Around 32 million people visit Las Vegas every year. Helena Lang checked into the Park MGM on the strip to find out why

So, if New York is the city that never sleeps, what is Las Vegas? Perhaps the city that never stops? A place where you can play roulette, blackjack, craps and baccarat 24/7; where you can order a steak to be delivered to your hotel room at 3am, then get ready to go out to a nightclub and dance till dawn. But, please, don’t let that put you off. Even if you’re not a gambler, even if, like me, you enjoy eating your meals at – ahem – mealtimes and like to see the morning fresh from your bed, rather than just before you get into it, this city is still one of the most exciting destinations in the world.

The hotels are like giant shopping, restaurant and entertainment venues with rooms attached. Each one a separate and often themed destination with great restaurants, theatres, cocktail bars, nightclubs and speakeasies on the premises. You can check in any time you like... And you may never want to leave.

In fact, in modern Las Vegas, dining, shopping and entertainment are now the most popular activities, although the casino clientele still count. From upscale Michelin-starred restaurants to deliciously fresh ingredients cooked by passionate chefs in small, local premises, food is on the ascendancy. And who doesn’t dream of seeing Adele, Sting or Rod Stewart strut their stuff on a Vegas stage?

From the lipstick-red leather couch in our slick and sophisticated suite at the Park MGM hotel, the city lies below, glittering and twinkling in the evening light and drawing us, like moths to a flame, to a series of twilight adventures. On our first night we dress up and hit the town, kicking off with cocktails while tucked into a sexy, velvet booth at The Mayfair Supper Club at the nearby Bellagio hotel. Here, first-class food and drinks are teamed with entertainment. Dancers n spangled dinner suits and singers in feathers and frothy gowns take to the small central stage before taking a twirl around the tables.

Meanwhile, the kitchen sends out American classics, including teetering seafood towers, Caesar salads, lobster thermidor and more. My top tip: order a Lucky Lady cocktail, the truffle pasta, the sprouts with pancetta and the beef rice. Delicious. This joint encapsulates the spirit of the city in a jewel box of a restaurant. It sets us up for a show – ‘O’ by Cirque du Soleil – at a theatre within the Bellagio hotel, especially designed and created for the simply staggering theatrics, where the floor itself turns into a deep-water pool as if by magic, and the dancers, syncronised swimmers and world-class divers perform pinch-yourself tumbles, acrobatics and I-can’t-believe-they-just-did-that dives. 

Each hotel on the strip has its fair share of high- rolling restaurants, with top chefs from around the world adding their names and their signature dishes. Often it’s hard to get a reservation, but if you book a whistle-stop experience with the Lip Smacking Foodie Tours team, you get exclusive access. With a group of fellow dining-out enthusiasts, you visit a selection of the very best all in one night, stopping at each for a single course and cocktail before heading off to the next.

We tucked into shrimp and crab enchiladas at Mexican restaurant Javier’s, chicken croquetas and paella at Julian Serrano Tapas, and a platter of desserts at Mastro’s Ocean Club. Other foodie highlights crammed into a four-night break included a plant-based brunch at Crossroads, Resorts World, where the menu offered chestnut foie gras and ‘eggs’ made from mung beans. More brunch delights can be found in Sadelle’s Café at the Bellagio, with salami and eggs for hearty eaters. But, for me, the grapefruit brûlée stole the show.

At Beauty & Essex at The Cosmopolitan, the glamour goes into overdrive. Sneak in through a faux pawn-shop frontage and find yourself in a dark, intimate cocktail bar and restaurant. Wine and beer flow as diners order grilled cheese dumplings and Thai-style fried shrimp. Afterwards, head down to the hotel’s speakeasy, The Barbershop Cuts And Cocktails, fronted this time by, you guessed it, a retro barber’s shop. Lowlit and raunchy, it hosts a thrash metal band until the early hours, at which point you can head back to Park MGM where the On The Record nightclub finds groovers of all ages getting it on.  

So you’ve eaten well and sipped your fair share of cocktails, but what else is there to do in Las Vegas? Well a bit of retail therapy always helps me, and my tip is to forgo the fabulous but eye- wateringly expensive designer stores that clutter the halls of the big hotels and head to Main Street in the city’s Arts District. Here there is a more gentle approach to spending money. You can browse the stalls of the best vintage stores I’ve ever had the pleasure to rummage through to stock up on cute retro T-shirts, vintage Levi’s, and kitsch decorative bits and bobs.

After filling my bags with goodies, I head just around the corner to enjoy lunch at Esther’s Kitchen, where chef James Trees cooks up a storm with the best local ingredients to create dishes inspired by his Great Aunt Esther. It’s casual, fun and has a menu that bursts with all of my favourite things, including charcuterie boards and loaded pork sliders. While you’re downtown, head to The Mob Museum, which is a fascinating exploration of the city’s history and its infamous Mafia connections.

At the same end of the strip is Resorts World – a huge complex that consists of a hotel (3,000-plus rooms and counting), restaurants, a 5,000-seat theatre, shopping malls and conference centres. But tucked away on the second floor is the Awana Spa, an oasis of calm and absolutely the best cure for a hangover. Oh my goodness, what a temple of heavenly treats this is.

There’s a labyrinth of jacuzzi pools, each set at a different temperature, as well as saunas, steam rooms and heated loungers, where you can spend all afternoon sipping cucumber water, nibbling tempting fruity treats and pampering yourself with tingling massages from an army of therapists before primping and preening in the want-for-nothing changing rooms.

Quite frankly, I would have been happy to spend all week in there. But you can’t escape the crowds, and why would you want to? Even browsing the casino floors is theatre in itself, and I enjoyed watching punters bring their Great Dane dogs, hen parties run riot, couples smooch and jaw-dropping amounts of cash being lost in an instant. Madness. I even spotted someone playing the fruit machines with a pug in a pram next to them.

Outside you can walk the strip quite easily, dropping in to browse the faux canals of The Venetian Resort and taking quick snapshots of the peacock-esque girls in leotards that patrol the sidewalks and charge for photo opportunities. The surreality continues when I realise on the way to the airport that I haven’t seen a child in four days.. But who cares? Certainly not me. I’ve had the time of my life in this giant, adult playground and the child within me wishes – just like the city itself – it never has to stop.