The sun shines all year round. The cultural and arts scene is legendary; its museums range from Mob culture to natural history, atomic testing to erotica. Elvis and Adele, Elton John and Mariah Carey, Sinatra and his Rat Pack are among its superstar alumni.
The entertainment capital of the world and the destination on many a traveller’s bucket list. So why wasn’t it on mine? Because: • If I wanted to experience the Pyramids, the Eiffel Tower, the Grand Canal, the Statue of Liberty..
. why would I want to see a facsimile? • I learned from an early age, in the amusement arcades of Blackpool and Llandudno, that gambling doesn’t pay. • Friends who’d already ticked Sin City off their wish list, saying they loved it, hadn’t convinced me I would too.
But, when the invitation came to a four-day celebration of Virgin Atlantic’s 40th birthday, travelling on the new thrice-weekly summer service from Manchester to Vegas, I could only repeat one of the mantras of that airline’s maverick founder, Sir Richard Branson: ‘Screw it – let’s do it.’ To Manchester Airport then, and a Premium Class seat on an Airbus A350-1000 for the nine-plus hour flight from Terminal 2 to Harry Reid International. Richard Branson’s belief, as founder of Virgin Atlantic, is – above all else – that it is the people who work for his company that make the difference.
And given the loyalty, professionalism and joie de vivre of his staff, it seems the admiration is mutual. James Stoops,.