Please help me make a choice... (2 Viewers)

Best/Your Favorite in Vegas

  • Bally's

    Votes: 3 5.9%
  • Excalibur

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Flamingo

    Votes: 18 35.3%
  • Luxor

    Votes: 1 2.0%
  • Mandalay Bay

    Votes: 7 13.7%
  • Mirage

    Votes: 11 21.6%
  • Paris

    Votes: 17 33.3%
  • Planet Hollywood

    Votes: 8 15.7%

  • Total voters
    51
  • Poll closed .
MGM only giving me outrageous rates for the Aria. Would love to stay there but not dropping that kinda money when I can get comped up and down the rest of the strip



Excalibur is nixed off this alone lol

was it the gaming or the actual facility that turned you off?
They may have renovated since 2007ish...but it was so run down and dirty. Service and poker was terrible. There are much better places to stay that have better everything.

I've stayed all over the strip, but haven't been to Vegas in about 8 years. My favorite stay was at Vdara. It is a hotel only, and quiet. No smoking. Easy to get to ARIA and Bellagio, which are my two favorite places for poker.
 
I'm going to have a car when I'm out there, so travel really is going to be piss easy. I have a feeling I'll only be playing poker at a handful of spots that I really wanna check out, rest of my roll will be whacked up between blackjack and pai gow

We stayed at the Sahara back in September and also had a car. It’s was about a 5 min drive to the center strip on the back road behind the Sahara property( don’t recall the street name). Parking at all the major spots was also free due to Covid so I tended to park at the Bellagio.

Our room was small, clean, cheap and quiet. Didn’t have much going in the way of poker but we also stayed early in the week
 
In the poker room or in the lobby?
From what I see and read a lot of the pros play there. Buddy of mine from college ran into Negraneau twice in the same trip. First time he was a table over in the Aria playing 5/10, and then a couple days later ran into him in NYNY after a Golden Knights game.
 
I was going to vote for Mandalay but its far from everything else, but if you have a car I would consider it. For Paris and Bally's there is an indoor walkway between both. I always liked the Paris casino atmosphere. Bally's is just ok. For the strip, I usually stay at the Encore or Wynn, love the rooms and the casino.

Tons of great food places too, but you may want to check what is open.
 
IF you are staying on the strip, dont drive, get an Uber ride. Easy peasy and comfortable. NO stress, no parking garage. Plus I love talking to the drives about their history. You can Uber to a central location like Bellagio and walk from there. Seeing the sites and experiencing the Vegas strip is part of the fun anyway.

Oh, and DO VISIT FREMONT STREET! and go at night! Its a human zoo. You will see things youve probably never seen anywhere (out in public). Its loud, drunken, stoned, lewd, hilarious, amazing and most of all... memorable! Kind of like Bourbon street on steroids.
Uber is always an option, but you will be a prisoner of Las Vegas.

If you have your own car you can
  • Drive out to the Desert. Mojave is my favorite, but Vally of Fire is also great. I understand Red Rock Canyon is also beautiful, but I believe you must pay to enter, so I haven't gone.
  • Food. Las Vegas is full of great restaurants. Many of them open locations on the strip after they become successful elsewhere in the valley. The strip locations have higher real estate costs, and that is reflected in the menu pricing. If you want to find a great place before it goes viral and gets mobbed, you are best served with your own wheels - because Ubering to breakfast makes breakfast unreasonably costly.
  • 150 MPH on a straight, flat stretch of desert. There are some things an Uber driver just won't do (it's also illegal, so look overhead for airplanes if you do this).
  • Coupon run. The American Casino guide has tons of coupons for free bets you can make, turning one day into a +EV adventure. You won't get rich, but you will get the chance to explore a bunch of "locals" casinos. It is also a great opportunity to add to your chip collection.
 
I agree with most of the folks here. If you have a car, go check out downtown once, not just Fremont Street experience but some of the Casinos as well. The Circa just opened up and you can check out the classic Golden Gate, D and El Cortez. All within walking distance.

As far as other activities, going with the wife? There is a pretty big outlet mall, which is really close to Spinetti's and the Pawn Stars store. Lots of nice golf courses too.
 
I would highly recommend spending a few hours at the Mob Museum in downtown Vegas. Absolutely fantastic. Amazing history there, including the brick wall from the garage of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. I became a yearly member just because of how much I loved it. If you have more time, take a tour of their moonshine distillery and sit in their speakeasy and have a couple drinks. Reasonable and very good.
 
I would highly recommend spending a few hours at the Mob Museum in downtown Vegas. Absolutely fantastic. Amazing history there, including the brick wall from the garage of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. I became a yearly member just because of how much I loved it. If you have more time, take a tour of their moonshine distillery and sit in their speakeasy and have a couple drinks. Reasonable and very good.
Mob Museum is 1000000% on the list of sites to see. I’m unreasonably fascinated by organized crime and the history of it all.
 
I’ve stayed at 4 of the listed hotels and I have to say Bally’s is my favorite. It’s cheap, centrally located, and directly across from the Bellagio and next to the Paris( you don’t have to leave the casino to get to the Paris). The hotel is also the best bargain for your dollar IMO. Luxor and Excalibur I would not recommend because they are so far south.
 
Telling you where to stay is a fool's errand. Vegas has something for everyone. It's like discussing what hotel you should stay in when visiting Atlanta. What you want to do, and what you want to spend will scatter answers all over the board.

Fortunately, I have stayed in every hotel in your list, except Excalibur. I have played poker there. I have had drinks there. That was enough to determine that I will not stay there. So instead of a recommendation, Here's a brief review from my recollection of each...
  • Bally's - Its central location and low rates has returned me to this hotel numerous times. It's a short walk to some of our favorite haunts, including Battista's Hole in the Wall and Ellis Island. It also has a very basic poker room, and is walking distance to (the last time I counted) 17 casinos. I define walking distance as 1 mile. I could walk further, but I'm often there in the summer and 1 mile in 115 degree heat is plenty. Still, that's 17 chip harvesting opportunities. The room accommodations are on par with an older Holiday Inn.
  • Excalibur - As mentioned I have not stayed here. It is old and smoky. They cant fix a drink to save their life. Pleasant enough staff, many that are so old they were probably there when the place opened. However, that age also means the manners of Vegas when it was really trying. It also means that they all think smoking is cool. Ah, the 1900s...
  • Flamingo - Also very central, I love the slick nature of this hotel. It's cleaner than Ballys, but also a little more pricey. It has a nice garden for walking off a bad beat. Room accommodations are on par with a Hilton Garden Inn
  • Luxor - Another old hotel, this one is rumored to be on the chopping block. The rooms are oddly shaped because of the pyramid design, and its location puts it far removed from most poker rooms, now that Mandalay Bay and the Luxor have packed up their tables. Still, it may only be a matter of time before this beast is imploded, so you may get a nostalgic kick out of that. The rooms compare to a Red Roof Inn.
  • Mandalay Bay - I love this place as well, but for me it's a summer only destination. They have a great adults only pool (no screaming kids) and a great pool if you have those screaming kids. It's at the very end of the strip though, so I only stay here if I have a car. If I have a car, I'm driving an hour south into the desert for some stargazing. Man-Bay makes that trip south really eazy, because you are already practically out of the city. The rooms and spa are nice if you enjoy those things, on the level of a Hyatt Regency hotel.
  • Mirage - My experience here is skewed, because we tried the $20 dollar trick here with a $100 bill, and landed in a suite. A massive suite bigger than my whole friggin' house. As such, everything was impeccable for us here, as the suite came with a card that allowed us to go to the front of every line - which was a big deal at the time. In a pandemic it probably means less. The hotel is very nice though, on the level of an Embassy Suites.
  • Paris - This one was a bit of a disappointment to me. In my one trip, the room felt small and dark, which did not match the price I paid. Luckily I didn't pay a lot because I went during the pandemic, and the room was literally $0 per night. They still hit you with a "resort fee", so it still cost $78.63, but it gave me access to all the amenities like the pool (closed) the exercise room (closed) and free local phone calls - though there were no phones in the room, but it's handy if you remember your old landline phone, but forget your cell.
  • Planet Hollywood - If you are young and hip, this is a better choice, because your quality of drunken bachelorettes is far higher here. Your ability to score with one (or more, if you got game) of them is a driving factor to the cost. It's a good location with Aria's and Bellagio's poker rooms across the street, and cheaper than either of those locations (or the Cosmo). The rooms are fine, but I'm 20 years too old and too married to fully enjoy the experience anymore
This is spot on.
 
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Uber is always an option, but you will be a prisoner of Las Vegas.

If you have your own car you can
  • Drive out to the Desert. Mojave is my favorite, but Vally of Fire is also great. I understand Red Rock Canyon is also beautiful, but I believe you must pay to enter, so I haven't gone.
  • Food. Las Vegas is full of great restaurants. Many of them open locations on the strip after they become successful elsewhere in the valley. The strip locations have higher real estate costs, and that is reflected in the menu pricing. If you want to find a great place before it goes viral and gets mobbed, you are best served with your own wheels - because Ubering to breakfast makes breakfast unreasonably costly.
  • 150 MPH on a straight, flat stretch of desert. There are some things an Uber driver just won't do (it's also illegal, so look overhead for airplanes if you do this).
  • Coupon run. The American Casino guide has tons of coupons for free bets you can make, turning one day into a +EV adventure. You won't get rich, but you will get the chance to explore a bunch of "locals" casinos. It is also a great opportunity to add to your chip collection.
We went in October of last year. Red Rock Canyon is a must. It was Beautiful. Sad news is we stayed at Excalibur. Never again lol.
 

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