Sixteen hotels, all paid stays, all reviewed here. No property wins everything.
Best room: Crockfords, and it isn’t close. Best bathroom: Waldorf Astoria. Best pool: Bellagio, with Mandalay Bay taking the full complex. No casino and no smoke: Waldorf or Vdara. Best value: Vdara. Cheapest room that isn’t grim: Flamingo. Everything below is a category, a winner, and a link to the full review.
Check Rates at CrockfordsI’ve lived in Las Vegas for twenty-four years. In that time I’ve watched most of these properties open, walked through them when they were brand new, met friends staying in them, and seen a few of them come and go entirely. Over the past few months I’ve gone back and stayed at sixteen of them on my own money, photographed every room, and written each one up.
What follows is what I actually learned. Not a ranking from one to sixteen — that’s a fiction, because a hotel that’s perfect for a stadium weekend is the wrong answer for an anniversary. Categories instead. One winner each, with the reasoning, and a link to the full review if you want the detail.
Best Room: Crockfords
Marble bathroom with its own water closet, separate soaking tub and rain shower, Nespresso, a Theragun sitting in the room, Byredo toiletries. Two hundred and thirty-six rooms, which is why it still feels maintained. It’s the best hotel room I’ve stayed in in this city and it isn’t a close call.
Crockfords — and the cleanest windows of any room on this list.
The gate opens as you pull up. On a 110-degree afternoon the valet brought the car back with the air conditioning already running at sixty. Those two things tell you more about a hotel than any amount of marble does.
Best Bathroom: Waldorf Astoria
Freestanding soaking tub against black marble, a separate walk-in rain shower in travertine, double vessel sinks, a private water closet, Aesop on the counter. And a night light, which you will be grateful for at 3am and which almost nobody at this price bothers to install.
A Japanese soaking tub looking straight at the Bellagio fountains. Early morning or early evening is when it’s worth it. Be careful getting out — the floor beside it is slippery and the handrails are there for a reason.
The bathroom that takes the category.
The tub at the Cosmopolitan. Early morning or early evening is when it earns the upgrade.
Best Pool, and Best Pool Complex
Still my favourite hotel in Las Vegas and the pool is the reason. Quiet, formal, gardens rather than a scene. Mine stayed open past the posted hours, which never happens anywhere else.
Eleven acres, real imported sand, a six-foot wave pool and a lazy river. A completely different proposition from Bellagio and the right answer if anyone in your party is under twelve. Go on a weekday, or before 9:45 on a weekend — Saturday afternoons genuinely fill up.
Eight o’clock on weeknights, year round. Most Strip pools shut at six, which means if you’ve had any kind of day — a conference, a drive, a late check-in — the pool is closed by the time you’re free. Here it isn’t. I had the deck almost to myself at seven on a Tuesday in September.
Eight o’clock on a weeknight, and empty.
Bellagio takes the pool. Gardens, not a scene.
No Casino, No Smoke
This is the category people write to me about most, and the answer depends on which of the two things you actually want, because they’re not the same.
Both sit inside CityCenter with no gaming floor in the building, so there’s no smoke to walk through on the way to your room. They’re different products at different prices, which is why they get their own head-to-head comparison.
If you want to gamble without sitting in smoke, this is the whole list. Park MGM has been the Strip’s only fully smoke-free resort-casino since it reopened, and no one has followed. It’s also the property I’d point at for dining — Eataly, Bavette’s, Best Friend, Gran Caffè Milano, all without leaving the building.
Best Food
Nothing on the Strip compares. Secret Pizza, the Beeria grilled cheese at Lardo, Eggslut if you’re prepared to queue, a Starbucks and a bar in the same room. It’s open late and it doesn’t feel like a food court.
Different award, different need. Eataly is a marketplace, not a food hall, and it runs mozzarella demonstrations and a tiramisu class. Bavette’s is a proper steakhouse — the dry-aged New York strip is the thing to order.
Best Value
A casino-free, smoke-free suite in the middle of CityCenter with a kitchenette, a soaking tub and a separate shower, for materially less than its neighbours. If you’re in town for more than two nights, or working, or feeding anyone, the kitchen changes the arithmetic entirely.
The Habitat King beat my rooms at both Horseshoe and Paris, and it wasn’t close on the things that actually matter at this price: the room felt cared for, the linens were good, and the windows were clean enough to see out of. Nobody books Flamingo expecting marble. They book it hoping it won’t be grim, and it isn’t — it’s cheerful, a bit quirky, and well kept, which at this end of the Strip is all you’re really asking for.
Two pools, one family-friendly with a slide and one adults-only. The knocks are smoke drifting off the casino floor and parking signage that makes no sense. Neither is a dealbreaker at the rate.
Ask for a Habitat King in the Habitat Tower. That’s the room I stayed in, and it’s the one this award is about — Flamingo has several room categories across the property and they are not the same experience. Book the category, not just the hotel.
This was my stay, in my room. Flamingo is a big property and consistency varies room to room, so your mileage may differ — which is exactly why the category matters. The full review has the photos, so you can see what I actually got rather than take my word for it.
The fountain-view upgrade at Paris costs a fraction of what the same view costs across the street. It’s the value play in this category and I’d book it again.
The fountain view from Vdara — the cheapest room on this list, and the windows were spotless.
One thing that changes the value maths. Nearly every hotel on this list charges a mandatory resort fee on top of the room rate — typically $35 to $55 a night plus tax, and not optional no matter how you booked.
It lands hardest on the cheap rooms. A $45 fee on a $60 room nearly doubles what you actually pay; the same $45 on a $400 suite is noise. So the gap between the cheapest room on this list and the most expensive one is a good deal narrower at checkout than it looks at booking — which is worth knowing whether you’re deciding between Flamingo and Vdara, or between Vdara and Crockfords. I go into the fees in more detail in the area guide.
Best for a Game or a Show
You can walk it, which on a game day is worth more than anything a resort can offer you.
More stadium-district options here.If you want the resort and the stadium, the tram does the work. It also has the warmest feel of anywhere on this list — not flashy, not rowdy, just genuinely happy.
The Detail Nobody Grades On
You are paying for a view. Half the rooms on the Strip hand you a smeared pane and hope you don’t notice at night. Crockfords and Vdara were spotless — and so was Flamingo, which costs a fraction of either.
That’s the part worth knowing: price doesn’t predict it. Some of the most expensive glass on the Strip is the dirtiest, and one of the cheapest rooms I stayed in had a window you could actually see through. It sounds like a small thing until you’re standing at it at sunrise with a camera.
A real soaking tub, which fewer Strip rooms have than you’d think.
A note on bathtubs. More Strip rooms are shower-only than you’d expect, and it isn’t about cutting corners. Across the hotel industry tubs are coming out in favour of large walk-in showers for practical reasons: a tub is the most dangerous object in a hotel bathroom, both for guests and for the housekeepers who have to lean over a wet one to scrub it; a curbless shower has fewer grout joints to grow mildew and turns over faster between stays; and a big shower can be made accessible with a grab bar and a bench, which a tub can’t.
Done well it isn’t a downgrade. The shower in my Bellagio pool-view room was two or three times the usual size and finished in genuinely nice stone — nobody tiles a cost-cutting exercise in good material.
Still, if a soak is part of why you’re booking, check first. In the rooms I stayed in, Waldorf Astoria, Crockfords, Vdara, Cosmopolitan and Mandalay Bay all had a tub. Bellagio’s pool-view room, Nobu and the Park MGM queen were shower-only. It varies by room category inside the same hotel, so the room type matters more than the property.
The Overall Pick
Crockfords has the best hotel room I’ve stayed in in Las Vegas, and it isn’t close.
Let me be precise about the claim, because it’s narrower than it sounds. Crockfords wins the room outright. Bellagio and the Waldorf have better pools. CityCenter is a better base if you want to walk the middle of the Strip — Crockfords sits up at Resorts World, which is a real deduction depending on your trip. The Cosmopolitan has better food downstairs than anywhere else here.
But the room is what I’m paying for, and nothing else I’ve stayed in comes near it.
Every hotel above has a full review on this site with real photos from the room I actually slept in. Compare live rates, then read the review before you commit.
Compare Rates Across the StripFrequently Asked Questions
Which Las Vegas hotel has the best room?
Crockfords, of the sixteen I’ve stayed in. Marble bathroom with a private water closet, separate soaking tub and rain shower, Nespresso, Theragun and Byredo toiletries in a 236-room property that can actually maintain that standard.
Which Las Vegas hotel has the best pool?
Bellagio for a quiet, formal, garden-style pool. Mandalay Bay if you want the full complex — eleven acres, real sand, a wave pool and a lazy river. The Waldorf Astoria’s pool stays open until 8pm on weeknights, later than almost anywhere else on the Strip.
Are there Las Vegas hotels without a casino?
Yes. On the Strip the casino-free options are the Waldorf Astoria and Vdara in CityCenter, plus Nobu at Caesars Palace and Delano at Mandalay Bay. I’ve stayed at and reviewed the first three.
Which Las Vegas hotel is smoke-free?
Park MGM is the only resort-casino on the Strip that is fully smoke-free, including the gaming floor. The casino-free hotels above are smoke-free by default because there’s no gaming floor in the building.
Which Las Vegas hotels have bathtubs?
In the rooms I stayed in: Waldorf Astoria, Crockfords, Vdara, the Cosmopolitan and Mandalay Bay all had a soaking tub. Bellagio’s pool-view room, Nobu and the Park MGM queen were shower-only. Tub availability varies by room category within the same hotel, so check the specific room type before booking.
Which Las Vegas hotel is closest to Allegiant Stadium?
Home2 Suites Stadium District is walkable on game day. From the Strip itself, Mandalay Bay has the easiest access via the tram.
Every Las Vegas Hotel I’ve Reviewed
- Crockfords — best room on the Strip, and the overall pick
- Waldorf Astoria — no casino, no smoke, best bathroom, latest pool
- Vdara — casino-free suite with a kitchen; the value pick
- Bellagio — best pool; pool-view rooms are shower-only
- The Cosmopolitan — best food court, best tub view
- Mandalay Bay — best for families, best pool complex, tram to the stadium
- Park MGM — the Strip’s only smoke-free casino; best dining on property
- Paris Las Vegas — the cheap fountain view
- Nobu at Caesars Palace — hotel-within-a-hotel; no tub, no coffee setup
- The Vanderpump — the loudest place I’ve stayed; narrow halls carry everything
- Horseshoe — centre-Strip, straightforward
- Flamingo — is it worth it, honestly
- Luxor — the pyramid, and what that means for your room
- Polo Towers — no casino, centre-Strip, parking matters here
- Home2 Suites Stadium District — closest walk to Allegiant
- TownePlace Suites Stadium District — the other stadium-district option
One more worth watching: the Hard Rock guitar tower on the old Mirage site topped out in May, and it’s targeted to open in late 2027 — already later than first announced. No reservations yet, and no date announced for when booking opens. When it does open I’ll stay in it, and it’ll join this list like everything else here.
If you’re still deciding on an area rather than a property, start with where to stay in Las Vegas, which breaks the Strip down by neighbourhood.
VegasUnscripted is an independent Las Vegas guide written by a 24-year local. Every hotel on this list was booked and paid for by me — no comped nights, no press rates, and no hotel knew I was coming. Each one was reviewed after checkout. This post may contain affiliate links, at no extra cost to you.