A Visit To The Bellusso Watch Store In Las Vegas

Part I:  The Arrival

April 24th, 2008

Without a doubt, Las Vegas is one of my favorite places to go in the world.  Im Florida born, and Miami will always hold a special place for me, but Vegas really is tough to beat on many levels.  So when I was asked to do a photo shoot at the newest high end watch store on the strip ( Bellusso in the new Palazzo at the Venetian), I jumped at the opportunity.  Coincidentally enough, the watch manufacturer IWC along with Esquire magazine held a Best Dressed Real Man in America competition the very same weekend in Las Vegas.  So when IWC found out I would be in town for the Bellusso shoot, I was invited as a special guest to attend their event Saturday night.    I bought a plane ticket for my wife, and we left on an early flight from Dayton for what promised to be a fantastic long weekend filled with both excitement and relaxation in sunny Las Vegas!

We arrived Thursday morning at 10am Las Vegas time, and grabbed a cab to the Venetian my first time staying with this particular Las Vegas mega resort:

  The Venetian sprang up not long after Bellagio, and in many regards is an attempt at oneupsmanship in terms of both luxury and grandeur.   The Bellagio is incomparable in my book, but the Venetians opulent lobby is quite breathtaking.

We checked in, and made our way up to our 26th floor suite:

In terms of both square footage and appointments, the suite was most impressive.  The all marble bathroom and sunken living room were particularly nice and unique touches.

Unfortunately, the service at the Venetian left much to be desired as we ran into several issues throughout the weekend.   Nothing major, but enough to make me not want to come back.

After unpacking we headed down for some lunch and headed for the pool area.  The main pool areas were closed due to supposedly high winds (which we never noticed) but the pools in the Tao Beach Club were open, so we headed over.

This was a great start to the weekend and a great way to unwind after the early morning flight.  After a couple of hours we headed back to the room, showered and changed for the evening, which we would spend at my second favorite Las Vegas property the Bellagio.


I never get tired of seeing the Chihuly glass lobby in the Bellagio entrance:

The Bellagio garden is always a must see as well:

As is Tesorini which houses one of the better Rolex collections in Las Vegas:

Karen and I enjoyed trying on a few models we just don’t get to see in Dayton.  We then headed to the famous Bellagio buffet Alaskan king crab legs.prime ribyum!!  The Bellagio dinner buffet is, year after year, the best buffet in Las Vegasfor good reason.

After dinner, we headed outside for a romantic sunset showing of the famous Bellagio water fountains:

Our weekend was off to a fantastic start after the fountain show, we headed back to the Venetian for a good nights sleep as I had an early morning photo shoot and interview to conduct at Belluso.

*All text and images contained in this review are the original work of the author, John B. Holbrook, II and are copyright protected. Use of any of the information or images without the permission of the author is prohibited.