The Anti-Strip
Dad, it sure is quiet in Las Vegas.” That’s not a phrase you hear every day, but in this case, my 7-year-old daughter was dead on. It was as quiet, still and subdued an autumn evening as the Southern Nevada desert can muster. No neon. No traffic jams. No Eiffel Tower, waterfall, pirate ship or Grand Canal. No Vegas in this part of Vegas. All that would come later, and our girls would love that side of town, too. But first there were winding Italian streets to walk as a family, a two-tiered pool for the girls to swim, a spa for mom to visit and one very, very good Jack Nicklaus golf course for dad to revisit. If we’d have made time, we could have gone ice skating on a floating rink set up for the winter at the village’s edge, or taken a boat jaunt on the manmade lake just beyond it. And, truth to tell, mom and dad could have indulged in some Nevada-style commerce (read: gambling) at Lake Las Vegas Resort, which actually isn’t in Vegas at all, but in Henderson, a half hour east of the Strip but a million miles away. But the casinos there are so understated, stirred so softly into the carefully concocted Mediterranean-flavored cocktail that is MonteLago Village, Ritz-Carlton and the nearby, newly christened Loews Las Vegas Resort (formerly the Hyatt), that you’ve got to almost go out of your way to find them. So that’s why, one day into a three-day stay in one of MonteLago Resort’s two-bedroom Viera condos, a 7-year-old girl wondered whether her dad’s descriptions of the Vegas he visited several times a year were just a made-up story, like something out of one of her wizard books. “Well,” came the old man’s response, “We haven’t really been to Las Vegas yet. We’re in a special place, kind of its own little town.” “No sharks? Where are the sharks?” “We’ll see them later.” And we did, riffling through Mandalay Bay’s Shark Reef that evening with hundreds of other pre-Thanksgiving visitors, followed by a quick Chinese dinner at New York New York and a stop at the Venetian. The next day we returned for a trip through the Fashion Show Mall and the Wynn across the street. The girls loved it — the lights, the traffic, the people, the expertly rendered façades and decor, the shops, the Disney-meets-Bugsy wonder of it all. But both times we knew a welcome escape back to Lake Las Vegas was on the way, and in mom and dad’s case, at least, the blood pressure and stress levels stayed in the mellow zone. That’s perhaps Lake Las Vegas’ biggest selling point, whether you’re shopping for a vacation getaway or looking to relocate to the Vegas area in earnest. As middle-of-the-desert master-planned communities go, this one gets it right. Make that getting, since it’s nowhere near built to capacity and only a few years into an extended plan that will bring thousands of permanent residents to the red-streaked hills just north of Lake Mead Boulevard. MonteLago Village itself is pretty much settled in at the western edge of the lake, its rust-and-ochre-tinted buildings arranged along gentle slopes to echo an Italian seaside hamlet, complete with bell tower and a multi-tiered roofline that mimics the surrounding mountains. But leave its beautifully rendered environs, head back out onto the main road and evidence of home construction is all around. Thankfully the place is so spread out and tastefully planned, its peaceful vibe is intact. And if you’re hoping all the activity translates to even better golf down the road, worry not — those tiered homesites and piles of dirt greeting golfers at The Falls, the first course you see after turning through the development’s gates, will soon be built out and landscaped, and suddenly Tom Weiskopf’s topsy-turvy track will feel more settled in and no less spectacular than it was the day it opened. Drive a little farther, into the resort’s colorful heart, and you’ll see where The Falls is headed. Weiskopf’s old mid-1970s rival, Jack Nicklaus, laid out Lake Las Vegas’ first two courses — the public-resort Reflection Bay and the private South Shore. The former just made FG’s Signature Series list again, and it probably will every year; the Golden Bear himself calls it his best Vegas work to date, and it certainly remains the resort’s marquee offering. Jack got the pick of original sites and used it to full advantage, routing five holes along a finger of the lake, including what might be the best front-nine finish in all of Vegas at nos. 7, 8 and 9, which he echoes at 17 — a mid-distance par 3 to a peninsula green — and 18, a classic Jack par 5 of 561 yards from the tips with water and bunkers up the right side. At No. 5, another three-shotter, Nicklaus nestles the fairway and green into a box canyon and finishes off the intimate effect with a stream and waterfall gurling against the greens’ right edge. In a town where the resort golf inventory is overpriced to some and forced in its execution and presentation to others, Reflection Bay fits its setting beautifully, note-perfect in its rhythm from waterside to hillside to canyon holes, and back again. No doubt Nicklaus’ chief contemporary, rival, Tom Fazio, is going all-out to match the Bear at Rainbow Canyon, Lake Las Vegas’ third resort course, a few holes of which you can spy from Reflection Bay’s No. 7 green. And we can’t wait to sample the latest from the guy who came up with Shadow Creek and Wynn Las Vegas. But for now, Reflection Bay is the one to play if you’ve only got time for one … and your family is waiting for you back at the MonteLago pool. In fact, the call here is to settle in with the kids the first night, take ’em to a nice dinner at MonteLago Village — Bistro Zinc is a fine choice for somewhat upscale Euro-American fare — buy them an Italian ice cream from Tutti Gelati, then head back to the room for a DVD, maybe a glass of wine for mom and dad and a good night’s sleep on Vegas’ quiet side before an early morning tee time. If you’re with a golf group or part of a business meeting — and they’re in great supply at Lake Las Vegas, with enough lodging options and various packages to keep all kinds of business-meets-leisure players coming back — maybe you blow off the DVD and take a spin through the intimate, winery-themed casino. Whatever. Just get that round in early, head over to Loews for lunch and a beer on the patio overlooking No. 8 at Reflection Bay, maybe make a reservation for Café Tajine (a Moroccan-spiced restaurant with some of the best crab cakes and crème brulee we’ve sampled anywhere in Vegas, and that includes The Strip), and start planning your next trip to this outpost of luxury and solitude. Maybe you’ll stay right there at Loews, a 493-room property that got quite a reputation as a top-tier meeting site under Hyatt and, by all accounts, will only get better as Loews pumps $5 million into a re-branding effort. It’s certainly a good choice if you’ve got kids or pets along, too — the company prides itself on welcoming both. Loews even provides youngsters their own pool and special activity programs, which means you might get in a round at The Falls after all. Then again, MonteLago gives you the best of three worlds — the amenities and convenience of a hotel, the hands-off, set-your-own pace feel of a second home getaway and the pseudo-European setting so often achieved at other East-West Partners properties from Colorado to Lake Tahoe to British Columbia. The Strip is where to be if you’re all about wall-to-wall action — add a “v” and another “a” and you’ve got a vacation — but there’s something to be said for a little inaction, too. As long as it's augmented by some killer golf and all the creature comforts we’d ever need, we’re down with it. And up for another stay along the warm, rippling waters of Lake Las Vegas. FG The Resort The Rooms The Golf reader comments
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Fear & Loving Las VegasMar 07
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