Day 1

The four night trip to Vegas was a present for my husband's 30th birthday. I gave him the choice of a holiday anywhere in the world (within a certain price range!) and he picked to stop at the Bellagio in Vegas.

We travelled with Virgin Atlantic, departing London Gatwick at 10.45am on Friday 27 January. We upgraded to Premium Economy and sat in the upper level on plane (a massive 747) - it was like being on our own private plane as there are only approx. 40 seats up there. It was a long flight - just over 10 hours - and we were glad of the extra legroom and comfortable seats. By the way, for the best views of the strip when landing / taking off, get a seat on the right side of the plane. We arrived in Las Vegas at 2.30pm about an hour late and sailed through customs / baggage reclaim (another perk of being in Premium Economy is that you're one of the first off the plane and your luggage is given priority). It was a full flight and those who were sat at the back of the plane in Economy must have had a long wait getting through customs.

We had a Presidential limo waiting for us, which we'd pre-booked through Virgin Holidays. We enjoyed the views of the strip and the champagne en-route to the Bellagio. Check in at the hotel took about 15 minutes - it was quite chaotic, with lots of seperate queues for each check-in desk. In my opinion, it would have been better to have one central queue, which many of the other hotels seemed to have. I'd advised the Concierge via email prior to our trip that it was my husband's 30th whilst we were there, so we were given a complimentary gift (four minature Bellagio aftershaves/perfumes) and a line pass for the Buffet and Cafe Bellagio for the duration of our stay. I'd emailed Lisa from the Concierge a few times prior to our trip - she was brilliant; every email was answered promptly. At the end of the trip, she even phoned our room to say hello and to check that everything was okay.

Our room was on the 16th floor and overlooked the lake / fountains. We paid quite a lot extra to get this view but boy, it was worth every single penny. I've read many reviews about people getting emotional when they see the fountains for the first time and I can totally vouch for that. They were spectacular. I think they started at 3pm and were half hourly until 7pm, when they went off every 15 minutes until midnight. We expected them to have the same music / sequence every time, but there were many different versions. One of my favourite 'sequences' was to Elton John's 'My Song' (maybe timed for his arrival in Vegas?!). Anyway, I never got tired of watching them. If you tune into channel 31 on the TV, you can watch them with the music too.

The room was huge - it had a massive bed, which was so comfy, and a huge bathroom with a sunken bath and a walk-in shower. There were lots of nice smelling complimentaries. My only (minor) gripe was that there wasn't much wardrobe space.

The UK is 8 hours ahead of Vegas, so by the time we'd unpacked / chilled out, it was getting on for midnight back home. We were struggling to stay awake, so we decided to have an early dinner at our favourite US restaurant, the Cheesecake Factory, which is in the Forum Shops in Caesars Palace. It's the first time ever that we've got a seat straight away, and we had a great meal with friendly service. This restaurant is renowned for its large portions and we made the mistake of ordering a starter between us - the chicken nachos, which were delicious. We struggled to finish our main courses and didn't have room for their legendary cheesecake! By 9pm Vegas time, we couldn't stay away any longer (it was 4am UK time!), so we called it a night. On the way back to our room, we had a quick gamble on one of the slot machines - beginners luck, I won $17 on a $1 bet (big spender, eh?!).

Day 2

It's my husband's 30th birthday and the jetlag meant that we both woke up at 5am. He opened his cards and presents, and called home.

We had a 9am appointment for a refresher mini-massage in the Bellagio Spa. It was $75 each and we were able to use the Spa's facilities for the whole day. We had our massages and came back later in the day to use the spa, sauna and steamroom. It was the most luxurious spa we've ever been to. They had hot and cold drinks, which you could help yourself to at any time, and changing rooms had everything you could possibly need, e.g. hairdryers, hair straightners, hair scrunchies, shaving equipment, moisturisers, deodrant, etc. My only disappointment was that the women and men have separate spa areas, so I couldn't use the facilities with my husband.

Next we headed to the Buffet at the Bellagio for brunch. We sailed to the front of the long queue with our line pass. The meal cost $27.95 each with champagne and $21.95 without. We really enjoyed this - the choice of food was amazing - and we left feeling absolutely stuffed.

We caught the Deuce (new double-decker buses which run along the strip) to the Mandalay Bay to collect our Mamma Mia tickets for the next day. We found the Deuce really useful for getting up and down the strip. Everything looks really close on maps, but the distances are much greater than you think. Each trip costs $2 or you can buy a day-pass for just $5. The buses are every few minutes, and the driver announces the hotel stops in advance, so you know exactly where you are and the best stop for each hotel.

The jetlag kicked in again, so we caught the free monorail back to the Excalibar and wandered back through some of the hotels - via the M&M shop, where we picked up lots of gifts for back home - to the Bellagio. I'd pre-booked a birthday cake via the Concierge, which arrived right on cue. However, the balloons I'd ordered didn't... More about this later.

Before we'd left the UK, I'd pre-booked an one hour limo tour of the strip with A1 Worldwide Limousine. They must be an agency as we ended up going with Presidental Limos again. We asked the driver to take us to see the 'Welcome to Las Vegas' sign. He took some photos of us next to the sign before heading to the other side of the strip, where I made a reservation at the Top of the World restaurant in the Stratosphere.

I thought that the Stratosphere was a real dump and I was worried that I'd brought my husband somewhere awful for his special day. I needn't have worried. The meal was fantastic - we had the set menu for $140. We both had a Caesar salad for starters, Chateaux Briande (sp?) for mains and the Tower for desert. Yum! I'd pre-ordered another birthday cake for my husband, which came just before desert with a candle on it for him to blow out. The drink, especially wine, was very expensive, but it seems to be everywhere in Vegas. The views from the restaurant were spectacular - it was so high that we felt as though we were flying. The restaurant revoles and takes 1 hour and 20 minutes to go the whole way around. After the meal we went up a few floors to the inside and outside viewing galleries. We watched the rides and couldn't believe that anyone in their right mind would go on them! They're crazy, especially X Scream, the ride that looks as though it's going to come off the track over the side! We were told that the roller coaster closed a few weeks ago as it's no longer commercially viable.

We decided to catch a taxi back to the Bellagio, after reading reports that the area around the Stratosphere wasn't very safe. The strip was heaving with traffic, which apparantly is always the case on Saturday evenings, so it took ages to get back.

Day 3

We started off the day with breakfast in the Bellagio Cafe. Once again we went to the front of the long queue with our line pass (I'd really recommend trying to get one of these - they saved us hours of precious holiday time). We were sat at a table with beautiful views over the pool area. We both had a cooked breakfast along with a tea, coffee and orange juice. I had a lobster omelette and my husband had eggs and bacon - both were nice. The cafe has a lovely atmosphere but it's expensive - I think it cost about $50 (the orange juice alone cost $7!).

Afterwards, we wondered through the 'garden' outside the Cafe, which had been decorated for Chinese New Year. It was so well done - the Chinese characters were all made out of flowers and there was a huge dog which barked and wagged its tail - the kids loved this!

Today was our shopping day. We LOVE shopping in the US - with the strong pound, it's so much cheaper than shopping back home. We decided to go to Las Vegas Premium Outlet at the north end of the strip, as it had the shops we were most interested in, e.g. Billabong, Calvin Klein, Quiksilver, Dockers/Levis, Nautica, Nike, Adidas, Timberland and the Jockey Store. I'd registered online as a VIP member on the Chelsea Premium Outlets website (http://www.premiumoutlets.com/website) before leaving home and got a voucher for a discount booklet, which I picked up at Customer Services before starting to shop. The website also has lots of extra discount vouchers which came in really useful. Chelsea Premium Outlets also owns the other big mall at the south end of the strip - Las Vegas Outlet Centre, and you get can get a discount booklet and vouchers online for here too. The website is really useful - it also gives directions to each mall, opening hours and the list of shops.

We caught the bus to the Premium Outlet. We got the Deuce to the last stop going north - the Downtown Transportation Centre (DTC) and then transferred onto the 108 (the 106 will also take you there, and apparantly the Shopper's Express, which we never saw). It took about an hour, which we thought was too long, so we decided to catch a taxi back to the Bellagio, which cost $15. We got some great bargains at the mall. For example, I managed to get $20 off a watch from Calvin Klein with one of my vouchers.

When we arrived at the Bellagio, my husband dragged (not really!) me into Tiffany to buy me an eternity ring for our wedding anniversary in April. What a treat! I thought the staff would be quite snooty, but they were so friendly and helpful. He bought me a gorgeous silver band with a single diamond in it. It was much cheaper than we'd expected a Tiffany ring to cost and I was estatically happy; I proudly walked back to our room with my Tiffany bag!

We decided to chill out in the afternoon and we headed for the Bellagio pool. It was 70 degrees farenheit and clear blue skies (not typical for this time of year apparantly), so the pool area was quite busy. The pool area really does take your breathe away - it's gorgeous. Only one pool was open but it's massive, so it didn't feel crowded. There were also a few hot tubs open, which we had all to ourselves.

When we got back to our room, the balloons for my husband's birthday (which was yesterday) had arrived. Apparantly there had been a mix-up and as an apology, we were given complimentary strawberries dipped in chocolate, which came on a dish made of white chocolate. Totally yummy!!!!!!

That evening, we had a drink in Fontana Bar in the Bellagio, which has a terrace outside with amazing views of the fountains. The drinks were pricey but they had live entertainment on stage all night - we wanted to see Paragon Rock, but they weren't on until later that evening.

We then caught the Deuce to the Mandalay Bay to see the 7.30pm show at Mamma Mia. We'd bought the cheapest tickets ($106 for the two of us, including a service charge), which were fine. It's a fairly small theatre, so everyone gets a decent view. We really enjoyed the show - the pace was slower than we'd expected but at the end they did a medley of ABBA songs, which everyone got up on their feet and danced to. The show finished at about 10pm and we caught the Deuce to the Venetian to get something to eat. We decided to go to the Grand Lux Cafe, as it's owned by our favourite US restaurant, the Cheesecake Factory. We weren't impressed with the service - there was hardly anyone in there and we were made to wait for a table for approx. 15 minutes. Then it took ages to be served - we very nearly walked out in disgust. I dread to think what it's like in there when it's busy! Anyway, the food was fantastic - huge portions and reasonably priced, so we quickly forgave them!

It was late when we walked back to the Bellagio and the strip was full of drunk people staggering all over the place - it's the only night I felt slightly scared and was glad that my husband was with me!

Day 4

Before leaving the UK, I'd booked a mini Hoover Dam tour with Gray Line tours. I'd found a special offer on the excellent 'Las Vegas for Newbies' website - http://lasvegas4newbies.com/ - $59.99 for the two of us.

We had been emailed a time of 7.45am to be in the tour lobby, but at 7.30am, Gray Line rang asking where we were. It turned out that they they had put the wrong time on the email. No worries, the shuttle bus returned to pick us up. It took us to the Gray Line office, where we transferred onto the tour bus, which took us to Hoover Dam. The journey took about 45 minutes and it was great to get out of the city to see some of the Nevada desert/countryside. We were given two hours at the Dam. We decided not to take the tour, and wondered around on our own. It's a lot tackier than we'd expcted, but it was fantastic to see. One side of the Dam is in Nevada, and in 'Pacific Time', and the other side is in Arizona, in 'Central Time' - this meant an hour's time difference by just walking across the Dam. We then went to the cafe and had a huge Dam Dog (hot dog) between us - we were given a sticker as proof!

As we were running ahead of schedule, Sandie - our driver - took us to a Lake Mead viewing point on the way back to the hotel to get some photos.

We arrived back at the Bellagio at approx 12.30pm, and we decided to take a taxi to the Boulevard Mall (which cost about $15) to do some more shopping. This Mall has more mainstream shops including Macy's, Marshalls, Gap, JC Penneys and Yankee Candle. I stocked up on Clinique makeup and perfume - it's so much cheaper here than in the UK. My husband bought the entire stock of GAP jeans/trousers (!) - again, GAP is much, much cheaper here than in the UK. I also bought some Yankee Candles - Iove them! We then walked over to Marshalls, which is similar to TJ Maxx, and we bought some bargain designer teeshirts. By the way, if you're wondering how we got all our shopping back to the UK, we'd taken a spare suitcase with us, which we completely filled!

We'd booked a table to the Voodoo Lounge for our meal this evening. We got a taxi over to the Rio, which cost about $10. This was our favourite night - the views were amazing and the food was delicious. For starters, my husband had onion soup and I had caesar salad. For mains, I had the salmon and my husband had steak. It was fairly expensive - about $100 for two courses and one drink each. However, if you eat here, you don't have to pay the $20 each entrance fee to get to the club (I'm not sure what time the charge comes into effect). Afterwards we went outside to enjoy the spectacular views. It was a bit chilly, but they have patio heaters up there. We walked up to the nightclub / lounge (one floor up) and had a drink. A DJ was playing music on the outside patio and we loved the atmosphere here.

We caught the shuttle bus back to the Caesars Palace (there's also one to Ballys and Paris), and after having another small bet - $1 won me $10 this time, we walked back to the Bellagio.

Day 5

Our last day (big sigh). We got up early and had breakfast in the Buffet again. As it was a weekday, it was cheaper - $13.95 each. The choice of food was nearly as good as the weekend Brunch, and we left feeling stuffed again. It was great value for money.

We wanted to see the Wynn before we left, so we walked over there. It was a good stretch of the legs and it took longer than we'd anticipated - about 30 minutes from memory. It's a nice hotel, but lacked the WOW factor for us. The Fashion Mall shops across the road were calling to us (have you guessed that we like shopping yet?!), so we wondered over and my husband bought even more clothes from GAP - they must love him!

We caught the Deuce back to the Bellagio and packed our suitcases. The Concierge kindly let us check out one hour late (1pm rather than 12 noon). By the way, I'd emailed Lisa from the Concierge a few times prior to our trip to organise surprises for my husband's birthday and she was brilliant; every email was answered promptly. At the end of the trip, she even phoned our room to say hello and to check that everything was okay.

We got a taxi to the airport (cost = $15), where we checked in for our 4.05pm flight back to London Gatwick.

Our impressions of Vegas

- We loved it - there's something for everyone - it's not just for gamblers
- It's excellent for shopping
- But it's not cheap - alcoholic drinks are particularly expensive

U2fan