Las Vegas textures

Aria Resort & Casino, Las Vegas (c) 2016 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

Las Vegas is larger than life — witness the Aria Resort & Casino pictured above. With over four thousand rooms and suites, many highly regarded restaurants, and quite affordable room rates, Aria is one of the newest properties in Las Vegas and well suited for those who want to live big.

But if you prefer boutique, there are also FANtastic choices available in Las Vegas. My favorite is the Mandarin Oriental, part of City Center in the center of the strip. A casino-free and smoking-free hotel, it's less than 400 rooms — 392 to be exact. While big by Mandarin Oriental standards, this is truly petite by Vegas standards.

We're staying at the MO Las Vegas for my weekend at #VirtuosoWeek. I love my Cityscape room. On the 18th floor, it has an interesting view of Aria and Monte Carlo and even a peak at New York, New York and its roller coaster to the left. Elegant and tastefully decorated, my clients enjoy FAN Club amenities (even better than Virtuoso amenities) throughout their stay: American breakfast for two daily, a $100 F&B or Spa credit, and a room upgrade if available upon check-in.

The other boutique choice in Las Vegas is the Four Seasons Las Vegas. Located at the south end of the strip, the Four Seasons sits atop one tower of the Mandalay Bay. It is an oasis of serenity in the midst of the madness of Vegas, but just steps from the casino and the wave pool at Mandalay Bay (and FS guests have access). Contact me for complete information on available Preferred Partner amenities at the Four Seasons and Virtuoso amenities at Aria.

copyright  (c)  2016 by David Ourisman LLC.  All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.

Virtuoso Week | August in sunny Las Vegas

On Friday night, I'm headed to Las Vegas for my eleventh Virtuoso Week (first known as Travel Mart and then Travel Week). I'm definitely not going for the weather which can range from very hot to stiflingly hot. Rather, this is a chance for me and my team to meet with representatives of two thousand luxury travel providers including hotels, tour companies, cruise lines, and more, at meetings held both at Bellagio and Aria.

While I'm just spending the weekend and will be back in the office Monday morning, two members of Team Ourisman will be meeting (from Monday through Thursday) with hundreds of reps for 4-minute appointments ("speed dates") and longer 10-minute meetings specifically set up in advance. Jessica is a Virtuoso Week veteran, while this will be Angela's first time. Virtuoso Week is invaluable for luxury travel advisors; it's an opportunity to learn about new properties and meet with old friends to find out about the latest offers, promotions, and enhancements.

A picture is worth a thousand words, they say, and two of my own travel photographs will be on display for the annual Virtuoso Advisor Photo Contest. I'm very excited by this honor, as there are thousands of entries, and the photos seem to keep getting better year after year. As you may know, I'm an avid travel photographer. In fact, I look at travel as an excuse to take photographs. You can see my two "winners" here and here... two thousand words worth of memories this past year in London and Dubai.

By the way, look for me at the 22-second mark of the You Tube video!

copyright (c) 2016 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.