We recently had the chance to stay at the Encore Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas during the month of Oct 2015. What a nice treat, especially when it was free.
For those of you who may not be aware, always obtain a free slot card when you are staying at any casino. The cards are free and if you use them when you are playing the slots or the tables, the hotels will often send you deals to get you to stay at their casino hotels. These deals will range from discounted rooms to free rooms Sunday through Friday, to also including free meals and free play. Free play is money that is available to you play on non progressive slot machines and potential win money. We have done this several times and made up to a thousand dollars on our free play.
Wynn or the Encore Hotel
We had a choice of staying at the Wynn hotel or staying at the Encore. They are sister casinos and hotels and they are connected by an atrium filled with restaurants and shops. You really do not have to leave the hotel if you don’t want to with the choice of restaurants, two casinos and many pools to spend your time at.
We chose the Encore, since we had never stayed there before. Also because the rooms were advertised as suites. We were not disappointed. We have stayed at the Wynn previously and these rooms at the Encore lived up to that reputation and more. The rooms are larger with a living room area and a bedroom area. The bathroom is large with both a large shower as a tub to soak in. There is a small TV in the bathroom and a large flat screen TV in the main area as well. The room also has a large couch and table for entertaining and a work desk if you must keep up with emails and office work while in Vegas. Note that you will pay $13.00 a day for internet access.
The Room was Great
We stayed on the 11th floor of the hotel which is not that high. There was some concern that the view would not be that great. We were wrong of course. I don’t think there is a bad view in the place. We looked out over the strip to the north with the Las Vegas Hilton and Circus Circus casinos in the distance.
If you are heading to Las Vegas, we can confidently recommend this hotel, however it may be a bit expensive if you have to pay for the rooms. For first time traveler to Las Vegas, you should go on a package deal, get a slot card and in the future you might be able to come to Vegas on some sort of deal. The hotels want their rooms full, so in slow periods they will mail out all kinds of offers to fill up their rooms. If there is a large conference taking place, chances are that the rooms are going to be very expensive.
Restaurants
We ate at the Switch restaurant one night and found it good but quite expensive. The neat thing about switch is that the walls and ceilings change every 20 minutes or so providing a different atmosphere in the restaurant. We also found the service good, but felt that they rushed us a bit as well. We wanted to take more time with our meal and felt that they were in a hurry. They were not even that busy.
At the other end of the scale is the food court across the street at the Fashion Show Mall on the 3rd floor. They have all of the standard fast food places in the food court and you can also sit at tables outside weather permitting to enjoy your meal.
Of the two hotels, Wynn and Encore, we would probably stay at the Wynn from now on. The Encore Hotel is very nice, but we like the Wynn Casino better and it is actually a long walk from the Encore to the Wynn even though they are side by side and joined. These are 3000 room hotels with conference facilities, large pool areas and a golf course.
When you come to Vegas always bring good walking shoes. You are going to need them regardless of were you stay! For more information about Las Vegas, click here.
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