Las Vegas – The Venetian Hotel

There are so many hotels in Las Vegas, that picking the one that is right for you is a bit of a nightmare. There are many different areas on the strip and each hotel has its own unique combination of decor and style. I eventually chose the Venetian and was very impressed.


I was expecting the hotel to be themed in a very tacky, cheesy recreation of the Serene Republic of Venice. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The level of effort that has gone into recreating Venice in Vegas is amazing. I’ve been to Venice a few times, so I could compare the original with this faithful reproduction. My conclusion is that the Vegas version is the real thing, minus the dirt and grime.

Let’s start with the exterior of the hotel. Hard to miss, is the reproduction of the tower from St Mark’s square. The entire structure was reproduced, down to the fancy brickwork and exterior carvings. I’m not sure of the scale, but this one seemed pretty close in size to the original. The main difference, is that there isn’t a mile long queue out the door to go up to the top. This is mainly because you can’t go up at all. Oh well.

Next to the tower, is the reproduction of the Ponto Rialto, the main and fanciest bridge over the grand canal. This version is a scaled down version. The one in Italy is much bigger, but it’s also much dirtier and covered in pigeon poop. The Italian version is lined with some very tacky shops. The Vegas version has a moving walkway through the middle! It’s a bit on the funky side. The travelator goes the full length of the bridge, including the hump in the middle. God fogbid that you’d actually walk over the bridge. Underneath is the main driveway for the hotel, rather than a canal, so not everything is the same.


Next to this, is a faithful reproduction of the Doge’s Palace. The level of detail here is astounding. The Italian version has some very ornate brick work and carvings. These are reproduced verbatim in the Vegas version. The decoration is not skin deep either. It goes right through the balcony onto the entrance of the hotel. Impressive.

Then there’s the canals. They’re a hell of a lot cleaner than the Italian version. They’re swimming pool blue, rather than putrid green, so that’s actually an improvement. The gondoliers that ply the canals are a bit of a cop out. After watching the gondoliers intently for a while, I worked out that each gondola has a motor inside, operated by foot petals. It is America, after all and you can’t expect people to do manual labour! The tourists queuing up to ride them did not seem to mind.

Inside the hotel, there’s a fairly large shopping arcade. It features an amazing ceiling. The ceiling is curved, painted blue and decorated with fluffy white clouds. The lighting is set at such an amazingly precise level, that it’s eternally twilight inside, twenty-four hours a day. Rather than being really tacky, it actually works. It really gives the impression of walking around Venice in the late afternoon. Great!

The pool area is also very well done. It’s all pine trees, marble statues and mosaic floors. Surprisingly, it wasn’t hot enough to actually lounge by the pool. Well, I didn’t think it was. A lot of other people disagreed. The days were quite cool in the morning before heating up later in the day. I was out and about a bit too much to lounge about!


The rooms in the hotel are quite nice. They’re just about all suites, so this gives you a nice lounge area in addition to the bedroom area. The decor is pretty nice, but nothing that makes your jaw drop. It was nice.

The Venetian is not the cheapest place to stay on the strip, but it is nice. It’s close to a monorail station and just across the road from both Caesar’s Forum shopping and the Fashion Show Mall. I found it a great place to stay, but it’s also well worth a visit if you’re staying elsewhere.