Musical fountains at Bellagio Hotel & Casino on August 14, 2012 in Las Vegas. The Bellagio opened October 15, 1998, it was the most expensive hotel ever built at US$1.6 bn.

Bellagio Las Vegas Hotel & Casino

THE SHORT VERSION

For those looking for a balance between a stereotypical Las Vegas weekend and higher-end amenities, The Bellagio is Vegas’s best of both worlds.

Scene

An adult version of Vegas

People often refer to Las Vegas as Disney for adults, and if that is so, Bellagio is Epcot. The property is nicer, has a global influence and is particularly fun for adults.   

Its name comes from Bellagio, a city positioned along the coast of Lake Como, and is perhaps also a nod to the Italian gangsters that helped create Las Vegas in the first place. Lake Como, however, is not the only water prominent at the property. Outside of the resort in a man made lake, the iconic Bellagio fountains shoot elaborate streams of water hundreds of feet in the air during daily shows. These water shows have made it into numerous films, including The Hangover 3, Ocean’s Eleven, and Jason Bourne. 

Like Disney, The Bellagio is like an alternate universe, an effect aided by the ubiquitous casino design, engineered to keep you gambling until hours have slipped by without notice. The building is constructed of Fresco tiled floors, marble pillars and ornate ceilings that make you feel like you stepped into another world — ancient Rome, to be specific. Glass flowers in every color splay above the concierge desks, within eyeshot of glowing slot machines and Valentino, Hermes and Cartier stores for when you (hopefully) cash out. In addition to the slots and craps tables, the casino floor has multiple high end restaurants — Wolfgang Puck’s Spago and Julian Serrano’s LAGO, to name a few — and velvet couch-filled cocktail lounges. Just a hop away sits the Bellagio Spa and Salon with a Forbes four star rating, and multiple pools to dip your toes in.

Location

The little Italy of the strip

Not unlike most everything else in the city, The Bellagio is just a few miles away from Harry Reid International Airport. Within Vegas’s little Italy of European sprawl — it sits perpendicular to both Caesar’s Palace and the Paris Hotel, and down the street from the Venetian — the Bellagio has a prime location on the Strip. Like the Bellagio, these other Europe-inspired resorts are replete with marble and luxury shopping, as well as highly esteemed restaurants and neon slot machines as far as the eye can see. But distinctions do exist between the resorts. Caesar’s Forum, for example, is a historic gambling pit at Caesar’s Palace with a chandelier of 100,000 crystals above the craps tables that at one point held the record for the world’s largest crystal ceiling structure. The Venetian, an ode to Venice, has canals built into the grounds, gondolas and all. 

Maybe Vegas’s most eye-catching attraction as of late is the newly built Las Vegas Sphere, where U2 currently has a residency. The visually immersive live music venue, known for its wrap-around LED screen, sits behind the Venetian,  about a 30-minute walk away from The Bellagio. 

Rooms

A bright flash of the highlife with marble bathrooms, metallic accents and all sorts of color 

Bellagio is the seventh largest hotel in Vegas. Among the nearly 4,000 rooms on the hotel’s 40 floors,  are silver patterned carpets and bedroom wall backsplashes that range from baby blues to bright reds. Metallic colored furniture, from bed frames to bedside tables, are also a staple of the hotel. The bathrooms are more aesthetically aligned with the classy casino floor, with marble flooring and LED lit mirrors to stare at yourself in the morning (or perhaps, afternoon) after a night on the Strip. 

  • Standard Rooms: The standard rooms run anywhere from 510 square feet to 626 feet and are located in either the Spa Tower or the Bellagio Tower. Views vary between the iconic Bellagio fountains, the Las Vegas Strip and the pools with brown desert mountains in the distance. Rooms also have optional Stay Well amenities, including air purifiers, an infused shower head restricting chlorine, non-toxic cleaning products and UV lighting used by housekeeping to eliminate germs and bacteria. All have plush bedding, velvet couches, and blue and gold detailing across the furniture and backsplash behind the bed. Both king and queen beds are available.
  • Suites: Five styles of suites are available in the Bellagio that range between 853 to 1530 square feet. The Bellagio 1020 square foot Queen Suite has two queen beds, as well as a living area, kitchen and marble foyer. All other suites have one king bed, including the Cypress Suite, which, in addition to a living area, dining area and a foyer, has a bathroom with both a glass paneled steam shower and a whirlpool bathtub across 1525 square feet. These rooms contain more space so the friend you dragged along last minute has a place to rest their sorry head after hours of playing Blackjack.
  • Penthouses: For the true Hangover experience, the Bellagio has multiple penthouse rooms available. These massive rooms sprawl between 1536 and 3001 square feet and have one or two bedrooms, plus common spaces perfect for work meetings … or whatever else Vegas has in store. More extravagant than the comparatively subdued rooms and suites, these rooms are an explosion of color, with flashy plush seating in red, green and purple. Each of the penthouse options have at least one king bed in the room.

Amenities

Wolfgang Puck, a glitzy pool and all the panache you expect from a Vegas behemoth

Restaurants

As with many higher-end Las Vegas resorts, the Bellagio has multiple renowned restaurants within the property — sixteen to be exact. Some of the best are Sadelles, a New York style diner serving bagels and coffee in ceramic cups all day long, Spago, Wolfgang Puck’s crown jewel where you eat smoked salmon pizza next to the famous fountain show, and Le Cirque, a French restaurant that holds both a Forbes Five Star rating and a perennial AAA Five Diamond Award. 

Pools

A trip to Vegas often involves a poolside day club crawling with 20-somethings day drinking. However, the pools at the Bellagio are geared more towards those who can’t start the party at 9 a.m. With five pool areas made to imitate Mediterranean architecture, complete with topiaries and elaborate water fountains, these are spaces designed for rest and relaxation — and perhaps those kids that are crawling around the Strip these days. Across the pool property, cabanas, daybeds, and lounge chairs are available for reservation. 

Spa

Similar to the casino, walking through the spa is like a maze. The spa holds dozens of treatment rooms for its variety of massages, facials, beauty treatments and body treatments. Kalologie medspa operates out of the space too, providing IV hydration therapy, microneedling and dermal fillers. The locker rooms are tricked out with four plunge pools to further relax pre- or post-treatment. 

Nightlife

Vegas nightlife has seemingly endless options, and a few of them call the Bellagio home. Once again in line with the calmer nature of the resort, you can’t find a nightclub like Omnia, Tao or Marquee on the grounds, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time. The Bellagio has multiple cocktail lounges on the casino floor, including a stop for sipping espresso martinis atop a red velvet couch to power through a night of blackjack. Additionally, the Mayfair Supper Club has a hybrid dinner-nightlife experience, and, on Friday and Saturday nights, turns into Mayfair After Dark. 

Gym

If you’re coming to Vegas to be a responsible adult, the gym at the Bellagio can ensure you meet your goals. The gym has state of the art cardio machines and free weights, as well as $35 fitness classes that include Pilates and yoga.