It was decided last year that we would have a large holiday in the USA as a family, all of the teenagers in our household are quickly becoming adults (me included) so off we went for a month in the USA as a ‘last’, all family together type of holiday. We toured most of the popular USA destinations and our last stop before the long flight home was in Las Vegas, at the Luxor Casino hotel.
*** About the Luxor Casino / hotel ***
The Luxor is a very funky looking, black and shiny pyramid that has been dropped onto the famous Las Vegas strip in Nevada USA. It is both a casino and a hotel with around 30 floors of hotel space and a rather huge casino with more than 2000 slot machine and 90 table games! It was opened in 1993 by the MGM group so it’s quite an old hotel but has been renovated a few times however keeping its original Egyptian theme with a slightly old and dated feel about it. The hotel is more than a hotel with a casino inside, there is a convention centre, retail stores and a few spa’s and other attractions inside. The pyramid does not all that large from the outside but it’s bigger than it looks – we certainly thought so anyway!
From memory we paid roughly $120 a night back in January and that was for a room with two double beds. We checked the rates calculator on the Luxor website many times during our stay in the USA and we noticed that the rates changed hugely day by day, one week a room was $50 a night…. The next it was $200 and over so you should definitely shop around beforehand if you are planning on visiting this hotel. Our booking was made directly with the hotel during our stay and we found the process easy and hassle free. We rang the hotel; they took a few details and a small deposit, job done.
*** Checking in ***
We arrived after an amazingly long drive from San Diego and thank goodness for the invention of the Sat Nav. It took us directly to the hotel and it was from there that the fun began, the place instantly amazed us as we arrived at night to see the top of the pyramid shooting its very bright blue light at the point into the black night sky. We search endlessly for the free car park and the lack of car park signs was a slight concern to us but we found it eventually. We entered the pyramid from the rear car park and the entrance led almost instantly into the casino, we were slightly surprised by the tacky looking casino machines and we were slightly worried about our stay at the hotel until we walked further inside. We eventually reached the main check in desk after what seemed like hours of walking through a smoke filled casino and we were pleasantly surprised by the very posh check in desk and other surroundings. The hotel was very busy when we arrived and there was a rather large queue for checking in but it moved quickly as there were at least 20 pleasantly dressed people working on the counter. Every member of staff was wearing a suit and they were very polite and helpful with the bunch of useless questions that we were hurling at them – Do you have WiFi?
Where’s the nearest vending machine? Etc…. The type of annoying questions that we blurt out after hours of travelling! The staff were extremely helpful and they quite honestly could not have done more to keep us happy and it was not long until we were happily settled into our rooms, but it did takes us a while to find them as there were so many elevators going to different parts of the amazing building!
*** Our room ***
We walked along the narrow carpeted corridor with the open sides with what I consider to be rather low barriers / handrails along the edge, we were on floor 25 from memory and that was high! We could not look over the barriers as it looked directly down over the whole Casino and hotel floor and we had wobbly legs in an instant (Please see the pictures). The doors were easily opened with the usual hotel swipe cards and we entered to be very pleased with what we saw. The room was very large and the entry was a small hallway with the bathroom on the right hand side, a little further in we found a large area with two king size beds with very posh looking furniture and a large LCD television directly across from the beds. There was a large curtain at the end of the room and to my delight as they opened we overlooked the Main airport and other fancy looking places straight out of the side of the pyramid – I never realised that the sides of the pyramid were actually the hotel room windows!
The room was rather well equipped for a hotel and it was exceptionally clean and tidy. The beds were the first thing that I tested upon entering and in all honesty, they were divine. The beds passed my strict comfort tests instantly and they passed them with flying colours! The pillows were large and fluffy, the duvets were heavy and not too warm and the fleece was large enough to cover the whole bed – OOOF! The beds were very high up and a good ‘push up’ was required to actually get on it and this could well be a problem for some people, so bear that in mind. Anyway, onto the bathroom - now this was just as good as the bed. The bathroom was all tiled and painted in lovely colours of which spoke quality and mainly cleanliness! The whole bathroom was absolutely spotless and the usual smells that you sometimes find in hotel bathrooms were non-existent. There was a large walk in shower with many settings, a toilet, sink area with enough room to allow other activities such as shaving and eyebrow plucking (hehe) and a large enough mirror to see everything you could possibly want to. There was plenty of room and there was enough room for me to do my evening exercise habit of running on the spot until I can no longer and the floor was solid enough to not upset the people below, thank goodness!
There was plenty of lighting in the room which made up for the poor natural light into the room. There is only one large window in this hotel room and this was tinted, reducing the amount of light to not much at all. The room often looked slightly drab with the natural light however this was all resolved with a flick of a switch.
The room had lovely paintings and pictures on the walls and it was all carpeted with a slightly grey carpet with some furniture by the window to sit and admire the view. There was a desk and a chair for using a laptop which luckily had the cable built in to use the wire broadband with an Ethernet connection. Unfortunately the hotel does not have WiFi but I soon got used to using the wired connection as it was fast and apparently secure. There were plenty of sockets in the room for charging all of our devices and the bed side tables had sockets built in which came in handy for charging our phones.
*** The maid / room service ***
The cleaners arrived daily throughout our stay, providing fresh towels and linen every now and then. Our maid was absolutely mad and she made us laugh on a few occasions with her mad ways, she used to mop the TV! I don’t think she was all there upstairs but she did a rather good job of cleaning. Soaps and shampoos were often replaced in the bathroom along with plenty of spare tissues and toilet rolls. The towels were stored on the wall and they were very generously given, we had four large towels, four medium and six small and they were replaced daily – this was plenty for the three of us in the one room and they smelt lovely and fresh every day.
*** The hotel in general ***
Enough of the room, the hotel was even more amazing. When we actually started to get our bearings in the hotel we started exploring more deeply as in all honesty, the place is massive! Inside the hotel was an array of shops and various eating places – from memory there was a Mcdonalds, 3 x Starbucks coffee shops, a pizza place, cocktail bars and loads more. There were actually more eating places inside this hotel than in Swansea Town where I’m from, the place is humongous and it actually joins onto another hotel known as the Excalibur of which holds even more shops and eating places. Every part of the hotel was spotlessly clean and well maintained; everything looked slightly aged but fully operational and clean. The hotel was filled with various experiences and fun to be had by all ages, I shall list a few below.
The Titanic exhibition – We actually did this one and it was worth every penny of the $20 that it cost to enter. We spent hours inside this exhibition looking over the various remains and artifacts that were found belonging to the Titanic and many of its passengers, there was a wealth of information in this place and it was enjoyed by our whole family, we even saw what’s known as the ‘Big piece’. The Big piece is apparently the biggest piece of the Titanic that has been removed from the ocean and fully treated to preserve it for the future generations to enjoy.
The Body exhibition – We did not do this but it’s there if you’re into this kind of thing. Basically the Body exhibition is a large exhibition of body’s – real dead people opened up and displayed to explain how the body works and how to look after yourself etc. The bodies are displayed in an artistic way but you still wouldn’t find me inside this!
We were slightly scared of this exhibition and my Father couldn’t even look at the signs advertising it around the hotel as he hates this kind of thing – it’s supposed to be inspirational but I shall leave that for you to find out.
*** The Casino at Luxor ***
The casino was absolutely huge but unfortunately I was not able to participate as I was under 21 years of age. From what I could see, the area was massive and there was every gambling machine that you could ever dream of using on the floor and I often saw people running around with buckets full of notes. The casino was slightly run down and it was not what I was expecting at all, it was not bad just not as glamorous as I would have thought but hey, what do I know about casino’s? The biggest turn-off for me was the amount of smoke circulating the air in the casino area, it seems that gamblers are keen smokers and the mix of tobacco and cigars was rather unpleasant as I’m a non smoker.
*** The location, Las Vegas strip ***
It seems to me that the Las Vegas strip is very much like marmite; you either love it or hate it. I personally loved it there and I didn’t want to leave when our 5 days of stay was up – we were actually considering cancelling our flights home but we could not afford to. Admittedly the Las Vegas strip is very much about gambling and alcohol but it doesn’t have to be, I don’t drink and I had a great time exploring and seeing new thing that I have never seen before. The various hotels and Casinos around the strip are amazing in all honesty and many have shopping malls and other attractions inside. We were there for 5 days and we were continuously seeing new things and our mission felt unfinished during our last day. I have heard from some people that they were not impressed with the entertainment available for children but there were plenty of places for them to enjoy as much as the adults. There were various attractions available such as helicopter tours of the Vegas strip, many rides in various hotels and plenty of amazing shows to watch. We saw the David Copperfield show in the MGM theatre one night and it was absolutely amazing, I highly recommend that show if you are planning on visiting the strip!
The area was very trouble free, especially when we compare it to Hollywood! We visited Hollywood a few days before arriving in Las Vegas and it was honestly the worst time of our lives. There were tramps everywhere and the area was very scary, Las Vegas was not like this and we hardly saw any tramps during our stay. The only slight complaint I have with the strip are the weird people handing out prostitute advertising card on the street! The people doing this were not American, I’m not sure of what country they were from but they were sick, my brother of 10 years of age got handed one of these advertising card and I’ve never seen my Mother act like she did – the guy deserved the row I guess! Apart from these rude people, the strip was trouble free and we often explored at night…. It’s a very safe place with Police often roaming, they were very friendly too.
*** Overall opinion ***
Our stay at the Luxor hotel was absolutely amazing and the whole trip was a joy. The hotel was slightly dated but had a fantastic feel about it with very friendly staff. The room was large, clean and well-designed being well equipped and thought out. The location of the hotel was slightly at the end of the strip which was better for us as it was not at all noisy and it was nice and quiet in our area with all of the action only a short walk away, I highly recommend this Hotel/Casino and we would certainly visit again.
Thanks for reading
©nickbrown60
We love the Pyramid! 
Excellent review, a very interesting read and wish I had more Es!!