At first glance, the Barbershop Cuts and Cocktails looks like a standard hairdressers. It’s neither big nor impressive.

Towards the back stands a door that looks like it belongs to a janitor’s closet. But looks, especially in this city, can be deceptive and this nondescript door conceals a hidden gem.

Once opened, we’re greeted by a swanky hideaway lounge that harkens back to the Prohibition era, a roaring 1920s-style speakeasy, packed with cocktail-sipping music lovers, velvet booths, and a live band that could’ve held its own at Madison Square Garden.

The range of cocktail options is vast but the best thing about the place is the atmosphere, generated largely by the quality of the musicians strutting their stuff.

It’s the sort of a class night out that you know you won’t forget in a hurry.

We’d already soared over the Strip in a helicopter and would soon find ourselves bewitched and bewildered by watching a woman suspended mid-air by nothing but her hair, but this secret room behind a barbershop was to prove the trip’s biggest thrill.

That’s Vegas for you — outrageous, opulent, and endlessly inventive.

If there’s one way to truly appreciate the jaw-dropping scale of Vegas, it’s from above.

We buckle into our Papillon helicopter and head away from Vegas to the Hoover Dam before circling back over the strip.

Leaving the city centre, we get a bird’s-eye view of how the other half live. In Vegas, it seems, a private swimming pool is merely a standard part of a home rather than a grandiose extra.

It’s easy to see why it attracts the stars, with Celine Dion perhaps the most famous celebrity to reside in the entertainment and sports capital of the world.

Ironically, one of the songs that plays in a loop on our headsets is Tom Petty’s Learning To Fly, a class tune but when you’re 2,500ft above ground it’s probably best not to think too much about its lyrics.

“I’m learning to fly, but I ain’t got wings,

Coming down is the hardest thing…

I’m learning to fly, around the clouds,

But what goes up must come down.”

Mercifully, we need not have any worries on that score. We’re in safe hands with our pilot.

We make our way over the Nevada desert en route to the Hoover Dam, a massive concrete structure built on the border between Arizona and Nevada.

It’s an imposing, spectacular sight, and it’s easy to see why, on an average working day, approximately 3,500 men were needed to work on its construction.

The finished product is a fitting tribute to their collective efforts: To describe the Hoover Dam as an incredible feat of manpower only begins to do it justice.

We return to Vegas, flying over the entirety of the Strip, a perfect way of seeing all this enchanting city has to offer.

We fly over the entire Formula One racetrack (more of which later) and see iconic Las Vegas attractions like the Luxor pyramid, Allegiant Stadium, T-Mobile Arena, the ‘Eiffel Tower’, the Bellagio Fountains, the High Roller Observation Wheel, and the MSG Sphere before returning to the air terminal.

A delicious pepperoni pizza at the Happy Camper restaurant later, we find ourselves at Flight Club, a social club for darts, at the Venetian Resort.

Yours truly makes an inauspicious start in the practice round, failing to even hit the board with my first couple of shots, the sort of two of three that even Meatloaf would have to describe as bad.

The plus is things can only get better. Happily, they quickly do. I nearly fluke a bullseye with my first throw in the real competition and suddenly, in my own mind at least, I’m Luke Littler.

I finish second of five in round one, a standard round of darts, before coming into my own in the rounds that follow.

The challenge in each round is slightly different but one round involves hitting the assigned number of each of my rivals in order to knock them out.

This brings out my ruthless side but my cynical approach to my new favourite pastime is only good enough to secure second place overall. Oh well!

An appetite worked up, we head for the Bardot Brasserie where the menu has something for every palate. I opt for the eight-ounce steak and it’s absolutely divine.

Back to the woman suspended mid-air by nothing but her hair. Cirque du Soleil’s Mad Apple is a wild spectacle, a show run at a breakneck speed.

It’s branded as “a spectacular journey through the vibrant nightlife of New York City, all from the dazzling stage of Las Vegas, Mad Apple is a delicious Cirque du Soleil cocktail of breathtaking acrobatics, pulsating music, dynamic dance, and side-splitting comedy, celebrating the city that never sleeps”.

It’s weird but wonderfully so. After a literally hair-raising performance from the aforementioned female, a male performer manages to twist himself in seemingly impossible ways to get a 10in tennis racquet through his body.

It’s one of those I-can’t-watch-this but I-can’t-not-watch-this situations.

Other highlights include the Cirque version of the Harlem Globetrotters sinking and jumping through hoops while bartenders float above the stage in a ‘death wheel’.

The quality, the fitness, the timing, and the teamwork produced by the performers is simply incredible. We certainly can’t claim that we’re not entertained.

After the intense nature of our first day in Vegas, starting day two off by chilling out by the pool at the Flamingo Hotel is a welcome change of pace.

And the Go Pool is no ordinary pool. It features five dazzling new pools, luxurious VIP cabanas, and a 30-seat in-water swim-up bar that gives guests the chance to sip handcrafted tropical cocktails without ever having to leave the water.

In short, it’s heaven on earth. As is the Oasis Pool Cabana at the Fontainebleau, one of the newest hotels in Vegas. Before heading for a swim, we visit the Tavern, a restaurant at the hotel, for brunch.

It’s difficult to find the right superlatives to do justice to the pool area. The cabanas are amazing while the daybeds are incredibly comfortable.

If you can’t relax here, you won’t be able to relax anywhere. As for the pool itself, it’s massive, so regardless of how busy it is at any given time, finding space to swim is never an issue.

Suitably chilled, it’s time for a dramatic change of pace. Our next destination is Grand Prix Plaza, the world’s largest immersive Formula One attraction at a venue that will host the Las Vegas Grand Prix on November 23.

There we are treated to an interactive Formula One experience that provides a tech-driven journey through a cutting-edge 4D exhibition with legendary artifacts, iconic F1 cars, and hands-on activities where visitors can design their own virtual F1 car.

Then it is our chance to strut our stuff in F1-inspired karts. But not before the safety briefing, outlining the sort of indiscretions that would result in disqualification as well as showing the flags that would be waved in the event of various gaffes.

Basically, our performance would be time-based rather than on overtaking other competitors. That, at least in theory, should have been good for me as I would manage to overtake the grand total of one person in the race.

One of my rivals ploughing into me from my blindside on lap two didn’t help my cause but to say my performance was deplorable would be putting it kindly.

The final indignity was my time not even being registered on the how-they-finished table. Whether that was because of how slow it was or disqualification for a blunder of some sort — quite possibly excessive slowness — I was too mortified to ask.

That said, it was a fun experience and one that provided a tiny glimpse of what driving in an F1 race would be like. Key takeaway: You can see very little.

From there it was onto the LINQ hotel and the Diner Ross for dinner. And, in common with the other restaurants we visited, there was no danger of anyone leaving feeling hungry.

Food portions in Vegas are massive. I opted for the meatloaf, made up of wagyu, mashed potatoes, and gravy. Delicious.

Carbs loaded, it was time for DISCOSHOW, transporting us back to 1970s New York City. It’s full-on, and at times a bit daft, but that’s part of its charm.

Once you make a conscious decision to embrace it, it’s actually decent craic.

Our final port of call is Caspian’s Speakeasy at Caesars Palace, a similar type of set-up to the Barbershop in that the main area is a hidden gem.

The caviar lounge doesn’t look anything special — it certainly doesn’t look especially lively — but concealed behind it is a bustling hideaway for music fans featuring a drinks list that cocktail lovers would kill for. It’s a lovely way to round off a brilliant trip.

Home for the couple of days is the Hilton, one of three hotel options — Conrad and Crockford being the others — at Resorts World.

As a recent build, Resorts World is away from the city centre which has positives (it’s not too noisy) and minuses (you’re a bit away from the action).

The rooms are amazing. We stay at the height of the summer, but the top-class air-conditioning ensures sleep isn’t a problem, though the jet lag may have played a part in that!

All in all, it’s a manic but brilliant few days at a destination everyone ought to try and visit at least once in their lives.

Viva Las Vegas.

Escape Notes

To plan your trip see Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority official site. visitlasvegas.com

Darren was a guest of Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Darren flew with JetBlue, with a layover at JFK Airport.