In April 2003, I visited America for the first time staying at The Luxor Hotel & Casino, the reason behind the visit was to attend my brothers wedding which took place in a hotel in the mountains, about a half an hour drive from Las Vegas.

Whilst in Las Vegas we stayed in the Luxor Hotel, it is situated on the strip, although not on the main part of the strip, and consists of two large tower blocks full of rooms and a unique pyramid building which is also used for accommodation. In total there are over 4000 rooms available in the Luxor - and believe it or not they are very often fully booked.

We had booked a pyramid room as we thought it would be quite unique to stay in the pyramid and use the inclinator to go up and down from our room. Check in was straight forward and there were lots of well groomed staff waiting to check us in. When we arrived at our room we were disappointed as we had requested a non smoking room and had been put into a room that had a very heavy stale cigarette odour and that looked out over a building site. We rang down to the reception and they said that they would be more than happy to move us, however, there were no more pyramid rooms available so we would have to go into the West Tower. Our room in the West Tower was beautiful - we didn't have a strip view, but we did have a fantastic view of the mountains in the distance and the swimming pool, and other local hotels. Despite only being a standard room, our accommodation was very plush, it was decorated on an Egyptian Theme and was spotlessly clean. The bathroom was huge and consisted of both a bath and shower, a Hollywood style mirror and loads of towels - there were three of us sharing our room and we each had three towels, which were changed daily. Each room had it's own iron and ironing board, (very handy as our wedding outfits were quite creased), a television and telephone. There were two bottles of water within the room but there was an exorbitant rate charged if you opened them so we visited the drinks machine which was located on our floor of the hotel and purchased bottled water and other soft drinks for the much more agreeable price of $1.

We booked our accommodation through Expedia.co.uk and managed to get the room at a very good rate - $69 per night - approximately £45. Prior to booking we shopped around and this was the best deal available. Hotel prices in Las Vegas do vary greatly depending on the time of year, where you are staying and whether you are staying during the week or at the weekend. We had wanted to stay an additional night, but because the extra night fell over the Easter Weekend the rate jumped from $69 to $209 per night, so we didn't stay.

Having settled into our room we decided to stay local for the first evening and visited the Pharaohs Buffet dining area within the Luxor. The buffet is open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner and prices vary depending on the time of day. The evening buffet was about $15 a head, which is about £12 and was exceptionally good value, children were slightly cheaper but were offered the same choice of food.

The buffet does get very busy and you can expect to queue for about 20 minutes, however, once you have reached the front of the queue and paid the staff were very well organised we were always shown to a table very quickly. The buffet is available on a help yourself basis but a waiter/waitress is employed to take drinks orders and serve them to the table- all the waiting staff were very attentive and nothing was too much trouble for them - immediately they noticed that your glass/cup was empty they would come an offer a refill and dirty cutlery and plates were cleared away very quickly. This didn't stop you going back for more food as you just get a clean plate from the buffet area, (be sure to hold onto your cutlery though as this isn't readily available and you will have to ask if you require more).

The buffet was very beautifully presented and there was a good selection of hot and cold foods. The evening buffet usually consisted of a choice of meats or fish, a large selection of vegetables, potatoes, rice etc and a huge salad bar area. Also available was a wide selection of fresh fruit and desserts, including cakes and biscuits. Lunch included a similar selection of foods and breakfast included a full cooked breakfast, omelettes, a wide selection of fresh fruit, cereal, croissants, pancakes and cakes, biscuits and puddings - we had breakfast every day and after a hearty breakfast you did not need to eat again until the evening. Strangely enough, despite eating loads, we didn't really put on any weight - probably because Las Vegas is so vast that we spend all day walking around and burned off all the calories we'd consumed.

** OTHER EATING PLACES IN THE LUXOR**

If you don't fancy the buffet there are loads of other eating places within The Luxor, some of the more popular eating places are detailed below.

The Pyramid Cafe - A 24 hour cafe which has a very wide menu to suit all tastes.
The Luxor Steakhouse - A steak restaurant serving prime aged steaks - open in the evening only.

The Sacred Sea Room - A seafood restaurant serving the finest fresh and saltwater fish.

Papyrus - an Asian Restaurant serving Polynesian, Szechwan, Mandarin and Cantonese foods.

Hamad of Japan - A Japanese themed restaurant, open for lunch time and evening meals and offering sushi, tempura and teriyaki.

** ENTERTAINMENT**

The Luxor offers a wide variety of entertainment, including entertainment aimed directly at families as well as adult only entertainment.

The main show currently running at the Luxor is called 'The Blue Man Group' - this is an award winning show consisting of comedy and music which is suitable for all age groups. The Blue Man Group perform every day, sometimes twice daily and tickets can be purchased from the booking office within the Luxor. (Note from Moderator - Please note that 'The Blue Man Group' are no longer performing at this hotel).

The Luxor has its' own Imax Theatre which shows amazing state of the art films which through superb graphics and sound effects will really make you feel that you are taking part in the film. Films being shown when we were there included The Grand Canyon, Star Wars, Space Station, Haunted Castle and The Lion King.

Midnight Fantasy - A topless show.

RA - Nightclub.

Games Of The Gods Arcade - Something for the kids/ big kids - an arcade full of virtual reality games.

The Tomb And Museum of King Tutankhamun - A stunning exhibition and museum dedicated to the history of King Tutankhamun.

**SHOPPING**

The Luxor has a good selection of shops, although not as many as some of the other major hotels on The Strip. Having said that if you wanted to you could probably find everything you needed within the shops in the hotel - there are shops selling everything from sweets, toiletries, newspapers, gifts, toys, jewellery, photo frames, cigars and ties

Many of the shops stock souvenirs and there is a wide selection of goods sporting the Luxor Logo, including T-Shirts, mugs, glasses, post cards, pens, pencils and key rings.

**LEISURE ACTIVITIES**

The Luxor has four outdoor swimming pools, including a family pool and four Jacuzzis. There is plenty of seating around the pool and beautiful palm trees surround the pool area.

For the more energetic there is the superb Oasis Spa which has separate facilities for men and women, including state of the art exercise equipment. The Oasis Spa also offers rejuvenating treatments.

**THE CASINO**

The casino is much like any of the other casinos in Las Vegas - it is open 24 hours a day and once inside it is very easy to get lost - this is the idea as it encourages you to spend more money.

Throughout the day there are classes held offering tuition on how to play the various table games, such as Craps, Blackjack, Roulette etc, so you don't need to worry if you are not an expert before you come as you can soon learn how to play if you want to.

Slot machines are everywhere within the casino - offering a variety of prizes and huge cash jackpots and on some machines jackpots of a new car. You don't have to be loaded to play the machines as you can play for as little as 1 nickel, (5 cents), this is less than 5p - the jackpots are still worth winning and I won $70 on the nickel machines one evening so you can still a good amount of money for a small outlay.

Children are not permitted in the casino - however, they are allowed to walk through the casino.

Cocktail waitresses are continually walking around the casino offering free drinks to anybody playing on the machines or tables. The cocktail waitress normally just calls out 'cocktails' and if you want a drink you have to call her over. It is customary to tip the cocktail waitress, usually $1 for each drink - if you and your partner are both served a drink at the same time a $1 tip between the two of you is acceptable, however, if more than 2 drinks are served at a time then the tip should be increased.

There are bars in the casino but it really isn't worth buying a drink if you are planning to play on the tables or slots as you will be offered a freebie so you may as well take it - even with the tip you will be paying considerably less than you would pay at the bar.

**THE ONE CLUB - LOYALTY CLUB**

The Luxor runs a loyalty club known as The One Club. When you arrive you can enrol to join the One Club provided that you are over 21. The club is free to join and basically offers rewards when you have played on the slots or tables.

Once you have enrolled you will be issued with a credit sized card that you insert into the slot machine or give to the croupier and you will accrue points all the time you are playing.

You can save the points up and once you have enough you can exchange them for your choice of gift.

We did join the One Club but not until we'd already been playing for a couple of days so we didn't really benefit from it - we ended up with a free One Club key ring - a nice souvenir but nothing to write home about.

You can use your One Club card in 10 casino locations within Las Vegas including Mandalay Bay, Excalibur, Monte Carlo and Circus Circus Hotels.

**OTHER INFORMATION**

The Luxor has a hairdressing and beauty salon but I thought that they were very expensive. I wanted to have my hair done for the wedding so I called in for a price to put my hair into a French Pleat and was quoted $95-$100, (about £75).

The Luxor offers valet parking and it is customary to tip the valet $1 for parking or picking up your car.

There is a very good frequent tram service which links the Mandalay Bay, Luxor and Excalibur Hotels, this is a free service and is a great idea as it is quite a long walk between the hotels. Even if you don't want to visit the other hotels it is quite useful to catch the tram as it will take you nearer to where you do want to go and can save you a lot of time.

Taxis are always available from the main entrance of the hotel and are very reasonably priced - approximately $12 from one end of the strip to the other.

It is customary to tip approximately 8-10% in America and you should tip everybody from your waiter, valet, cleaner, hairdresser and cocktail waitress.

I could probably ramble on forever, but I think I've probably covered the most important points so I'll stop here.

If you still require further information you can visit the Luxor website at www.luxor.com.

Having visited other hotels in Las Vegas I felt that we made the right choice deciding to stay at The Luxor - the hotel was beautiful, the room was lovely as was the food and the whole Las Vegas experience was fantastic and I would have no hesitation in recommending the Luxor and will certainly go back one day.

Thank you for reading.