Swim city

I spent many a summer as a boy visiting my aunt in Las Vegas, so it’s not just crazy gamblers who venture to Sin City during its blazing-hottest midsummer madness. Just make sure you have a good dip on the Strip, or beyond.

You’ll need less cash and more splash to visit during the hot (as in temperature, not timing) season in Las Vegas. Hotel rates plummet when the mercury goes up, except on the always-busy weekends.

Nearly every big hotel has a nice pool. Most of them are kept at 80 degrees, but when the mercury hits 110 degrees, that feels awfully good.

Here are my favorites, on and off Las Vegas Boulevard, in descending order:

Flamingo: Four pools, including a big, meandering pool with a cove to get out of the sun. This is the party-central pool of all of Las Vegas and sometimes it can seem like there’s no room to swim with all the people standing around drinking beer. But it’s still a blast.

The smaller Go Pool is ringed by huge pink flamingo statues and features pricey private cabanas. Unfortunately, this area has become an adults-only “European-style” pool (translation: some women don’t wear their bikini tops), so you won’t be able to show the kids this cool spot.

Mandalay Bay: The closest thing to a water-park-style hotel in Las Vegas, the Mandalay Bay has a wave machine in a pool with more than 1.5 million gallons of water. There’s also the Lazy River, a meandering pool where guests float along in bright plastic inflatable rings, and a stage for poolside concerts.

Like many hotels, Mandalay now has a walled-off “European-style” pool with an entry fee; this one is called the Moorea Beach Club.

Red Rock: The newest splash on my favorite pool list, this top-end resort in the northwest suburb of Summerlin has a fan-shaped main pool, with several smaller pools scattered around the main pool plaza and tucked away up a platform of stairs or behind a low hedge.

I loved the whirlpools in winter, but in summer I’ll stick to standing under the fountain in the biggest pool.

Hard Rock: The party pool at the party hotel, with music pumped over and sometimes into the chlorine. Some party hounds say the Hard Rock has lost its top-of-the-scene cachet to such places as the Palms and Wynn; in my book, that’s all the more reason to go to the Hard Rock these days.

The Tahitian-themed pool scene strikes the rare balance between guests who actually want to swim and those there to get a tan and watch everybody else’s back end go by. But you better really like your rock ’n’ roll music.

Caesars Palace: A classic high-end resort pool where people more often seem to be sitting around than taking a dip. But the decadent Rome-meets-Miami Beach flesh scene has to be experienced as the high rollers and beautiful people (not always mutually exclusive) loll amid the faux classic colonnades. The Venus pool is the topless venue.

Bellagio: Another amazingly beautiful pool area, with six different water spots. Unfortunately, they often seem to be more of a set piece for a Mediterranean design magazine cover than pools to actually enjoy.

During my visit, I felt that making a splash in the perfect, calm surface would be akin to ripping a work of art. With the Bellagio’s policy of catering to the well-heeled and childless (or those who left their children home), there’s a bit of a chill at the place for my taste.

Tropicana: The hotel is a little tired, and so is the pool area, but it’s still a nice getaway and a place that has tried to retain its family-oriented feel. I’ll also admit to just a little nostalgia for the old place as the 1960-era Las Vegas is bulldozed away.

One of the upsides of the hotel’s elderly status is that the shade trees are more mature here, so you are less likely to scorch your bare feet.

Palms: A pool that is the current darling of the party scene. The Maloof brothers, owners of the Sacramento Kings basketball team, have created a really classy joint (as the old Vegas moguls would have put it) and the two acres of pools are part of the see-and-be-seen scene that propels the Palms to the top ranks of hotels beloved by celebrity-stalking paparazzi.

There’s lots of DJs and dancing around the three pool bars (I’d opt for the semisecluded Waterfall Bar behind a man-made cascade.)

Seen but not splashed: I haven’t had a chance to check out the pools at Lake Las Vegas and at the new Wynn, all of which receive good marks on pool-enthusiast Web sites. I’ll do a cannonball anonymously down the line and let you know.

Honorable mentions: Talk to veteran Vegas swimmers and you’ll get a smattering of support for the pools at the Monte Carlo, Venetian, Mirage, Luxor and MGM. Go to the hotel Web sites and take a look. There’s not a wet dog in the pack.

R.I.P: The Glass Pool Inn, which used to have a great above-ground pool with portholes where people could look at the swimmers. All that is left is the sign near the south end of the Strip.

Also, the great high-dive at the old Desert Inn, which disappeared to make way for the Wynn. And the Stardust pool, once the biggest on the Strip, where the dancing girls used to lounge away the afternoon. It’s now a dirt lot.