Palazzo Hotel, Las Vegas Nevada

Palazzo Hotel, Las Vegas Nevada
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

Las Vegas' newest venue is the magnificent Palazzo Hotel located adjacent to the Venetian and under the same ownership. Suites at the Palazzo offer a luxurious and tasteful decor which is reflected in the lobby's elegant and beautiful statuary and waterfall.

Station Casinos - where the "locals" hang out

I've heard that Las Vegas locals prefer certain off strip casinos and I think that the Station Casino's claim to be the key player in this market is justified. Station Casinos operates all the following properties in the Las Vegas area, most notably the new spectacular Red Rock Casino, one of Las Vegas newest properties with an awesome and stylish decor. Click here for pictures of the Red Rock Casino and Hotel.

Palace Station Hotel & Casino, Boulder Station Hotel & Casino, Texas Station Gambling Hall & Hotel, Santa Fe Station Hotel & Casino, Sunset Station Hotel & Casino, Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa, Fiesta Rancho Casino & Hotel, The Fiesta Henderson Hotel & Casino, the Wildfire Casino the Wild Wild West Gambling Hall & Hotel, the Magic Star Casino and the Gold Rush Casino.

Additionally, Station Casinos operates properties in California and has some management agreements and part ownerships with other gaming enterprises.

Las Vegas' Best Buffets

Las Vegas has dozens of great buffets and hundreds of exceptional restaurants. However given the cost of most of the Buffets - $20+, with the best restaurants much higher than that, and given the tendency to have great food at many conference venues, the budget approach is to do a lot of great eating at the parties and events that tend to go with conferences and tend to have exceptionally good catered food and free drinks.

However here's an excellent list of ten Las Vegas Buffets with prices:
http://www.lasvegasdirect.com/topbuffet.html

Not on the list is Terribles Buffet about a mile off the strip on Paradise. Popular with locals I found it to be OK but not exceptional. The 9.99 price was very reasonable, but I think for the cheaper buffets Excalibur is probably your best choice.

Monte Carlo Fire

This breaking news just in - The Monte Carlo casino is on fire though the extent of the blaze is not clear. The Monte Carlo is being evacuated now, and hopefully the fire is confined to the roof where it appears it started.

MSNBC is reporting that the Bellagio and New York New York Hotels are now being evacuated as well, though from the look of the flames this will be contained soon as it appears restricted to the roof of the Monte Carlo. It's believed the fire started at about 11am PST on the west facing roof area.

McCarran Airport Baggage Claim

McCarran Airport Baggage Claim
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

The Las Vegas Airport is one of the most manageable in my experience. Large but not huge, McCarran is fairly easy to navigate, especially if your arrival and departures are using the standard Taxis or Shuttles. City bus service in and out of McCarran is a little trickier as the bus departures are from level 0 and not signed well. Unless you are really short on cash the best option will generally be a Taxi if you have more than 2 people or the comfortable $5 shuttles which leave from just outside of the baggage claim area and deliver you to the door of your hotel for $5.

Golden Nugget, Las Vegas Downtown

Although the Las Vegas Strip, home to dozens of mega resorts and casinos, now plays the key role for most visitors to the city you'll want to consider riding the Deuce bus or taking a short Taxi ride to Downtown Las Vegas, renamed "The Fremont Street Experience". Here, the world's largest light show is displayed on a screen as wide as a street and as long as a city block. Short shows play frequently from about dark to midnight.

Golden Nugget, Las Vegas Downtown
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

AEE Adult Entertainment Expo, Las Vegas

Originally part of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas - now simply overlapping in time and place - the Adult Entertainment Expo is the world's largest convention venue for the adult industry. Held this year in two halls of the massive Sands Convention Expo in the Palazzo Venetian Hotel empire, the AEE brought together trade people, press, fans, adult stars and novelties from all over the industry.

Not for the faint of heart, the AEE event fills a large convention hall with hundreds of adult exhibitors featuring themes as innocuous as teeth whitening to live sex shows.

The highlight of the AEE event this year was the AVN Adult Video Film Awards held at the lavish "RAIN" nightclub at the Palms Casino.