We booked into the Hard Rock Hotel because it seemed to offer the best value for a 4 star hotel and casino for our trip to Las Vegas.
It turned out to be a cracking decision. The hotel is situated a little way off The Strip, but an easy 10 minute walk takes you to one end of it, and you can access the monorail from there. The hotel also offers an hourly courtesy bus service, which drops you right in the thick of things behind The Bellagio and Wynn hotels.
The rooms are fabulous – really large – and they feature comfortable beds, a massive flat screen television, mini bars, all the other mod cons, and as always in the US, excellent air conditioning.
We were allocated a room in The Casino Tower, which is accessed from the main casino floor, and there are two other towers, a longer walk from the main reception. Our view was over a pretty unattractive rooftop, but we did have the benefit of a great view of the airport, and we were on the flight path for the private jet runway, which meant we had amazing views of Lear Jets coming into land – not noisy at all, but great to watch! There wasn’t any kind of balcony, sadly. Every floor of the hotel has ice machines and drinks vending machines. One trick we learned each day was to fill the ice bucket and use the water as overnight drinking water. At $8 a bottle from the mini bar, we weren’t interested in buying more from that source.
One thing we loved about the Hard Rock, that others might not enjoy, is that loud rock music is played in the public areas pretty much 24 hours a day. In deference to the name, there is also an incredible amount of rock memorabilia dotted around the hotel – hundreds of guitars, signed by their famous former owners, and stage suits worn by everyone from Miley Cyrus to David Bowie. If you’re into music you could spend many hours just “reading the walls.”
Another aspect is that the staff are very http://onlinepharmacies247.com/strattera_generic.html laid back – service is good, but never stuffy. For example, the guys who open and close the doors, unload and park your car or arrange taxis are dressed really comfortable in shorts, sneakers and polo shirts.
There are several restaurants and bars in the hotel – we had drinks in the Goose Island Bar, where in typical Las Vegas style the waitresses are dressed in umpire outfits, with very short shorts, and we had a couple of breakfasts in Mr Lucky’s, where the food was excellent, although it seemed pretty expensive to us. Sadly, we didn’t´t get a chance to try Culinary Dropout, or The Pink Taco, which friends told us are excellent. On the subject of food and drink, the hotel has a strict policy of not allowing guests to bring their own food and drink in, and they do reserve the right to search bags, although that didn’t happen to us.
The main event, of course, is the gambling, and the casino is spread across the ground floor. It seems odd that smoking is still acceptable in casinos, but the atmosphere remained clean and fresh. There are any number of different machines, and the usual tables offering poker, craps, blackjack and roulette. It’s true that drinks are free when you are gambling. We played blackjack at a bar for an hour or two and when I tried to settle up with the barman, his reply was “All taken care of!”
?The hotel has three pools, a spa and a hair and beauty salon. We didn’t try any of them, but we were told that the only one open in winter was pretty cold.
We hired a car for a few days, and appreciated the easy and free access to the hotel parking.
The Hard Rock isn’t for everyone, but we loved it and even talked about staying there for future visits. If you like good music played loud, you enjoy good, but relaxed service, and you’re happy not to be on the actual Strip, then we’d highly recommend it.
