Review of Flamingo Hotel - Las Vegas, Nevada

Late December/early January we were talking about going to Las Vegas for a few days. Kind of a last minute travel decision, made easy by relatively cheap flights/hotel packages from Allegiant Air who fly out of Bellingham Airport in Washington.

It’s been years since I've been at the Flamingo and I was wavering between one of the newer themed hotels or the Flamingo or Imperial Palace even though I haven't been to either in many years. Neither hotel charges resort fees and both are in great Center Strip locations, across the street or within walking distance to Caesar's Palace, Mirage, Treasure Island, and the Bellagio. I finally decided on the Flamingo.

There were no line ups when we arrived at the Flamingo around 6pm on a Sunday night. Seeing as how I'd booked a package with Allegiant, my hotel was prepaid. Upon check in the clerk asked if I wanted to upgrade to a recently renovated room with a great view for an extra $10/night. Absolutely! Our room was on the 25th floor with excellent views of part of Caesar's Palace, the Mirage, Imperial Palace, and Treasure Island. When the Mirage volcano went off at night we saw it quite clearly. In fact could hear the whoosh from the fires. Very impressive. The view was what made the room. It was a decent, clean room but if this was a renovated room I'd hate to see what it looked like before! The floors were cheap laminate. The bathroom counter had recently been replaced and was nice enough, but the tub and tile area was older, not renovated since the 70’s is my guess. The toilet was running so we had to keep jiggling the handle. My husband used to be an assistant chief engineer at a Whistler resort hotel and worked maintenance for many years at other hotels and the toilet really bugged him so he fixed it! He was a little ticked because he said that housekeeping should have noticed because presumably they would have to scrub the toilet and flush it and should have notified maintenance. The bed was comfortable. No complaints. It was an average room.

The time share people have a desk set up near the guest elevators. They must have paid the Flamingo big bucks to rent that little piece of real estate. There are 3 or 4 of them working and they'll snipe you as you go in or come out of the elevators. You have to walk right past them. They are very persistent. Just tell them you already took the tour and they'll leave you alone and stop
offering you free shows and meals.

The Flamingo has a beautiful garden with flamingos, swans, and other water fowl. If you are a geocacher there is a virtual cache by the plaque to Bugsy Siegel. We didn't spend that much time in the hotel room anyway but all in all it’s a good price for an excellent location and an average room.

The Deuce bus has a pick up spot in front of the Flamingo by the doors to the Margaritaville restaurant. It’s a double decker bus and goes up and down the strip to the downtown Fremont Street experience. Cost is $7 for 24 hours. Definitely worth buying a pass and taking the bus down to the Fremont hotels and casinos where meals are much cheaper than they are on the strip.