Las Vegas is my kind of town. I love to be entertained and Las Vegas is dizzyingly, hilariously, entertaining.

It was happenstance that, while hiking in Zion National Monument, I approached a fellow hiker to compliment her on her Las Vegas T-shirt. "I got it at the Golden Nugget," she replied enthusiastically. "We stayed there. It was fantastic."

The Golden Nugget? That flea-bitten, run-down, cockroach trap in the middle of the lowest form of skid row in America? I used to visit Las Vegas occasionally back in my California days, several decades ago. That was how I remembered that questionable hotel and its immediate sordid surroundings. She assured me it was now a fancy hotel with everything you could possibly want and so comfortable.

Arriving in Las Vegas, we approached the downtown district with some trepidation. Suddenly the Golden Nugget revealed herself in all her glory. I could hardly believe what I saw. The Hotel was all white and lighted up and very foo foo, like a hotel in Monaco.

One word describes all. Glitz. White plaster, brass, glass, and mirrors. Unlike some of the hotels in Vegas, the casino was placed away from the reception area, so the main entrance has a very elegant look and feel. At budget rates, the Golden Nugget offered an ocean-sized swimming pool in a lovely courtyard, a tropical patio restaurant, fancy dining rooms, night club acts to which we were invited at half-price, wide passage ways to accommodate the multitudes, and delightful frock shops with more of those fancy studded Tshirts like the one I had admired.

We asked about rates. Only $59 a night during the week! Soon we were bouncing on a comfy king-size bed in a room so spacious we could jog around it. The window didn't look out onto anything particularly scenic but was so splendidly shrouded in voluminous luxurious drapes that it looked magnificent. Curtains were everywhere: on the bed canopy, in the bathroom, on the doorways, in the main corridor. Everything looked posh.

We walked out onto the mall. There was no sign of the seamy-ness of years past. A delicate blocks-long lattice canopy creates shade for old Fremont Street, now closed to traffic. Only one or two girlie clubs peered out demurely from among the old but renovated casino fronts and souvenir shops. As evening approached, the canopy became resplendent with tiny white lights. Bands play most of the day and evening at two separate bandstands. Judging by the crowds, the "Fremont Street Experience" is the place to do the stroll.

We followed a "Prime Rib for $7.99" sign to the Plaza Hotel restaurant and were not disappointed. The beef was an inch thick and filled the plate. Deelish! It was easy to find such bargains though not the "$3.99 All You Can Eat" from the old days. Now it's "$14.99 All You Can Eat", a buffet that includes lobster, steak and just about anything else your tummy desires. All the hotels we visited had these feasts.

The casino rooms have the blackjack, poker, roulette, craps and baccarat tables. Slot machines are not confined to the casino areas. The 5c, 25c, $1, $5, and $10 slot machines occupy every available foot of space in most hotels and casinos. One-armed bandits are no more. Everything is done by push button. The people robotically poking their coins into the machines fascinated us. Every few seconds one's ears would perk up at the magical tinkling of small or large jackpots. But after a while, it became just white noise, Las Vegas style, like bad elevator music. It was easy to become oblivious to it.

Of course a few of the shiny push-button bandits beckoned me on our explorations. At first I broke even but as time went on, my hopes to become instantly rich were overcome by my more charitable instincts. I donated a small sum over our two-day visit.

Off we went to The Strip. The big new hotels all line Las Vegas Boulevard, about a mile south of downtown. The Strip is busy all day and all night. The more monstrous hotels have more than 4000 rooms each. Free multi-story parkades easily accommodate the thousands of guests and visitors. Thus parking is easy but it seemed we had to walk miles from place to place.

Our first destination was the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton.

The Star Trek timeline, smoothly blended with real space history, was treated with the seriousness and care of a museum display. It starts off with Sputnik, continues with the Apollo moon expeditions, then the Space Shuttles and in and around these events it is noted when various Star Trek personages are born. Then we move on into the Star Trek history as if it had really happened. Of course to us Trekkers, it had. Alongside the chronology, original costumes including the classic miniskirts, weapons, tricorders, and paraphernalia from various Star Trek shows are displayed in full glory. Busty or athletic, it seems all the women must have worn no more than a size two. Never said I wanted to be part of the crew.

By the way, you get your picture taken as you enter, and can appear as any favorite Star Trek character. I have always yearned to be Seven of Nine but alas, my face on that body did not compute.

I won't give the plot of the Star Trek Adventure away, but it felt as if we truly were part of a Star Trek mission. Suffice it to say, it was turbulent and exciting enough that afterward we needed to recover in Quark's Bar (Deep Space Nine) over a bottle of blue Romulan Ale. Entrance to the Star Trek Experience is $25 each. I give it a "Live Long and Prosper" sign.

Next stop was the Venetian. This hotel truly surprised us. We found ourselves walking along a quiet canal with authentic Venetian gondolas gently paddling from San Marcos Square to the Rialto Bridge. Unlike the real version, which can be rented at $100 an hour in Venice, a ride on a Venetian Hotel gondola costs just $8. High-class shops and restaurants reside within the palazzos overlooking the canal. A smaller version of San Marcos Square lies in the shadow of a combination Doges Palace and San Marcos Cathedral. The Square comes complete with orchestra, but lacks the pigeons. Over all of this a shimmering blue sky and rolling clouds added a diffuse glow to the whole setting. It was truly lovely and peaceful, much like Venice itself.

We walked across Las Vegas Boulevard to Caesar's Palace, one of the older hotels. Magnificent white marble-like sculptures and grand pantheons and facades greeted us. We visited the Forum shops along the Via Venetto and its pretty designer boutiques, then down the Appian Way to the alcove where Michaelangelo's David apparently spends his summers when not at the Accademia de Bellas Artes in Florence, Italy.

It was like being in Italy all over again. Not as old, not as big, but with much the same character.

New York New York has the most impressive exterior. The scale and accuracy of its replication was captivating: the Chrysler building, Empire State Building, and Trump Tower are all there fronted by the Brooklyn Bridge, the State of Liberty, and threaded through with the Coney Island roller coaster. I don't know if the original design included the World Trade Centre but the towers were not in the skyline. I should mention that upon the fence at the foot of Lady Liberty are hung hundreds of T-shirts. As far as we could make it out, they appeared to be T-shirts from one fireman or policeman to another who had died on 9/11. Each had a scrawled inscription commemorating an individual lost officer. It was a tender tribute, a serious note in what is essentially an amusement park.

The basement floor of the hotel was Greenwich Village with lots of "outdoor" cafes and all manner of shops. Many are pretend. The nightclubs were real however. One pub drew huge crowds; it featured "Dueling Pianists". In mid-afternoon the place was packed with patrons raising their beer glasses while bellowing along with the old favorites as both pianists played full blast. Late that night, a gorgeous blonde in a diaphanous red gown was outdueling the male pianist with what she called "chick" songs. Both were amazing musicians and singers, and the SRO crowd was really into the fun.

We took a baby commuter train over to the Luxor, a magnificent hotel designed in the style of a pyramid. The Sphinx, as she must have looked thousands of years back, guards the hotel. The hotel rooms line the inside the pyramid, creating a huge atrium. Unfortunately, the space is not visible from the casino floor. It would have been nice to travel the glass elevator up to admire the view but an armed guard would have none of that. I had to content myself with wandering through an upscale Cairo bazaar filled with ancient Egyptian tomb statues, ceramics, and exotic flowing fabrics. My husband meanwhile preoccupied himself with two very large and very voluble camels who chatted incessantly to each other just outside the bazaar entrance.

I used to think of Las Vegas as a den of iniquity but now I think of it as providing innocent fun - if you don't get carried away with the gambling, of course. You can spend a lot of money there without gambling. You can have a night out at one of the big clubs, or dine at some of the finest restaurants in the world. There is huge talent in Las Vegas, much of it free. Or you explore Las Vegas on a budget and enjoy the free stuff. You can just go about and walk, window shop, or dally on the wall surrounding the Bellagio lake. It's fun just watching people. The weather is perfect for lounging around the hotel pool catching sunburn.

If you just want to sit and have a coke, you can find a lively band or singer to watch and enjoy. Or you can catch the big acts at a price. Tom Jones was playing there, also Charro, Wayne Newton, and some well-known stand up comedians and magicians. The casinos are busy all night and all day but not everything runs 24 hours a day. The Gondolas quit at 8pm. Most stores in the hotels close at 10pm. Star Trek closed at 11:00. In the town around the Strip, many stores and restaurants remain open all night. You can always eat, buy groceries, buy souvenirs, and of course, gamble. We got our films developed at 11:00 at night.

Exhausted, weary, dissipated, we used our last ounce of strength to stagger back to our glamorous hotel and hit the sack each night around 3:00 in the morning. In our 2-day stay we had missed out on many hotels. We still have to check out Treasure Island, the Stratosphere with its roller coaster on top of the tower, Paris with its replica of the Eiffel Tower, Circus Circus, and of course the Bellagio. This latter Hotel is in the manner of a grand European Chateau. Its front drive circles a ten-acre lake complete with a Riviera fishing village.

I'd love to try out the Coney Island roller coaster at New York New York. There's also lots to do outside of the city itself. We had a taste of the Lake Mead area when we had lunch with friends at a new resort built overlooking the lake. Hoover Dam, an awesome feat of engineering, is close by. The Grand Canyon is an easy drive south and east; Death Valley is barely an hour north and west of town. We drove from Zion National Park to Vegas in about three hours.

To find out more about Las Vegas, visit a great website at Vegas.com No one under 21 is permitted in the Casinos, so if you are taking kids to Las Vegas, check out the Family Vacation section for ideas on family attractions. There were lots of children at our hotel pool.

I'd say it would take 3 full days to thoroughly explore Fremont Street and the Strip, plus extra days for exploring the surrounding area.

Next time we're staying longer.

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