Step into a kinda freaky story at the Bellagio Gardens. (Image courtesy of Bellagio)
Some of the best free entertainment in Las Vegas happens to be at a high-dollar casino-resort.
Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens is a quarterly delight. My beloved and I went on Black Friday and caught the fall presentation two days before it was to be dismantled.
As noted before, I’m no professional photographer. But the gardens at Bellagio are so photogenic that even an amateur can’t help but capture something visually impressive.
There are lots of photos way better than mine online. But here’s a glimpse of what I saw … and one of the reasons that Vegas, for all the craziness it throws your way, is still a special destination full of unique experiences away from the gaming tables.
The Conservatory is both cozy and massive. At 14,000 square feet, you can see one end to the other, but not without being led visually astray by whimsical surrealism and overdone grandeur that is sooo Vegas.
We’re talkin’ beautiful, delicate flowers, but 10,000 of them, arranged into massive towering structures, with characters telling a fairytale story. The flowers are changed every two weeks. The exhibit changes every season, with a fifth display thrown in the mix for lunar new year.
We saw “Harvest,” which featured Smurf-house-looking mushrooms, flying fairies, a book of spells and a giant sewing machine. It didn’t all make sense on first pass-through, and I’m not so sure if it’s supposed to feel more like Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan or just some horticuluralist’s hallucination.
But it sure does smell pretty, and provides a nice little escape from the buzzing casino just on the other side of the giant sewing machine.
The space is currently blocked off all week, while 120 engineers, designers and florists assemble the winter holiday exhibit, which opens on Saturday.
(Images by Dan Michalski / Casinos.com)
Dan Michalski is a longtime journalist based in Las Vegas with nearly 20 years as a writer and editor covering poker, casino gaming and sports betting. As founder of Pokerati and an award-winning blogger, podcaster and news reporter, Dan has worked tirelessly to elevate the standards of journalism in gaming media. He also has served as a gaming industry consultant and holds advanced certificates in gaming regulation from UNLV. When not thinking about media and casinos, he can be found on the tennis courts, where he has captained two teams to USTA national championships, and one to second place.
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