Luxury in Vegas! (Bellagio Hotel)

Member Name: taurus

Product:	Bellagio Hotel
Date:	25/07/01 (458 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good rooms and bathrooms, Buffet has good reputation, Nice view from rooms at front of hotel

Disadvantages: Quite expensive, Not much for children, Restaurants expensive

We recently stayed at Bellagio for 3 nights as part of a fly drive holiday. Bellagio has a reputation as one of the more exclusive hotels in Las Vegas, but how a hotel with over 3000 rooms can describe itself as exclusive I don't know. It is relatively new,about 2 to 3 years old - apparently it cost around $900 million to build! The theme (all Vegas hotels have to have one) is of an Italian Lakeside village, and is reasonably convincing.

If you arrive by car, let the valets do the parking for you. It only costs a couple of dollars in tips when you collect the car, and saves long walks from the self park areas. Get you luggage taken as well - it's quite a long way to the lifts.


The reception area is huge. You are hit by a smell of fresh flowers when you enter - there is a large conservatory not far from reception, stocked with masses of flowering plants, A huge glass sculture of flowers dominates the ceiling and is quite spectacular. We were allocated rooms at the front of the hotel overlooking the lake. Try and get one of these if you can - as high up as possible - you get a good view of the Strip. About every half hour in the evening there is a fountain display in the lake which is done to music. Your TV has a channel to pick up the music - unforgettable!

The rooms are spacious but not enormous. The bathroom is larger than average - very swanky with real marble and with a separate (very powerful!) power shower. Bathrobes are provided. There are plenty of lifts, and one thing that impressed me was that we never had to wait longer than 15 seconds for one to arrive.

Bellagio advertises itself as an adults only hotel. However that only applies to visitors, and I didn't see any signs that it was very rigorously applied. That said, there isn't an awful lot here that would appeal to children. There is a large pool area open to residents only, and a smallish video games area.

The casino area is very similar
to all the other casinos. Most games had tables with a $10 lower limit, but this seemed to change to $25 at busy times. Plenty of slots at 25c upwards.

Food is relatively expensive. The buffet seemed very popular for dinner - we never got in as there was a 2hour+ wait when we decided to eat at 7pm. The time to go is apparently 5pm.Cost is about $20. We did get in however for breakfast which was excellent value at $9. There is a reasonable cafe which we ate in, with pastas, sandwiches etc, and a burger bar, but the other restaurants stray into dizzy heights of imaginative pricing. The Picasso Restaurant (which of course has real Picasso's on the wall) has menus of $80 -$90 a head, plus $40 each for their wine selection! Perhaps if you'd had a good evening in the casino?!...

There is an arcade of shops, all of the designer type, Gucci etc. All pricey.

Conclusions
This hotel is not cheap by Vegas standards. We paid about £100 per room per night through our tour operator. However, on the same nights, we would have paid more at Caesar's Palace, or Aladdin. I guess it very much depends on demand. It is not a hotel to take children to, and it is a little quieter than some. However, it isn't overwhelming and no-one would feel out of place here. We would certainly stay here again, and make sure of a room with a view. Apart from the buffet, I guess most people would look elsewhere for more reasonable restaurants.

Worth considering if you've been to Vegas before, and are looking for something a bit upmarket.

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