1. Best View of strip.... Stratosphere or Paris towers
2. Best Burger on Strip.... BLT @Mirage or Burger Bar @ Mandalay Bay
3. Better Downtown Meal.... Hugo Cellar or Vic and Anthony's
4. Better Buffet Aria or Bellagio
5. Better Low budget poker room Orleans or Golden Nuggett
6. Better show Le Reve or O
7. Best off strip outside Vegas side trip Red Rock Canyon or Hoover Dam

Quickly give your answer and elaborate if you know of something better that is comparable in price/value in the catagories listed

TIA

Paris location is excellent. Do not stay at the strat.

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1. Best View of strip.... Stratosphere or Paris towers
2. Best Burger on Strip.... BLT @Mirage or Burger Bar @ Mandalay Bay
3. Better Downtown Meal.... Hugo Cellar or Vic and Anthony's
4. Better Buffet Aria or Bellagio
5. Better Low budget poker room Orleans or Golden Nuggett
6. Better show Le Reve or O
7. Best off strip outside Vegas side trip Red Rock Canyon or Hoover Dam

Quickly give your answer and elaborate if you know of something better that is comparable in price/value in the catagories listed

TIA

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1)neither - cosmopolitan
Edit - thought you meant for rooms but just for view, try Voodoo Lounge at Rio and great view at sunset to watch the lights come on
2)not BLT
3)both are great
4)Bellagio is pretty great but $50 if I remember
5)n/a
6)O but we like Beatles Love best
7)Hoover Dam

3. Hugo cellar

Define low budget for poker rooms. I've played 1-3NL at Venetian, Bellagio, Caesars, and Aria and liked them all. Venetian probably my favorite room overall.

Burger Bar

Thank you for all the suggestions...I did this because between the two couples going and the wife and I we had various options on things to do and were asking input from people who have experienced Vegas more recently then we have...

Looks like a Hugo's Cellar downtown dinner and might try the voodoo lounge if we rent a car for a day for Hoover Dam or Red Rock Canyon. The other couple have decided against a high profile show so my wife selected Le Reve for us although dark on two of the days we are there so will have to split the group of us one night.

Thanks again and if any other suggestions let me know...

Agree with the others... don't stay at the Strat. It's pretty isolated with nothing really going on around it... even the walk to the disappointing SLS (redone Sahara) is sketchy. If you want to see the view at Strat, take a cab there from wherever you stay around dusk and have a drink at the Level 107 lounge.

The rooms that face Bellagio from the Cosmo look to be the best view in town. Although cool for a first timer the view from the room is way down on my list since I'm usually only there to sleep.

Can't really help with the downtown suggestions. I've seen a lot of great reviews of Hugo's... but I also know that Andiamo at the D was voted as the best steakhouse downtown. As for other downtown eats.... Pizza Rock is great as is DuPar's at Golden Gate for breakfast (great pancakes)

Burger Bar was the first of the gourmet places. I find BLT to be pretty good. I would advise you to stay away from KGB at Harrah's (although it's closing soon). People also seem to like Gordon Ramsay's BurGR at Planet Hollywood although I haven't tried that yet.

If you do Hoover Dam, pay for the extended tour.

Only thing I'll add is it seemed all the downtown Casinos, golden nugget especially, were filled with smoke. We stayed on the strip and occasionally you'd get a smoker near you. Most dealers don't like it either so would turn on a fan to try and blow it away from the table.

We went downtown one night and the smoke there was unbearable. We hung out in the golden nugget for maybe 30 minutes and left. Still reeked of smoke.

1. Don't go to the strat
4. Both are excellent
5. Never played at either but the Orleans has a reputation for being a local favorite and a pretty tough room. Bally's has a pretty beatable game but be prepared for the guy who hangs on to any suited cards like they're the nuts and catches river cards.
6. O and it isn't even close IMO but you need to sit pretty close to the stage to get the full effect. Sitting up high you can see the SCUBA divers. I planned a trip to Vegas for a bunch of people and we went to Le Reve and I felt compelled to apologize to everyone afterwards. Perhaps it's just my personal tastes but I thought it was lame. Much more dancing than acrobatics and circus stuff, IIRC.

4. Don't know about Aria, but Bellagio was good. We did have to wait a while, the line can get pretty long.

6. O

7. We went to Hoover Dam and Valley of Fire. Both were great, but I'd pick Valley of Fire to do again.

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O and it isn't even close IMO but you need to sit pretty close to the stage to get the full effect. Sitting up high you can see the SCUBA divers. I planned a trip to Vegas for a bunch of people and we went to Le Reve and I felt compelled to apologize to everyone afterwards. Perhaps it's just my personal tastes but I thought it was lame. Much more dancing than acrobatics and circus stuff, IIRC.

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Wow, I felt the EXACT opposite. Having seen both I was a much bigger fan on Le Reve. Guess it just depends on the person and tastes.

My suggestion would be to skip both and see Absinthe (or Love as a second choice).