Las Vegas hotels

Hands down the most luxurious hotel in Las Vegas, this is true resort living – and most of its devoted guests don’t leave the hotel while they’re here. Wynn and its sister resort, Encore, look out onto their own par-70 championship golf course – the only one on the world-famous Strip.

Big, sunlit atriums, lakes, waterfalls and even dragons guarding century-old pomegranate trees outside the first Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant in North America keep this resort feeling surprising. It’s the largest Forbes Five-Star resort in the world, and from the high-quality service to the no-details-spared design, you’ll see it at every turn.

One of the best-located resorts on the Strip, Aria is part of the vast CityCenter complex and is connected by a walkway to Park MGM (which looks right out to T-Mobile Arena in its front yard and has the popular Dolby Live concert venue). It is refreshingly modern, with its streamlined design and natural materials inside two sleek glass towers.

Its seven SkyVillas and 400 Sky Suites on the top floors of the 50-floor hotel have their own separate entrance, pool and elevator. Other resorts are just catching on to Aria’s details for tech-savvy travellers, like in-room tablets through which you can control the room’s features, order food from the hotel and make spa appointments.

The massive, six-tower Roman-themed hotel on 34 hectares of the Las Vegas Strip was built in the 1960s to make its guests feel like emperors. Like Rome itself, Caesars wasn’t built in a day but continues to expand and revamp, with its Colosseum concert arena, shopping mall (The Forum Shops at Caesars, which has its own Trevi Fountain), a two-hectare complex of seven pools and a huge variety of hotel rooms.

This includes the Nobu Hotel, which now occupies one of its towers. Everything here is over the top (remember, we’re in “Rome”), so don’t miss the 15,240-square-metre spa with its Roman bath theme, the largest buffet in the world and one of the largest nightclubs in Las Vegas – the four-storey Omnia. Go large or stay on a budget: There’s a way to do both here.

A massive Palazzo Ducale, complete with Doge’s Palace, sits right on the Strip, with singing gondoliers making their way around a canal system. The Venetian Resort is the second-largest hotel in the world and along with its sister resort, Palazzo, does indeed feel like the entire city of Venice. All the rooms are suites and among the largest on the Strip.

One of its biggest surprises is the massive Canyon Ranch Spa – an entire destination spa resort right in the hotel. Parents will love it because the shop-lined canals of its Grand Canal Shoppes will keep families busy for days, plus it has the best selection of reasonably-priced casual restaurants on the Strip. But you can also treat it as a luxe getaway, lounging at the adults-only Tao Beach pool complex and dining at the many high-end restaurants.

The Cosmopolitan is the slightly zany, cooler younger sibling of the Strip’s mega-resorts. A decidedly cool crowd stays at this cutting-edge, art-filled hotel. Some of the features that lure crowds include a three-storey chandelier, three levels of bars and lounges and a lobby with streaming LED columns.

There’s even a hidden bar and lounge inside a barbershop, as well as a Japanese-inspired ski lodge that serves cocktails until late. In the summer, the Marquee Dayclub and Nightclub provide round-the-clock fun, and in the winter its Boulevard pool becomes an ice rink.

One of the city’s most private pool scenes can be found at Four Seasons, which occupies floors 35 to 39 of Mandalay Bay. Its poolside restaurant, Veranda, looks out over the pool which, unlike most pools on the Strip, doesn’t accommodate non-guests. The non-gaming hotel has its own porte-cochère, lounge and spa.

Despite being non-gaming, it has access to all the family fun of Mandalay Bay, like the sand beach at the Mandalay pool complex. It’s also the closest luxury resort within walking distance of the perpetually packed Allegiant Stadium.

At the NoMad Library restaurant you’ll find yourself sitting in a grand library designed by legendary French designer Jacques Garcia. The soaring walls are filled with the actual 25,000-book collection of philanthropist David Rockefeller. It’s a fine example of what the hotel is all about – whisking you to some imaginary place and time, all on the top four floors of Park MGM.

The 239-room boutique is one of the best surprises in Las Vegas, with its own entrance and casino. Its rooms feel like elegant Parisian pieds-a-terre, with standalone baths and views over the Strip’s only green space. Stay hidden in your private boutique or come down a few floors and join the party that is now Park MGM.

Circa is a glitzy ode to its Glitter Gulch roots – including a fully rehabbed six-metre-tall neon cowgirl named “Vegas Vickie”. But the adults-only resort, one of only two in the resort corridor, is better known as a sports fanatic’s paradise and party zone.

Its Stadium Swim outdoor pool area faces a 12-metre-high HDTV screen and its three-storey amphitheatre is the largest sportsbook in the world (an area dedicated to sports betting).

This is the best base to explore the Fremont Street Experience and historic city centre, since it opens right onto Fremont, the second-most famous street in Las Vegas after the Strip. One of the best new steakhouses in the city is Barry’s Downtown Prime; its Legacy Club, a partly open-air lounge on its 60th floor, has some of the most dramatic views of the mountains.

The Lake Como-themed Bellagio was the priciest resort in the world to build when it opened in 1998, with its towering verdigris and glass Art Nouveau-inspired Conservatory and Botanical Garden. It’s also home to nearly four hectares of iconic choreographed dancing fountains and 1,200 booming water cannons.

Over the years it has settled into landmark status and is now the definition of classic Vegas glamour. The best way to enjoy the dancing fountains is from inside one of its lakeside restaurants, like the terrace at Lago by Julian Serrano or Spago. In the last eight years, Bellagio has renovated all its rooms – most recently, its Lake Como-inspired Spa Tower.

The Waldorf Astoria is one of the most romantic stays in Vegas. It's non-gaming, non-smoking and sits in the art-filled CityCenter complex. The lobby entrance seems unassuming – until you realize the actual lobby is the 23rd-floor sky lobby with five-metre floor-to-ceiling windows and sweeping views of the Strip.

This hotel is all about personalized service, from the traditional high tea in the 23rd-floor lounge to personal concierges that wield plenty of power – including in The Shoppes at Crystals, whose private backroom shopping opportunities are legendary. But it’s the hotel’s aquatic deck and two floors devoted to spas and wellness that are the biggest hit with guests.