As you fly into Las Vegas the first thing that strikes you is the lush green golf course in the middle of the desert. Once you get over this the next thing that will draw your eyes and make your gasp in awe are the enormous hotels that line the strip. You can name the most famous from the air "MGM Grand, Luxor, New York New York, Caesar's Palace and the Bellagio" but for me I couldn't for the life of me point out where we would be staying.

· 2,600 oversized rooms and suites.
· A casino that spans over 100,000 square feet.
· A theatre that can seat 7,000 and provides three shows nightly.
· A shopping mall spanning 500,000 square feet.
· A nightclub with a 3,500 capacity.
· 6 restaurants within the casino itself.
· 2 Outdoor pools
· The Elemis Spa and Health Resort.
· A Wedding Chapel
· 2 Convention Rooms, suitable for up to 2,000 delegates.

This is truly hit home as you walk into the reception area to check in. Cases in hand you seem to glide across the marble floors into a huge dome. A bank of receptionists and clerks (15 were on duty when we arrived) wait patiently to take your details and process you as guests mill out around you. Nothing is cramped and a huge amount space is provided to what is normally an arduous task at best. After giving our names and I.D to the receptionist we were allocated to our rooms and away we went, but not before we could appreciate the genuine warmth that came across from the lady who had dealt with us. She smiled, was polite and made conversation as to the reason of our visit to Las Vegas.

Although we had taken a virtual tour of the room online, nothing could have prepared us for the actual room itself. It was much better than I had expected and I was taken aback. The room was decorated with an Eastern theme, sandstone in colour with dark wooden furniture.

As we were on the 34th floor, we couldn't open our window, but a vent had been installed to allow fresh air into the room. Even though we stayed at Christmas, we found that during the day we needed to keep the air conditioning unit pumping out cold air to combat the oppressive heat. The room added to the Vegas vibe, and the only thing that didn't impress me was that the windows didn't allow much natural light into the room.

Due to the dry nature of the air conditioning and heat outside, bottles of water are left in the room and refreshed each day. Although each litre bottle cost $5, we found that reception did not bill us for these when we left.

Everything about the room was fantastic apart from when we needed to use the PC to access the Internet. Internet access cost $9.95 for 24 hours of use and was automatically billed to the room. We needed to use this facility to look up the address of the wedding chapel we were due to get married in on Christmas Day. Our PC wouldn't work. We telephoned reception who passed on the number of the service engineers. We called this number and a very helpful man talked me though plugging in the hub and checking the wires. It still didn't work!! After all this, he said he would get an engineer to come to the room, 2 days later! This was no good, as we needed the information there and then,

This was the only problem over our time at the Aladdin. The staff could not apologise enough for this as much as I protested that it wasn't an issue! Although we had no problems, our guests did have a minor hiccup. Their toilet blocked and proceeded to flood their bathroom. Not a pleasant experience but the hotel maintenance team swung into action on two occasions and had the fault fixed, the room cleaned and the bathroom disinfected within 30 minutes.

The actual Aladdin casino spans over 100,000 square feet and contains the most slot machines in Las Vegas at 2,800! Everywhere you look is a slot machine, a light flashing the sound of credits being paid out! I was in heaven!

Most casino's (the Aladdin included) have cars on top of a few machines and allow the winner to either collect the car or fixed cash prize of usually $30,000. The cars ranged from a Crossfire, a Mazda RX-8's, a Mercedes SLK, a Porsche Boxster and even an enormous Humvee!

It is worth noting that when you are feeding the machines or gambling at a table, the waitresses that circle the casino floor will provide any drink of your choosing free of charge, I found that by tipping a healthy amount, they returned within minutes and this was much cheaper than actually purchasing drinks from the bar. I will allow Andy. Mack to provide details of the waitress rating system!

In addition to this, all of the places to eat in the shopping mall overlook a square where a performance is staged every 30 minutes. This included acrobats, a contortionist and a man and his birds! Entertained while you eat!

The Mexican Cantina was a mistake! The food was rather bland, and the service was shocking. As a saving grace they did serve wonderful cocktails!

So, what do you do if you don't eat, don't fancy looking at huge hotels and don't gamble? YOU SHOP!!

Taking into account that probably 20% of the shops sold tack that only tourists buy, I loved the fact that hidden away we would periodically find a quaint shop selling quality clothing or accessories. I purchased a Tumi travel bag (to carry our purchases home) for $195, the recommend price being well over $500. Although most of the shops weren't well known to me, the Desert Passage did have Gap, French Connection, Clinique and Eddie Bauer stores!

The shops were set in Arabian surroundings and it felt as though you were actually walking through a bazaar at times. A lovely artificial blue sky looked down upon rows of shops making this a wonderful experience. Every 30 minutes, the sky would cloud over, thunder would start and an indoor rainstorm would commence. This was very well done and the rain only actually fell into a pool in the middle of the walkways meaning that unless you stuck your arm into the rainfall you didn't get wet at all. A fantastic addition to a shopping mall that was superior to the Trafford Centre or Brent Cross in the UK.

All the major hotels in Las Vegas have their own wedding chapels, and the Aladdin is no different. Located on the first floor it gives off a very classical European feel as you walk past. It gives off a vibe of something special and discreet. Elvis got married in the "Old" Aladdin and I had wanted to get married here too. Unfortunately, Christmas Day is the only day they don't conduct services.

After visiting a number of other hotels on our vacation, the Aladdin in my view could only be bettered by the style and sophistication of the Venetian, the most expensive hotel in Las Vegas. It should be noted however that the Aladdin will sadly not be around forever as the owners have plans afoot to convert the resort into a huge Planet Hollywood in 2006.