegas, starring in their separate shows. Meanwhile headlining shows like including differing productions by Cirque du Soleil and the highly recommended “V The Ultimate Variety Show” were all selling out (www.vtheshow.com).


WEDDINGS LAS VEGAS STYLE


Over 100,000 couples choose Las Vegas for their wedding each year - all you need to tie the knot is a picture ID, to be over 18, and of course to be single! Some opt for Vegas because of the many novelty themed weddings available at venues such as Excalibur, or on the Grand Canal at the Venetian.


There is also the Elvis option available at the Graceland Wedding Chapel. Here an impersonator will serenade the couple with some of the “Kings” greatest hits, and will even be the best man! The real Elvis Pressley spent five of his best years performing live in Vegas.


LAS VEGAS EXCURSIONS – THE GRAND CANYON


For those jaded by too many days of excess in Vegas there are some quality excursions out of the city.


Some 30 miles to the east is the massive Hoover Dam and the vast expanse of blue water it created – Lake Mead - contrasting brilliantly with the sandy gold of the surrounding desert.


The writer prepares to take a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon


Then further east is one of the greatest natural wonders of the world, the Grand Canyon, in places offering the chance to view a 3,000-foot drop into a space so large it is almost beyond comprehension. For as little as $229 (offer online May 2014) take the recommended helicopter ride into the Grand Canyon and land on the Canyon floor and enjoy a champagne lunch with Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters (www.papillon.com). This includes transport from your hotel to Bolder City Airport - about 40 minutes drive from Las Vegas.


The writer poses with some of the cast of V The Ultimate Variety Show


The writer Robin Nowacki played the slot machines whilst enjoying waitress service from Cleopatra


View of the Grand Canyon from the helicopter tour


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