Top Las Vegas Pools
You, a lounge chair, a tropical drink, and a gorgeous pool. Sound like your kind of vacation? Then plant yourself poolside in Sin City. Las Vegas might just be America’s best landlocked beach resort.
Vegas swimming pools can be quite extravagant: fringed with lush landscaping and tricked out with wave machines, swim-up bars, ultraquiet misting machines, and wild waterslides. Or they can be snazzy affairs with private cabanas (including satellite TV, Wi-Fi, and private misting machines) that range in price from about $40 a day for a basic one at Excalibur to $825 a day for a 145-square-foot cabana at Mandalay Bay’s Moorea Beach Club, which offers European-style (i.e., topless) sunbathing for guests 21 and older.
Alas, unless you’re a guest of the resort, many resorts don't allow you to use their pool facilities. If swimming and sunning are important to you, then choose from any of the following resorts with pools that are guaranteed to be the perfect oases in the desert.
Top Picks
Caesars Palace. The ancient Romans revered water for its healing powers, and they built sumptuous public baths amid fragrant gardens, exercise areas, and playing fields. Caesars Palace has re-created those glorious havens with its 4½-acre Garden of the Gods Pool Oasis, which comprises seven pools and two whirlpool spas. Surrounding each pool are posh rental cabanas and ample room for sunbathing. A poolside bar serves up cold treats as well as a full food menu. There's also swim-up blackjack.
Encore. Building off the success of the opulent pool next door at Wynn Las Vegas, Encore boasts the Encore Beach Club, a two-tier pool and dayclub. The complex is open to hotel guests and the general public (generally beautiful public, that is). Inside, the semicircular spectacle revolves around a main pool with daybed-style cushions that appear to float like lily pads. Twenty-six cabanas ring the perimeter and eight two-story bungalows offer the most indulgent accommodations (private hot tubs and bathrooms and individual air-conditioning). There’s a gaming pavilion with craps and blackjack. In summer, premier DJs spin house every Sunday. The dayclub, naturally, becomes a happening nightclub after dark when the pool complex becomes an extension of Surrender Nightclub.
Hard Rock. The Hard Rock throws fabulous pool parties and bears an uncanny resemblance to that Polynesian beach hideaway you’ve always dreamed about. Its lushly landscaped Rehab Beach Club has truckloads of soft, white sand. There’s even a high-quality underwater sound system. Grab a colorful cocktail at Palapa Lounge, with its Indonesian vibe and tropical waterfalls. Feeling lucky? Hit the swim-up blackjack bar. The cabanas resemble Tahitian huts, with thatch roofs and rattan chairs. Predictably, the Hard Rock caters to a young-adult crowd of hipsters and bon vivants in their twenties and thirties. If you’re outside this demographic, you may feel a bit like a fish out of water.
Mandalay Bay. The mother of all Vegas pools. The experience includes an 11-acre beach spread with a huge wave pool, a Euro-inspired topless pool club with plush daybeds, a meandering river, and some of the cushiest cabanas in town. The beach is piled high with a couple thousand tons of California-imported golden sand, which feels just perfect between the toes. You can raft along the river, admiring the verdant foliage. After the sun sets, the beach becomes one of the city’s hottest nightspots. There are also two casual restaurants. A huge soundstage overlooks the wave pool, hosting concerts by a wide range of rock and pop acts all summer long.
Honorable Mentions
The Flamingo. The Flamingo may have lost its luster, but its main pool still is one of the best around. Take a ride down a waterslide, play swim-up blackjack, explore waterfalls in the lagoon pool, or swim beneath stone grottoes not unlike those at the Playboy Mansion (sorry, no naked women here). Throughout the entire pool area, real penguins, swans, and pink flamingoes roam free. Average pool furniture is on the cheap side, but it’s Vegas—you can always pay to upgrade.
The Mirage. If you prefer a shaded, tropical spread, check out the verdant pool area at the classy Mirage. The two main pools are connected through a series of dramatic lagoons and waterfalls. The Mirage won’t wow you with nonstop activities or goofy gimmicks—it’s just a handsome, well-maintained pool that’s ideal whether you’re a serious aficionado or a toe-dipping dabbler. Lounge chairs are outfitted with comfy mesh sailcloth. Oh, and if you want to commune with other mammals, you always can pay to swim with the dolphins in Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat.
The Palms. This 3-acre complex at the Palms is open to the public (weekdays 9–6). It has three separate pools, all of which are fed by waterfalls and have colorful underwater lighting. The best feature is the triangular Glass Bar, set cleverly under a glass-bottom pool deck. If you want to go all out, book one of the 27 cabanas or bungalows, which are outfitted with high-end sound systems, plasma TVs, and swank furnishings. Some bungalows have their own lap pools, double-sided fireplaces, bedrooms, and lawns.
Red Rock Resort has a beautiful swimming complex with a giant circular pool. The best of the Downtown pools is at the Golden Nugget. Be sure to try the waterslide that tunnels through the middle of the 200,000-gallon aquarium. At the posh M Resort in Henderson, the entire pool complex offers sweeping views of desert mountains and the entire Strip.
