The Best Places in South Las Vegas

Life-size Buddhas, glowing gold lanterns, and blossoming orchids set the mood at this Forbes Five Star spa inside Encore, where the aesthetic leans more luxury hotel lobby than hushed treatment center. Separate men's and women's wings each come with saunas, steam rooms, and the kind of locker room that makes you forget you're in a casino. The onsite salon covers cuts, color, and full barbershop services, and a day pass unlocks everything without booking a treatment.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star

St. Mark's Square, the famous clock tower, canals with singing gondoliers: it's all here, in the desert, at full scale. The Venetian is a vast all-suite resort on the Strip where the bathrooms alone run nearly a third of the room's footprint, complete with Roman tubs and marble everything. Thomas Keller, Wolfgang Puck, and Emeril Lagasse are all on the dining roster. Whether it reads as tribute or absurdist fever dream probably depends on your relationship with Venice.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

The butterfly motif is everywhere at this Forbes Four Star resort on the Strip, said to bring good luck, though the casino probably has its own opinions on that. Suites run to floor-to-ceiling Strip views, limestone and marble baths, and TVs that swivel to follow you around the room. The spa fills 37 treatment rooms, and XS, the nightclub on the property, has a wading pool and a chandelier over the dance floor, because of course it does.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Marble bathrooms with their own TVs, because apparently missing a hand of blackjack while you soak is not an option here. This all-suite hotel inside Encore at Wynn Las Vegas holds a Forbes Five Star and comes with a private entrance, a dedicated lobby bar, and concierge service that keeps the larger resort at arm's length. Suites have massage tables built in, and the public spaces balance the elegance with red chandeliers and lime-green accents that feel genuinely Las Vegas.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star

The Palazzo tower is all suites, starting at 720 square feet, decorated in contemporary Italian style rather than the gondola-and-canal pageantry next door at The Venetian. Seven pools, Egyptian linens, remote-controlled shades against that relentless desert sun. Thomas Keller and Wolfgang Puck both have restaurants here, which gives the whole thing a certain critical mass. A Forbes Four Star resort that earns its quieter register amid the Strip's general enthusiasm for spectacle.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The rooms average 640 square feet, nearly double the Strip standard, with floor-to-ceiling windows and a pillow-top bed they've named the Wynn Dream Bed (sure, why not). This twin-tower resort holds a Forbes Four Star and leans hard into the idea that nature and excess belong together, so waterfalls and original fine art share space with Celine and Bottega boutiques. The spa, a show called Awakening, and the Lake of Dreams keep you busy without ever leaving the property.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

A private entrance off the south gate means Tower Suites guests never touch the casino floor on the way to check-in, which tells you everything about the tier. This Forbes Five Star hotel-within-a-hotel at Wynn Las Vegas keeps its own pool, its own restaurant, and a staff-to-guest ratio that borders on theatrical. Rooms run floor-to-ceiling glass and automatic everything, with soaking tubs large enough to raise questions about your water bill.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

Two blocks off the Strip, this all-suite hotel skips the casino floor entirely, which means no slot machines, no cigarette fog, and no one blocking your path with a yard-long cocktail at nine in the morning. The 64-story gold-and-glass tower is exactly as understated as it sounds, with Swarovski chandeliers and marble lobbies doing the heavy lifting. Good option if you want Vegas proximity without full immersion in the spectacle.

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Ballpoint pen drawings cover every wall of this tiny lounge at The Venetian, which is doing its best Shinjuku Golden Gai impression, and pulling it off better than it has any right to. DJs push house music loud enough to rattle the sake glasses while the drinks lean Japanese, gin and matcha cocktails alongside serious whiskey pours. Small and clubby, with neon doing most of the decorating.

1. The Infatuation The 21 Best Bars In Las Vegas

Velvet couches and Victorian flourishes make this cocktail bar inside the Venetian feel like a drawing room where someone definitely had an affair. The drinks lean inventive and precise, with one arriving in a Viking horn-shaped glass, which is either theatrical or inspired depending on your mood. One of three strong cocktail options in the same hotel, Juliet is the one that leans opulent and a little moody.

1. Eater The Best Bars in Las Vegas

1. Time Out The best bars in Las Vegas

1. Time Out The best bars in Las Vegas

1. Eater @ The Cow Hide · The Best Secret Restaurants and Speakeasies in Las Vegas

The unmarked door is the whole point. Tucked behind the sushi counter at the Venetian, this speakeasy bar keeps a low profile by design, with a full bar, ube espresso martinis, and snacks that skew sharper than the hand rolls out front. Convention-goers grabbing a boxed set to-go have no idea it's back there, which is more or less how the regulars prefer it.

1. The Infatuation The Best New Restaurants In Las Vegas
2. Eater The Best Secret Restaurants and Speakeasies in Las Vegas

Tetsuya Wakuda made Las Vegas his US debut, reportedly because the Strip's energy reminded him of Shinjuku, which is either a compliment or a warning depending on your tolerance for spectacle. This fine dining room inside The Venetian pulls Japanese seafood, Canadian lobster, and Tasmanian oysters into a menu that moves between traditional and contemporary Japanese cooking. A hidden omakase room exists for those who know to ask, with rare whisky alongside the meal.

1. Time Out The best restaurants in Las Vegas on the Strip and beyond
2. Condé Nast Traveler The 25 Best Restaurants in Las Vegas
3. The Las Vegas Review Journal The Top 100 Restaurants in Las Vegas