Circus Circus Hotel & Casino in Reno, Nevada: A Review

At a usual Sunday to Thursday rate of about 30 to 40 bucks a night, Circus Circus just about ties the Cal-Neva for cheapest casino hotel rooms in the downtown Reno area. They also usually comp you $10 with any stay for the in-house buffet (which usually gets one person one meal for free), and if you're in on their "Player's Card" program they sometimes mail you further comps and bonuses, so this can feasibly work out to be the cheapest overall place on a weekday.

But while the Cal-Neva is an acceptable balance of skeeve and lowbrow fun, Circus Circus is pretty much all about the skeeve these days. The room we had (for one night) was OK as far as cleanliness, beds and amenities, a very basic Motel 6 style affair, but like some roadside Motel 6's they also have those connecting doors between rooms that mean virtually no privacy overnight. Circus Circus also wants to charge you $10 per day for spotty WiFi in the rooms, where Cal-Neva lets you pick up theirs for free. The one advantage Circus Circus has on amenities is the fact that they (amazingly) have a free gym in-house, and I'm guessing by the general state of the regular clientele that it's not hard to find an open machine at any given time of day. This advantage is negated by the fact that all the food in Circus Circus is pricey and yet roundly sucks, while the Cal-Neva has some pricier food in-house that is actually decent, and the suckier food at the 24 hour diner at least has the courtesy to be dirt cheap for you.

I have no idea why you would want to bring your kids to someplace this depressing on vacation, but this seems to be where families come for vacation stays. I'm guessing if you're degenerate gambler parents you don't give a shit about this anyway, but to anyone who might just not be familiar with Reno or this type of place and be thinking that it sounds like a cheap but cute place with fun for both the kids and the adults, here's what you can expect from the Midway where you are expected to primarily leave the kids while you are off on the casino floor where the young ones aren't allowed. First off, it's nearly as smoky as the rest of the smoke-choked interior, so lung cancer for your children FTW. Also, there's definitely an older crowd hanging out in the Midway these days, as many or more than actual kids there. If you've got a young daughter who has even the beginnings of pubescent development, guaranteed the local Thugz In Training will be hitting on her as soon as she gets there and trying to lure her off to who knows where for who knows what. Also, I can't say I actually saw anything like this going down, but my Pedobear Detector definitely went off on a few of the older guys lurking around the periphery of the place. The one thing that is nice for the kids is the daily shows, some of which are actually impressive, particularly the acrobats and the dance ones.

I didn't see any advantage to the gaming at this particular location. If you're a sharper blackjack or video poker player, the Peppermill across town was by far the best bet I came across. The interior here is the ultimate in smokiness for the most part, and the clientele mostly looks like the extended family of Deputy Junior. If you're just looking for penny and nickel games they do seem to have a lot, but don't expect much in the way of drinks while you play. The Silver Legacy and the El Dorado are also attached to this place, both are a bit nicer environs for both gaming and eating, so I guess that's one advantage of getting a cheap room here.

Aside from the gym, amenities are almost non-existent, as you should probably expect from the pricing. The one other thing they have is a "pet kennel" where you can stash a dog or cat for ten bucks a night ... the only reason I know about this is that there's a channel for it on the in-room cable service, where you can watch all the pets 24/7 waiting patiently to be let out of captivity.

If you get some crazy cheap comp deal on a room here, and you plan to be out most of the night anyway, I'd go for it, but otherwise no. If you just want a cheap room on a weeknight shoot for the Cal-Neva, the place is kept up a step above this one. If you're coming for a relaxing vacation, shell out the extra 20 or so per night for something like the Peppermill or Atlantis.

Circus Circus Hotel & Casino
500 North Sierra Street
Reno, NV 89503
# 775-329-0711
http://circusreno.com/