Palatial Palazzo

I love using Priceline to book hotels in cities, and Vegas might be the ultimate place to let Shatner chop the fee and negotiate a deal for you. I put in 5 stars, $120 and got a gorgeous suite at the Palazzo - part of The Venetian, conveniently located next to the Wynn/Encore where we were headed for the Kaskade Pool Party, for a fraction of the price. Our room even overlooked the golf course at the Wynn. We only had a couple of days in Vegas, so I wanted a hotel with a fabulous pool area to spend an afternoon in and the Palazzo did not disappoint. We could use the Venetian pools as well, but I liked them better at our hotel and especially enjoyed the shallow sections filled with lounge chairs half in the water with little tables to set my strawberry daquari on while I read about the mess that is LiLo in Vanity Fair. We managed to find enough shade to keep baby Gus out of the sun and took him for a few dips throughout the day. We also ate most of our meals without ever leaving the hotel - had a pretty yummy Asian lunch at Zine, spectacular Mexican dinner and margaritas at Dos Caminos and lunch poolside the next day at Wolfgang Puck's Solaro. I didn't have time to visit a spa this time, but when I went to Vegas for one of my bachelorette parties in 2004 we spent some qt at Canyon Ranch Spa there and it was fab.

When I lived in OC we used to go to Vegas all the time because it was cheap and only a 4 hour drive, but since moving to MN I've only been there a couple of times - once for my bachelorette party, and the last on New Year's Day 2008 when our private plane touched down at the airport early in the morning with Kaskade's NYE Jet-Set Tour and we were whisked off to the Empire Ballroom for his 7-10 am set, followed by breakfast with the crew of 9 people and a couple of days to chill, get massages and eat lots of good food with our friends from the tour. It was great to be back there..for a couple nights at least, and with all the Pricelinable luxury hotels, fine dining, spas, Cirque du Soleil shows and slushy poolside drinks, I think we're going to have to visit more often.