Last week we stayed at the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas for 3 nights, over the weekend, while Mike attended a conference. It was just the girls (Mika, 9, and Camila, 6), most of our time there, and in all the Luxor provided a good base. Its biggest pluses are the moderate prices and the cool ancient Egyptian theme. Its minuses are the location at the far southern end of the strip, a less-than-great pool, and staler air than at other hotels. In all, I’d stay at the Luxor again if the price demanded, but I’d prefer to stay somewhere more central to the strip if I could.
Why we chose this hotel
We were staying in Las Vegas over a weekend in August and hotel prices were quite high. I wanted a hotel on the strip and had first considered the Circus Circus, but it’s pretty far from the other hotels and I knew transportation would be a problem. The Luxor was more expensive, but it was still reasonable and it had the advantage of both being closer to the strip and having an ancient Egyptian theme. Mika used to be very much into Ancient Egypt and she really wanted to stay there.
Hotel Rooms
I was concerned about staying at the Luxor as I’d read many negative things about its hotel rooms. Fortunately, we lucked out and got a very nice room in the pyramid (the rooms in the Tower are nicer, but Mika wanted to stay in the pyramid). The room was decorated in an ancient Egyptian theme, hieroglyphs adorned both the headboards and the armoire, and there was a large stone (or stone like) carving of an ancient Egyptian theme decorating the wall. It’s true that our carpet had seen better days, there were some stains, but it was clean. The furniture was in great condition and didn’t look 15 years old. The room had two queen size beds (but they were narrower than my bed at home, so I think they’re actually doubles), one night table, an arm chair with a floor lamp, a small table, two chairs, a small desk, and an armoire with drawers and space to hang your clothing. It was a nice size for four people (larger than our room at the MGM), and I felt it was quite comfortable a room. We were at the back of the pyramid with a view of the airport/parking lot. Not the best view, but not a big deal either.
The beds were quite comfortable, and while neither the bedding nor the pillows were are nice as those at the MGM, we slept quite well. The bathroom only contained a shower, but it was large enough for two people. My kids are old enough to take showers now, but if you have younger kids you may want to stay somewhere with a bathtub. Note that while the Luxor gives you soap, lotion, body wash and shampoo/conditioner, they don’t give you conditioner by itself – a problem, I find, with those with longre hair. The room and the bathroom were both very clean. Also note that the TVs are the old style type, not a big deal but it means you can’t easily connect it to a computer if you want to watch a DVD. They seem to have plenty of channels, but the only one we watched was “nick”. The room has its own climate controls, and the air conditioning worked quite well. The room was cool when we got there.
The Luxor only offers wired internet, the wire is in the closet. This wasn’t a big issue for us as we brought a wireless travel router that we just connected to the wire, and gave us secure wi-fi throughout the room. However, be aware that if you don’t bring something like that you will probably only be able to plug one computer to the internet at a time, and you won’t be able to use your wireless devices. The lack of wireless had one advantage, however: fewer people were using the network and thus download speeds were very decent (better than what we get at home).
The rooms come with an iron/ironing board (Mika loved that!) and a hair dryer, but there is no fridge or coffeemaker. Of course, they want to encourage you to consume more at the hotel. You can rent a fridge for $25 a day, which I find ridiculous. Instead we brought a cooler, filled it with ice, and were able to keep our milk there. Our room was close to the elevators/Coke machine, and sodas (Pepsi brand) were $2.
Pool Area
The Luxor features three pools, including a paid one. The area around it is mostly cement (or whatever they make the floor from), there are a few plants and palm trees, but it’s not in the least lush. There is practically no shade whatsoever, the only place you can find it is under the bridge, on the way to the bathrooms (but this area is small and gets filled quickly), and very partially against the wall by the entrance. If you come here, prepare to sunbathe. And believe me, when the sun is shining and it’s over 100F, it’s bloody hot. The swim area has adequate bathrooms but no changing rooms. There is a towel service and a bar serving drinks (and I think snacks).
The pools are fairly nice, but they don’t have anything exciting to them. There is a tall, but fairly narrow, waterfall on one side, and while visually imposing, the water falls close to the wall, so you can’t swim under it or anything like that. Basically, this is a wading pool. The pool is 3 1/2″ deep, which is actually a good depth. My 6 year old could reach the bottom on her toe tips, but it was tiring for her so I ended up buying her a noodle at the pool store ($4). One thing to keep in mind is that the water at these pools doesn’t seem to be heated and it’s very cold when you first get in. After a while, under the hot sun in 100+F weather, it’s very refreshing – but once the sun comes down it became too cold for us (even though it was still about 100F outside).
We went to the swimming pool early in the morning (it opens at 9 AM) and later in the day (it closes at 8 PM) and at those times it wasn’t very crowded and we had no problems getting lounge chairs. The kids could even swim. But I hear the pool is super-crowded in the middle of the day.
In all, it was an OK pool area but not a compelling one.
Hotel Grounds
Our main reason for going to the Luxor was its ancient Egyptian theme, and while the hotel is a bit worse for wear (we stayed here for New Years 2000), the theme is still in almost full swing. That means that for an Egyptologist-wannabe it’s wonderful. There are sandstone-like walls inscribed with hieroglyphs, columns, colossal statues, and lots of architectural details that make you feel – with a bit of an imagination – like you are in ancient Egypt. My girls loved it.
Though according to Wikipedia the Luxor is the 6th largest hotel in the world, it really didn’t seem that large. The central area is taken over by the casino (which is smokey, though not as much as it was a decade ago), there is mezzanine with a food court (just McDonalds, Nathans and another restaurant), venues for shows and the wedding chapel), which we found useful to cut through the hotel without having to go through the casino. There are nice shops and restaurants in the way to the Mandalay Bay and the Excalibur. There are several restaurants as well, the only one we at at was the Pyramid Cafe (which was OK).
Check In/Out
We tried to check in on a Thursday around 1:30 PM, but we couldn’t get a room high in the pyramid as we wanted. They asked us to come back later, and we were able to get such room (26 floor) around 3:30 PM. I had heard that lower rooms in the pyramid suffered from casino/disco noise so I wanted to avoid them. Lines at both times were fairly short.
We tried the $20 trick, but we weren’t able to get a room upgrade or even a complimentary fridge. The people are the reception desk were all no-nonsense and all-business.
Check out on a Sunday morning was more painful, I may have waited in line for 20 minutes. You don’t have to go to the reception to check out, you can just leave your keys in a box, however.
Atmosphere
The Luxor is and feels like a moderate-priced hotel. There is no sense of snootiness here. Though it’s one of the preferred hotels for families, we didn’t really see many kids around, but I didn’t feel uncomfortable having the girls there. The crowd was very heterogenous, with people of all ages/races/nationalities.
Overall Impression
In all, I found the Luxor to be a nice, comfortable, 3-star hotel. It’s a good – but not great – place for families.
Luxor Hotel and Casino
3900 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Las Vegas, NV
1-877-386-4658
http://www.luxor.com/
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