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My local travel agent booked us in and we paid something like £50 a night for the room. Apparently my husbands friend found a great internet site which offered you the rooms for £20 a night. I was naffed off then.

Harrahs is next door to the Imperial Palace and The venetian. Across the road is The Mirage and Caesars Palace. This is the hotel where Chris Evans and Billie Piper stayed when they recently got married in Vegas last year. This wasn't why we had picked it by the way.

The building consists of different towers which lead you to your rooms, we were in the Mardi Gras Tower, on the 5th floor. We wanted a lower floor as I'm not keen on lifts so the less time I spent in one the better.They go so fast up the many, many floors they had. I'm not too sure how many rooms this hotel had, I know there were quite a lot. It wasn't exactly a themed hotel compared to the likeness of the Luxor etc, but it did have a good feel to it. It was done up in nice bright colours, with carnival music playing everywhere even spilling onto the streets to entice the custom in to the casinos.

There were many restaurants, those I will list below.

*Asia* Chinese and Asian Cuisine, even though we didn't eat in there, we saw how lovely it was. The prices were displayed outside so not to embarass you if you thought they were too expensive. I think the prices ranged from £6 to £20 a head for one course.

*Carnaval Court Bar and grill* This is an outdoor bar/cafe area, which is situated on the carnival court area. There is plenty of seating with a live band playing blues/rock, and dance music. They serve imported beer even Boddingtons. The prices are reasonable, and they start around £3.50 for a burger etc. It is open 11am to 12pm during the week and closed at 2am at weekends.

*Cafe Andreotti* Typical Italian Fayre, pasta etc. Smelt strongly of garlic each time we walked past it, it put me off as I'm not that keen on garlic. Looked a nice place though, very romantic.

*Fresh Market square Buffet* All you can eat breakfast for £6.00, and champagne Brunch for about £10 a head. Remember with these buffets, you can eat all you want. There were plenty of choice, they served international cuisine and a variety of lavish desserts.

*Garden cafe* This is the place where we ate everyday for at least one meal. It was a very colourful cafe. You had to queue and the lady would come to you and ask if you wanted smoking or non smoking. The non smoking you had to wait a while sometimes. What was annoying though was the casino gold members or whatever they were called got to jump the queue. This we found annoying. They did serve enormous portions in there though, it was worth the wait. I had a steak and onion sandwich and couldn't eat it all. It cost £6.00 and came with fries, coleslaw. There was plenty of choice here, but mostly on the sandwich, salad side. everyday they would put on a special, sometimes it would be a burger and a budweiser, it would cost less than a fiver. The staff were a bit slow at serving, but were friendly enough.

*The Range Steakhouse* Here you can get a view of Las vegas from every table. The decor was all rustic. The prices were quite high, usually over £20 a steak or so. We gave it a miss.

*Winning Streaks Stadiulm bar and Grill* They serve hamburgers, sandwiches and deli food. There are large screens for you to watch whilst eating , all containing sport. The entertainment there consisted of the Casino of course. A show called skintight, which is a late night revue, with sexy girls. We didn't bother with that.

We saw a comedien called Mac something or other at a free show. They give you two free tickets when claiming your room key. We had to buy two drinks though to make sure we got in. They cost us about £9.00 for both of us, but we could have anything, I chose a Pina Colada. He was a magician with comedy thrown in, he was quite good. All the hotels seem to be doing this, offering you free tickets but you have to buy at least one drink each. The showroom is where Clint Holmes stars, apparently he's been voted the Best Singer by the las vegas review journal. He appears regularly. Theres also the Playa lounge with Live bands on, we saw some seventies gear knocking about. The band had on curly afro perms and groovy gear. They sounded ok. You can get up and dance if you like.

*The Rooms* The rooms were very nice and spacious. We had two large beds, there were wardrobes here which is quite unusual for the US, they normally just have a clothes rail in other hotels I've stayed in. The wardrobe was built round a unit which housed a large screen TV, 25" I think. It was meant to have an nintendo built in, but it never worked . There was also a table and chairs and a nice spacious bathroom, with hairdryer etc. Everyday we got new toiletries, I couldn't even open a soap without another popping up again. We had tissues in a dispenser in the bathroom and plenty of vanity space for our own toiletries. The maid service is always excellent, they even fold your loo roll in a fancy way.

We also had a mini bar stocked with beer, liquers, pop and chocolate. it was quite pricey, you paid £1.50 for a small tube of prigles. The bar had a sensor so everything you lifted off even if you didn't eat it would get charged to the room. I realised this when scanning a bar of choccie, I quickly put it back once I realised I would get charged even for looking. Luckily because I had put it back straightway, I didn't get charged.

The rooms also had a great temperature control, which was automatic. They called it an energy control sensor. The units purpose was to minimise energy waste when the room is unoccupied. So when you return back to your room, it sensors you and puts the temperature back to a comfortable temperature. it says you shouldn't feel any discomfort so it won't get too hot or too cold.

When we checked in we were surprised to pay a $3.00 a night energy charge which has never happened before. My mum and dad stayed at the Stratosphere and it was cheaper, it must be a new thing.

The check in was very quick, and apparently you can do a quick checkout on your tv screen when it works. If you don't have any costings, then you can just check yourself out and go, leaving the key behind of course. This wouldn't work, but because it was very early in the morning, we got a quick checkout anyway.

*Facelities* Laundry service, picked up by 10am anmd returned by 6pm, just place your dirty things in the bag provided. Vending Machines on all floors, usually found round the corner from an elevator. Baby Sitting service. Beauty salon and barber shop. Swimming pool. Medical Services. Religious services.

Free Safe Deposit at reception.

Shoeshine Outlet.

Shops galore.

To use the Gym and sauna it cost £10 a day for hotel guests from 6am to 8pm. It had treadmills, Tetrix Bicycles, Circuit Workouts, Whirlppols and Steamroom.

Spa The treatments were, massages ranging from $120, $80 and $50 dollars. A body wrap was $125 dollars facial treatments were $125 and $85. Perms were $75 dollars and up, a colour was $55 and up. A blow dry was $30 and up. They also did waxing, bikini line, brows and manicures. I thought that they were a little too expensive for my budget.

If I happened to go to Las vegas again, I would stay here again. I found it friendly, clean, fun and very central for all hotels and entertainment.

The address is 3475 Las Vegas Boulevard. Telephone number is (702) 369-5000