Viva Las Vegas!

16. Bellagio

Las Vegas, NV

Book Now

Steve Wynn was coming off a string of successful casinos on the Las Vegas Strip in the 1990s when he set out to build the most expensive hotel in the world. It took $1.6 billion to bring the Bellagio to fruition. He based his property on the quintessential elegant Italian town of Bellagio on the Y-shaped Lake Como. Wynn built an 8-acre lake to mimic the famous resort in northern Italy. The most celebrated outdoor extravaganza on The Strip is the display put on by the Bellagio Fountains where 1,214 jets send water in choreographed patterns as high as 460 feet into the air. The shows begin every half-hour at 3:00 p.m. and after dark go off every 15 minutes until midnight. Every bit as impressive as the dancing waters outside the Bellagio Hotel is the Conservatory and Botanical Gardens inside. More than 140 horticulturists tend to the plants in changing seasonal displays as small-scale trains tour replica American landmarks in an epic railway journey. And it is all free. Wynn used the public spaces of Bellagio to display his own expansive collection of fine art that has evolved into the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art. The Bellagio was the first hotel on The Strip to win the AAA Five Diamond Award more than ten years in a row - it has earned the car club's top award every year since 2000. So many professional poker players call the Poker Room at the Bellagio their home base that they refer to it as "the Office."