First impressions of the Palazzo
I had a chance to head over to the new Palazo hotel this week for my first visit. I was quite impressed!
Palazzo means “palace” in Italian. In case you haven’t been keeping up with what’s new & exciting in Las Vegas (and c’mon that’s why you’re here right? ) the Palazzo is the newest hotel to open up on the strip since the Wynn in 2005. It’s not really an extension of the Venetian, but they are owned by the same company & are connected by walkways. It’s currently the tallest hotel on the strip also.
There really isn’t a theme to it. It’s just a nice, upscale place. As of this writing it isn’t fully operational yet. They still have a few of the restaurants to finish and not all of the rooms are open yet and hardly any of the retail shops are open. But the casino is fully open as well as the bars & lounges.
One nice thing they’ve done is create an area of tranquility off the casino, which a lot of places seem to lack. There’s a whole area between the casino & leading to the entrance to the Venetian property where there’s a couple of nice fountains & a spectacular waterfall. The area is also where most of the retail shops are located.
Another unique feature is the underground parking garage. Due to the limited land they had to build on they had no choice. One advantage is if you self-park it’s a lot shorter walk into the casino than it usually is! There’s an escalator that brings you right up in the middle of the casino.
Also the casino is a lot closer to the road than what we’re used to. The parking can be accessed from either the Las Vegas Strip side and also off of Sands Blvd, and of course you can valet part from the porte-cochère if you so choose. There’s also 2 ways to get inside from the Venetian as well. One is from the end of the Grand Canal Shoppes where the gondola ride is and also from the casino level at the back of “restaurant row.”
My first impression was nice job! I liked a lot of the way it’s put together. The casino is nice & open, the architecture is subtle but appealing. It follows in the footsteps of the Bellagio & the Wynn in what I like to call “understated elegance.” At first you just go “Wow that’s nice,” but the more you look the more detail you see.
It’s always fun for me to get to see these magnificent places finally open after watching them go up for over 2 years (and sometimes longer!) Like I mentioned, it’s really not “themed.” I had read that they wanted to get away from the heavy theme a but & just have a nice upscale casino. Also now with the Venetian, Palazzo & the Sands Convention center it’s now the largest hotel-casino complex in the world!
If you want to check out how it looks our friends over at AccessVegas.com have some great shots at their site.
All in all I think they did a great job. Once all the shops & restaurants are open they’ll do fine. It’s something new to see on your next trip!
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