Ongoing Las Vegas 'pro-tips' thread - Advice on all things Vegas

[rubecube]

If price isn't an issue then I'd stay at Aria. Great location, and good food options in the hotel. The rooms are quite nice, too.

[polak]

Originally Posted by rubecube

I should add that I'm not really a club guy, but I can have fun at the right clubs (i.e. Razzmatazz in Barcelona). Hakkasan just didn't really stand out for me in any way.

Psshh club discussion in Barcelona starts and ends with Opium!

[jar_e]

Originally Posted by rubecube

If price isn't an issue then I'd stay at Aria. Great location, and good food options in the hotel. The rooms are quite nice, too.

I'd say if price is unlimited, Mandarian Oriental or the Four Seasons offer way more luxury if you're into that type of thing. Neither have a casino which is a huge plus, both have amazing, discrete restaurants. Mandarin Oriental is the same location as Aria (even closer to the strip).

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by polak

Psshh club discussion in Barcelona starts and ends with Opium!

Isn't that the day club?

[polak]

Originally Posted by jar_e

I'd say if price is unlimited, Mandarian Oriental or the Four Seasons offer way more luxury if you're into that type of thing. Neither have a casino which is a huge plus, both have amazing, discrete restaurants. Mandarin Oriental is the same location as Aria (even closer to the strip).

Mandarin Oriental looks super high end. There's no casino but it does still get a fair bit of traffic with the mall and Aria right next door doesn't it?

I stayed at Vdara which doesn't have a casino either. It's nice to not have to walk through a massive casino every time you come and go when you're not looking to play and if the mood does strike, just like with Mandarin Oriental, you can hop over to Aria.

[InglewoodFan]

Originally Posted by polak

Mandarin Oriental looks super high end. There's no casino but it does still get a fair bit of traffic with the mall and Aria right next door doesn't it?

I stayed at Vdara which doesn't have a casino either. It's nice to not have to walk through a massive casino every time you come and go when you're not looking to play and if the mood does strike, just like with Mandarin Oriental, you can hop over to Aria.

Nice thing about Vdara is you can go down a staircase right by the front doors and cross into the back of Cosmopolitan too. It's a great location.

Last time we stayed there, I booked a slightly upgraded "view" room as a treat. The view was meh (back side of another building) so I asked at the desk if we could get a bit higher floor. Instead they upgraded us to a 1 BR Penthouse. 56th floor, pimp as hell. Will probably never get a room that nice again.

I tried the "$20 trick" a few times back when I started going to Vegas, and it was always given back to me with no upgrade. Now I'm just super friendly at check-in (and play and stay at MGM properties as much as possible) and it is amazing the upgrades you sometimes get.

[rohara66]

Originally Posted by rubecube

If price isn't an issue then I'd stay at Aria. Great location, and good food options in the hotel. The rooms are quite nice, too.

Good call on Aria... rooms looks great and the price isn't much more than all the other usual hotels.

All prices are 4 days, 3 nights from Wed-Saturday. Per person. Direct flights both ways.

Jan 28-31
Flamingo $449
Cesar's Palace $522
Aria $573

Feb 4-7
Flamingo $483
Planet Hollywood $508
Aria $580

Feb 11-14
Flamingo $564
Aria $681

Feb 18-21
Flamingo $607
Aria $669

Feb 25-28
Flamingo $515
Aria $587

March 4-7
Flamingo $502
Aria $568
Circus Circus $381

Not sure why February is so much more expensive (besides the long weekend) but whatever. Only comparing to Flamingo because its my go to place but that's base price and I wouldn't stay in one of their standard rooms (would update to a GO room) so you can add $40 ($10 a night to all Flamingo prices per person) which makes Aria look pretty damn good!

And geeze.... how bad is Circus Circus, can basically stay there for free.

[Tapestar]

Use this website to see what conventions are in town, and how big they are.

http://www.vegasmeansbusiness.com/pl...tion-calendar/

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by rohara66

Not sure why February is so much more expensive (besides the long weekend) but whatever. Only comparing to Flamingo because its my go to place but that's base price and I wouldn't stay in one of their standard rooms (would update to a GO room) so you can add $40 ($10 a night to all Flamingo prices per person) which makes Aria look pretty damn good!

And geeze.... how bad is Circus Circus, can basically stay there for free.

February is usually expensive because there's Super Bowl and a couple other marquee events. Also, it's reading break for a lot of Canadian students, and Spring Break for some Americans.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

Alright, airfare is booked

Leaning toward Flamingo (Monte Carlo and Treasure Island as well)

[photon]

Treasure Island the rooms were nice.

[Machiavelli]

I thought TI was just okay, but I think my expectations were high.

[photon]

Nice for the price I guess I should have said, I've stayed in FAR nicer in Vegas but for an inexpensive room TI was nice. They'd been redone recently.

[vegasbound]

Completely wrong time of the year but since this thread was bumped up, I'll ask... has anyone gotten really good Black Friday deals for Vegas before?

[jar_e]

Originally Posted by polak

Mandarin Oriental looks super high end. There's no casino but it does still get a fair bit of traffic with the mall and Aria right next door doesn't it?

I stayed at Vdara which doesn't have a casino either. It's nice to not have to walk through a massive casino every time you come and go when you're not looking to play and if the mood does strike, just like with Mandarin Oriental, you can hop over to Aria.

I've stayed at Mandarin Oriental a couple times. It's definitely not your typical Vegas experience. Service is bar none and it is incredibly tranquil from the strip. You get no traffic in the hotel (ie. tourists walking around, etc) for a couple reasons. Firstly, it's kind a bitch to get to and you have to make an effort. Secondly, you have to go by bell hops and doormen, then up to the 23rd floor to access the hotel room elevator. There's a restaurant, sky bar, etc. on the 23rd floor but the bell hops are pretty much on top for not allowing non-guests in.

Definitely a great location, obviously the Crystals shopping centre is pretty much across the street and Aria is a 2 minute walk.

[DoubleF]

Location in Vegas is an interesting discussion. It's really not much better or worse on paper. However, it makes a huge difference if driving vs walking.

I stayed at MGM Grand and walked to Treasure Island for a show. That took approximately 34 minutes one way and per my discussion with a cab driver, the same distance via the strip would cost about $15-20 to cab if low traffic or $40-50 to cab if the traffic was high. Adding Wynn and Mandalay Bay would probably add another 10 minutes to the walk for a total of about 45 mins non-stop. Distance wise, I think it's about 8-9 blocks at about 3-5 minutes per block for MGM to TI.

Theoretically, just wandering into all the hotels from Mandalay Bay to Wynn and back would take about 2-3 hours assuming you don't stop too much for gambling etc. This might be an interesting thing to do on the first trip, but likely would not be as interesting on subsequent trips. In all seriousness, it's tiring to walk that much.

As for choosing a hotel based on "location", I think it makes more sense to choose it based on where your shows would be held or what club you want to go to. For instance, I stayed at MGM grand. Mystere was a 40 ish minute walk to get to (including going deeper into the hotel). The Beatles show would be about 35 minutes walk. Ka would be like 1-2 minutes and Zumanity (in NYNY) was like 4-5 minutes. Choosing something more "central" like Bellagio/Paris/Flamingo/Ceasar's Palace could average it to about 15 minutes walk one way. Depends how much you want to walk and of course completely ignores the difference in price of hotels. It might not sound like much, but a 30 minute walk after walking 3-4 hours during the day is just exhausting. 10-15 minutes could save a whole 30 minute round trip and could make the decision easier to just walk back to the hotel room to rest in between activities. Don't forget most of those times are one way. A 30 minute walk is 1 hour total walking.

This is of course a slightly different discussion if you rent a car as you can park in most hotel/casinos for free.

I didn't notice the shopping to vary that greatly on the strip. It was ok shopping. I felt the pricing was par to +40% higher than the outlet. For instance, a pair of Uggs boots my SO and I were looking at was $120 at the outlet for all colors. It was $120 for tan on the strip and $140 for grey and $150 for black. That was the biggest difference I noted. Most other items were only a few bucks difference.

A trip to the North Outlet cost me low $20s from Planet Hollywood starting on a side street close to the monorail ($18 on the way over and about $25 on the way back due to some driving on the strip). Probably add $3-5 per block to the cab fee if on the strip. The lights are long and sometimes traffic doesn't move due to blockages from cars/pedestrian combos and the meter just ticks up.

The slushie drinks also vary quite a bit as well. The half yard one I picked up for $11 (can add extra shots for $2) in Planet Hollywood with $8 refills or around there and noted that a half yard slushie went up to $15 at some of the other bars and hotels/casinos, but I think refills were cheaper. No idea on the full yard ones. My SO and I got pretty drunk sharing the half yard slushie. The alcohol content in those slushies are surprisingly high, but then again, when it's mixed with regular 40% alcohols and even some flavors mixed with 151, in hindsight, I don't know why I expected we would finish the whole thing, after sampling all the flavors, with only a minor buzz.

4 days felt just about right for my first trip in Vegas with no car. I assume 2-3 days is good enough for subsequent trips if I decide to return. Vegas is a fun and interesting trip, but I also felt it was a bit over hyped. I'm sure I'll go back one day, but I'm in no hurry to do so.

[photon]

We used that bus to go up and down the strip last time we went, worked out quite well.

[Northendzone]

the bus is ok, but it can be painfully slow.....

[Chingas]

I have only stayed at two places, Planet Hollywood and the mirage. Both are quite nice and aren't overly big so they each have a decent feel to them. Planet Hollywood is likely my favorite, due to location, great restaurants, having the miracle mile mall attached and a real good modern vibe to it. Additionally the rooms feel newer than this at the mirage.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

Location in Vegas is an interesting discussion. It's really not much better or worse on paper. However, it makes a huge difference if driving vs walking.

I stayed at MGM Grand and walked to Treasure Island for a show. That took approximately 34 minutes one way and per my discussion with a cab driver, the same distance via the strip would cost about $15-20 to cab if low traffic or $40-50 to cab if the traffic was high. Adding Wynn and Mandalay Bay would probably add another 10 minutes to the walk for a total of about 45 mins non-stop. Distance wise, I think it's about 8-9 blocks at about 3-5 minutes per block for MGM to TI. .

Hm I think your cab driver was just taking LV Blvd to get more money. Next time, ask your driver to take Industrial Rd (West) or Paradise Rd (East). Traffic is not a problem on either of those 2 back roads at any part of the day, and they both have advantageous lights. You can also take I15 if you have to drive a distance, but having a international blender of drivers is a real pain in the ass to merge and it sees accidents a lot during the day. If you have a rental car, sometimes parking garages for adjacent hotels are faster depending whether you have to cross LV Blvd or if the parking entrance you have to access via LV Blvd.

Not sure if that helps, hopefully it does.

BTW someone I think mentioned Le Reve, I really enjoyed that show - I think it was my fav in LV. Ka is my 2nd fav. (Also seen Mystere, Zumanity, V, Zarkana for the current Vegas CdS's, I thought Le Reve adn Ka were the 2 best in my opinion.)