FANTASY WITH A SIDE OF LUXE: Surely hotels and hostelries through the ages put their own light-to-intense spins on design themes and unifying looks. But no city in history ran with the idea, made it bigger, and covered it with lights in quite the way that Las Vegas has. Some of earliest stay-over spots carried something extra beyond the "hotel" sign out front (hello, historic Golden Gate Hotel), and its current mega-room palaces? Distinctive aesthetics rule. A full flowering of these principles, outlandishness + design + a dose of high posh-o-sity, can be seen in Sin City's newest hotel entry, the SLS Las Vegas. The Philippe Starck-imagined property is readying for a Saturday, Aug. 23, debut, but the hotel shared a peep inside at what's to come, room-wise, in its three towers.
LUX, Story, World: Each tower comes with its own handle -- tres Vegas, of course, especially since towers in other towns often are labeled "north" and "east" -- and its own tale. Those tales are spread over 1,613 guest rooms throughout the trio of towers. The rooms in the Story Tower comes with an "electric yellow vanity that doubles as a bar, the backlit ceiling mirror, and the polished chrome swivel minibar cabinet." The World tower rooms plug into business people and conventioneers, so look for up-to-date work spaces and fast tech. And LUX? It's got the "French influence" -- "oversized sofas" are one sumptuous detail -- a shower that looks out onto the room.
BEYOND THE TOWERS: The SLS Las Vegas, which sits where the Sahara reigned, brims with dining choices as thematic and as design-driven as its guest rooms. Restaurants include the gold-columned Katsuya by Starck to the lodge-y casual vibe of the buffet to the English manor-esque Monkey Bar.
