Laura – This one is dedicated to you!
Here are thirteen hotels I have stayed at in Las Vegas.
1. MGM Grand – This is currently my favorite overall. The rooms are not as nice as some others, but I like that it has a fun environment with people my age, the blackjack minimums are reasonable and there are plenty of restaurants and bars all in one place. It also helps that I have been lucky at the blackjack tables on my last couple visits. I always have fun here and love the smell in the lobby. I am glad they got rid of the Wizard of Oz theme because that was creepy.
2. Wynn – Definitely the most beautiful room and hotel I have stayed at in Vegas. It also has a more calming atmosphere. There are not tons of people milling around and overly loud music being blared everywhere. I find the atmosphere to be a little boring at the tables, but gambling gets way too expensive for me on the weekends anyway. Last time I was there the lowest blackjack table on a Saturday night was $50.
3. Harrah’s – I enjoyed my stay here, but probably wouldn’t stay again. The rooms are decent, but nothing special. The Carnival Court is fun in the afternoon. We saw Boogie Knights (they go by a few names) in the Carnival Court. They are an 80’s cover band that we used to see in Santa Barbara in college. Just make sure to get a room that doesn’t face the Carnival Court because it is really loud.
4. Tropicana – This place is a dump and should be torn down. I stayed here because one of my friends wanted to go to the pool, and then she canceled and didn’t come on the trip. I wore shoes at all times…even in the bathroom…it was that gross.
5. Paris – I like Paris. It’s nice and has a smaller casino, but I’ve never had good luck here. On a recent trip it looked to be getting run down and over run with people just walking through looking around. It has a great location, but could use more places to eat since everything had a really long wait for breakfast/lunch.
6. Imperial Palace – This place is just creepy to me for some reason. I stayed here long ago in college. I tagged along on the trip with some friends at the last minute because my boyfriend dumped me. The most interesting part of the trip was when one person came back to the room in the middle of the night saying he won a bunch of money (I forget how much) and that he was leaving. I wish I had that kind of control to be able to walk away when ahead. I have not stepped into this casino since that trip.
7. Flamingo – Another place I stayed because one of my friends wanted to go to the pool…she showed up to this trip (see # 4). The rooms aren’t very nice and everything is more “old” Vegas here. It has a good location, but all I did was sleep, shower and eat a couple meals here. Otherwise I got in a cab or walked to another casino.
8. Casino Royale – I used to really like gambling here because they had 25 cent craps so I could play forever. The rooms are nasty though. I stayed here with some extremely frugal people and we had 4 people per room to make it even worse. The lowlight was when the toilet broke and nobody would come to fix it so I fixed it.
9. Showboat – This is where I learned to gamble. My first 2 or 3 trips to Vegas were here for a college bowling tournament. I was 18 on my first visit and this place was low key enough that I could gamble a little and get away with it.
10. Embassy Suites – I stayed here with a bachelorette party because the bride’s sister worked for whichever hotel chain it is that owns Embassy Suites and got us a really cheap deal. I think I paid about $12 for my one night stay. It doesn’t have a casino, but they do have a van and driver that will take you anywhere you anywhere you want to go. I mostly ran across the (big) street to the Hard Rock. Seemed like a perfectly good idea at the time.
11. Excalibur – I stayed here a long time ago and don’t remember much about it other than it seemed like everything was an overgrown toy.
12. Aladdin (now Planet Hollywood) – This is where my husband and I stayed on our one and only trip to Vegas together. He took me for my birthday after we had been dating for a year or two. This is where he learned how much I love to gamble and the he doesn’t ever want to go to Vegas with me again. The room was nice and the bathroom was huge. We had a view of the Bellagio fountains across the street.
13. Barbary Coast (now Bill’s Gambling Hall) – This is another “old” Vegas type place. I didn’t like it, but it had a good location. It doesn’t have a cab stand so we had to go to another hotel to get a cab.
