For me only the Bellagio would do once we had decided to visit Las Vegas as the second stop on our honeymoon just over two years ago. The hotel featured in the Oceans' 11 film which I loved and I was particularly looking forward to seeing that famous water fountain show.
The hotel is located roughly half way along the main Strip area in Vegas, it has an Italian theme and is beautiful to look at from the outside. It is set back from the street and the front of the building gently curves around "Lake Como". Providing it is not too windy, from 3pm in the afternoon the fountain show runs every fifteen minutes making for excellent photo opportunities and selling lots of postcards.
Booking and prices
We organised our whole trip with Kuoni a few months in advance. Strangely in this modern age, we had to wait a few days for confirmation whilst they requested the room. So this was probably not the most efficient booking process and as I wanted this hotel so particularly, it was an anxious wait. If I had booked directly myself like I normally do I would have known straight away but it was easier to make all our arrangements with the agent on this occasion. During our trip, we made a last minute decision to spend four nights in Las Vegas rather than the two we booked but unfortunately with only a couple of days notice it was not possible to get into the Bellagio for the extra nights. Consequently our first two nigths in Las Vegas were in a different hotel.
Kuoni were booking a number of flights and hotels for us and did not provide a detailed breakdown of the costs, however our check-in card at Bellagio revealed our rate for a deluxe room (which is the lowest category) to be US$260 (about £145 then) a night. This rate is typically what I have seen offered on websites like expedia and octopus or slightly lower. If you want a lake view then expect to pay about $60 (approx £30) more per night and a suite would easily double or triple the nightly rate depending upon what class of suite.
Arrival
Although we were moving from a hotel not that far away we arrived by taxi as we had lots of luggage. Our taxi was greeted by one of the many bellboys on duty outside helping both the arriving and departing guests, they took charge of the luggage, gave us receipts and told us to call the number on the receipt once we were in our room and wanted our luggage delivered. So far so good.
We then walked into bedlam. The hotel has over 2,500 rooms and was at capacity. Additionally in Las Vegas people visit other hotels just for a look around and for the casinos and Bellagio is a popular one, adding to noise, crowds and general chaos in reception. We arrived at 10.30am and at first it appeared that all the desks were dealing with check outs but we noticed that some check in desks were open as well. In total there were about 20 desks but each had a line of at least half a dozen people and we knew we were in for a long wait. It took about 45 minutes to get to a desk and then followed the most time consuming check in ever. I cannot even remember what they were doing but I have checked into a lot of hotels and it has never taken this long or involved so much paperwork. And unfortunately we weren't done yet. We were too early for our room so this was literally just doing "the paperwork" and we had to return later to get our room key. A couple of hours later and we duly joined the "invited guests" queue as instructed and here we spent a mere twenty minutes waiting in line to pick up our room key.
With this number of guests and a constant stream at reception, I expected it would take ages to get our luggage. In fact, once we were in our room we called down and it was delivered to us within a few minutes.
Over an hour to check into a hotel is certainly a record for me. Fortunately we had a 4am departure so check out was not quite so bad, although we were surprised to see quite as many people as we did still milling around at that time of the morning.
Room
We were more than happy with our room, which was modern and elegant and also very large, over 500 square feet in fact which is well above average. It contained an extremely comfortable king size bed, desk, two armchairs, coffee table and large wardrobe. I was impressed that in a hotel this size there was a nightly turn down service. The bathroom was in a beautiful cream coloured marble and contained a very deep bath as well as a two-person shower and was well-stocked with toiletries and big fluffy towels.
Las Vegas is a noisy, glitzy, cheesy playground. The thing I liked most about this room was that at the end of the day we closed the door on that, found ourselves in a stylish space and never heard a peep from the outside.
Facilities
Firstly of course there is the large casino floor, the Bellagio has tables for normal people, high limit tables for others, poker rooms, plenty of slot machines and a very large and comfortable sports bar area. Waitress service and free drinks are provided everywhere but it is normal to tip about $1 per drink. We never went long without a waitress asking us if we would like a drink, even though we are not gambling sorts and only frequented the 2c slot machines or the sports bar to watch football on big TV screens. Yes my honeymoon clashed with the 2006 World Cup. My personal opinion is that when you have seen one casino floor you have seen them all and the Bellagio's casino did not particularly stand out from all the others to me apart from it was better at providing drinks. Not necessarily a good thing for some I expect.
There are numerous restaurants offering both fine and casual dining and many of them overlook the lake making for perfect views. On our first day we went to Olives for lunch, this is marketed as a casual dining Italian restaurant although I thought it was pretty smart and not that casual. We were very pleased to get a table on the patio outside at about 2.45pm meaning the fountain show was about to start. Unfortunately 3pm came and went with no show because it was too windy to switch the fountains on. Nevertheless we enjoyed a delicious meal of pasta and a glass of wine.
Although the Bellagio has an Italian theme, it offers restaurants of various cuisines and in the evening we decided to try the fine dining Chinese restaurant, Jasmine. We had to wait about ten minutes for a table which was a much shorter wait than at some of the other restaurants, best to book a table for dinner at this hotel. We liked the feel of this restaurant, it was nicely decorated, the tables were comfortably spaced out and the food was good too. I was not very impressed with having my main course delivered before they had cleared away our starters though I must admit. It was a memorable evening though because the restaurant overlooks the lake and after we finished our main courses we had an unobstructed night time view of the fountain show, the accompanying music is played in the restaurant which I think you really need to enjoy the show fully. The prices in the restaurants are probably not the cheapest to be found, however they are not prohibitive and are unlikely to shock anybody used to paying UK prices especially with the strong £ v $ right now. We happily took all our meals in the Bellagio.
Bellagio is one of the hotels with a Cirque de Soliel show, this one is called "O" because of a water theme. I booked tickets a couple of days in advance over the phone and got seats in the royal circle about eight rows back in the middle. They weren't cheap though at $150 each for a 90 minute show, but I am very glad we went and don't resent the cost. The theatre was as big as any I have been to in London, but with roomier seats and a bit more leg room. There are two shows a night and if you haven't pre-booked there is a booking office outside but in the evenings there would be long queues here so I recommend booking it.
Like most hotels in Vegas, the Bellagio has plenty of shops most of which are of designer labels. We didn't really spend our time looking round the shops.
Summary
We loved our trip to Las Vegas, it is not just about gambling and we are certain to return at some point in the next few years. I am also fairly certain that when we do return we will book the Bellagio again and indeed my only hesitation is over the check in which really was a nightmare and I am a very impatient queuer. Once that is out of the way though, the Bellagio offers everything I would want out of a Las Vegas hotel.
More details
Quality of Food & Drink
Excellent
Cleanliness
Excellent
Family Friendly
Average
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