Las Vegas. It is an adult’s Disneyland, without all the queues. Everywhere you look there is an exciting attraction that you just have to go and play on. Vegas is such a bizarre, crazy, amazing place. I have been once before but only for one night. I was so overwhelmed by it the first time – it is very overwhelming if you don’t know what to expect – that I didn’t get to appreciate just how great it is.
From its reputation, I should hate it there. The movies tell you that Las Vegas is filled with very drunken stag and hen dos, people running away from reality, very drunk everyone else, smoking, more drinking, gambling, very rich people being very rich, more drinking, people gambling their children’s college funds on red. I am not a hard core party animal, I don’t gamble, and I am not on a hen do.
However, as wild and crazy and drunken as it is, there is something just so fabulous and glamourous about it and I love it. I will absolutely go back at everyone opportunity I have.
The most fabulous and glamourous thing about Vegas is the hotels. Nowhere else in the world is their one street so full of beautiful, enormous, glittering (literally illuminated) hotels, with more bedrooms per Vegas hotel then every hotel put together in any old English town.
All the hotels on the strip compete to be the best so the standard of design, service and facilitates are just unreal. The all have casinos, night clubs, restaurants, swimming pools, most of them have huge theatres or concerts or a Cirque du Soleil.
And one hotel in particular is the focus of this blog post.
I was kindly invited to stay and experience The Venetian, the hotel of my dreams and somewhere I have always wanted to stay. I couldn’t be more excited – I mean, it is Venice, in Las Vegas – CRAZY.
From the moment you pull up in a taxi you realise you are staying somewhere out of the ordinary. Somewhere truly special. Above the taxi rank are huge painted mural ceilings, and decorated collums everywhere, not to mention the full on canal just outside with gondolas floating up and down. This is nothing compared to what meets you when you first step inside.
Gold, everywheeeeere.
The Venetian lobby features 25-foot-high columns made of solid Botticino marble, imported from Italy and the colonnade’s marble floor was hand fitted and modeled of the floor of the Church of Santa Maria del Rosario in Venice. See – its the real deal.
This floor and section of the hotel will always remind me of the scene in Rat Race with Rowan Atkinson (<3) “It’s a race, I’m winning, I’m winning”..
The hotel is huge. And I mean – huge. On the first few days that we were there, we got lost trying to find our way from The Venetian casino to The Palazzo casino – which are in the SAME HOTEL. In fact, with the addition of The Palazzo to The Venetian, the combined properties have more than 7,000 suites, making this “under one roof” space the largest hotel in the world – so that makes me feel slightly better at getting so lost. Combined, The Venetian and Palazzo house more than 2.3 million square feet of meeting space, 1 million square feet of retail space, and more than 30 restaurants. You basically never have to leave.
I can’t explain how beautiful this hotel is. There is the casino downstairs, which is nice but just looks like a Las Vegas casino.
What sets this hotel apart, in my opinion, is the Grand Canal Shoppes. Everything from a Barney’s New York to a Dior to a Steve Madden (I may have shopped – see new shoes below – hellloo) and so many amazing restaurants – including somewhere you can get a lobster mac & cheese – which I did everyday. With cobblestone walkways and illuminated painted sky ceilings centred along the quarter-mile-long Grand Canal and with its very own Piazza, you genuinely feel like you are outside, in Venice, and you suddenly crave ice cream, pizza and opera (which you can obviously get in the piazza).
As great as the shopping is, there is no one that can help you with the tough life decisions you have to make whilst you are there. Taupe or Blue. TAUPE OR BLUE.
Now for the gondola ride. AMAZING. We had a gondola to ourselves and it was just so magical. I thought it would be mega cringe – sitting in a boat, floating down a canal with everyone watching you while they eat their dinner or do their shopping. But it is just so fabulous and peaceful, I wanted to go round again and again. It is a must-see-must-do attraction in Las Vegas, not just for the hotel, with more than 500,000 visitors riding the gondolas every year. If I had my way, I would have gone on the gondolas 500,000 times whilst I was there.
I repeat – you are not outside. This is inside. That sky is not real. You are not in Italy.
The indoor Grand Canal holds more than 285,000 gallons of water, and the deeper, outdoor canal holds more than 1.2 million gallons. Using a standard garden hose for 24 hours a day, it would take 65 days to fill the indoor canal. Never thought you would find that much water, just chilling, in the middle of the desert right?
The best part of the ride is the fact that you have your own personal opera singer steering you around the canal. Our gorgeous man sang one of my favourite songs “That’s Amore” and it. was. the. best. thing. ever.
After our gondola ride we were off out to explore the rest of the hotel and out to Canaletto for dinner. (more about that in a later blog post all about The Venetian’s restaurants).
My Las Vegas Night 1 #OOTD – Zara skirt, a top from a boutique in LA (how very LA of me) and my new babies – my fringed Steve Madden Shoes.
Into the Palazzo for a mini photo session with the casual backdrop of an indoor waterfall and giant masquerade masks.
And now for the bedroom. Or shall we say my sweet suite. The Venetian doesn’t have bedrooms. They only have suites. Which is how you know you are in one of the seven “Grandest Hotels in the World.” as voted for by The London Sunday Mail. The Venetian’s standard suite is nearly double the size of the average Las Vegas suite, prompting the Guinness Book of World Records to call it the “Largest Standard Hotel Room in the World.”
Ok enough facts.. just see for yourself..
 |
| It would be rude to not include them. |
 |
| For all the ‘work’ you will be doing whilst in Las Vegas. |
One of the highlights for these suites – the bed & blackout blind combination. You can literally party all night and sleep all day without ever knowing the sun has risen. The bed is beyond comfy – and huge.
That is another thing I love about Vegas – you never need to know what time it is. The casinos have no windows, there are no clocks anywhere so it can be 4am in the morning and look exactly the same as at 4pm. You can eat and drink at any time and there is always a party going on so the only time you need to check your watch is for when the swimming pools close. And for when restaurants stop serving breakfast and start serving lunch – don’t forget that one.
“Double doors, so far so good” .. Carrie, Sex and the City Movie. What one needs in a closet.
 |
| The bathroom of dreams – so much towelling material. |
 |
| Rose Gold Light. Heaven. |
So as you can see – its pretty. We had the best time staying here and you can spend hours wandering around the hotel, finding incredible architecture and design. In 2014, TripAdvisor named The Venetian the world’s most extraordinarily designed hotel and I would totally have to agree.
The outside canal on a (rare) cloudy day.
Wearing my favourite top of the summer from Oasis, part of their collection with the V&A museum. The gorgeous prints are so easy to wear during the day but are stunning to dress up for a night out. LOVE. Check out the rest of the collection here.
 |
| You can’t go to Las Vegas and not see a wedding |
 |
| Inside the Palazzo |
Las Vegas was so much fun and I can not wait until I return. It just oozes luxury and fun. Everyone is there to have the best time, forget about their boring jobs and stresses of life and enjoy themselves, whether that is gambling till 6am, drinking all day, sleeping in a blacked out room all day or eating in some of the best restaurants in the world.
I learnt how to play blackjack, I won some money – thought I may as well be a professional blackjack player as I was so good – until I then lost all the money I had won. Think I will stick to blogging, rather than professional gambling as a hobby.
I have two more Vegas posts waiting to go up – one about the food, one about the swimming pool desk. Both are dreamy so watch this space. I want to say a massive thank you to Abigail who arranged everything for us, and made sure we got to see everything. Total babe, thank you.
Hope you have enjoyed the review, and if you are heading to Vegas, don’t waste your time anywhere else – get a suite in the best hotel on the strip.
Cocoa Chelsea x