Unlike previous blog entries, this one represents opinions collected over many years of visiting. Many web sites have a great deal of information on sin city, this blog focuses on the favorite places of the authors.
Where to Stay:
With each hotel holding thousands of rooms, each one is almost a city in itself. Factors such as price and location influence where one stays. Generally, the use of vacation packages often brings significant discounts – by purchasing Vegas packages from Expedia.com, Travelocity.com or airlines such as Alaska you can get reasonable deal at many high quality resorts. For those that partake in significant gaming, special rates (and even free room/food/beverage) are available – but generally big players already know where they are going to stay, where they get freebies. The major casinos have websites often advertising “the best rates” but prices may not include tax which is considerable in Vegas – so buyer beware. For tourists that pre-pay for a package you can’t take advantage of “comps” earned from playing – so if you plan to gamble a lot, it probably is a good idea of booking a reservation directly from the hotel. In general the good luxury hotels on the strip require you to play several (4) hours a day with a minimum $25 bet at each table game to qualify for gambler’s rate (~$60/night) and minimum $100 bet for free room/food/beverages.
Having stayed at most of the luxury hotels on the strip over the years (with the exception of the Wynn), the most luxurious “basic” rooms we’ve seen are at “The Hotel at Mandalay Bay.” Our most recent excursion to Vegas included a stay at this brand new all suite hotel built at the site of Mandalay Bay in the South Strip (booked in a discount package thru Expedia.com) – The suites included a nice sitting room with 42” plasma TV, wet bar, and an additional bathroom. Bedrooms were large, elegantly decorated and included a large flat screen TV. Master bath with its own LCD TV was also tastefully assembled. In general, once you leave the Mandalay Bay hotel and enter the connected lobby of the “The Hotel” it is like entering a different world – none of the noise and bustle of Vegas casinos. If you want a luxurious oasis to take a vacation from Vegas but remain on the strip, consider “The Hotel.”
The next best hotel on our list is the Venetian – Venice in Las Vegas complete with indoor canals and gondolas, and elegant artwork. The Venetian is another all suites hotel – although the suites are somewhat less elegant than “The Hotel” – they have a bedroom area, luxurious bathroom and a sitting area with its own TV. The Venetian also has a location on the North side of the strip which may be more convenient for many people rather than The Hotel’s extreme southern location.
Best of the rest – In general, the major hotels all provide a clean, smartly furnished room and comfortable bed. For many, it is a waste to have an overly luxurious hotel room when you’ll be spending as much time as possible away from it. If you are visiting Vegas during the warm season (Mid spring to October) you may want to stay at either Mandalay Bay or MGM due to the great water park/pool facilities. Mandalay Bay has an artificial beach complete with wave making machine allowing body surfing. Both the MGM and Mandalay have great pools and artificial rivers allowing lazy people the chance to “swim” – sitting on an inner tube enjoying a beverage. Beware that even during off peak times, people wake up to place “dibs” on the limited deck and beach chairs so if you snooze much past pool opening time you really lose. Note that Caesar’s Palace has great pools as a recent Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue showed.
A completely unscientific and arbitrary rating of the strip hotels we have stayed at (not including the Wynn) would put The Hotel on Top, followed by Venetian, Mandalay Bay (when the beach is open), Bellagio, MGM (with the water park open), Mirage, New York New York, Caesar’s Palace, Mandalay Bay (when the beach is closed), Treasure Island, MGM (when the water park is closed), Luxor and Excaliber. Remember that it is a long way from Mandalay Bay to Stratosphere and even with the new monorail for transportation it may be important to stay near the attractions you will want to see the most.
Which Shows to See:
Las Vegas is famous for shows you can’t see anywhere else in the world. The most widely recognized show (after the unfortunate demise of Siegfried & Roy’s show) is the Bellagio’s O – one of the many cirque du solei shows now found on the strip. A combination of incredible human stunts, music, artistry and a high tech pool/stage which showcases the performer talents made critics call a ticket to see O worth a trip to Vegas by itself. Ray’s personal favorite cirque du solei show is Mystere (at Treasure Island). It was the first Cirque du Solei show on the strip and remains a special treat – the incredible human stunts provide a glaring contrast to today’s special effects enhanced entertainment. The music and costumes also enhance the artistry of the show. Another highly rated cirque du solei show is Ka – now at the MGM. The LA times called Ka “the most lavish production in the history of western theatre.” It doesn’t showcase human stunts like the other two shows, but nearly overwhelms all of the audience’s senses.
Other great shows we recommend include Danny Gans (at the Mirage) – just outstanding musical and comedy entertainment. Danny combines surprisingly clean and non-offensive (unless you’re Michael Jackson, Dean Martin, or William Hung of American Idol) humor with fine imitation of famous musical artists from Tom Jones to Elvis to Five for Fighting. Celine Dion has a great show at Caesar’s Palace showcasing her unique musical abilities in a Vegas musical extravaganza.
Shows that didn’t make our recommended list include Blue Man Group (although they must be doing something right being “promoted” from Luxor to Venetian) and Zumanity (at New York New York) which seemed like a PG-13 cirque du solei show without the color, pageantry or special effects of the other shows. Note we haven’t seen “La Reve,” another cirque du solei show at the Wynn.
Where to eat:
Detailed reviews and menus of individual restaurants are available at multiple websites such as Zagat.com so this blog won’t focus on food. Even the buffets are hard to rate because the “best” ones may have a bunch of food you don’t want to eat. The Carnival World Buffet at the Rio is often mentioned as a top buffet because of the wide variety of food available. The separate Rio Seafood Buffet is also a local favorite. On our most recent trip we ate at Cravings (the Mirage Buffet) and found it to be extremely good with high quality and good variety (although the desserts were somewhat limited). Vegas had been a place famous for cheap surf and turf, but this has become increasingly rare. According to several travel sites, the Gambler’s Special (available, but not advertised on menu at the Hard Rock Café’s Mr. Lucky 24/7) for 7.77 is the best of the cheap eats (Steak, shrimp and fries or mashed potatoes).
What to Do:
A listing of activities we enjoyed during visits to Vegas –
1. Ride a helicopter to the Grand Canyon. In the space of one morning you can get picked up at your hotel, ride a helicopter to the Grand Canyon – land at the bottom of the canyon, enjoy a nice breakfast, and fly back from this national treasure. A most efficient way to see this national treasure! In addition to viewing the Grand Canyon, you get a nice view of Hoover Dam and Celine Dion’s Lakefront Estate.
2. See the Fountains of Bellagio – as seen in the movie Oceans 11, the water show powered by many powerful underwater jets is a can’t miss – and its free! Shown every 30 minutes during the afternoons and every 15 minutes after dusk to rotating choreographed music, it’s a real treat! Warning – the show is cancelled when it is windy.
3. Ride the New York New York Roller Coaster – Consistently rated in the top 10 of America’s top coasters, it’s a smooth and fast coaster with 360 degree loops, corkscrews and thrilling drops. For those with a car and extra time, you can ride one of the tallest roller coasters in the world which reaches 80 miles per hour at Buffalo Bill’s in Primm Valley 40 mile south of Vegas.
4. Enjoy the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian and ride a gondola. It is amazing how many high end boutiques populate locations very close to each other on the strip (Venetian, Bellagio and Caesars Palace all have amazing high end shopping malls – just don’t look for any blue light specials). How many shopping malls can you tour from a gondola traveling along indoor canals and piloted by a singing gondolier?
5. Pretend you went to Paris instead of Vegas by buying a ticket to the top of a 50% scale model of the Eiffel Tower – You get a great view of the fountains of Bellagio and the strip, especially at night.
6. Visit the Stratosphere tower – The 1,149 foot tower has a 869 foot observation level with a spectacular view of the Vegas strip. The tallest freestanding observation tower in the US also has a collection of thrill rides exploiting the height of the tower – a ride on the big shot is an absolute blast, without equal anywhere!
7. Voyage to worlds far away at Star Trek – The Experience. Fans of the TV/movie series have a collection of exhibits, museum and virtual reality rides.
8. Watch the volcano erupt in front of the Mirage at night (8pm-midnight every 30 minutes) – a somewhat dated attraction but one worth seeing. While you are in the area, catch the Sirens of TI outdoor free show (5:30pm, 7, 8:30 and 10pm nightly), and have an ice cream sundae across the street at Ghirardelli’s (located at Harrah’s).
9. Enjoy the Carnivale in the Sky at the Rio – After enjoying a great buffet meal, plan to watch the airborne Mardi Gras parade happening at the Rio every afternoon/evening (3pm, 4, 5, 6:30, 7:30, 8:30 and 9:30). For a fee, you can get into costume and ride in an aerial parade float.
10. Ride the Monorail: The expanded monorail now travels the entire strip starting at a station adjacent to the MGM grand and ending at the Sahara hotel with the nearby Stratosphere tower. You can buy single ride tickets for $3, a book of 10 tickets for $20, or all day passes.
11. For art lovers, three collections are found on the strip – Bellagio’s Gallery of fine art, Venetian’s Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, and the Wynn Collection display many treasures.
12. Visit the Las Vegas Mini Gran Prix – a fun place for adults and kids including three styles of miniature race cars. It’s located off the strip but is a fun place – you can race head to head in sprint karts or for those 16 years of age, run a time trial in gran prix cars.
13. Experience Fremont Street – “Downtown Vegas” has a 1400 foot canopy 90 feet above Fremont streets on which every few minutes a light show celebrating the classic icons of Vegas is seen on a rotating basis nightly. You can also stop at one of the downtown casinos for low limit gaming while you are downtown. Unfortunately, the Vegas monorail does not travel to downtown yet.
14. Visit Hoover Dam – building began in 1930 on one of the 20th century’s great construction achievements and remains a great tourist attraction – 725 feet of concrete on the Colorado River.
15. Fashion Outlets of Las Vegas at Primm Valley (40 miles south of Vegas). While several shopping areas populate the city including an “outlet” mall called the Las Vegas Premium Outlets, you need to travel to Primm Valley to find typical “outlet” discounts.
16. Visit King Tut’s Tomb – for those that missed the US tour of King Tut’s riches, you can see a replication of the burial chamber and artifacts at the Luxor.
17. Skydive Indoors – at Flyaway Indoor Skydiving (near the Hilton/Convention Center) you can fly on top of a wind tunnel simulating skydiving. I'm not convinced it is a good representation of sky diving but it is a unique experience.
18. Love fast flash cars? – visit the Las Vegas Ferrari-Maserati showroom at the Wynn.
