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We flew into Las Vegas and waited one hour for our baggage at the new terminal - this was possibly by design as there were poker machines next to the baggage carousels as well as everywhere else in the terminal. Even the supermarkets have poker machines in them and they are on the pavement on The Strip (the main walking street in the new casino area). Our Hotel, Las Vegas Hilton, has now been relegated to the second biggest in the area; it's on a huge block with convention centre, pools and monorail station.
The whole place is way over the top and full of mainly white tourists all dressed very casually, city does not stop - busy all day all night, fantastic buildings with Venetian canals, Rialto Bridge, Doge's Palace arcades with Gondoliers, only $65 for a short trip or you can buy five minutes of rejuvernating health giving clean oxygen for $23, has so many health benefits??Most casinos seem to give you $5 to get started - our Casino gave us a $25 chip which we lost on one bet playing roulette.We had a full day at the Grand Canyon and luckily did not have enough time to lose at the Casinos.
The bus to the Grand Canyon leaves at 5.30am and you are processed and fed breakfast on the way. We went to the West Rim, the closer side and we opted for the helicopter flight and the sky bridge. The sky bridge at $33 is a waste of time and money if you are doing the helicopter as they won't let you take a camera and want to sell photos @ $30 each. The helicopter ride was great taking you from the canyon rim about 2000 feet down to the Colorado River where you have a short boat trip to take photos. Then you go back by chopper to the rim where you can use the shuttle bus to go to other viewing points and have lunch - we did ribs at the Indian Village which were great! On the way to the Canyon you cross the Hoover Dam where the water level is quite low; each way the bus has to go through security as the Dam Police have a road block. The Grand Canyon was as amazing (awesome!) as I had anticipated - so pleased we did the helicopter flight!
For our last morning in Las Vegas we went back downtown on the monorail ( underutilised as it is so badly sign-posted and difficult to access - pressure from the local taxi-drivers!!) and had another look at the incredible casinos - managed to win $10 at the Paris so came out smiling!!
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