Sahara Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas

The Sahara Hotel & Casino (3*) was opened in 1952 making the resort one of the oldest on the famous Las Vegas "Strip". The 1950s witnessed a building boom in Nevada's gambler's paradise, as many new resorts sprung up along the highway leading towards Los Angeles, Las Vegas Boulevard (the Strip), moving away from the historic centre of Fremont Street. Other resorts built during this golden era include The Sands Hotel, The Riviera Hotel, ...
...only foundered in 1905), the Sahara has played host to most of the luminaries of yesteryear including Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Elvis Presley. In addition the resort was featured in the original Ocean's 11 movie.

The Sahara offers 1,720 rooms (huge by European standards, but almost small in Vegas terms!), all en-suite, with the choice between one king sized bed or two double beds, smoking and non-smoking rooms.
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The Sahara Hotel & Casino (3*) was opened in 1952 making the resort one of the oldest on the famous Las Vegas "Strip". The 1950s witnessed a building boom in Nevada's gambler's paradise, as many new resorts sprung up along the highway leading towards Los Angeles, Las Vegas Boulevard (the Strip), moving away from the historic centre of Fremont Street. Other resorts built during this golden era include The Sands Hotel, The Riviera Hotel, Tropicana and Stardust.

Having been open for business for over half of Vegas's life span (the city was only foundered in 1905), the Sahara has played host to most of the luminaries of yesteryear including Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Elvis Presley. In addition the resort was featured in the original Ocean's 11 movie.

The Sahara offers 1,720 rooms (huge by European standards, but almost small in Vegas terms!), all en-suite, with the choice between one king sized bed or two double beds, smoking and non-smoking rooms.

We found and booked the Sahara through the internet, choosing this hotel from the vast range on offer based on price, value for money (more later) and location. Our stay was in August / September 2006 for 8 nights.

Location

The Sahara resort is located on the Strip almost mid way between "old" and "new" Vegas. Freemont Street and the Downtown area, where the city first began, is around 2 miles north of the Sahara while the modern casinos start around 1.5 miles south with the newly built Wynn resort. The fabulously central Las Vegas McCarran Airport is only 5 miles away with a cheap shuttle service available.

In terms of access to new Las Vegas and the resorts everyone comes to see - Bellagio, New York New York, Paris, Madalay Bay, Luxor, TI to name a few - the Sahara is a little out of the way. The walk to the closest of these resorts (Wynn, TI, Venetian and Mirage) takes around 20 minutes, which under normal circumstances is very manageable, but in the 40ºC Vegas summer becomes challenging.

That said, a public transport infrastructure is finally beginning to take shape in a city (or should that be country?) designed for the car. The recently completed Las Vegas Monorail runs straight from the Sahara hotel all the way down the Strip terminating at the MGM Grand 4 miles away. The state-of-the-art monorail is quick (20 minutes for the full journey), links most of the major resorts and is air-conditioned. However it has failed to attract large numbers of tourists, probably because at $5 per single ride (£2.66 based on today's exchange rate) it is pricey.

The other public transport option from the Sahara is "The Deuce", Vegas's double-decker bus which journeys up and down the Strip continuously from Downtown all the way south past the airport. I have to warn you that the Deuce is the slowest bus known to man (and this from someone who catches London buses every day) thanks to Vegas traffic and the stupid payment system. It once took us over an hour to travel down to the southern end of the Strip. However it is cheap at $2 (£1.07) for a single ride and $5 (£2.66) for a 24 hour pass and you often meet some amusing characters, not least the driver!

Facilities

The Casino: The Sahara boasts a 85,000 sq ft casino (pictured below) which is of medium size for Las Vegas. In terms of decor, the casino continues the Moroccan theme found throughout the resort. All the standard table games are offered including Craps, Blackjack, Roulette and Poker with affordable minimums. There are a wide variety of slot machines ranging from penny to $5 machines and from the traditional to high-tech. In addition you can play Keno (which I believe is similar to Bingo) and there is a poker room with 16 tables and a Race & Sports Book.

The Sahara also offers a casino player's club (Club Sahara). Membership is free and you can earn cash, EZMoney (which can be used to play at the casino) and comps such as discounted meals by earning points through playing at the casino.

Restaurants / Buffets / Cafe: There are six different places to eat at the Sahara catering for all tastes, pockets and times of day.

The Sahara Buffet (pictured below) is advertised as "a world of taste", a slight exaggeration, but there is a good variety of good available from pizza, pasta, carving stations, omelettes, salads, seafood, breakfast foods and desserts. Although we never had dinner at the buffet, we had breakfast here twice. Quantity is the key to the buffet, you can eat as much as you like within two hours, and the quality suffers accordingly. Nonetheless if you are planning on eating a breakfast which will fill you up all day, the Sahara Buffet is good value at $9 per person (£4.80). Note This price can vary during holidays, holiday weekends and special events, we had to pay around $14 (£7.50) each one bank holiday day for a small cup of added (nasty) champagne. The Buffet is opened daily between 7am - 10pm.

The Caravan Cafe is a relaxed diner style restaurant open 24 hours a day. The menu offers breakfasts, lunches and dinners for very reasonable prices and the food is of better quality being freshly prepared. We had breakfast at the cafe three times - usually cereal, fruit, omelette and hash browns or pancakes - which cost around $15 (£8) each, and dinner once.

The Nascar Cafe is a race car themed bar and restaurant serving classic American dishes such as burgers, ribs and steak. This cafe was empty for the duration of our stay at the Sahara and as it is lacking in any atmosphere whatsoever, we were not tempted to dine there!

Paco's Bar & Grill serves Mexican cuisine and is open for dinner daily. Again, this restaurant was not sampled despite my love of Mexican food because we generally chose to eat dinner out and about.

The House of Lords is the Sahara's upmarket dining experience and is advertised as having a long and prestigious history. The restaurant serves gourmet meals such as steaks, lobster, lamb chops and seafood. Prices look reasonable at around $42.50 (£22.68) for a four course meal including wine.

The Grind Cafe is also open 24 hours and serves hot and cold drinks along with snacks, sandwiches, pastries and (very nice) muffins.

Bars / Lounges: The Sahara has a number of bars, including The Thirsty Camel which is the main bar on the casino floor and the Oasis Bar for cocktails at the House of Lords restaurant.

Shows: In its heyday the Sahara hosted some of the biggest stars of the day including The Beatles, Tina Turner, Dean Martin and Malene Dietrich.

Although the line-up isn't quite as sparkling nowadays (the headline performances including Cirque de Soleil, Elton John, Celine Dion and David Copperfield are found at the newer end of town) the Sahara still features live entertainment every day of the week at the Sahara Theatre, the Congo Room and the Casbar Lounge. At the present time (September 2006) The Scintas perform a combination of music and comedy at the Sahara Theatre and the Amazing Jonathan, described as the madman of comedy, shares the Congo Room with the Platters Drifters and Coaster's vocal talents. Tickets for these shows can be purchased in advance from the website and range from around $30 - $60 (£16 - £32). The Casbar Lounge also offers a variety of live entertainment including comedy and music.

Swimming Pool: The swimming pool (pictured below) at the Sahara was a real plus point. It is large (5,000 sq ft), has plenty of sun lounger's (no early morning dash to put down towels here!), features a hot tub, is generally* quiet, towels are provided and there is a bar serving cold drinks and snacks.

Other facilities: The Sahara also features a couple of shops selling alcohol, cigarettes, snacks, clothing, jewellery and souvenirs, a beauty salon and car rental facility.

The Sahara also has a roller coaster ride which is the only thing that intermittently disturbs the peace by the swimming pool*.

Our Room

Our room (pictured below) was situated on the 19th floor of the Sahara's Tunis Tower. Standard rooms such as ours are located in the Alexandria and Tunis Towers while Deluxe rooms and Suites are available in the Tangiers and Alexandria Towers.

The room was large, holding two double beds (or a King sized bed depending on your preference at booking) while still feeling capacious. Other furniture included a rail for hanging clothes, bedside table, chest of draws and a table and chairs. Nearly everything a guest could want seemed to be provided: air conditioning, a colour TV with pay per view movies, internet access, a hairdryer and an iron and ironing board. The only feature I would have added would be a safe in the room as, while safe boxes are available behind reception, this provides convenient place to store valuables.

The en-suite bathroom was also very satisfactory and spacious. The white three-piece suite included a bath (although not full size) with a power shower above. Fresh white towels were provided every day along with superfluous quantities of soap and shampoo!

The Staff

The staff we encountered were friendly and helpful, albeit the waitresses and seating hostesses at the Caravan Cafe and Sahara Buffet seemed a little bit loopy! The maids were excellent and always prepared to return to clean your room later in the day and theirs can't be an easy job with some people nocturnal and others not!

Concierge Service

We only used the concierge service provided twice and, as in most hotels I have stayed at, it proved a bit of a disappointment. Manned by lovely, but rather dippy ladies we were given conflicting information when we attempted to make our night flight helicopter booking. And, when we wanted to arrange a shuttle to take us to the airport we were handed the phone to make the arrangements ourselves (which, I admit, was more efficient).

Prices

Like all hotels in Las Vegas prices at the Sahara vary greatly depending on availability, the day of the week and time of year. The rate is thus substantially higher at peak times and generally at the weekends.

Having said that, the Sahara is one of the cheapest resorts to be found on the Strip. In total our 8 nights (Wednesday - Thursday) cost £306 between the two of us - only £19 a night each.

Conclusion

In terms of hotel accommodation, value for money in the States is generally recognised to be superior to Europe. The resorts in Las Vegas are even cheaper than average as the primary concern is attracting potential gamblers into the casinos. For this reason even the 4* and 5* hotels are reasonably priced.

The Sahara is clearly excellent value for money. While you don't get luxury (and you would be a fool to expect it at that price) even the standard rooms are large, comfortable and well equipped.

My conclusion would be that if you have some extra cash to spend and/or are only staying in Vegas for a couple of days then paying more (which would be the equivalent of what you would spend on a very standard hotel in Europe) will equal a better location and more luxurious surroundings. But if you are trying to keep costs to the minimum (and let's face it there's a lot to spend your hard earned cash on in Vegas!) the Sahara represents an excellent choice. 

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