Cascata a high-end golf experience just 30 minutes from the Las Vegas Strip

BOULDER CITY, Nev. -- In the land of high-rollers and big hitters, Cascata is about as exclusive a golf experience as Las Vegas has to offer.

Cascata, which in Italian translates to waterfall, is 22 miles from the Las Vegas Strip but world's away from your average golf course. The Rees Jones design, which opened Dec. 15, 2000, is available to hotel guests of Caesars Entertainment resorts (and it has relaxed some of its rules so outside play is also welcome).

A tee time -- costing up to $375 -- provides access to how the other half lives on a golf course that cost $70 million to build. Luxuries touches include a locker with your name on it, attentive service, tour-caliber forecaddies, priceless views of the surrounding River Mountain Range and slick, perplexing greens.

Golfers often arrive by limo from one of the Caesar's properties to check in at a lavish 37,000-square-foot Tuscan clubhouse with a 417-foot waterfall flowing through it.

Each hole at Cascata feels independent from the others as red rock canyons and boulder-strewn ridges divide the fairways. The 800 feet of elevation changes, climbing to 3,200 feet above the desert valley, are sure to cause havoc with club selection and your score. Still, it's hard to feel bad about a bogey surrounded by these majestic vistas.