So, you're staying off the Strip...

List Author: eponymous coward
Description: Here are some off-strip properties I've been at and my impressions. Feel free to add to them, and I may incorporate your comment into the list.
  • Renaissance Las Vegas - OK, now I’ve got time to fix this. So let’s start with this one…

    The Renaissance Las Vegas is a business hotel right next to the Las Vegas Convention Center. Renaissance is one of the upper-end Mariott brands, so there are some advantages (for instance, you can get FF miles or points if you join Marriott’s club). The place is a modern business-y hotel, and the rates will be ridiculous during conventions, like the Hilton, but surprisingly affordable at other times ($110-140 during weekends, which is pretty good for this quality of a hotel).

    The decor is 50’s-esque retro, with nice bathrooms (shower and tub separate, lots of space). I do occasionally bark my shins on the bed. It won’t make you think of the Venetian or Wynn, but they are solid hotel rooms (with thin walls, to note). Envy (the steakhouse) is OK, there’s a coffee bar and regular bar as well. Service is what you’d expect for an upper-range business hotel.

    WARNING: no casino here. However, you’re but a couple hundred yards from the monorail (which means Strip casinos) AND Wynn’s tram across the street. So it’s not like you’re staying someplace on the Boulder Highway or even the off-strip West properties, where you have to hoof it a half mile or more across I-15 to get anywhere on the Strip, or hail a cab.

    The pool is small and in the shade most of the time, so you won’t get a tan (but you also won’t get baked to a crisp on the concrete).

    This hotel might be an option if you want a good hotel near the Strip but don’t gamble enough to get casino rates, or you want to be in Vegas over a weekend without paying weekend rates- stay here for the weekend and then go to the Wynn on Sunday night, for instance, and you’d likely save money AND be close to their casino.

  • Gold Coast - OK, the Gold Coast is basic Generic Off Strip Casino. The theming on the outside is supposed to be Mission-style (pseudo stained glass/adobe). I don’t think it carries very well inside, though.

    The casino is standard for your off-Strip stuff- lots of slots and VP, some table games (the craps is 2X, which sucks for odds, go to the Palms across the street for 3×4x5x). There’s Bingo here- maybe that interests you, not so much me. The food is fairly nondescript standard stuff- buffet, Italian, decent Chinese, steakhouse, etc. Not particularly intriguing, but not ruinously expensive, either. There’s a bowling alley here as well.

    Rooms are Motel-6 ish- large, but blandly decorated, with a small bathroom with a window to the outside. The pool’s nothing to write home about either. You do get strip shuttle service (to the Barbary Coast, at the intersection of Flamingo and the Strip, the famous Four Corners).

    I’m not a big fan because it’s pretty bland (I prefer its bigger and better sibling in the Coast Casino chain, the Orleans, as well as the Barbary Coast), but I imagine if you want a basic room for not too much money and free shuttle to the Strip (or maybe you want to hit the Rio and Palms without paying their prices), it will meet your needs.

  • The Orleans - The Orleans, as I said, is the Gold Coast’s bigger and more themed sibling (the theme being Mardi Gras/New Orleans), owned also by Coast Casinos. It’s farther away from the Strip, but still gets the shuttle service to the Barbary Coast. The casino is standard for Coast (2x crappy craps odds, decent prices, good VP). The food’s OK and not too expensive (coffee shop, irish pub, Mexican some other restaurants), and you have entertainment options (bowling, movies, minor league hockey in season and other events). Rooms are nice and large, with some nice decorating touches and the standard outside window. The pool’s big and has barbeque parties every so often. You’re pretty far away from most of the interesting stuff, though, except for Seamless, the new strip club/after hours joint. Better take the shuttle/cab/rent a car.

    I like this place as an off-Strip option- don’t expect upscale but it’s a good value (better than the Goldcoast, IMO).

  • Golden Nugget - This is the class of downtown, with marble-encrusted lobby and nice room. The gaming is the most Strip-esque in downtown (a bit pricey for DT, good value for the Strip- craps odds are 6×8x10x, much better than Strip), and the rooms are comparable to what you’d get at a standard Hilton or Hyatt (not the more recent upscale ones, mind you)- large and well-furnished. Service is nice, and the buffet and coffee shop are good (the other restaurants, less so, which is surprising considering they are owned by a steakhouse chain). They have the best pool downtown (which makes it a piker on the Strip, but you’re not there, are you?)

    I like the place for staying downtown, and hopefully the new ownership won’t screw it up…

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Comments
  • over 2 years ago by eponymous coward
    I’m pretty pissed, Mr. Hacker dude. Why the fuck did you need to do this?
  • over 2 years ago by Hunter
    Ok, there are nine lists that go trashed. I’m taking those 9 offline until I can see what I can do about them.

    In the meantime, I believe I plugged the hole but I’ll be watching to be sure.

    I’m also checking the logs and the ISP logs to try to nail the person who did this. Fortunately we keep all the logs for everything.

  • over 2 years ago by eponymous coward
    Hey, Hunter or Friendly Admins- any way you could let a
    or

    tag be used? I tend to write long things in my lists that could really use the ability to format into paragraphs…

  • over 2 years ago by eponymous coward
    Er, that should have read BR or P.

    Apparently you can put them in comments, not in lists.

    Dang.

  • over 2 years ago by Hunter
    Yeah, I should add the same formatting codes that we have in the comments to the lists.
  • over 2 years ago by Hunter
    And there you have it. Formatting is now enabled for list items. How’s that for service?
  • over 2 years ago by eponymous coward
    Cool, many thanks.
  • over 2 years ago by eponymous coward
    Oh, and something else, too:

    I’ve gotten the Renaissance Las Vegas through Priceline and Hotwire for $125-160 on very busy weekends where rates on travel websites and hotel websites for comparable 4 star hotels like the Mirage, MGM Grand, TI and Mandalay Bay are easily over $400…and I’m pretty sure that’s better than CASINO rate for those hotels, and Wynn/Venetian/theHotel/Bellagio were at arm/leg prices those weekends.

    That also isn’t very far off what you’d pay for the Orleans/Gold Coast rack rate on a good weekend, FWIW… and the Renaissance is a MUCH nicer hotel.

    Anyway, food for thought.

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