Casino Hotels

The complex sits on Île Notre-Dame in the middle of the Saint Lawrence, on a site left behind by Expo 67, and the buildings still read as pavilions — angular, glazed, standing apart from the city rather than in it. Guests arrive across a bridge, which gives the stay a distinct sense of leaving town without going far.

As a hotel it is compact and modern, with rooms finished in restrained tones and floor-to-ceiling glass that turns the river and the Montreal skyline into the main decorative event. Service is bilingual as a matter of course, and the front desk is used to guests arriving late and leaving for the city early.

Dining runs from a large buffet to a fine-dining room, and the property programmes a steady schedule of concerts and shows in its cabaret space. The gaming floor spreads across several levels of the old pavilion and is one facility among many; the surrounding park, with its rowing basin and cycling circuit, is a considerable part of what the address offers.

Built into the escarpment above the Horseshoe Falls, this resort spends most of its architectural effort on one thing: getting as many rooms and public spaces as possible pointed at the water. The Grand Hall at the entrance is a long glazed room over the gorge, and it does the work that a lobby in a lesser hotel would leave to a chandelier.

Rooms are large, conservatively decorated and quiet, and the difference between a city-facing and a falls-facing room is the whole argument of the place. Suites at the upper levels are aimed at longer stays, and the hotel handles a lot of couples, anniversaries and small conferences without any of them colliding.

There is a full spa, a shopping arcade, a theatre that books touring names, and a range of restaurants from casual to formal. The casino floor occupies the lower levels, connected by escalators to everything else, and the resort is best understood as a hillside hotel with an unusually broad set of facilities attached.

River Rock stands on the north arm of the Fraser River in Richmond, with a marina at its edge and the Vancouver airport a few minutes away. That last fact shapes it: the hotel is used heavily by people connecting through, and the property is organised for easy arrivals, late check-ins and early departures.

Accommodation is split between a main hotel tower and a quieter all-suite building, both finished in warm, current materials. Rooms are generously sized, and the resort has invested in beds and sound insulation in a way that suggests it knows how many of its guests are trying to sleep at the wrong time of day.

The dining is a genuine strength, particularly its Chinese restaurants, which draw diners from across the region rather than only from the hotel. A large theatre hosts concerts and events, there is a spa and pool, and the gaming floor sits at the centre of the ground level — one component of a resort that also happens to be a well-placed airport hotel.

An hour and a half north of Toronto, on the lands of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation near Lake Couchiching, Casino Rama is a resort built to be a destination in its own right. It is owned by the First Nation, and that ownership is present in the artwork, the naming and the way the property presents itself.

The hotel is a low, broad building with a large number of rooms and suites, most of them comfortable rather than showy, and it is set up for stays of two or three nights rather than one. There is an indoor pool, a spa, and enough meeting space to absorb corporate groups without displacing weekend guests.

Its entertainment centre is the best-known part of the operation, a large-capacity venue that has hosted touring musicians and comedians for decades. Restaurants range from a buffet through to steakhouse dining, the gaming floor is one of the largest in the province, and the surrounding lake country supplies most of what guests do during daylight.