By Larry Olmsted

The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, aka The Cosmo, was never intended to be a typical Vegas casino hotel. That may be the best thing about it.

The project originally had a lot of condos, and by the time that fell through, construction was too far along to change the basic footprint of the structure. As a result, the hotel rooms here, many intended to be apartments, are generally the biggest on the Strip, even without upgrading to a suite, and fans have long loved that the Cosmo delivers bigger and typically better-appointed rooms and more bang for the buck. This value proposition among upscale hotels has become the worst kept secret on The Strip

But the fortunate change of plans also gave the hotel other advantages. … Read More

Award-winning travel journalist Larry Olmsted is the author of “Real Food, Fake Food.” He is a Contributing Editor to US Airways Magazine and Cigar Aficionado Magazine and “The Great Life” columnist for Forbes.com.