We are two very active 50 year olds who believe they appreciate the finer thing in life. Our principal aim is to travel to Grand Canyon region over 4 days in a circuit road trip in and out of Las Vegas where we intend to stay 2-3 days. We havent been to Vegas before. We are not greatly interested in gambling but are interested in live entertainment and cultural absorption. We would greatly appreciate views on the best place to stay. Should we go with the nostalgia and book Caesars Palace or should we go somewhere that is more new age like Bellagio or another Hotel. Information on Vegas Hotels and good regional dining would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.

You'd probably enjoy Caesars, Bellagio or Venetian. I stayed at Caesars this past summer and found the service to be very good, and more of a 'sophisticated' clientelle and a bit more international. There are plenty of LA/Bay Area nouveau riche flocking to places like Bellagio, Venetian, Mandalay and the Palms, I found Caesars to be a bit more 'classic'. If you do book Casars, get a room in the newer Palace Tower, very nice, better than the rooms at Bellagio. Caesars and Bellagio are right next to each other so you can have a room at one and enjoy the sights at the other. As for dining, I'd recommend Picasso at Bellagio for romantic, Mon Ami Gabi at Paris for lunch, and Pinot Brasserie at Venetian. If you take in a buffet, try Bellagio, excellent.

Being from NYC, I would not recognise a Bay Area/LA Nouveau Riche type, but I can say that we stay at the Bellagio. It has some of the best restaurants in Las Vegas, much of the clientele seems to be European, there is a small museum and you can see the Cirque de Soleil show "O".
Ceasars is a good hotel, most of the hotels on the Strip (the newer ones) are good hotels. But I doubt there will be any nostalgia to be enjoyed by staying at Ceasars (there is little semblence of its former self) and if you haven't been to Las Vegas before, what would you be nostalgic about ?
I wouldn't call the Bellagio " New Age"-Baroque, Over the Top and Amazing would be better descriptions.
I cannot say that you will be able to enjoy much "cultural absorption" in Las Vegas, but you might enjoy shopping and seeing the different themes of the hotels.
You could take a day trip out to Red Rock Canyon to get you out of the gambling atmosphere for a few hours.
If you put Las Vegas into the Search box, you will come up with countless threads, many very recent, on where to eat and a lot of reviews and opinions.
Have a great time!

We couldn't gamble on our visit as we had our 5yr.old with us. We visited lots of hotels and saw the free shows on offer (Treasure Island, Circus,Circus etc.)as well as the gardens, aquarium and tigers. We kept returning to the Venetian - fantastic. We also booked a magic show.
The flight over the Grand Canyon was amazing (even if I did lose my stomach on the way back, much to the amusement of husband and daughter.) We all agreed that the drive out to Red Rock Canyon was well worth it - and our first sight of Burros(?), but thankfully no spiders or snakes.
We were only there for a couple of nights, too. Have a fantastic time - its a unique place!

If you are interested in "Vegas as it used to be" as a cultural phenomenon, I wouldn't miss the museum at the Tropicana of Vegas history, as well as a walk through of the hotel to see one of the last of the one time high roller, mob-run strip hotel-casinos, relatively un-made over. Especially see the magnificent stained-glass ceiling over one of the areas of the casino.
It also has one of the last two outposts of the classic Las Vegas extravagantly-costumed showgirl production show, the Folies Bergere, although the tradition is in better shape at the other example, Jubilee at Bally's.
See the Tropicana while you can--rumor has it than it will be closed and imploded for something new later next year. Unfortunately I wouldn't recommend eating or staying there--I think it is being run downhill--the sinking ship syndrome. At least that is what I've heard, and my walkthrough and buffet breakfast a few weeks ago seemed to confirm it.
I stayed just across the street from the Tropicana at the MGM Grand, which I enjoyed. It has an especially good selection of restaurants (although the Bellagio and the Venetian surpass it in very upscale choices.) I remember, for instance, a not so expensive but extremely delicious, distinctively Southwestern breakfast at the MGM's branch of Santa Fe's Coyote Cafe, which is a regional cuisine experience you might enjoy. Since you describe yourself as very active, the long walks which characterize this vast hotel shouldn't bother you. It's a good choice if you don't want to quite spend Caesar's, Bellagio, or Venetian money, although for the same rate I'd choose one of those.
I was distinctly underwhelmed by the isolated Mandalay Bay and don't think it's worth a trip to see. But since I'm an over 50 like you, maybe I don't get it. I think it's for the twentysomethings who want to meet in the clubs and pool.
The Bellagio's fountains and music are by far the best free show in town. Enjoy several performances--even if you have seen fountain shows before, you haven't seen anything like this.
Unless you are unusually fond of convincing fiery explosions, avoid the other most famous free show, the Treasure Island pirate battle. As revised, it's insultingly dumb and tasteless, with the "sirens" essentially presented as urban streetwalkers, and it's not even sexy in my opinion. Plus you will have to brave an extremely uncomfortable crunch of crowds and/or exravagant bar or restaurant tabs in the hotel in order to see it, and then perhaps not see very well. The lagoon, pirate village and ships are fun to see; come by sometime when the show is not on.
The Venetian is truly spectacular, and I would definitely walk through all its public areas even if you don't stay there. It is unquestionably now the most lavish Vegas hotel-casino, surpassing Caesar's, although it is missing the air of playful, over-the-top to the point of self-parody hedonism Caesar's captured. Although The Venetian takes itself more seriously, it can; parts of it are genuinely impressive and beautiful. I have heard the rooms are also the largest and most lavish in town, and often available at rates below Belaggio's.
I did find the views from the Stratosphere tower worth the trip, and would recommend trying to take in both the daytime and night views there, although after the Grand Canyon, you will find everything else pales.

Hello Steve:

Based on the info you gave, I would reccommend the Venetian. You will find the service impeccable and rooms are massive. My wife and I have stayed there four times now and cannot wait to return in Feb.

As a recent visitor from Vegas,I'd second the recommendation of the Venetian, I thought the architecture was the best of all the hotels. I'd recommend staying in the center strip, somewhere between MGM (on one end) and the Venetian (on the other end) as you can walk to most of the casinos. We stayed at the Paris, loved it, thought the location was great for walking, being across from the Bellagio fountains was a big plus, I could have spent an entire evening watching them. My recommendation would be to check out the hotels' web sites, we were able to get a better room rate than all the "so-called" discount web sites that book hotels were offering.

Stayed at the Venetian labor day week- I agree it has the biggest suite of all the hotels currently; unfortunately our view was the roof of the lower lever of the Venetian but otherwise it is a great hotel; if not mistaken this is the only hotel that has a room fridge although not cheap but convenient at best.
Stayed at Mandalay Bay this thanksgiving week; gave a $20 tip to lady checking us in and she gave us an upgraded room (would have cost us $25 dollars more a day) with a king-size bed with the most beautiful view of the strip; actually it was an experiment since it has been discussed in one of the message boards and it worked for sure. We enjoyed this room better than the Venetian and it cost us less too for the same number of days.