Location of Aria Las Vegas
Aria is located in the brand new CityCenter between the Bellagio and the Monte Carlo, it occupies a ¼ mile of space along the Las Vegas strip. I want to give a brief introduction on CityCenter because it is a unique concept that is fairly new to the Las Vegas experience. Aria has also received the LEED Certification making it a U.S. Green Building.
CityCenter is the most expensive, privately funded construction project in United States history. The concept behind CityCenter is self-explanatory; it is a city within a city. Contemporary, tall buildings situated in a seemingly private, cul-de-sac pushed back from the strip. CityCenter strives to emulate a modern-day, mini-metropolis. Looking at CityCenter, you may think “This is the future” but once you step inside, you will realize you’re just in Vegas. Like everything else in Las Vegas, the look is quite contrived… but Las Vegas is the only place in the world where being artificial is not necessarily a bad thing.
Aria Las Vegas Entrance
The properties that make up to CityCenter are: Aria, Mandarin Oriental, Vdara, The Harmon Hotel and Condominiums and The Crystals Mall. Of these properties, the only casino resides inside of Aria. Vdara is a condo-hotel with a spa. The Mandarin Oriental is a high end, five star property with an upscale lounge, where allegedly there is a “No Jeans” policy – but not from what I saw. In addition to the hotels, there is a luxury shopping center called The Crystals (only 30% occupied when I visited) with plenty of restaurants. The best advantage of CityCenter is that it is fully self-contained. No need to go trekking down the strip unless you would like. CityCenter is destined to become the go-to place for the discerning traveler looking for a more elevated experience; someone who is looking to leave the gauche behind.
The Back Entrance Issue at Aria Las Vegas
When I arrived at Aria Las Vegas, unbeknownst to me, the taxi driver dropped me off at the rear entrance with my bags. I stood and waited expecting that a bellman would come outside to take my bags. After several minutes, I saw one person wearing a suit but not a bellman’s uniform. I approached this employee, he made NO attempt to greet me or assist me with my bags. I asked him where the bellman was and he informed me that I was at the wrong entrance and that I would have to walk through the entire casino to get to the front.
Anywhere other than Las Vegas, walking through a hotel lobby to get to the front entrance is generally not a problem. However, when you have 16,000 square foot casino, you cannot expect your guests to walk through with their bags to get to the check-in desk. Over the course of my stay at Aria, I watched multiple guests traipsing through the casino with their bags searching for the check-in desk. In my opinion, this is a terrible mishap. It is obvious that taxi drivers favor that back entrance for some reason, Aria should have bellman at both entrances to alleviate this issue. Even if these bellman simply assist guests with baggage to the front.
Aesthetics of Aria Las Vegas
The main entrance to Aria is a large circular drive, as the photo above indicates. There is a decorative waterfall along the wall between Aria and Mandarin Oriental that compels tourists to photograph it as if they had never before seen water. There is also a fountain in the center of the circular drive. The decorative fountains outside the property work exceptionally well with the transparent materials used on the exterior of the buildings and the steal beams throughout the front of CityCenter. The entrance of Aria gives one a sense of purity, cleanliness, freshness and openness.
Aria Las Vegas Waterfall
Contrary to the light and airy feel of the exterior, the interior of the casino and hotel is very brown. Exceptionally brown, dark – almost lifeless. The ceilings at Aria are high compared to other properties in Las Vegas. You immediately notice the soaring ceilings once you’ve been out and about walking through the other hotels along the strip. One might think that tall ceilings would be a plus, but for some psychological reason that I cannot explain, the tall ceilings leave one feeling a bit empty. The hotel feels hallow and dim.
Aria Casino
My first impression of Aria was that it was unfriendly. I felt like I was in a major city airport or a large convention center, an empty feeling, not at all welcoming. The tall ceilings contributed to this feeling and I felt as though the dim lighting was a feeble attempt at masking the emptiness. As the days went on, I grew more and more accustomed to the layout, the interior architecture and design of Aria. By day three of my stay, I felt claustrophobic when I entered the other casinos on the strip. I would 100% retun to Aria, and although I would recommend the hotel, I would not recommend it without fully explaining what one will encounter.
Aria Hallways to Sleeping Rooms
The Sleeping Rooms at Aria Las Vegas
I loved my room at Aria, absolutely loved it. You enter the room into a small foyer with a dresser and two closets. The bathroom is just to your left (or right) and has a large pocket door that slides open. The room is also very brown (these photos were not taken in sepia) but for a sleeping room, the brown is serene and cozy. I had a wall-to-wall picture window that overlooked the Las Vegas strip.
The rooms are contemporary and give the impression that you’re in a posh, city, studio apartment (in fact, my hotel room was bigger than my apartment in Chicago). All of the furnishings are custom, all of the cabinetry throughout the room & bathroom match. Each room has a 42” LCD television and a nice desk area for working.
Aria Sleeping Room
The best part of the in-room experience at Aria is your master control panel. From this universal remote, you can control just about everything in your room. Turn on the television, music, curtains, lights, temperature control, etc. I utilized this control a lot. I like to sleep in a very cool room but like the room to get hot when I wake up. At home, I have to manage the temperature manually, but at Aria, I was able to set everything on my remote. On my first night, I programmed my remote to have two temperature settings. When I was ready for bed, I would hit my night time setting and the temperature would drop to 68 degrees. At 7a, the TV would automatically turn on to the Today Show and the heat would go on until the room hit 72 degrees. When the room warmed up, I would get out of bed and hit the shower.
The Bars and Restaurants at Aria Las Vegas
My favorite reason for going to Las Vegas is always for the dining, dining in Las Vegas is incomparable to nearly any other city in the world! Aria has plenty of delicious restaurants within their confines, and more generally, CityCenter has enough dining to keep the most discerning foodie more than satisfied.
The hotel bars resemble a lounge you might see in an airport – again we go back to that “airport” theme. The lounges are wide open to the casino. I actually preferred the layout of the bars, great for people watching. I am not a big gambler but I love the thrill of being in a casino, therefore, the bars at Aria were perfect. I could sit and enjoy a beverage while watching others gamble.
My first evening, I had dinner at the Wolfgang Puck restaurant, Brasserie PUCK, inside CityCenter. I sat at the bar and let the bartender do all the work. He suggested their wood-fired pizzas and I heeded his suggestion; it worked out perfectly for both of us.
I took my breakfast most mornings at the unique looking snack bar just outside the elevator banks at Aria, Jean Philippe Patisserie. A couple of notes on this place: 1) Expect long lines 2) Don’t expect a lot of variety 3) Don’t expect anyone to be kind to you 4) Expect to pay nearly $5 for two shots of espresso and dollop of milk. Aesthetically, this breakfast bar is lovely but from a functionality standpoint, they have a ways to go and they need to start with training their staff to be a bit more friendly.
My best dining experience was at the Chinese restaurant Blossom inside of Aria. The sommelier was exceptional and the cuisine was classic Chinese. The food was divine, our wines were paired perfectly and the décor was top notch. I honestly could not speak more highly of Blossom. On the Aria website, Blossom is listed as “Fine Dining” but from a price point, it was about the same as Lemongrass, which listed as “Casual Dining”.
The Shopping at Aria Las Vegas
There is not a tremendous variety inside Aria in terms of shopping. There are a few stores that resemble department stores that carry well-known brands. The one store that stood out was the fine jewelry store Radiance. I visited the shop twice and could not get enough of the jewelry. The most unique designs I had ever seen in a luxury boutique. Many risks taken with precious and semi-precious stones, I was thoroughly impressed with their collection.
The shopping at Crystals is also quite nice. Expect to see the usual, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, Cartier…but also expect to see stores like Kiton, Kiki Montparnasse, Carolina Herrera, Roberto Cavali and de Griosogono.
The Pool at Aria Las Vegas
I was in Vegas on business for this particular trip, I was unable to sit poolside during the day, however, we did have an event one evening at the pool at Aria. The property has a total of three pools and three hot tubs. The pool area is spacious and has oversized potted greenery along the perimeter.
The Staff at Aria Las Vegas
For the most part, the staff needed work. The casino opened in December, my visit was in early April. I experienced poor customer service on multiple occasions but most of this I will attribute to the hotel being new.
The worst of my experiences include the back door being unmanned by a bellman. Additionally, I received bad information from the concierge, after making two phone calls to fix my problem, a manager did very well to remedy the issue. Many staff members were clueless when asked basic questions regarding the property. Other staff members were simply rude. For example, the day I tried to view the pool area, it was closed by 5 or 6pm. I asked the guard if I could just view it (not walk down by the pool, but to take a peek around the corner, less than 10 feet from where we were standing), he refused. Then, much like a nightclub bouncer, he physically blocked me with his body and used his size to intimidate back inside. It was extremely odd and highly unprofessional.
I visited Aria Las Vegas for a travel convention and although I did reach out to the Aria Public Relations office, I did not receive any assistance for writing this post. I was not offered a tour of the property, this post was written based on my personal visit and what was available on the Aria website. Stay tuned for my post on The Mandarin Oriental at CityCenter – their sales & marketing/PR team was much more accommodating.
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