Casino Hotels

The property occupies the former French and Quebec pavilions from Expo 67 on Île Notre-Dame, which gives it a silhouette no purpose-built resort would arrive at. Guests reach it across the river from the city centre, and the island setting keeps the whole complex noticeably calmer than a downtown address would be.

As a hotel it runs on the conventional lines — rooms, several restaurants including a fine-dining room, a cabaret-style performance space and event floors. The licensed gaming floor is one of the features spread across the pavilion levels, and guests who never set foot on it still have a full hotel around them.

Built into the escarpment above the Horseshoe Falls, the resort's main argument is its elevation: a large share of the rooms and public rooms look directly out over the falls, and the lobby galleria is arranged to keep that view in play as guests move through.

The hotel side is substantial — a tower of guest rooms, a spa, a theatre that programmes touring acts, a retail concourse and a spread of restaurants from casual to formal. A licensed gaming floor sits within the complex, and a covered walkway connects the whole thing to the tourist district above the gorge.

River Rock sits on the Fraser River just minutes from Vancouver International Airport, with its own marina and a Canada Line station at the door, which makes it one of the more genuinely convenient full-service hotels in the region regardless of what else it offers.

Inside there is a large show theatre, a spa, a set of restaurants leaning on Pacific Northwest and Cantonese cooking, and extensive meeting space that keeps the conference calendar busy. The gaming floor is one part of the building among several.

Owned by the Chippewas of Rama First Nation and set in cottage country near Orillia, the resort reads more like a destination lodge than an urban hotel — low-slung, surrounded by lake and woodland, with a summer season that fills the calendar.

The Entertainment Centre is the best-known part of the property, drawing touring musicians and comedians through the year, and the hotel supports it with a spa, a spread of restaurants and a conference wing. A licensed gaming floor operates within the complex.