The 390 guest rooms and suites at M Resort Spa & Casino are spacious and contemporary, with a primarily brown and beige color palette that works well with the chrome, leather, and faux-wood fittings. Rooms start at a very comfortable 550 square feet, which is a touch smaller than the base-level rooms at the Wynn, Encore, or Palazzo hotels, but still on par with the Bellagio.

The hotel also offers free airport transfers. And unlike the big hotels on the Strip, you don't have to actually walk through the casino to get to the pool - making the M feel less like a casino-resort and more like, well, a resort. (To get to the Strip, the resort provides a free 20-minute shuttle.) But given its distance from the noise, along with its indoor Zen waterfalls, giant floral display, multiple terraces, attentive service, and abundance of natural light, the M Resort really is more relaxing and intimate-feeling than the 2,000-plus-room mega hotels along the Strip.

It still upholds the great luxury - the gambling, the seasonal adult-only pool club, the large rooms, the beautiful spa - of the top hotels on the Strip like the Encore, Venetian, or Bellagio, but you'll have to settle for seeing the glittering lights of the Strip from a distance. The beautifully designed M Resort has only 390 rooms - that's tiny, at least by Vegas standards - and it's located in the suburbs of Las Vegas (the city of Henderson) about 10 miles south off the the all-night dazzle on the Strip.

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