The Bellagio is trading on its name. The rooms are nothing special. Yes the furnishing are high quality, but without a lake view the room is fairly standard and not that big. The bathroom is very nice.

It is also 12 years old now and there are far better and newer hotels for similar money.

The Wynn was opened in 2005 and is very good, but I think the Encore is even better and it has only been open 18 months. The rooms are large with flat screen TV's in the lounge/bedroom and also in the bathroom. There is a separate lounge and bedroom area and the beds are extremely comfortable. Floor to ceiling windows with great views of the strip if you get a south facing room. It is at the north end of the main part of the strip so some might not like the location, but it is opposite the Fashion Show Mall where there are shops and restaurants.

You could also consider the Palazzo which is also quite new. We had a Fortuna suite there so I cannot comment on the standard rooms.

There is the new Aria and Vdara at City Center which only opened in December/January. We have stayed at the Aria and it was OK, but I won't be rushing back.

When are you going?

The Cosmopolitan opens in December and looks great. As far as I know all rooms have a balcony and kitchenette.

luci

hi luci, just looked at the vdara the prices are very reasonable, have found a week in september with flights from gatwick at £1343 for two of us in a standard room, the flights are not great as they are not direct but at just over £670 each, sounds good to me, the bellagio would have cost £770 each, what do you know of the vdara, i know it's not a casino based hotel although it does seem to be fairly close to the bellagio, cheers dag

The Vdara is a non-smoking, non-gaming hotel in the new City Center complex. I think all the rooms have kitchenette facilities.

The price you have found sounds very good. Is that a package and who is it with?

I found an offer of $99/night, but it only goes up to 2 September.

There is a $15/night resort fee so make sure that is included in the price you are being quoted, otherwise you may have to pay that on check out. The resort fee gives you

Internet access
Unlimited local and 800 calls
Bottled water in room
Daily newspaper
Unlimited local and 800 calls
Turndown service

luci

hi again
thanks for your help we were going to go to the bellagio but after looking at the reviews of the vdara we are now going there, we booked it through lastminute.com as a flight and hotel option flying out of gatwick on the 7th of september with US AIRWAYS, it's a bit of a trek as we change at charlotte, there are some great deals for las vegas on lastminute at the mo, we could have stayed at the stratosphere on the same dates for £480 each including flights but thats not for us or the bellagio would have cost £770 each, our holiday cost £670 each a bargain :tup, last time we went we took the kids and stayed at circus circus, never again, how far is the vdara from the strip, and do you know if we can use our nationwide debit card at cashpoints anywhere without a charge like in europe, any other tips on things to do and not to do would be very welcome as it's 15 years since i was there last, anyway many thanks for your help and i am now looking forward to september cheers dag.

The Vdara is right on the Strip, part of the new City Center complex, along with the Aria, Oriental Mandarin hotels and the dizzying Veer Towers residential condos.

Yes the Vdara is on the strip, but set back a little. The City Center is a bit awkward to get into as there isn't an entrance on the strip as such, you enter by crossing the overhead bridge from Planet Hollywood.

The ATM's in the casinos charge $4.99 for using your Nationwide debit card. The cheapest places to use it are Casino Royale which is $1 or the Bank of America ATM on the top floor of M&M World at Showcase Mall which is $2. There is now a loading on the exchange of 1% outside Europe for using the Nationwide card.

Print off a coupon from http://www.destinationcoupons.com for $5 off the Spice Market buffet at Planet Hollywood.

I can recommend the breakfast buffet at the Aria. The food is very fresh and high quality with hand carved bacon, lamb and pork even at breakfast time.

You are very central at the Vdara, but if you want to travel to the outlets I would suggest using the Ace Gold bus rather than the Deuce bus as it only stops at a couple places on the strip rather than the Deuce which stops frequently. It is $7 for a 24 hour pass.

luci

hi lucy,
this $20 sandwich trick for an upgrade, do you think it will work at the vdara, do you just stick a $20 note in between your credit card and passport and ask for a room upgrade, i have never done it but seen on here that people do, please enlighten me, cheers dag.

We used to try it and were successful every time apart from at the MGM. It got us a fountain view room at PH 3 times and a lake view room at the Bellagio.

No harm in trying it at the Vdara, but do you know what you want upgraded to?

Decided not to try it at Paris as I had read that people were offered upgrades at a price if they did. However we were upgraded there to a Red Room Luxury so I had to scramble in my bag for my purse to it the desk clerk.

I tend not to hand over the "sandwich", but hold the $20 in my hand in full view and hand it over if the request is successful.

Haven't look there for a while, but check http://www.frontdesktip.com to see success rates.

You should use the Search Facility on here as there are several topics on Vegas including restaurants.

luci

not really thought of what to upgrade to the de-luxe room we have booked looks fine, probably a decent view and highish floor, do you know what views there are from this hotel, cheers dag