We were in Vegas earlier this month ( not really for a holiday, but that's another story) and despite being seasoned travellers and Vegas regulars we still found a few new things, or things that had changed since we were last there in October 08.

The recession: It's hit Nevada hard. We found that in some casinos they had removed whole banks of slots, and that mid-week a lot more tables were closed. Weekends are still busy; what seems to be happening is that the Californians now come for Friday and Saturday nights only. We also found that some restuarants, previously open late or even 24 hours now close earlier.

The Deuce still rolls up and down the Strip as before. However, the single trip price has risen from $2 to $3 and the day ticket from $5 to $7.

Car Hire Boy did we make a mistake here! We had always prebooked and prepaid here in the UK. Because of a problem last time, Dollar Car Rental had issued us with a $50 discount voucher. We therefore decided just to pitch up at the car hire depot at McCarran and rent on the day, to use our discount voucher. Doing so cost us almost twice what we would have paid (even after the discount) had we prebooked.

Fuel Prices: These are still dropping. Just before we returned the car, we refilled at $2.12 per gallon.

Somewhere new(to us) We went to the Town Center development right at the bottom (South) end of Las Vegas Boulevard (further south than the Sign). This was described to us as an "open air mall", and that sums it up pretty well. Its laid out like a small-town town center, with low rise buildings, a park, street cafes and so on. Very pleasant indeed and it has:

Texas De Brasil The lastest in a small but growing chain. Apparently the Brazilians are big on meat eating...... At this restuarant, they grill meats on what are basically swords. The waiters wander around with a sword, laden with meat (steak, lamb, chicken, pork etc etc) and come to your table and carve slices off their sword for you. You get a dinky little pair of tweezers to take the freshly sliced meat off the sword as it's cut. There's not a lot of veg with this meal; a great place if you are a dedicated carnivore!

Visa Waiver Although the new electronic Visa Waiver scheme is up and running, you still have the old style green immigration cards to fill in on the plane, and this overlap will continue for some months.

Building work Much of the building work continues apace; the City Center development mid Strip is almost finished ( and huge and impressive it is too) and Fontainbleu at the North End beyond the Sahara opens this fall. However Echelon Place ( where the old Stardust and New Frontiers stood) has be placed on pause for at least a year.