BACE Blog

Vdara Hotel and Spa, and Crystals

January 22, 2010 by Mel Lim | hotel + travel | 0 Comments

Vdara Hotel and Spa
I love Vdara Hotel and Spa in Vegas. I am not a big fan of the Sin City, but I would definitely return to enjoy their spa. It is part of the Vegas CityCenter™ development by MGM Mirage™ and is designed by renowned architect Rafael Vinoly.

I’ve heard much about the new City Center development, mostly negative reviews, from unpopular local reception to it’s expansive development while in the midst of a recession. Nonetheless, as a designer, I am always up to see new developments and design.

The City Center development has actually earned six distinct Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Gold certifications for CityCenter™ from the U.S. Green Building Council. They’ve used wood products from responsibly managed forests; high efficiency water use, both inside the building and outdoors; alternative fuel options for limousines; and an improvement of more than 30 percent in energy efficiency over standard building codes. (This info was taken from their website.)

The overall experience at Vdara was a great one! We would definitely come back.

Our check in took us 20 long minutes. If they had more people at the counter, we would have been okay. The room was clean, modern and exactly how we like our hotels to be. After all it’s designed by Rafael Vinoly. We enjoyed our spacious room and bath tub.

We tried most of the service available at this hotel: Our first night we had room service. It was fast and food was delish and healthy. Apparently, it’s in dining room menu was created by chef Martin Heierling of Bellagio’s Sensi.

We also used it’s concierge service for dinner reservations. They were efficient and attentive.

Our highlight was definitely, it’s Spa. I was very disappointed to not be able to use the pool (still not opened), but was absolutely blown away by it’s excellent spa service. I used the gym, the hot plunge, the dry sauna, steam room, had an Arnica Muscle Repair Massage and a Signature Spa Pedicure Hot Stone Treatment. They were excellent!!!

Our check out was not too troublesome. We did the in-room over the TV menu checkout. It was quick. BUT I had to wait 20 minutes for the bell service to pick up our bags.

They kept our bags for us while we enjoy a few more hours of Vegas and they also arranged for our shuttle service. We had a few drinks at their Bar Vdara downstairs, which was quite empty but we loved it.

We love how whenever we walked over from Bellagio (connected through walkway) and enter Vdara, it smelled nice, it was bright and just simply refreshing.

We would highly recommend this hotel, for someone seeking a non-gaming, non-smoking, quiet and upscale well-designed hotel.

Crystals

It was just so fun walking around enjoying architecture in Vegas. Really strange for me to say that, since I’ve always been a little apprehensive about the themed “architecture” on the strip. But to see Crystals, designed by my 2 most admired architects Daniel Libeskind and David Rockwell, in person, was just simply cool.

Crystals boasts top restaurants such as Beso and designer labels from Bottega Veneta, Bvlgari, Cartier, and Carolina Herrera. I was not busy shopping, of course, but was truly enjoying the details of the interior design, sculptures and floor patterns.

I would have LOVED to work on this project!!