Bellagio Fountains

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Few things are as picturesque and graceful in Las Vegas as the Bellagio Fountains at the Bellagio Hotel. It doesn't hurt that watching them perform is free (good to know, in case you left all your chips on the table the night before). Situated in the foreground of one of the most expensive hotels every built, the Bellagio Fountains, a labor of love conceived by legendary hotelier Steve Wynn, deliver a choreographed performance every half hour during the day and every 15 minutes at night to the sounds of Celine Dion, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and beloved Broadway standards. Though the fountains have only existed for a decade, they echo a time in Las Vegas when glamorous showgirls and high-rolling swingers ruled, and before special effects were a requisite for Vegas entertainment. But that's not to say that these waterworks don't have a mass of modern technology at work below the surface.

An aquatic architecture firm, WET Design, began working on the Bellagio Fountains in 1995 with a budget of around $50 million—small change considering the cost it took to build the Bellagio hotel itself (with nearly 4,000 rooms the project rang in at a whopping $1.6 billion). To create the 1,000 different water expressions the fountains perform, the architects constructed an entire network of underwater pipes with 1,200 nozzles and 4,000 individually programmed lights, all submerged under an eight-acre manmade lake, Lago di Como. Special water guns were engineered specifically for the project to create the soaring jets of water, which were designed to evoke the movements of actual dancers. The Bellagio Fountains were unveiled with a grand opening party at the hotel on October 15, 1998, and they've been spouting water ever since.

The best time to see the fountains at work is at night when the water is illuminated against the clear desert sky, just like the rest of the Vegas strip. Or take a seat at one of the Mobil-recommended Bellagio restaurants built overlooking the fountains, including upscale Italian restaurant Circo (owned and run by the family behind the legendary Le Cirque) or contemporary casual spot Olives (the brainchild of celeb chef Todd English). Either are prime spots for digging into a plate of pasta, sipping a Super Tuscan, or simply enjoying the view. Now that's amore.