Las Vegas on the … water

Built on a man-made 320-acre lake, The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Las Vegas embraced a grand Mediterranean theme, and is the cornerstone of the $500 million Montelago Village.

By Terence Loose

Back in the high-flying eighties, the bold developer R. F. Boeddeker gazed down from a helicopter hovering above a huge expanse of bone-dry Nevada desert and thought, "What a great place for a lake." He pictured a huge body of cooling water, surrounded by homes, golf courses and resorts. He knew, however, that all life, especially the luxurious kind, demands water first. So, in 1989, construction began on Henderson Dam and a two-mile-long bypass system that conveys the flow of Las Vegas wash under what is now Lake Las Vegas, a 320-acre lake (with enough water to fill approximately 815,000 swimming pools) with 10-miles of shoreline and a deepest depth of 150 feet. Sailing, snorkeling, fishing, kayaking, and various other activities are possible here - if you're more of a motorhead, Lake Mead is just two miles away.
With the action of the Vegas strip a mere 17 miles away, but the serenity of still water surrounded by grand mountains, Lake Las Vegas has attracted everything Boeddeker envisioned so many years ago. Within the 2,605-acre development are residential communities offering quaint waterside villas, $2 million custom home sites and everything in between. Golf is also well-represented, with four premier courses by acclaimed designers Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf and Tom Fazio.
But perhaps the most obvious indication of Boeddeker's visionary success arrived this past February with the grand opening of The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Las Vegas. The cornerstone of the $500 million Montelago Village, the Mediterranean-themed Ritz-Carlton features 349 guest rooms, including 35 suites and two 2,400-square-foot Ritz-Carlton suites. With its earthy tones and Old World feel, complete with the Tuscan-inspired Pontevecchio Bridge that spans a corner of Lake Las Vegas and holds a majority of the Ritz's rooms, it has all the glamour but none of the gaudiness usually associated with Las Vegas. There are two pools, a white sand lakeside beach backed by waterfall, a huge grassy area and enough walking paths to fill any Sunday morning with the kids.
In fact, for a ritzy getaway in a state known around the world for its devilish side, The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Las Vegas is a nice family getaway spot. Everything Circus Circus isn't. Through the Ritz Kids program children five and up can enjoy hiking, fishing, boating, swimming - that's right, clean outdoor activities for youth, in Las Vegas! And the Ritz has made getting there a little less intimidating with its Are We There Yet? package. Created to turn a "highway journey into a luxury jaunt," families first drive to a nearby Ritz-Carlton to pick up a tasty picnic to enjoy en route. The picnic includes a variety of cold drinks (no, not alcoholic), sandwiches, fresh fruits and chocolate chip cookies; there is also a music CD and highway-friendly games. Once at the destination Ritz - Ritz-Carltons in California, Nevada and Arizona are all participating - valet service for the duration of your stay is complimentary, and in-room refreshments await. When you leave, another picnic is provided for the drive home, as well as a freshly detailed car.
It's a nice way of pampering yourself during the journey to the hotel; call it a warm up to the real pampering to come, which is where the 30,000-square-foot Spa Vita di Lago comes in. An hour in it is guaranteed to be a lot more relaxing than an hour on a stool in front of a blackjack dealer. Probably a lot less expensive too. And since spas have become as important a signature service for hotels these days as fine dining, Spa Vita di Lago was created with more than just facials and massages in mind. Its Menu of Services lists over 100 choices, ranging from the quick $10 nail repair to the $815, eight-hour Truth, Beauty and Freedom spa package. But the Ritz is known for its opulence, so its spa offers two additional menus, one filled with star gazing and hiking adventures (the Nevada desert is ideal for both and the star gazing includes the use of Meade Instruments GPS telescopes), the other an impressive list of physical and spiritual health classes and consultations. Everything from sports nutrition and herbology to Tai Chi is offered.
Of course, this is all going to work up quite an appetite, which is a good thing, because you'll want to try as many of the Ritz's Medici Cafe and Terrace's signature pan-Mediterranean dishes as possible. Featuring European botanical and Italian Renaissance art and a huge and totally open display kitchen, Medici's authenticity is outdone only by its staff. Take for instance Jacques Rolland, who waited on us one evening. A true Frenchman, trained sommelier and author of Quizine, a book about the origins of thousands of dishes, Rolland owned his own restaurant on a Caribbean island, until a hurricane took it away. But with a European's c'est la vie attitude, he's happy to practice his art at the Ritz by picking the perfect wine for any dish. Yes, he seems to say, the hurricane blew him from the tropics to a desert, from creating his own menu to offering advice about the Ritz's. But then, the wink in his eye seems to say, the Ritz is a pretty nice place to be. þ

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