Bellagio

Drop the car off at the valet (free parking) outside and drag your luggage into the vast reception hall with it's colorful Dale Chihuly glass sculpture above. It's always busy here but they have a lot of friendly staff to check you in, so be patient.

Reception desk (taken very early when it wasn't busy)

Once the keys have been passed over the long walk with your luggage begins. You have to walk the length of the Bellagio Casino to reach the elevators, presumably designed to give you Gambling Fever along the way. We don't gamble though so it is lost on us.

We always ask for a room above the fountains (these cost extra). Although the rooms are beautifully decorated and furnished we spend most of our room time sitting in chairs facing the lake. The sound from the Fountain Shows (every 30 minutes during the day, 15 minutes after dark) is on one of our TV channels as the window glass is too thick to hear it clearly.

We like the view...

 Those mountains in the distance are calling us...

The fountains are more vivid at night with the light show (trust me)

I see Donny and Marie Osmond across the road at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino

The tiled rooftops below belong to some of the high-end restaurants in Bellagio. We eat at the buffet
here or visit a buffet in one of the other hotels. Feeding the gamblers and keeping them on the property is important so hotel buffets are usually very good places to eat, for the price, the variety (maybe 100 things to choose from) and the quality of the buffet food (obviously not as good as a made-to-order meal in a fine restaurant.)
The buffet prices usually fall within the range of $25 to $40 but it is all you can eat! Buffet servers will bring you your drinks and remove your dirty plates between courses. We have been very happy with the offerings in the Bellagio Buffet but have also eaten in Rio, Aladdin (no longer in business) MGM Grand (very good) and the excellent Mandalay Bay, but we have to drive there to enjoy that.

We're not here to gamble but we are here to enjoy the food offerings and the fresh air and the warmth and the beautiful whimsical hotels. We'll go to a few shows at night-often a Cirque du Soleil show.
We'll watch a late night fountain show from our bedroom window and then hit the pillows to begin a new day.

Each day will involve a driving excursion  and we'll take one next, far from the city....