Riviera Hotel & Casino

This is the second time we had visited Las Vegas. The Riviera hotel was really good- cheap, very clean and spacious.
You tend to spend very little time in your room anyway as there is so much to do- dolphins at the Mirage are good, a visit up the Stratosphere and of course the Grand Canyon. Vegas is amazing for all ages although remember your comfy shoes.
Eating in Las Vegas is mostly buffets, Mac Donalds, Subway etc etc. However we ate in the revolving restaurant in the stratosphere which was lovely at night.
Shopping in Vegas is AMAZING. Just a 5 minute taxi drive away there is shopping place called 'Premier Outlets' which has very cheap Ralph Lauren, Lacoste, Timberland, Nike etc etc.

A wonderful 5 days in Las Vegas a fantastic clean and comfortable hotel at the far end of the strip.
We are really pleased we didn’t go to the stratosphere as it was a very smelly rundown hotel with a terrible buffet. The food was runny and cold like eating in a bad motorway cafe in England. The all stars show was that bad it was laughable like being in a working mans club at home not what you would expect in Vegas.
This hotel really lets Vegas down. The rest of the hotels and believe me we toured round nearly all of them they are pure class. The Imperial looks a mucky hole also, the only concern I have about Vegas is the fact that outside the casinos there are very few places to eat apart from Denny’s and of course MacDonalds and a very substandard subway in the grotty Smokey Circus Circus.
We never really found the all you can eat buffets either, apart from the one in the Riviera which we not impressed by, very motorway presentation looked like its being sitting there for hours so we didn’t bother. We hardly ate for 5 days we were there. The restaurants look good, full and expensive in the Venetian wish we could have afforded it. The trip in the helicopter down to the Grand Canyon was the highlight really fantastic. Landed sipped champagne and ate croissants by this time we were getting hungry.
A great place, definitely go again but be warned, there are no pubs to drink in only lounges in the casinos expensive. We strayed off the strip once really difficult to get taxis to pick you up we waited nearly an hour half nightmare.
In the casinos everyone sits on hard stools on the bar and plays stupid dollar poker games on a screen in front of you, no atmosphere no conversion no pubs as we know it. All the shows last only about 75 minutes so what do you do afterwards there isn’t a pub to go to. Lots of people wandering about with nothing to do, because if your normal like us you haven’t got the money to keep throwing in to the machines, unless your crafty.
Put a dollar in collar a waitress and get a free drink and just sit and wait for her to come back without putting any money in this might take a while. So all in all a good fun break to be had in Las Vegas.
Footnote a fantastic night to be had in the frontier cowboy bar proper cowboys proper American cowboy line dancing and bottles of beer like at home the best bar in Vegas.

This was our first time in Vegas , but not in America, it was not as I expected, it was fantastic, I thought it may be a little tacky, but so clean and very affordable when there. The hotel itself was very clean and not as previously reported on other sights as dull and old in appearance.
It may not be the most outrageous hotel or theme based it was not, but that also had its advantages, you did not have ques of people looking for the attractions the hotel offers through the day as the Riviera has none, to our advantage it meant that the minute you sat down at a table or slot machine, the waitress was over straight away.
The hotel offered many shows in which we had great pleasure in going to see one called La Cage, which is a fantastic drag show dedicated to the divas of this time, my partner who is a mans man had reservations when I suggested it, but well worth a visit. Where the Riviera is situated is directly across the street from Circus Circus and to the left of the hotel is a ticket master booth which offers half price tickets to all shows if you are prepared to go that evening, we through them booked The Rat Pack held in the Greek isles hotel, Absolutely fab. Well worth it a must to any visitors.
Vegas was exciting , breathtaking and not as imagined at all, the hotels themselves were stunning and Vegas at night overwhelming, Yes you do need to take good walking shoes, but there is a reliable public transport bus service 310 which goes up and down strip 24hrs a day.
Cant wait till next visit already booked up, it’s the perfect adult playground, more to see than I realised.