Viva Sin City
Joshua Surtees dives into the Vegas pool party scene
In August, Britain's Prince Harry was spotted getting wet and wild with selected bosom buddies at various alcohol-fuelled pool parties in Las Vegas. He got on down at the Wynn Hotel's XS nightclub, challenged American Olympic champion swimmer Ryan Lochte to a race in his jeans and wore a "let's get wild" vest belonging to someone called Lauren's bachelorette party.
The Vegas pool party concept launched in 2004 with Rehab, the original "day club", at the Hard Rock Hotel, and is now a focal point of wild weekends for America's youth. The craze has taken off in recent years, with all the major hotels along the strip now boasting party pools.
"Where do these party people go when they need a wee?" my mother had asked, before I set out to sample the scene. A valid point, but not one that troubles me much as I recline in the 40-degrees-Celsius heat on a sunbed at Encore (another club where Harry partied), mojito in hand, nodding to the electronic beats cascading from the two-metre high speaker stacks across a tableau that brings to mind the words "only in America".
Las Vegas weekends usually revolve around nighttime forays into a world of hedonism. Casinos don't have windows or clocks on the walls, so weary punters don't actually know when it's time to hit the hay and just keep on pumping their money into the slot machines. Lately, however, they've discovered a new way of revelling, and one that doesn't lead to vitamin D deficiency - it's known as day clubbing.
at the Marquee Dayclub at The Cosmopolitan hotel - on a terrace packed with sunbeds, jacuzzis, liposuctioned bodies and a moderately sized pool that is overlooked by palm trees and glitzy 60-storey hotels, iridescent in the sun.
After walking there through the hot desert winds, I am glad to jump straight into the pool. At its edge, besides US$500-a-day sunloungers, US$3,500-US$5,000 will secure you a Grand Cabana. These soft-seated chillout zones seat up to 15 people, are open sided and come with sun shades, flatscreen televisions, minibars loaded with beer, water and soft drinks and private infinity pools. A pitcher of margarita or mojito costs US$48, a beer or bottle of water US$8.