IT'S YOUR DEAL

from page 77

Clockwise from top left: David
Copperfie d pulls a reappearin
act with model Claudia Schi er
at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum.
Sherman Jones, headwaiter at New
York, New York's Motown Cafe, is a
former Detroiter. Elvis impersonators
are a familiar sight in .Vegas. Writer
Susan R. Pollack inspects the decor at
the Picasso restaurant at the Bellagio.
Kids will love the new MoMs
World at the Showcase complex.
Vegas showgirls like Christine
Arroyo are part of the scene.

Aladdin, respectively), the trio will be
joined this fall by another ritzy casino-
hotel, Paris, with its 50-story, half-
scale replica of the Eiffel Tower, now
rising on the Strip next to Bally's.
Like Bellagio, the most expensive
hotel ever built, the new mega-resorts
teem with tasteful amenities and
celebrity chefs. And they're also colos-
sal, with price tags to match. They
range in size from 2,600-plus to 3,700
rooms and cost their high-stakes
investors more than $1.2 billion each.
All told, the city will add 14,000 new
rooms in the current building spree
and, by mid-2000, will boast 20 out
of 21 of the world's largest hotels.
And, though first-class room rates
are rising, travelers are responding.
Drawing upwards of 32 million visi-
tors annually, Las Vegas hit the jack-
pot, nudging out Orlando for the first
time as the nation's hottest destination
for tours and vacation packages,
according to a recent U.S. Tour
Operators Association survey.
Indeed, with the debut of so many
internationally themed, over-the-top
resorts, it's easy to "travel" the world
without even leaving Las Vegas — if
you're so inclined.
"People are literally going on (infor-
mal) hotel-sightseeing tours.
Everyone's just walking in to see the
hotels — the lobbies, the stores, the
gardens," says Helene Kauffman-
Mally, a Huntington Woods speech
pathologist who visited Vegas in
March with her husband, Michael.
"When you walk through, you don't
know what to look at first. The archi-
tecture, the buildings are phenomenal.
It's unbelievable what you see there."
She and her mother, Roz
Kauffman-Ungar of West Bloomfield,
still marvel at the gigantic glass sculp-
ture-chandelier in Bellagio's lobby: a
$10-million, multi-colored canopy of
hand-blown Italian glass flowers by
acclaimed artist Dale Chihuly. "Just
gorgeous, magnificent!" enthuses
Kauffman-Ungar, who honeymooned
at Bellagio in February with her new
husband, Harry. The 3,025-room
hotel, modeled after a lakeside village
in northern Italy, can only be
described as elegant and the accom-
modations spacious, she says, adding:
"I would take the furniture home with
me.
Kauffman-Mally, a mother of two,
says the new Las Vegas has a different
feel from the mid-'90s when circus
trapeze acts and other casual, family

Susan R. Pollack is a Huntington
Woods-based freelance writer.

8/20
1999

80 Detroit Jewish News

Lowdown

Here are some things to know
before you go:
Best bet for a current overview of
what's happening is the Internet at
www.lasvegas24hours.corn or call the
Las Vegas Convention and Visitors
Authority at (702) 892-0711.
Things change rapidly in Las
Vegas, and room rates vary according
to date and availability; ask about
midweek and package specials:
• The Venetian: (800) 494-
3550. Current quoted rates for the
all-suite resort range from $169 to
$299 per night.
• Bellagio: (888) 98-ROOMS or
on-line at www.bellagiolasvegas.com.
Midweek rates average $200 and up,
$250 on weekends; rooms some-
times are available for as low as $159.
• Mandalay Bay: (877) 632-
7000. Rates range anywhere from
$99 to $359 per night.
• Four Seasons: (877) 632-
5000. Anyvvhere from $150 to
$300 per night.
• New York New York:
(800) 693-6763. From $60 to
$80 on weekdays; $1 10 to $130
on weekends.
• Paris: (888) BON-JOUR.
Scheduled to open in September
with rates ranging from $109 to
$169.
— Susan R. Poilack

attractions were the talk of the town.
"Now, with Bellagio, people are walk-
ing around in suits and ties, dressy
dresses and high heels. There's lots of
excitement in the air," she says.
Reinventing itself once again, Las
Vegas — the glitter capital of the
world — has ditched its decade-old
spin as a family-friendly destination
and distanced itself even further from
its older, truer "Sin City" image — a
liquor-drenched Sodom of splashy
showgirls, quickie weddings and get-
rich-quick dreams.
With Bellagio setting the standard,
the new wave of resorts aims to attraE'
the affluent, discerning crowd. The
resort, paved with miles of Italian
marble and hand-cut mosaic tiles,
bans children under 18 who are not
checked-in hotel guests (and offers
only a small video arcade for those
who are).
"Our other guests love it
they