Best Strip Hotel
Bellagio captured Best Strip Hotel
by readers for the second straight year.
Mandalay Bay -- staff's pick for Best Strip Hotel.
BELLAGIO
3600 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Do believe the hype. Especially when the Bellagio seemed to live up to readers' expectations during its first full year of operation. In the time that's passed since the hotel won this honor last year, the Picasso restaurant earned a rare five-star designation from the 2000 Mobil Travel Guide, and management honored our suggestion -- stated in bold black and white right here a year ago ‹ to move the gallery of art masterworks to a larger space. The same corporation's former flagship, The Mirage, now plays second fiddle in voting results as well.
Our Pick:
MANDALAY BAY
3950 Las Vegas Blvd. South
You can blow as much money at Mandalay Bay as Bellagio, but the atmosphere is more casual, less stuffy. Instead of hard-selling a theme, hotel designers pulled back to a landlord's position, leasing out space to such good-time operators as the House of Blues concert club and rumjungle, the nightclub that became an instant word-of-mouth hot spot without a lot of hype. The hotel did have at least one good idea of its own: a swim-up concert stage in the cool pool area.
