BLOG: Mole in Las Vegas: topless bathing and Murano chandeliers

Travelmole reporter Linsey McNeill reports from The Strip, having eaten her body weight in swanky meals across Vegas (poor thing)….

As a Vegas virgin (as I keep being called, annoyingly), I'm struggling to get my head round the sheer size of most of the hotels on The Strip. If a property has less than 3,000 rooms it describes itself as 'intimate'. These places are so massive, they have so many restaurants, so many pools, so many slot machines and gaming tables that you could easily spend an entire holiday just inside your hotel. Quite a lot of people do. Apparently.

As the hotel (or 'resorts' as they call them over here) is part of the experience of Vegas, it's important to match your client to the property. They each have a different vibe, for instance, Wynn Las Vegas and its interconnected twin Encore are pretty sophisticated as is the Bellagio, which has an Italian ambience, whereas Caesars Palace with its mock Roman statutory, swim-up black jack pool and topless sunbathing area feels more decadent. There are heaps of other hotels to choose from.

My personal favourite is the newly refurbished Tropicana, once the jewel of Las Vegas which has been given a much-needed $180m facelift. Smaller than the other hotels I've seen on The Strip (it has just 1,375 rooms) it's been injected with a South Beach vibe, thanks to the addition of the Nikki Cafe, Beach Club and Nightclub.

New building projects have been mothballed for the time being – developers have run out of cash – but Caesars Palace is transforming one tower into a 182-room Nobu Hotel, the first in the world, which will also have a Nobu restaurant. The Flamingo Hotel, one of the oldest on The Strip, is also getting a refurb.

For some clients, the choice will come down to price, obviously, and there are some good deals to be had, even at some of the top end hotels where rates have dropped to as low as $100pn on some nights. Encore and Wynn Las Vegas are among the most expensive hotels on The Strip but right now, when it's 41 degrees, you could probably pick up a room for about $150 per night, which is incredibly good value. All 2,700 rooms in the Wynn have recently been refurbished and even the smallest is large by most hotel standards. The hotel has also recently added a new Lakeside restaurant and a less formal tapas-style eatery, La Cave.

Somewhat groggy after the 11-hour flight from the UK, I thought our guide said “topless” not “tapas” but I wouldn't have been surprised. This is Vegas after all and one of the hotels many pools does allow topless sunbathing. In fact, a few of its meeting rooms have been specially designed to overlook the area.

If that sounds tacky, it's not meant to. The hotel is actually uber-stylish and it's clear there has been no expense spared in its design. Its casino boasts hand-blown red glass chandeliers from Murano while a wooden chandelier in one of the public areas once adorned the living room of Gustave Eiffel.

There is fine art on the walls, sculptures salvaged from French flea market, there are elaborate arrangements of fresh flowers everywhere. Hell, the hotel even has its own marine biologist to check on the quality of the seafood. It's just that this is Vegas and in Vegas, anything goes.

It would be a shame though for visitors not to take a gander at some of the area’s other attractions and a must-do excursion has to be the trip to the Grand Canyon. If your clients can afford it, I'd recommend they take the four-hour helicopter trip from Vegas airport to the Canyon. It costs about $400 per person with Maverick Tours (www.maverickhelicopter.com), so it's not cheap, but it's definitely a once in a lifetime experience.

On the flight they'll see not only the Canyon but they'll also fly over Hoover Dam, which is spectacular, and an extinct volcano and they'll land near the bottom of the Canyon. By the way, warn them to wear shoes with grips (no flip-flops) as they'll be walking on loose shingle and one slip and they could end up in the Colorado River. On the way back, the helicopter swings over The Strip.

Visitors to Vegas are also in for a culinary delight. So far I've eaten at six different restaurants including Holstein's in The Cosmopolitan, Sage in the Aria, the new Payard in Caesar's Palace and the Nikki Cafe and all have been fabulous – and I'm not just saying that. So maybe it's a good job my hotel is so enormous and it’s a long jog from the lift to my room.

Linsey McNeill flew with Virgin Atlantic Airways, which has daily flights to Las Vegas from Gatwick and a new twice weekly service from Manchester. She is staying at Aria Resort & Casino.