THEY'RE STAKING OUT TURF ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE STRIP.

Byline: Eric Noland Travel Editor

Billed as alternatives to the Strip, their target audience, a bit farther up the scale, favors golf and spas . . . and peace and quiet.

And this is their daring leap: the expectation that a niche market can be carved out for resort travelers who seek arm's-length removal from the glare and commotion of Las Vegas.

Over the next six months, two major resorts will open on the outskirts of the city. The Resort at Summerlin, cradled amid five golf courses on the northwestern edge of Las Vegas, plans to open the first of two Regent hotels at the end of this month, the other in early August. Lake Las Vegas Resort, in Henderson, Nev., on the southeastern fringe of Las Vegas, plans to open a Hyatt Regency on the shores of a man-made lake in December.

``We're not positioning ourselves to compete with the Strip,'' said Brian Johnson, general manager of Summerlin's Regent Grand Spa Hotel, which is targeted to open June 29. ``We're positioning ourselves as a resort that will compete with the great resorts of the Southwest.''

The resort communities of Palm Springs and Scottsdale, Ariz., however, did not have to contend with nearby gluts of hotel space, and therein lies the inherent challenge for these two ventures. Las Vegas is a city of 225 square miles - roughly the size of the island of Guam - yet it currently boasts 116,880 hotel rooms, most of which are concentrated along a four-mile stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South.

Also, the hotels that are part of the Strip's recent building boom have targeted the resort traveler, too, putting in lavish spas and pool areas. But they can't offer pro-quality golf courses or the serenity of desert mountain views at sunset, and both outlying ventures are determined to lure vacationers who desire both.

The two resorts have taken different approaches to the issue of gambling.

Lake Las Vegas is building a relatively small casino - 10,000 square feet, 189 slots, 11 table games. It has a European design, including a feature that would be unthinkable on the Strip - windows; big, arched ones that overlook the lake and open onto a balcony.

A resort property in which the casino is more of an amenity than a focal point ``has been the missing part to Las Vegas,'' said marketing director Robert Purdy.

The Resort at Summerlin, by contrast, has put in a much more substantial casino. It's about half the size of a casino at a major Strip property, but for the suburbs, it's considerable - 50,000 square feet, 1,200 slots, 40 table games. Hotel officials say it will have separate entrances, however, so that it won't be in the faces of guests.

The Summerlin resort is being marketed as a destination for golfers who like to gamble, which is probably a bit redundant. The goal here will be to entice them to wager on cards and dice once they've settled their bets on the greens.

The appointments promise to offer the tasteful touches that are so hard to come by on the Strip. The two Regent hotels will be no taller than six stories, offering a combined 541 rooms. Service? They're going to have heat and motion detectors in the rooms so that housekeeping personnel, by putting a card in an exterior slot, will instantly know whether this is a good time to knock on your door or come back later.

Golfers will be able to take on the Tournament Players Club at The Canyons - the resort controls 50 percent of the tee times. Johnson says there are 189 holes within a 20-minute drive of the resort. And just for fun, two enormous bent-grass putting greens have been constructed just outside a golfers' tavern at the hotel.

Guests more interested in a spa experience are promised the 40,000-square-foot Aquae Sulis, where, if they're so inclined, they can get a loofah scrub, soak in the Watsu tub, or stretch out for a hot-stone massage.

Similar golf-spa-and-gambling experiences are promised 17 miles southeast of the Strip at Lake Las Vegas, a body of water created 10 years ago when water was pumped out of nearby Lake Mead.

Santa Barbara developer Ron Boeddeker is heading the project, playing on a philosophy that paid handsome dividends on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Boeddeker reasoned that people on vacation want a lush setting without having to contend with the very element that produces lushness: rain. His Transcontinental Corp. carved the Waikoloa Village out of an arid stretch of black lava along the island's Kohala Coast.

The Lake Las Vegas project works on a similar principle. That desert lake is an unnatural freak - in fact, storm runoff from the nearby Las Vegas Wash is diverted through a 7-foot-diameter pipe that runs under this body of water.

The Hyatt Regency is encircled by a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course on the lake's north shore. Like the Summerlin resort, it will buck Las Vegas Strip standards by being comparatively minuscule - 496 rooms.

Hyatt guests will be able to take a water taxi across the lake to the marina, where they might rent a sailboat, an electric boat, fishing tackle, a windsurfing board. Or they might want to get wet - in the hotel's private lagoon (which will adjoin a sandy beach), on a water slide, or in the lake itself.

``If people want to go to the Strip, it's close enough,'' said Karen Summers, a resort spokeswoman. ``When they're done, they can come back here and play golf the next day.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1--Color) The view from a Hyatt Regency being built in Henderson, Nev., takes in a lagoon and a broad expanse of Lake Las Vegas.

Eric Noland

(2) The Regent Grand Spa Hotel, due to open June 29 at the Resort at Summerlin on the northwest outskirts of Las Vegas, will have an ample casino - with 50,000 square feet, 1,200 slot machines and 40 table games.