The city that that never sleeps (Hotels in Las Vegas in general)

Member Name: tdjackson

Product:	Hotels in Las Vegas in general
Date:	19/01/02 (248 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Big hotels, Great nightlife, Lots to do

Disadvantages: Nothing really

Las Vegas is world famous for its Strip, a road along which 9 of the world?s 10 largest hotels lie.
If you start off at the airport end you arrive at the Mandalay Bay hotel. This is familiar because of its large golden windows and it is where Lennox Lewis fought Hasim Rahman last December. It is a fairly large hotel with an aquarium containing sharks. It also has a monorail service to the Luxor and the Excalibur.
The Luxor is the next up and this consists of a black-windowed pyramid with 1,500 rooms and another 2 blocks next door containing 1,000 rooms each. The Luxor is themed in ancient Egyptian stlye and the entrance is through a giant sphinx. It has the world?s largest atrium and because of the slope of the roof it has no lifts, only ?inclinators? which are similar to lifts but go up vertically as well as slightly horizontally, instead of just vertically. The Luxor also has the world?s brightest beacon on the roof which provides 13 million candlepower provided by 40 xenon lights. It is a truly magical and spectacular hotel.
Next up is the Excalibur, a castle hotel decorated in a medieval style and renowned for its? jousting feasts ? where paying tourists sit down to a pretty average meal whilst watching real-life jousting.
Over the road is the now second largest hotel in the world, the MGM Grand. It is an enormous hotel and was the biggest until the Venetian hotel finished expanding late last year. It has a superb theatre show called FX, which specializes in loud music and special effects and is well worth a look ? although tickets are 80 pounds each! It also has a few white tigers residing in an enclosure in the casino ? a truly magnificent sight.
The hotel New York, New York is a lovely hotel. Its buildings are in the shape of the New York skyline (they didn?t have the twin towers thank goodness) with a huge roller coaster running around the perimeter, right next to the road. It runs at night and was one of t
he most terrifying rides of my life! The casino in the New York, New York is one of the nicest because it is cleaner and more relaxed than, say, the Mirage hotel?s.
The Monte-Carlo on the left and the Paris on the right are two low-key but pleasant hotels of a reasonable size. The Monte Carlo is very tastefully decorated and has a large casino. It also has the best buffet breakfasts in the city and a monorail to the Bellagio.
The Paris is large and attractive and has the small-scale representations of the Eiffel tower and the Arc de Triomphe outside. For a small fee you can take a lift to the top of the 200-foot tower where there is a viewing platform from which you can look over the lake of the Bellagio, in my opinion Las Vegas?s best hotel. It is very smart and exclusive with an enormous swimming pool and various expensive paintings in galleries. There is fine Italian art everywhere and lots of designer shops. It is definitely the most expensive hotel to stay at and it shows. It is the home to the best show in Las Vegas, if not the world, called ?O?. This show has a 6-month waiting list and costs 100 pounds a ticket. It is a sort of glorified circus show of the highest quality. The show definitely mirrors the hotel itself in its quality. There is a fountain display every 15 minutes starting in the mid-afternoon, which is free. It is set to music and runs throughout the evening, illuminated by impressive lights.
From the Bellagio, the next hotel up is the Caesar?s palace ? possibly the world?s most famous hotel and the setting for many films and TV episodes. It is built, as the name suggests, like a palace and has a huge shopping mall at the back comprising all of the most renowned shops ? Gucci, Versace, Prada etc. There is also an IMAX cinema where the film ?The race for Atlantis? is shown. This is well worth doing unless you suffer from motion sickness since you sit in ?chariots? that move around.
Over the road from
the Caesar?s Palace is the Venetian, now the world?s largest hotel after a recent extension has pushed the total up to 5,500 rooms. The Venetian, again hinted by the name, is built with the theme of Venice in mind. It has one long canal that goes both outside and inside into a tasteful shopping mall. The entrance to the hotel is Las Vegas?s own Rialto Bridge across the canal. Gondoliers punt gondolas around these canals and at a cost you can hire one and enjoy an interesting ride. The Venetian is similar to the Bellagio in its quality and is also very expensive and exclusive.
Back over the road, a little way up from Caesar?s palace is the Mirage. This hotel is famous for its ?volcano?, which ?erupts? every 30 minutes outside the hotel. You can view this clever spectacle from the pavement of the Strip at no charge. The volcano is really just jets of steam and water bathed in orange and red lights but does give a surprisingly realistic effect. It is at the Mirage that the world famous Austrian illusionists, Siegfried and Roy, perform. There are also dolphins in an aquarium in the Mirage?s grounds that are well worth a visit.
The penultimate hotel on the strip is the Treasure Island, famous for its mock pirate battle show. This battle takes place every half hour and is also free. It involves two ships, one with pirate actors on board, the other with British Navy actors on it. They are dressed in 16th century costume and begin a series of cannonball exchanges resulting in the sinking of one of the ships! It is absolutely magnificent and very impressive seeing a 50-foot mock galleon sinking below the water. (It then reappears 5 minutes later, ready for the next battle) The Treasure Island is also the setting for the Cirque Du Soleil show ?Mystere?, which is fairly good and, similarly to ?O?, consists of glorified acrobatics and gymnastics culminating in trapeze artists and high wire acts. The last major hotel on the Strip is the Circus Circu
s, which is fairly old and run down but still worth seeing. In front of the hotel is (you?ve guessed it) a circus tent inside which various circus acts are performed for free throughout the day. The hotel is also home to the Adventuredome, which is a large futuristic building, similar to an enormous dome tent, but slightly more substantial. Inside is a theme park with a very fast rollercoaster and a log flume and various other rides which are designed for younger children. The Circus Circus is fairly run down and seedy, although it is a nice place for the kids.

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