Things to do / Travel Guide
Where to begin with Las Vegas? You know the oasis city is bustling with luxurious hotels and resorts, restaurants, casinos, and activities - now go! The Bellagio, the Four Seasons, the Stratosphere, the casinos, the shows - get ready for some of the most outrageous and opulent luxury in the world. Las Vegas, the Strip in particular, is as flashy as ever, and literally every day more and more high-class luxury accommodations, attractions, restaurants, and activities are added to the list - like a decadent sundae overflowing with flavors.
Luxurious Lodging and Activities in Las Vegas
Luxurious accommodations come in two flavors in Sin City, the decadent themed suites, and the decadent un-themed suites - both, may we remind you, are decadent. For example, at the Bellagio, a Penthouse Suite can be up to 2,050 square feet in area, and it comes with a separate powder room, a fully-stocked mini-bar and wet bar, a dining set, two bathrooms - one with a steam shower and one with a whirlpool tub, robes and slippers, opulent lighting fixtures, and more.
With regard to the Bellagio itself, to call it a resort is to understate things. It's a small city, starting with the over 3,000 living quarters, two huge ballrooms, two large pools and more smaller ones, a spa, the casino (of course), the “O” Theatre, the Light nightclub, a botanical garden, a Gallery of Fine Art, and seven upscale restaurants. And for all this enormity, service is absolutely magnanimous, even at the resort's busiest.
A fabulous example of a decadent themed suite is one of those at the Palms Casino Resort. How about the Hardwood Suite, a 10,000-square-foot domicile dedicated to everything basketball. It's the only suite in the world with an indoor basketball court - really! Plus locker rooms, a scoreboard, a pool table, a full bar and a lounge, a Jacuzzi, three Murphy beds long enough for even Shaquille O' Neal to be comfy, a 42-inch plasma television, a dining area and room to dance. It's the ultimate party suite for the basketball junkie, or for those who've hit the jackpot and have a few thousand bucks to spend.
Also at the Palms there's the Hugh Hefner ski villa, among other ski villas, plus bachelor and bachelorette party suites decked out in retro 1960s furnishings. The grand suite at the Palms is 1,000 feet squared, and it boasts the requisite flat-screen television, handsome sleek furniture, a huge bathroom with two baths, and floor-to-ceiling windows for excellent views of the Strip and the rest of Las Vegas. For your entertainment, the Palms also boasts the world's only Playboy Club, as well as four other lounges and concert halls - as well as a 14-screen movieplex.
And now for a twist, so typical in the Las Vegas landscape, where manmade mountains and lakes are as standard as a Maxwell sausage in Chicago. About 40 minutes outside Vegas, is Lake Mead - the largest manmade lake of them all. Surely you would expect a resort to take advantage of the myriad scenes of beauty to be found in the lake's ecosystem. And lo and behold, here we have the Ritz-Carlton on the nearby Lake Las Vegas.
This Ritz-Carlton is entirely built, in a nod to theme-based Las Vegas, as an estate from Tuscany. It's a much more traditional resort, though with a style all its own, with golf courses, a spa, beaches, and lake recreational activities. At the spa, you can pamper yourself with a number of different treatments, from reflexology and deep tissue to aromatherapy and hot stones. The suites at the Ritz-Carlton are assuredly decadent, and the best are those on the Club Level along the Pontevecchio Bridge, which crosses the lake. The luxury is overwhelming, with beautiful views of the lake, marble and granite baths with advanced bath amenities, a king-sized bed with luxuriating bed linens, and more.
Luxurious Dining in Las Vegas
Undoubtedly, for excellent restaurants, you go to the best resorts and hotels - it's as simple as that. Among the best are Le Cirque at Bellagio, Nobu at the Hard Rock Hotel, and Aureole at Mandalay Bay. These establishments employ the world's best chefs, and give them gobs of money and an unlimited budget to create menus that will simply have you staring in awe. Masterpieces grace the menus, like Le Cirque's Rabbit Symphony, with ravioli, roasted loin, braised leg with crispy spaëtzles and Riesling sauce; or Aureole's Sonoma squab Rossini.
Nevertheless, the Las Vegas visitor in search of Las Vegas' truly best food, the restaurants with the most luxuriant service, should stray a bit from the Strip. First step: Introduce yourselves to such Las Vegas mainstays as Andre's and Rosemary's.
Andre's, completely different from the standard Las Vegas look, is located in an early 1930s-era house just north of the Strip. From the outside it looks like any other ranch home in the neighborhood, though from the inside it has the look and feel of a French country restaurant with multiple smaller and larger dining rooms. Amazing what a few winning hands can do! The head chef, a man by the name of Andre, specializes in Belgian and French food. Start with Caspian Sea caviar, continue with a pan-seared magret of duck with cranberry coulis, duck confit petivier and sautéed butternut squash.
Moving farther away from the strip, no Las Vegas trip is complete without a visit to Rosemary's. This restaurant is a bit like a luxurious mom and pop, serving American Continental with twists of the South, New Orleans, and Midwest. Entrées like the yellowfin tuna au poivre or the Maytag blue cheese glazed New York Strip with garlic spinach, apple bacon, and smoked tomato butter sauce make this establishment one of Las Vegas' best. The wine list is extensive, with selections from all the best of the world's wine regions.
You knew that Las Vegas was filled with luxurious dining, though the selection is much wider than you might have realized. And of course, no accommodations and activities are as flamboyant as they are on the Strip. Las Vegas is all about gambling, of course, but it's also all about luxury and living large. And if you think your wallet can't really take on the region's luxurious offerings, keep in mind that in the Las Vegas region, all it takes is one lucky spin of the reels and you'll soon be on your way to the kind of luxurious opulence and decadence you've only dreamed of!
Luxury Vacation Ideas in Las Vegas, Lake Mead and the Nevada desert
Luxury-Vacations
|
|
|