Is Las Vegas worth a visit?

I'd been to Las Vegas before, in the '80s, when I was just over half a foot tall. I had just turned one year old, and my parents probably didn't enjoy the city of vice and wild nights with a little one around. Evening dress was required, children weren't allowed in casinos and hotels were at their best.

I heard so many stories about that trip, and I couldn't wait to visit Las Vegas. Unfortunately, my excitement was weakened by heavy traffic, loud noise, crowded streets, overcrowded casinos, worn hotel carpets.

Las Vegas is an oasis in the desert, literally. The strip, flanked by hotels and casinos, is surrounded by a dense expanse of very poor and run-down residential districts, where homes are hidden behind high walls surmounted by barbed wire. A continuous contradiction, where wealth is concentrated on a single glittering central street that hides a degraded city behind its scenes.

The streets are an anthill of people. It's hard to walk. From Mexico, hundreds of families flock to Las Vegas, and you can barely walk on the crowded sidewalks. We couldn't even find a place in a restaurant, and after searching all night, we settled for a randomly chosen fast food place.

The casinos are just the shadow of my parents' stories: now their doors are open, on the street, and anyone, even children, can come in and browse the poker tables. The famous light and fountains shows are crowded with people, and you have to get out of your way to carve out a place to watch. The most historic casinos and hotels stand still in time, with their poorly modernised rooms and 1970s carpeting. The streets are filled with trinkets and fast food shops.

It's not all so bad in Las Vegas, though. The most luxurious hotels, however, maintain a certain standard of elegance, and offer even high category rooms at affordable prices. Their casinos are a little more exclusive, but still overflowing with tourists.

It's an important facet of American folklore, but to elect it as an unmissable stop on a trip would be too much. In my opinion. Perhaps it's a once-in-a-lifetime destination, a must do, like making a pilgrimage to an iconic place of our imagination. But I think my parents' Las Vegas, the Las Vegas of the 80s, had a different flavor.