Las Vegas
Nevada


The Experience

Venice in the Desert serves up a sprawling 36-story main building with the newer 14-story Venezia Towers behind it, all themed around Italy's most romantic city. From an entrance modeled on the Doge's Palace with mosaic-tiled walls, marble statues, Renaissance-style fresco ceilings and canals on which gondolas cruise under trompe-l'œil ceilings, to characters in public spaces singing Verdi's operas, you might believe (this is not a joke) that you're actually in Venice. Its cavernous gambling hall apart, the over-the-top splendour is done so well that it manages to avoid the tackiness of other Vegas hotels, and along with the Bellagio, has even brought a more cultured chic to Las Vegas -- check out its Canyon Ranch Spa Club, high-end boutiques such as Jimmy Choo and restaurants that include master-chef Thomas Keller's Bouchon in the Towers.

The Rooms

There are no less than 4,029 of them, all are suites, and the smallest in the Venetian section -- the Luxuries -- are huge at 650 square feet. All have plush red canopy-draped beds and separate step-down living areas with pullout sofas. Decor is uniform throughout, but the rooms balloon the higher you go: Prima Suites on the 34th to 36th floors are 1,500 square feet, their marble bathrooms with twin tubs the size of some Manhattan apartments, and with views of the desert as well as the city from the top floors. In the even more upscale Venezia -- which has a separate, less chaotic entrance and no casino -- the top five floors feature 122 Concierge Level Suites in Luxury, Bella and Palazzo grades, which all have private check-in and access to the garden pool on the Tower's Villa Deck.

The Service

In keeping with their more sophisticated market, staff are slick and efficient and have none of that overeager (or tired) Vegas folksiness you find elsewhere on the Strip. There's an Airport SpeedCheck Advance system, for starters -- the hotel was the first to partner with Las Vegas airport to allow guests to check and receive boarding passes while still on the property -- and while there's no limit to glitzy entertainment, the front desk and concierges are as likely to suggest a visit to the latest exhibit in the hotel's Guggenheim Hermitage Museum as they are a trip to an Elvis convention or the Liberace Museum.

The Highlights

From the wedding chapel to three theaters, four swimming pools and nine ballrooms, there's no shortage of on-site entertainment. You should take in a performance of Phantom of the Opera -- if only because the hotel's giant Phantom theater was designed specifically for it. With 17 -- soon to be 18 -- restaurants, though, dining is the hotel's true calling. Don't miss booking a table at Thomas Keller's fabulous Bouchon in the Towers, a little easier to get into than his revered French Laundry and Per Se, but with a similarly decadent menu and a romantic interior modeled on the old bistros of Lyon.

-- Douglas Rogers

Find Hotel Deals on Yahoo Travel»