Plaza Hotel and Casino - Las Vegas

The Plaza Hotel is at the top of Freemont Street. It is old style Vegas for sure. The rooms are worn but very clean and comfortable. I like the convience of being right at the tip of the downtown Freemont Experience yet easy access to the parking garage.

Unique Quality: The Plaza has a nice pool area with a jogging track and tennis courts. If you get a room in the North tower request a view and you can get a great view overlooking Freemont Street.

Directions: From Las Vegas Blvd head north on Main street and the Plaza will be on your left. You need to turn about a block ahead into the parking area.

The Plaza hotel has been around as long as I can remember. You always see it on TV.

We've stayed there twice in the past year, the first time booked through HotelKingdom.com and the second time it was free based on a survey or player's club membership or both. We visit the hotel when we do go to Vegas even if we're not staying there.

The hotel recently underwent a management change, so I'm not sure if anything has changed since June 2004.

The rooms were clean, but about everything shows its age throughout the hotel - a loose wall plate, a bit of worn carpet, dated fixtures, etc. but the beds were comfy, the bathrooms are clean and there were extra pillows and sheets in the closet. The rooms had a lot of space, but they felt "mismatched" or almost as if the furniture didn't fit the room.

We've only eaten at the Diner-style restaurant, good basic food, nothing special. Price-wise, I think I'd go across the street for $9.99 Steak and Lobster instead of paying for a $7.99 cheeseburger - the prices aren't high, they're just higher than you'd expect in a town with a lot of $0.99 food. There is an AM breakfast buffet and a PM Chinese buffet, as well as an upscale restaurant overlooking Fremont Street.

The casino shows its age also - it used to stretch from one end of the property to the other- about 2 city blocks? At the end of the property by the check in-desk and food court (Subway, ice cream, gift shop), they tried to put a casino extension but there are so few machines it looks like they just tossed a few extra machines wherever they could put them and forgot about them. Even the car giveaway slots are a few machines around a Mini-Cooper in a barren spot in front of the on-site McDonald's.

Pricewise, when I go to Vegas I go to gamble and get away from home - a $300 hotel room that I only spend a few hours in is not my style - so the downtown prices are perfect for me - you can find the $300 rooms too if you want, it is still Las Vegas!

Unique Quality: The casino has a clubby old-style feel and all the usual slot machines, Keno, Sports Book, and Bingo! Yes, I like bingo, it is quite fun :)

There's an outdoor deck between the hotel towers with tennis courts, a pool & a jogging path. There's also an indoor exercise room with a treadmill, bike, etc.

Views are so-so, you either look over the Downtown area or over the adjoining industrial (empty yards and train tracks) area.

Despite the slightly dated feel of the property, I like the location- it is walking distance to all of the other downtown properties (and a metro bus station. I think downtown is 2 miles from the Stratosphere, the hotel that "ends" the Strip at the northern end: a cab ride to the end of the Strip is a few dollars, and you can catch a shuttle or start walking to the rest of the Strip. In 2004 a monorail started running, not sure to which Strip properties, but you can Google it. I've walked about half the length of the Stip a few times, it's a looooong walk!

For the downtown area itself, there is always foot traffic but not the back-to-back mess you find on the Strip. The Freemont Street Experience offers a light show and music and activities in a pedestrian mall all year long.

The rates are pretty low, so I can't complain. The less I spend on the room, the more I can gamble with (or take home). My review of room rates may not reflect what someone else finds - I only book the Plaza through HotelKingdom.com or with the coupons I get directly from the Plaza. If I had to pay full price...I'd pay up to $100 US a night for a double room. Any more than that and I would try Priceline.com and see where $100 would get me - remember, I'm a gambler :) No matter where we stay though, we always make a trip to the Plaza.

The Plaza does have its charms - I like the fact that the cocktail waitresses actually wear clothing instead of just nylons and a thong. We'll see if the new management makes any changes for the better. From sketches on the website, it looks like they have a lot of plans.

Directions: It is one of the tallest downtown Las Vegas hotels and can be seen from the freeways and strip.

The last time I was in Las Vegas I moved to The Plaza downtown because I'd never stayed in the downtown before and also because it was a weekend and I was able to get rates of only $50 per night. As most of you know, rates general go sky high on the weekend.

Unique Quality: My room in the Plaza was large and while it wasn't fancy, it was clean and otherwise perfectly fine. I asked for a room with a view of the Fremont Experience, and the room was situated right above the end and I had a great view.
It's just as well, because I intended to walk around and enjoy it more, but since it was the end of a weeklong visit to LV, my energy level was seriously lagging.
I had rented a car, and the parking garage was okay, but you had to have a ticket if you were a guest so you didn't have to pay, and at least once I lost it and had to go through some rigamorole to get a new one.