Hip hotels

Years ago clever businessmen realised that if the clientele is relaxed and entertained during the day it would spend more money at the tables in the evening. So hotels in Las Vegas have much more to offer than just bed, breakfast and betting. Each one provides a different and unique experience to its guests but the one thing they all have in common is that everything is larger than life. Nineteen out of 20 of the biggest hotels in the world are in Las Vegas.

Various hotels in the city have an Italian theme. The trend began in 1966 when Caesars Palace became the first themed hotel-casino in town. Its features include replicas of classical statues like the Venus de Milo and Michelangelo’s David, which is twice as high as the original. You could relax in style in the Garden of the Gods by one of the three swimming pools; you can even sunbathe topless European-style in the Venus pool area! Each year guests get through 336,000 Caesar salads and 21 tonnes of smoked salmon in one of the many restaurants. The sumptuous Bellagio was the setting for the movie Ocean’s 11 in 2001. It employs a small army of 9,000 people to look after guests staying in the 3,000 rooms and suites, polishing the endless marble floors and ensuring that there are exotic fresh flowers at every turn. Outside a choreographed display of coloured fountains shoot 75m (240ft) into the air in time to music. If you feel like spending some of your winnings you could visit Gucci, Chanel or Tiffany in the Via Bellagio. The Venetian is a little piece of Italy lovingly recreated in Vegas and is the largest hotel and convention complex under one roof in the world. You can float down the Grand Canal in a gondola, pamper yourself in the 6,000 sq m (65,000 sq ft) of luxurious spa or enjoy a meal in one of its five star restaurants.

For a relatively new city Las Vegas has a lot of ancient attractions. The atrium of the Luxor, an enormous hotel in the shape of a pyramid, is covered with scenes from ancient Egypt and there’s a 30m (100ft) sphinx outside. The Luxor’s facilities, however, are far from ancient; guests can make their own music video on one of the Karaoke machines or travel to the upper floors in a ‘inclinator’ – an elevator that travel sideways!

The MGM Grand is what some would describe as the maximum Vegas experience. It’s so huge you could stay in a different room every night for 14 years! There’s an enormous Lion Habitat and three of the lions that live in it are believed to be descendents of the original MGM lion. The MGM Grand also has the biggest casino in town, covering 16,000 sq m (171,500 sq ft). If you feel like going tropical try the Mandalay Bay. Its pool has a fabulous sandy beach, for guests use only, complete with wave machine for body surfing. And you needn’t worry about the 12 different kinds of shark that live at the hotel, they have their own pool; the Shark Reef open aquarium boasts 2,000 marine animals swimming around in 1.5 million gallons of water.