Frommer's Las Vegas 2004

70
CHAPTER 5 . WHERE TO STAY
Frankly, for first-timers, there probably isn’t any point to staying anywhere
but the Strip—you’re going to spend most (if not all) of your time there anyway.
For future visits, however, we’d strongly advise you to consider Downtown.
But the Strip vs. Downtown location isn’t the end of the debate; there is also
the issue of where to stay on the Strip. Staying on the South Strip end means
an easy trip (sometimes in the air-conditioned comfort of covered walkways or
monorail) to Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, New York–New York, Tropicana,
Luxor, and Excalibur—all virtually on one corner. Mid-Strip has Caesars, The
Mirage, Bellagio, Treasure Island, Paris, The Venetian, Bally’s, The Flamingo,
Harrah’s, and so forth. The North Strip gets you The Riviera, Sahara, Stardust,
and Circus Circus, though with a bit more of a walk between them. For this reason,
if mobility is a problem and you want to see more than just your own hotel
casino, the South and Mid-Strip locations are probably the best bets.
WHAT AM I LOOKING FOR IN A HOTEL?
If gambling is not your priority, what are you doing in Vegas? Just kidding. But
not 100% kidding. Vegas’s new identity as a luxury resort destination means
there are several brand-spanking-new hotels that promise to offer you all sorts of
alternatives to gambling—lush pool areas, fabulous spas, incredible restaurants,
lavish shopping. But if you look closely, much of this is Vegas bait and switch;
the pools are often chilly (and often partially closed during nonsummer
months), and it will be years before there is more foliage than concrete in these
newly landscaped environments. The spas cost extra (sometimes a whole lot
extra); the best restaurants are rarely cheap; and the stores are often the kinds of
places where average mortals can’t even afford the oxygen. So what does that
leave you with? Why, that’s right—gambling.
The other problem with these self-proclaimed luxury hotels is their size. True
luxury hotels do not have 3,000 rooms—they have a couple of hundred at best,
because you simply can’t provide first-class service and Egyptian-cotton sheets in
mass quantity. But while Bellagio, The Venetian, and, to a lesser extent, Mandalay
Bay have done their best to offer sterling service and to make their rooms
more attractive and luxurious than those at other Vegas hotels, there’s only so
much that any place that big can do. Don’t get us wrong—these places are
absolutely several steps up in quality from other large hotels, and compared to
them, even the better older hotels really look shabby. But they are still sprawling,
frequently noisy complexes.
Sadly, it’s relatively easy for both you and us to make a mistake about a hotel;
either of us may experience a particular room or two in a 1,000-plus-room hotel,
and from there conclude that a place is nicer than it is or more of a dump than
it is. Maintenance, even in the best of hotels, can sometimes be running a bit
behind, so if there is something wrong with your room, don’t hesitate to ask for
another. Of course, if it’s one of those busy weekends, there may not be another
room to be had, but at least this way you’ve registered a complaint, perhaps letting
a busy hotel know that a certain room needs attention. And who knows? If
you are gracious and persistent enough, you may be rewarded with a deal for
some future stay.
If you want a true luxury-resort hotel, there are only two options: On the
Strip it’s the Four Seasons, and off, way off, in nearby Henderson, it’s the Ritz-
Carlton. Both offer, in addition to that same service and level of comfort only
found at a smaller hotel, those extra goodies that pile on the hidden charges at
other hotels—health club, poolside cabanas, and so on—as part of the total