The size of Vegas can at first be a bit intimidating. From a distance the Strip looks walkable, until you realize that the buildings are four times the size they appear to be, and you begin to have some sympathy for the able-bodied people you see scooting from place to place on those little motorized wheelchairs or hopping in and out of stretch SUVs.
Caesars Palace, the big daddy of them all, is practically the size of a city unto itself, at three-thousand-plus rooms and counting. In the four decades since its birth it’s constantly evolved, as cities do. It hasn’t got wings, it’s got neighborhoods, and from time to time they’re torn down, gentrified, replaced with commercial districts, sporting complexes, residential developments, theatres (like the Colosseum, which has played host to the likes of Bette Midler, Celine Dion, Elton John).
And as any city has its most desirable real estate, so too does Caesars have its own upscale neighborhood. The freshly renovated Augustus Tower has made Caesars suddenly relevant to a whole new class of luxury travelers, and the suites, in particular, wouldn’t look out of place in many of the better modern luxury hotels.
Where the old version lapsed into gaudy excess, the new look is restrained, contemporary-luxe rather than faded-empire, and there’s nothing about it that particularly screams Vegas — which is a good thing. Spa suites come with infinity-edge tubs by the windows, and Molton Brown bath products, while the more exclusive ones (including one in the Palace Tower) are enormous, and enormously well-equipped, with jaw-dropping views. Even the relatively more humble deluxe rooms in the Augustus Tower have oversized spa tubs and twin televisions, one in the bathroom.
And you don’t have to keep to your room either. Pretty much anything that can be found within walls at all is available within the walls of Caesars: restaurants and bars number in the dozens, the shopping mall turns over more money than some developing nations, and the health club and spa, if you add in the Garden of the Gods Pool Oasis, is practically a full-fledged city-state. And that’s not to even mention the casinos….
author watson@mouselink.net, source www.tablethotels.com
