Las Vegas Hotel Review: Mandalay Bay

Several years ago I was planning my first Las Vegas trip. Having never been to Las Vegas I didn't know much about what to expect. I had heard rumors there were $1.99 steak dinners and $.99 shrimp cocktails, but only thing I knew for sure what that I wanted to stay on the Strip. Everyone I knew who had been to Vegas before advised me to only look for a hotel on the Strip and I wouldn't need a rental car.

So I began looking online for hotels on the Strip. The prices ranged from $18 per night at some older hotels to over $500 a night at newer hotels. When I travel, I'm not big on gaudy, over-the-top hotels. And, unfortunately, a lot of what Vegas has to offer fit in this category. I could stay at Circus Circus which, from the pictures on the Internet and the $18 a night rate, seemed that it was past its prime. Other hotels looked nice, but I wasn't sure I would want to pass under the Eiffel Tower and through a gaggle of French mimes just to get back to my room every night.

One hotel that came up in my search over and over again, was on the Strip, and at a decent rate (about $100 per night) was Mandalay Bay. The hotel is themed, after a south seas lagoon, but the theming didn't seem over-the-top. I booked the hotel and was off to Vegas!

Upon arrival, I was greeted by Mandalay Bay's golden towers. And once inside I was very impressed. The lobby was grand (like many Las Vegas hotels) and I didn't have to go through or even near the casino to check in. Actually, I found that most other hotels on the strip are designed to make you travel through the casino to do most anything. But at Mandalay Bay, you can check in, go to the spa, even get to your room without ever seeing the casino. Sure, Vegas is about gambling, but not having the casino forced on you at every turn makes Mandalay Bay feel like a true luxury hotel and not just another hotel on the Las Vegas strip.

Once in my room, I was amazed at its size. The standard room was huge! In fact, the bathroom was almost as large as my apartment back home! It has a large bathtub, a separate shower, large vanity with two sinks, and nice amenities.. The room it self, while set up like a normal hotel room (two beds, a desk, chair and table, and television), was spacious.

As for the rest of the hotel... "Wow" was the only word I could think of to describe it. From the lobby, I could see the massive "beach" area, but being January (and it was snowing! I hade no idea it snowed in Vegas!), I didn't venture out to it but I wanted to! In fact, the Mandalay Bay's beach features a large wave pool and a sand beach, a lazy river, and various other pools. It all looked so inviting that I booked another trip, this time in September (116 degree weather; talk about from one extreme to another!) just so I could enjoy the beach. And on the second trip, enjoy the beach I did. With my friends with whom I was traveling, we splashed the day away in the wave pool and got burns on the bottoms of our feet from the blistering hot sand (nobody warned us that sand in 116 degree weather will burn the soles of your feet very quickly!).

I've stayed at the Mandalay Bay on all my subsequent trips to Las Vegas and love it (except for one trip when the rates were almost $400 per night due to a convention that was in town so I booked an off-the-strip hotel, The Las Vegas Hilton). The Mandalay Bay is a luxury hotel with all of the amenities without feeling like a typical Las Vegas "casino" hotel. But of course, these is a huge casino just beyond the lobby to take care of all your gambling needs.