So you've booked your cheap flights to Las Vegas, and made certain you have completed the online Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) to make sure that you get into the USA, booked a nice hotel and sorted out the car hire, and now you are trying to figure out what the hell you will do when you arrive!

Well No.1 on the list is obviously the casinos; otherwise why travel all that way to the World's gambling Capital in the first place? To be completely blunt with you, once you have seen one casino, the majority of the others are pretty much a carbon copy. However it is still worth calling in a few casinos to view what is different, with places like The Venetian being similar to Venice including the canals!! The Circus Circus is great for kids, and a journey up the Stratosphere gives excellent views of the Las Vegas valley, including the beautiful Red Rock Canyon, which is to the West, is well and truly worth a visit if you have rented a car.

Other hotels worth a peak are The Excalibur, The Luxor and The Mandalay Bay, while those at the posh end, such as The MGM, The Bellagio, etc are nothing really special from my point of view.

One place though many people think of is the Grand Canyon in Las Vegas! However many folk from around the globe fail to realise the actual size of the USA is a bit bigger than nipping down to your local corner shop! While Las Vegas is in Nevada, the majority of the Grand Canyon is actually situated in Arizona. If you look at a map it appears only a couple of centimetres away, no problem travelling to it then? Wrong. First off you have to cross the Hoover Dam over into Arizona, and if you arrive from midday onwards this may well take you a while to get over due to high traffic loads (unless the spanking new road has opened since I actually wrote this!).

From the dam you have to drive south some way down Highway 93, which isn't such a bad journey but will have plenty of roadworks till around 2011.

Unlike the car parks in the Las Vegas hotels, the Grand Canyon is well sign posted, and is a simple left turn onto Highway 145, going towards the Skywalk. Whatever you do, don't miss the turnoff; it is miles before the next one. The further along this road you go, the more rugged the terrain, with the road approaching over 5000 feet in places, additional oxygen is not required though! The further along this road you travel the more you notice that Las Vegas seems a world away.

A lot of the journey is across an Indian Reservation, with the final leg involving driving on an unpaved road, though they have promised to build a nice smooth one for tourists who don't like the rugged feel of the desert. Although car hire companies specify you are not supposed to drive off-road, the roads to the Grand Canyon are actually official roads even if they may appear off-road to some people.

The total travelling distance from The Strip is about 120 miles, and will take you anywhere between 3.4-4 hours to complete, so you are looking at a full day, so start out early. Just a separate note, this is the desert, take plenty of water with you, as well as energy food, and always ensure you have a full tank of petrol/diesel, a few tourists have died in the Arizona, Nevada and Californian deserts in the past, do not join the list.

If you have not hired a car, or do not wish to drive very far yourself, a few other options are available to view the Grand Canyon.

You can find coach tours to the area, and these are pretty comfortable and air-conditioned with working toilets, and are decent enough value, but again you are still stuck with the travel time and it is much longer on these tours than driving yourself. You also will not be stopping every 10 minutes to take pictures and video as you would if you drive yourself.

One other option that is much quicker is to fly. You may think this is expensive, well in most cases it is. Going by helicopter is certainly not cheap, and will set you back at least $180 per person, but it is a wonderful experience hovering in the Grand Canyon itself, and flying over Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam, as well as beautiful views of Las Vegas. A lot of people are not aware though that you can get cheap flights from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon and that is by hiring a prop aeroplane. As with helicopters, they also take-off from McCarran International Airport, and will collect you, and then drop you off at the hotel later in the day, but the price is a lot lower. I haggled them down to $85 each for a 3 hour flight.

The only downside is that you can't hover for pictures, and it is a lot noisier than the helicopters, although for the cost and experience it is more than worth it, the views are just as amazing from the air.

One last thing, if you have flown from Europe, when you leave Las Vegas, if it is a nice clear day, the pilot usually flies over the Grand Canyon, if so, you get a good free view, although it can be a misty from the altitude, and you will need a right-hand side window seat.

Please be aware that many tourists say the West Rim Skywalk is a rip-off, as all the costs add up. Entry, car parking, food, etc, is all charged for, while the South Rim is a one-off fee, and well priced.

For further information visit the US National Park Service, and they will give you all the advice you need for a good day out if you are not using one of the air options.

For a full history of the Grand Canyon, Wiki is the place to be.

However you decide to tour the Grand Canyon, you will definitely enjoy your day out.