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Las Vegas isn't a coy metropolis or an unassuming city. Vegas is a gaudy monstrosity of delight: a city designed solely to take your money and break your heart while making you love it and beg for more. And people do keep coming — Las Vegas is the fifth most-popular destination in the world.
- Best drop-dead hotel: THEhotel, an annex to Mandalay Bay, is a sophisticated, mature, stylish endeavor, a Manhattan boutique hotel on human growth hormones. The only hotel where all accommodations are true suites, and the only Strip hotel people really want to stay in right now.
- Best hotel for the well-heeled: The Four Seasons, naturally. They have a reputation for a reason. All is comfort, all is class. And honestly, they probably aren't any more expensive than some of the other high-end hotels on the Strip.
- Best resort hotel: The Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas is actually 30 minutes, and a lifetime, away from the Strip, and it's worth it, except for the problem that once you come here, you never want to leave.
- Best totally Vegas hotel: Although Caesar's Palace has stripped away some of its cheese, it still ranks as the archetype for all Vegas hotels. There's the theme, typified by the Roman soldiers strolling the property and the talking Roman statues in the Rome-theme shopping mall. There's the sense of luxury. There's Celine Dion. And there's the size. Some think it romantic, some think it a hoot. Just like Vegas itself.
- Best theme hotel: Probably a toss up between the Luxor, whose Egyptian theme (complete with pyramid-shaped building and a Sphinx out front) extends all the way to room décor, and New York-New York, where the entire NYC skyline is built into the hotel's structure, and major Manhattan landmarks are part of the hotel's public spaces.
- Best swimming pool: Mandalay Bay's water area, with a wave pool, beach, lazy river, and several other basic pools, is so fabulous they have to check room keys to keep non-guests away. The tropical wonderland around the Mirage's amorphous pool is nice too, and there is something to be said for Bellagio's sophisticated classical pool layout.
- Best bathrooms: THEhotel has a sunken tub so deep the water comes up to your chin, plus a flat screen TV. The rest of it is marble and big. You might be tempted to spend your whole vacation in there.
- Best downtown hotel: It's a tie between the Golden Nugget, the overall sharpest and most together hotel, with rooms nearly identical to the Mirage (they used to be owned by the same company), and the cheaper, and oddly sweet, Main Street Station.
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