OFF THE STRIP RESORTS ON LAS VEGAS' OUTSKIRTS OFFER A GENTLER PACE.

Byline: Story and photos by Eric Noland Travel Editor

HENDERSON, Nev. - The flunky proposes a hotel in Beverly Hills, but Billy Crystal will have none of that. Crystal, as a studio publicist promoting a troubled movie in ``America's Sweethearts,'' wants to conduct the press junket at a hideaway.

``We need to get these people out in the middle of nowhere,'' he says. ``... We need to find a hotel like the one in 'The Shining.' You know, isolated.''

Well, the location chosen for the film, the Hyatt Lake Las Vegas, is not that remote, but art melded with life on one level: Two years ago Monday, the Hyatt opened on the southeastern outskirts of Las Vegas precisely because the hotel chain felt there was a strong market for travelers who didn't want the crush, noise, blinding light and frenzy of the Strip squarely in their laps.

It is reflective of a trend in Las Vegas hotel development. The rage in the 1990s was the mega-property on the Strip, with thousands of rooms, a barn of a casino, an entire village of shops and restaurants within the walls.

But open space is at a premium on the Strip, the sprawl reaching so close to McCarron Airport on the south that some guests of the Mandalay Bay can watch landings and takeoffs from their windows.

The Strip remains prime turf for visitors who want to be in the heart of the action, but what of the more traditional resort traveler, one who is accustomed to the comparative serenity of Palm Desert, La Costa or Hawaii's Kohala Coast? In just the past couple of years in Las Vegas, developers have directly targeted them, building smaller hotels amid golf-course greenery well off the Strip.

In addition to the 496-room Hyatt Lake Las Vegas, which is tucked into a rugged desert nook alongside a man-made lake in Henderson, the Regent Las Vegas and the Suncoast are making a go of it (with varying results) in the bedroom community of Summerlin northwest of the Strip. And Green Valley Ranch is scheduled to open Tuesday on the southern outskirts of town.

It makes sense, when you think about it. Resort travelers favor blistering sunshine, golf, spa treatments, lavish pools, upscale restaurants (that actually have windows) and some peace and quiet. With a little retrofitting, the Nevada desert can certainly offer all of that. Throw in a few one-armed bandits and some blue-felt gaming tables, and the suntanned set that enjoys an occasional game of chance might be lured out of Scottsdale, Ariz.

After just a short while at the Hyatt Lake Las Vegas, you can appreciate the concept.

Walk out front and there is a palm-lined drive leading off toward desert hillsides and the fourth fairway at Reflection Bay golf course. You don't encounter a mob of humanity squeezing by on a sidewalk, five-minute traffic lights for crossing the street, and street hawkers thrusting prostitution leaflets into your face. Venture out back and you'll find not a cavelike parking structure but a broad, sun-washed patio where you can nurse a drink and gaze across the lake at a dramatic vista.

``The thought process was that we could carve out a niche of people who were seeking a resort and also a casino,'' said general manager Dan Amato. ``And you have, within 30 minutes, the best nightlife in the world and more serious gambling for those who are interested in that.''

For those travelers who want to immerse themselves in the Strip and its attractions, these outlying properties are probably not a viable option - because you can't readily get from Henderson or Summerlin to the heart of Las Vegas. En route to the Strip, you're guaranteed of spending a fair amount of time on surface streets, and because of the boom in outlying residential development in recent years - notably in Summerlin - that can mean some long, aggravating crawls through traffic.

(The properties run shuttles to the Strip, and the Hyatt tells guests to plan on 30 minutes - for a distance of only 17 miles).

In Summerlin, the core audience has been an ongoing subject of debate. The Regent Las Vegas initially targeted leisure travelers, but after plunging into red ink in the wake of its balky opening in 1999, it shifted its focus to the local market, to the consternation of its shareholders.

The Suncoast, which opened in September 2000, had no qualms about a distinct locals focus - it features a 64-lane bowling alley, a 16-screen movie theater complex, and a Kids Tyme child-care center. But it welcomes out-of-towners to its 440 rooms with rates that are consistently under $100 per night.

The Regent, which offers 541 rooms divided between two hotel towers, trumpets its more traditional resort touches. The grounds gush with boulder-lined brooks, tumbling waterfalls and grottolike swimming pools (although on a visit in September, it was clear some of that water could have been used on the lawn east of the main pool; it was dead, fried by the sun to a golden brown).

Many of the rooms overlook fairways. The golf options include the prestigious TPC at the Canyons course and the Arnold Palmer-designed Angel Park, as well as a sprinkling of other courses nearby. Regent guests get preferred tee times.

The Regent complex also features the Palms Promenade, an enclave of shops and dining spots that is not as extensive as you'll find at some of the heavy hitters down on the Strip but is certainly no slouch.

At Gustav Mauler's Spiedini Ristorante, where the cuisine leans toward Milanese and urban Italian, we found the service excellent, the prices reasonable and the food very good (although the tomatoes in a mozzarella caprese starter could have spent more time on the vine, while the lobster in a fusilli dish could have spent less time in the pan).

Afterward, we wandered into nearby J.C. Wooloughan Irish Pub and were delighted to find a five-woman band from Ireland - one playing a tuba, another a fiddle, several taking turns singing in glorious brogues - entertaining a lively crowd.

The casino here is a big one for an off-Strip resort (40 table games, 1,200 slots, some high-stakes rooms, a sports book) and is the focal point of the property.

The casino is much less in evidence back at the Hyatt Lake Las Vegas. It is one-fifth the size of the Regent's, with just a few table games and a couple of walls of slots. It's also so discreetly tucked away that you're barely aware of it as you wander the hotel or grounds. And get this: It has windows - big, arched ones that overlook the lake and mirror the Moroccan theme of the hotel.

This resort has many other attributes to feature. The lobby, for example, is built on a slope that descends to the lake, mirroring a style popular with the newer waterfront properties in Hawaii and Mexico. Enormous arched windows that rise to three stories take in the view across a lagoon, the golf course's No. 8 fairway, the lake itself and the starkness of the Black Mountains far to the east.

The designers seem to have had a lot of fun with the North African motifs. The kids' pool (separate from the adult pool and on a different level) was loosely fashioned after the ancient Tunisian village of Ksar Ouled Soltane. Exclusive accommodations are not called bungalows or cottages, they are two- and three-bedroom casbahs. In the lobby bar, set among giant urns overflowing with water and an indoor waterfall, even the snacks set out in the afternoon are geared to the mood: spiced olives, almonds.

We were disappointed that we weren't able to sample Japengo, the resort's upscale Pacific Rim restaurant that is a spinoff of the acclaimed Cafe Japengo in La Jolla. Our visit was made just a few days after the terrorism of Sept. 11, and the Hyatt Lake Las Vegas was all but deserted - causing the restaurant to scale back to just two nights a week. (It has since returned to seven-night service.)

Other strengths of the resort were very much in evidence, though. At Spa Moulay, my wife was impressed with the aromatherapy massage, which was conducted in a setting of low lights and soothing music. A client chooses from among a selection of essential oils (citrus, lavender, floral, detox), then settles in for an hour-long session that progresses into ever-deeper stages of relaxation. In fact, she said, she dozed off on the table toward the end.

The same afternoon, my circuit of the Reflection Bay golf course with assistant pro Dallas Hart was less metaphysical but no less enjoyable.

Hyatt guests receive a break on greens fees and preferential treatment on advance reservations at the course, which was designed by Jack Nicklaus and has been hailed in national golf magazines.

``What you see is what you get,'' said Hart. ``There's no real trickery on the greens. They're sculpted so they don't break toward the lake or the mountain. And if you read a six-inch break, you'll get it.''

Golf in the desert can be appealing primarily for the views. As you take in the uphill fairway at No. 5, your eye is drawn to the jagged mountaintops that jut diagonally from behind the green. From the black tees at No. 6, you can see Lake Mead far in the distance.

When your attention is wrested back to your game, you'll undoubtedly learn of the course's many devilish wrinkles. No. 4, for example, is an innocuous-looking par-3, but its oblong green has a 9-foot-deep bunker on the right and, on the left, a downhill bunker with the green sloping down and away from it. At No. 10, you tee off over water, then have to clear water again to reach the green.

And the par-5 15th is a real dilly: You have to hit over an arroyo twice, the green is fully protected by bunkers, and there are bunkers in the middle of the fairway if you get sloppy. ``This is my favorite hole,'' Hart said. ``I had an eagle on it. Of course, I had an 11 on there, too.''

On the back nine we could overlook the massive construction project that is to be a Ritz-Carlton at the west end of the lake. Obviously, the idea of establishing a resort experience that maintains an arm's-length distance from the Strip is catching on. Meanwhile, a third golf course in the region, this one designed by Tom Weiskopf, is due to open this spring.

The modus operandi among the Hyatt guests seemed to be one after-hours excursion to the Strip during a stay of a few nights - there to get a fix of glaring neon and high-octane excitement before beating a hasty retreat to a place where you can actually sleep with the windows open.

One day we decided to take an electric boat out on the lake. It was late summer, and the water in the lagoon that spreads out from the hotel's powdered-sugar-sand beach had the smell of the Colorado River on a bad day (the water is diverted from Lake Mead), but the conditions were much more pleasant out in the middle of the 320-acre lake.

Since only electric-motor craft are permitted (and only lakeside homeowners or hotel guests can use the lake), it was quiet out on the water. A narrow canyon near the dam was deserted. Wild cormorants bobbed on the surface. On the return to the hotel dock, we glided noiselessly under an arched pedestrian bridge.

Somewhere 17 miles away, it's likely somebody else was approaching a hotel in a much different fashion - perhaps in a taxi cab, careening on two wheels out of the roiling sea of traffic that is Las Vegas Boulevard South.

IF YOU GO

Green Valley Ranch: To open Tuesday; 2300 Paseo Verde Parkway, Henderson, Nev.; [phone] or [phone]; www.greenvalleyranchresort.com. Web site quote for a weekend stay for two in mid-January: $159.

Hyatt Lake Las Vegas: 101 Montelado Blvd., Henderson, Nev.; [phone] or [phone]; www.lakelasvegas.hyatt.com. Web site quote for a weekend stay

for two in mid-January: $199. Note: Through Jan. 8, the hotel will spring for the gas of drive-in guests who stay at least two nights. At check-in, present a gas receipt from no more than one day prior. Double the amount up to $70 will be deducted from your bill at checkout.

Regent Las Vegas: 221 N. Rampart Blvd., Las Vegas; [phone] or [phone]; www.regentlasvegas.com. Web site quote for a weekend stay for two in mid-January: $119.

Suncoast: 9090 Alta Drive, Las Vegas; [phone] or [phone]; www.suncoastcasino.com. Web site quote for a weekend stay for two in mid-January: $99.

CAPTION(S):

6 photos, box, map

Photo:

(1 -- 3 -- color) The Hyatt Lake Las Vegas in Henderson, Nev., top, features a lagoon and swimming area, complete with a sandy beach. The Palms Tower shimmers in the evening at the Regent Las Vegas in Summerlin above. The resort has 541 rooms divided between two towers. The Suncoast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, right, offers indoors-types bowling at its Summerlin facilities.

(4) The Suncoast in Summerlin provides an alternative for Las Vegas visitors to escape the chaos and high prices of the Strip.

(5) Guests at the Hyatt Lake Las Vegas can drift through a lagoon and out onto a 320-acre laek in an electric boat.

(6) The grounds of the Regent Las Vegas in Summerlin feature waterfalls and grotto-like swimming pools.

Gene Blevens/Special to the Daily News

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IF YOU GO (see text)

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LAS VEGAS OFF-STRIP RESORTS

Greg Miller Staff Artist