Flew into Las Vegas, the city of dreams plonked firmly in the middle of the Nevada desert. It's a city where you can get any thing you want, for a price. And it certainly brings in the crowds.

You can see why Americans never need to go abroad, every thing is replicated in the hotels lining the Las Vegas strip. From the canals of Venice, to the pyramids of Egypt. From the Eiffel Tower, to the colosseum of Rome. It's all represented here, in true Disney style fakery.

It's a city with a checkered history. The Mob museum does a great job detailing the rise of the gangsters which used to rule the city, although some of the exhibits are rather graphic. The start feature is the wall, up against where the St Valentine's day massacre took place, transplanted brick by brick from Chicago.

The Atomic testing Museum does an equally good job of detailing the hundreds of bombs that were detonated in the Nevada desert, lighting up the Vegas sky's in the fifties and sixties.

All in all It's a city best dealt with in small doses. And with plenty of time outside to escape the bubble. Lucky just over the mountains the stunning Grand Canyon awaits.