The Bellagio

The fountains

More than a thousand jets set into a lake of some eight and a half acres, choreographed to music and firing water as much as two hundred and fifty feet up. They run every half hour through the afternoon and every fifteen minutes in the evening, and they are visible from the pavement on Las Vegas Boulevard without going anywhere near the hotel.

Two practical notes. The pavement directly in front fills up several minutes before each show, and the view from the footbridge to the north is often better and almost always emptier. And the fountains are suspended in high wind, which in spring happens more than visitors expect.

Inside

• Fiori di Como, the ceiling of the lobby: around two thousand hand-blown glass blossoms by Dale Chihuly. The old habit of describing it without naming him does him a disservice — it is one of the largest glass sculptures in the world and the reason people stand in a hotel lobby looking up.
• The Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, just beyond. The thing to know is that it is completely replanted five times a year, to a different design each season, by a team that grows the material specifically for it. It is free, it takes ten minutes, and it is the most photographed room in the city after the lobby.
• The Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art. Worth correcting a common misdescription: this is not a permanent collection of Picassos, Monets and van Goghs. It is a small, properly curated space that mounts temporary exhibitions, usually loaned from major museums, and what is on the walls depends entirely on when the visit falls. It charges admission and is open to non-residents.
• O, the Cirque du Soleil water show, has been resident since October 1998 — see Cirque du Soleil.

Staying there

Just under four thousand rooms across the original building and the Spa Tower added in 2004, and it remains among the more expensive places to stay on the Strip — though as everywhere here the rate moves enormously between a Tuesday in August and a Saturday in November, and the compulsory resort fee is charged on top either way.

The hotel has historically restricted access for under-18s who are not guests, on the grounds that the casino sits between the front door and everything else. Anyone visiting with children should check the current position rather than assume.

Position

Centrally placed, which on a four-mile street is the single most useful thing about it: the Cosmopolitan, Caesars Palace, Paris and the Aria are all within a short walk, and the walk is one of the few on the Strip that is genuinely short.

The other resorts are covered under Las Vegas hotels, and general practicalities on the Las Vegas page.