Neither my wife nor I have ever been to Vegas, so we’re planning on going for her birthday in March. We’d like to find a good hotel/resort on or near the strip, with good restaurants, a pool, and a casino. Reviews on the online sites seem to be all over the place, so I thought I would ask here. I’ve looked at some of the older threads, but I imagine things change quickly.
We like clean, modern (or tasteful) non-smoking rooms, comfortable beds, good service, and would like to find a room under $400/night or so if possible. We love great food (and wine obviously) but don’t enjoy long, 10 course tasting dinners and the like. So that is less important for us than restaurants with excellent apps/entrees and decent wine lists.
We aren’t high rollers, and I imagine Vegas casinos have higher table minimums than Reno or Tahoe. But if there are hotels with more reasonable minimums or better casinos that would be good to know also.
This is sort of a personal choice sort of thing. I personally like the Aria and will usually stay there. Others like the Wynn/encore, and others like the Venetian/palazzo; I think they’re all good choices.
Resorts world has good restaurants but the hotel doesn’t quite match up, imo; we stayed at the presidential suite at the conrad when it opened and it was… underwhelming. Aria sky suites are amazing.
OP, these are basically the highest priced properties on the strip, which also means they will have the highest table mins. Not sure what your definition of “not a high roller” is, but you won’t really find much under $25 or $50 and a lot of $100 tables on weekends at these places. If lower table mins is important to you, you might have to stay somewhere less grand.
You can always walk over to park mgm or planet Hollywood from aria if necessary but I think $25 is pretty standard for most of the strip on a weekend. You really need to go downtown if you want low table limits, except maybe at places like circus circus, casino royale or stratosphere.
Prefer the Aria for nicer rooms, bigger amenities (pool and gym), and grander feel. IMO Park MGM has slightly more fun (and newer) add-ons with the theater for concerts, Bavette’s and Best Friend for restaurants, and a fun wine happy hour/tasting in the corner of the Eataly. The basic rooms are definitely smaller/simpler.
Tables were $25 min on weekdays and weekends over the Summer with an occasional $15 blackjack at non-prime hours.
Yeah aria gym is pretty good. That being said, resorts world, Venetian and Caesar’s gyms were likely better. I haven’t been to the encore/wynn gym but I imagine it’s nice. I’ll usually try to go off strip to dragons lair or fit club to work out, though, Vegas has some of the best gyms in the world off the strip.
For me it’s an easy pick, but that’s because I prioritize quietness and I’m not much of a gambler- Palazzo. Venetian side tends to be a bit busier and louder, but palazzo is my jam. Good food options on the property (Thomas Keller’s Bouchon is off in a lesser known wing of the Venetian and is quite good, plus you can get Bouchon bakery, which is another happy place for me).
I recently stayed at Resortsworld for work, and I’d say the food options were pretty solid, but the rooms are a bit underwhelming. Palazzo rooms are about 3X the size, and better value, IMO.
Aria, as others mentioned is good, but I find that the rooms there, and the rooms and Wynn/Encore are surprisingly small, and every time I’ve stayed there, I wished I was back at the Palazzo.
Thanks, all. We won’t be gambling a ton, so that isn’t the most important thing, but do want to be able to play blackjack, roulette, and slots for a bit.
Aria, Wynn, Palazzo, and Park MGM sound really good. It’s nice that Park is a non-smoking facility since she is sensitive to too much smoke. Any thoughts on the NoMad rooms there compared to the Park rooms? The Park MGM Nighthawk suite ($275 on Expedia) is 700 SF and sounds like a good deal if that’s a nice place to stay.
Any thoughts on Fontainebleu, W, Caesars, or Bellagio? Just trying to figure out what is the best option for us. Since we don’t have kids we want something more adult-oriented as opposed to lots of activities geared towards kids.
Is there much of a difference in the situations where the hotel has two brands? The MGM/NoMad, Wynn/Encore, Venetian/Palazzo and Aria/Vdara all have separate listings on TripAdvisor, but I wondered if most of the services/staff are the same.
Fontainebleau is cool, but super far up the strip away from everything; I haven’t stayed there so no info about the rooms. Resorts world does have a Wally’s in it, so there’s the opportunity to get good wines or drink them at the wine bar at relatively good prices. No experience on the nomad.
Vdara has no casino, it’s just a hotel/rented condo complex. Wynn and encore and Venetian/palazzo are both pretty similar.
Standard palazzo rooms are probably close to 700sq ft. They’re ridiculously huge. And if you want to see a show at the sphere, you can walk directly there entirely indoors via the Venetian skyway, which is nice.
As for the brother/sister brands…it varies a bit from property to property but in general one of the towers will be a bit newer, so rooms are in slightly better shape. Cost is typically pretty close though. Amenities tend to be largely identical (expect a resort fee tacked on at every place, sigh).
I have only stayed at Caesars and the room was spacious and surprisingly quiet. If you have an AMEX card and would like to use rewards/offers, check whether there are any Vegas hotels on offer. I see Fontainebleau, Wynn & Hilton at the moment, but have seen Caesars in the past.
surprised no one has said Cosmopolitan. I think they have the best rooms, the most restaurants, a great pool to hang out at for adults. Best of all, the hotel is vertical opposed to wide like most hotels. So getting from one end to the other takes 5 minutes, as opposed to 20. Also very centrally located.
Resorts World Crockfords 1 bedroom suite is where I would recommend for a couple. No parties, noise or other issues at Crockfords floors. Private access to elevators and personalized service like a Four Seasons or Ritz.
Wally’s is place for wine on strip by the glass or bottle. Great casual dining and options. Wynn/Encore is nearby as well.
If we give triple weight to the pool (for lap swimming), would the responses be the same? I seem to remember Palazzo pool somewhat smaller (by Vegas standards).
Room size, room furnishings, pools and value are all we care about. Easy enough to get to shows and restaurants and we are not gamblers.