dwoodliff

tom42: First, I apologize to the OP for injecting my question into this thread.

Second, I already have tickets to the Elton John show at Caesar's for a particular date (a Sunday). It was only on this one day that the room rate was $500. Just my bad luck. Guess we'll stay somewhere else.

cdo_24

Looks like Rio is not getting many good reviews. Why, what kind of hotel is it? A few people suggested staying at Flamingo, what are your thoughts on that hotel??

Austin

Rainbow - We checked in at the airport for the Flamingo and asked for - and recieved - a renovated room with a view. Shouldn't be a problem at all if they have one.

CDO - The Flamingo is family friendly. It's across the street from Ceasars. It's reasonably priced and has a great pool, decent buffet, medium sized casino, etc. There are some shows there - Gladys Knight, Second City Comedy, and another one or two I can't remember. It's right in the middle of the strip and a stop on the Monorail. Can't go wrong there! I highly reccommend it.

LilyLace

CDO: I'm afraid some of us misunderstood your "family trip"! Now that I read your 2nd comment I can see that everyone in your group is over the legal age of 21. In which case Rio is most likely ok. My husband and I prefer the luxury of some of the newer strip hotels but wouldn't turn Rio down if we had to miss a chance of visiting Vegas! We were at Rio a few months ago for the Penn & Teller show and the Casino seemed nice enough. Also, Rio has a very nice shuttle bus that we took after the show. I think it dropped us at Harrahs. Anyway it was some place kinda center strip and we only had to walk a few blocks to our hotel.

By the way yopu asked about buffets and no one ever mentioned the Luxor that I can remember but we had free coupons and ate there in April and it was very good. We enjoyed it as much as the Spice Market at Aladdin, which was much more expensive by the way.
Have a great time!

caymansreef

We were just in vegas. Drive time from the venetian, to Mandalay Bay is approx. the same drive time from the Rio. The Rio, is not far from the strip at all.
Have fun.

vernettm

I have been to Vegas more than 10 times and have stayed at different hotels each time (over 20 years, I might say). We went to the Rio Suites for the first time last March. I would absolutely recommend Rio Suites because of the size of the rooms and their impeccable service and reasonable rates. Your family is old enough to appreciate all of the fun things going on at the Rio. Using the shuttle worked fine for us and we never waited more than 10 minutes to be picked up. We could have easily walked from the strip to the Rio Suites, but we had done so much walking during the day (from Stratosphere to Luxor) that we needed a break. The buffet at Excalibur is fabulous. There is also a Cheesecake Factory in Caesar's that's always good. Don't miss fat Elvis at the Imperial house (I think). NYNY roller coaster is fun as is all of the free shows at night. Oh, the pools at the Rio Suites are great, too. If you can swing it financially, tho, stay at Mandalay Bay. They have sand and waves in their pool area. The vodka bar and shark viewing is great, too. We are planning to go back to Vegas in the spring and will stay at the Rio again.

tom42

There is nothing wrong with the Rio. The rooms are quite large and pretty nice, although not in the same league with the Venetian, Bellagio or Caesar's Palace. Rio also has some very good restaurants and decent nightlife. I could do without the Masquerade in the Sky show but people seem to like it. The only drawback for first time visitors is that it is not on the strip. For me that's not a problem because I don't walk from one hotel to another anymore. However, if you plan on doing that, the Rio's location makes it somewhat less convenient than say, the Mirage or Monte Carlo or Harrah's, and others.

tracys2cents

Start by checking the rates available at some of the hotels. November has big conventions and some hotels are already sold-out or overpriced. This will limit your choices right off the bat.