Frommer's Las Vegas 2004

SOUTH STRIP 73
some kind of promotion, or they may just like the sound of your voice (we have
no other explanation for it). You could end up with a hotel in the “expensive”
category offering you a room for $35 a night. (Even Bellagio, which insists they
will never fall below a certain three-figure price, has been quietly offering rooms
for as low as $80 on certain nights.) Since it’s a toll-free call, it’s worth a try.
Consider also, even if you think from the outset that this is your one and only
trip to Vegas, joining a hotel players club—or possibly every hotel’s players club.
This costs you nothing, and players/members often get nifty offers in the mail
for heavily discounted, and occasionally even free, rooms (plus meals, shows,
and so on). Players clubs reward you with freebies and discounts when you play
in their casinos, regardless of whether you win or not. Even as one luxury hotel
was firmly insisting their prices would never, ever fall below about $149 per
night, players club members were receiving invitations to stay for $89. How
much you have to play to get these deals varies, but if you are going to gamble
anyway, why not make it work more to your advantage?
We’ve classified all our hotel recommendations based on the average rack rate
that you can expect to be quoted for a double room on an average night (not
when the Consumer Electronics Show is in town, and not on New Year’s Eve).
Expect to pay a little less than this if you stay only Sunday to Thursday and a
little more than this if you stay Friday and Saturday.
Of course, you can expect significant savings if you book a money-saving package
deal, like those described in chapter 2. And on any given night when business
is slow, you might be able to stay at a “very expensive” hotel for a “moderate” price.
Note: All the casinos for the major hotels on the strip and Downtown (and a
few other ones) are reviewed in chapter 8.
3 South Strip
VERY EXPENSIVE
Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas
Kids Various mammoth Vegas hotels
attempt to position themselves as luxury resorts, insisting that service and fine
cotton sheets can be done on a mass scale. But there is only one true luxury
resort—in some people’s eyes, the luxury resort—in town (see later in this chapter
for two more in Henderson!), located, on the top five floors of Mandalay Bay,
though in many ways, the Four Seasons is light-years away. A separate driveway
and portico entrance, plus an entire registration area, sets you up immediately.
This is the one fancy hotel in town where you are not greeted, even at a distance,
with the clash and clang of slots, and the general hubbub that is the soundtrack
to Vegas.
Inside the hotel, all is calm and quiet. But it’s really the best of both worlds—
all you have to do is walk through a door and instantly you are in Mandalay Bay,
with access to a casino, nightlife, and, yes, general hubbub. The difference is
quite shocking, and frankly, once you’ve experienced Vegas this way, it’s kind of
hard to go back to the constant sensory overload. So let’s scurry quickly back to
the womblike comfort of Four Seasons.
The rooms don’t look like much at first—slightly bland but in good taste—
but when you sink down into the furniture, you appreciate the fine quality. Here
at last is a Vegas hotel where they really don’t care if you ever leave your room,
so the beds have feather pillows and down comforters, robes are plush, and
amenities (such as safes, irons, voice mail, hair dryers, and VCRs) are really,
really nice. Since Four Seasons has the southernmost location on the Strip, its