Will Oliphant joins the high-rollers in Las Vegas courtesy of a luxurious new Virgin Atlantic direct flight.
Vegas is a big deal to a lot of people – that was the first lesson I learned before I’d even boarded Virgin Atlantic’s brand new direct flight from Manchester to Nevada’s Sin City.
Sitting next to an elderly man waiting to check in I casually inquired if he’d been before and I was shocked when he replied that this would be his fortieth visit.
Forty! That means he probably went for the first time when he was my age – what was I getting myself into?
After a flight that seemed more like a party than travel – Virgin go all out for their inaugural flights – we arrived at McCarran Airport and were immediately plunged right into the heart of the city.
Some of the most famous sights are visible from the runway and soon we were being whisked down the strip to our newly-built top-of-the-range hotel, The Aria.
Once I was settled in and had spent a few minutes fiddling with the room controls (this is one of the most high-tech hotels on the strip with green credentials to boot) I had a chance to glance out the window and was immediately taken aback.
I was on the 52nd floor and the view was amazing. To my left the mock Eiffel Tower of Paris Las Vegas, to the right bright lights of the 7,000 room hotel The MGM Grand. Truly breathtaking.
As one of the newest hotels on the strip (you can see it being built in some shots in the film The Hangover) The Aria is fairly jaw dropping itself.
It has 4,000 rooms, programmable curtains in each (the best alarm clock you can have is the curtains opening on a sunrise over the mountains), acres of gaming tables and slot machines as well as millions of dollars in art festooning the walls and open spaces.
After dinner in the hotel’s top-notch Julian Serrano restaurant and after sleeping in probably one of the comfiest beds I’ve ever been in, we were taken back to the airport in the morning for another first for me – a helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon.
We were being taken there by Heli USA, a company started by British-born former Army pilot Nigel Turner. and what a way to travel.
Ascending over Las Vegas you get a real feel for the size of the city and it was from this vantage that we learned why people had been so pleased to welcome two extra flights a week from Manchester to Vegas – the town needs the money.
The recession was tough on the city with most people being employed either by the casinos or in construction, both of which were hammered after the credit crunch.
Our helicopter pilot cheerfully told us that it is now possible to snap up a bargain in the city – he had just picked up a house with a pool and a hot tub for the princely sum of $50,000: “My house payment’s less than my truck payment” he cheerfully told us.
Going past the outskirts of the city over Hoover Dam we eventually approached the lip of the canyon. What a sight.
It was hard to get a feel for the scale of the place until I noticed another helicopter flying nearby. It was at the same height as us but because it was over by the other side of the canyon it looked like a fly.
The helicopters landed at the Grand Canyon Ranch which Nigel bought and loving restored and where he now rears cattle for rodeos and buffalo for conservation.
After a quick ride around the place on some of his horses – mine a feisty animal named Rattler – we were back in the choppers to take us back into Vegas with a flight down the strip.
Even from the skies the casinos are massive. Dwarfing other buildings around them.
It’s truly amazing the enthusiasm with which this city throws up buildings and then demolishes them when they become out of date – this month (May) – will see the Sahara casino closing and its implosion is set to follow soon after.
Arriving back it was straight off to Milos Restaurant just down the strip from our hotel where we were treated to an excellent seafood meal.
Another sign of the “nothing’s too good” culture of Vegas is that the fish had been flown straight to the restaurant from being caught in Greece.
