Two Way Hard Three | Las Vegas Casino & Design Blog

After a six-month hiatus, I headed back to town spending three nights at my old, favorite haunt before Wynn opened: THEhotel. My thoughts on the property, some gambling highlights, and general observations follow after the jump.

Howdy all, just a friendly note to let you know that I have updated the iPhone version of RateVegas.com to include a new feature that I hope will be useful.

When visiting Las Vegas, I find that often people want to know what restaurants are nearby (not just in) the hotel they are currently hanging out in. Well, we added a new feature to handle exactly this - the system asks where you are and gives the top rated restaurants in all nearby hotels - pretty neat!

http://www.ratevegas.com/iphone/

Steve Friess is an award winning Las Vegas-based journalist that regularly writes for the New York Times, USA Today and other national publications... You probably know him as the co-host of one of my favorite podcasts, The Strip. Steve's a great guy and Vegas is lucky to have him.

His new Las Vegas guidebook, 'Gay Vegas' covers Sin City with an emphasis on gay and lesbian travelers, though the tips in here are applicable to anyone visiting Southern Nevada.

Keep reading after the jump for my take on the book and if you want to pick up a copy, this Amazon link is a way to say thanks to us as well:

"Gay Vegas: A Guide To The Other Side of Sin City" (Steve Friess)

My friend Matt had called me about two weeks ago asking what my plans were on Halloween night. Matt�s one of the coolest people I know. He works at Wynn and we naturally hit it off because I loved picking his brain about the hotel business, the nitty-gritty of the hotels he�s worked in, etc. Good stuff.

As it has always been throughout my teenage years and into adult-hood, I was expecting a mighty fun Halloween filled with studying, sleep, and downright depression thinking I was the only one at home without an invitation to a party. Well, maybe the invitation Matt gave me was make-up for those years and years of crappy Halloweens. His plans: costume party in NTS Limo�s �Goliath� (the largest limo in Vegas) that would later spill into a two-bedroom, 3200 square foot Skyloft. Booze, girls, the works...

(more after the jump)

It looks like one of my favorite Vegas Web sites, VegasTripping.com, has rolled out a new version - and this isn't just a face lift!

Along with all the irreverent Vegas content they've been sporting since their original launch, the new version allows hotel ratings, personal profiles and what looks like a stab at some 'social networking' features, ala MySpace.com Vegas-style.

Of course, I also operate a site devoted to Las Vegas ratings and reviews... So, what do I think about this new stuff? I think it's great. So far it looks like they've done a good job and if nothing else, the 'competition' will inspire me to finish the long incubating new version of RateVegas.com, an upgrade that works to feature the content more prominently and simplify the ratings and review process.

So, congrats to Chuck and everyone else over there - it's great work. Who knows, maybe we can even do a project together sometime.

Technorati Tags: las vegas, web sites, vegas

After a whirlwind development period, we're happy to be launching a new site, VegasLists.com, in a beta form.

The site makes it easy for users to create lists of anything Las Vegas related. Examples include 'Best Hotels For Under $50' or 'Most Annoying Thing in Vegas'. Users can comment on existing lists and create their own. Signing up takes just 1 second and you'll be making lists in no time. We hope that this will become an interesting place for Las Vegas lovers to share their collective knowledge with everyone!

We hope everyone will check it out, sign up and add some lists today!

VegasLists.com

Blog Side Note: You may notice the Wynn Las Vegas ad in the upper right. We're now official affiliates for WLV (as we are for MGM MIRAGE properties). What that means is that if you book through that link, you are booking directly with Wynn but we get a small percentage of the total, which we use to keep the site running. So, if you're booking online with Wynn, please use our link - it won't cost you any more than the normal site and it helps us out!

Technorati Tags: gaming industry, las vegas, vegaslists.com, vegas

A Las Vegas vacation without gambling? Does such a thing exist?

Well, for experienced card players, dice throwers and slot addicts, probably not. But given the widening appeal of Las Vegas as a general vacation destination, there are a lot of people coming down Las Vegas Blvd. that don't really care about gambling... Not anti-gambling, just indifferent towards it and certainly not the reason they are checking out Sin City.

The idea behind this guide is to highlight some of the interesting things for non-gamblers to check out. Some of these are obvious, others less so. Hopefully they are all useful.

Keep reading after the jump and if you disagree or think we missed something, add a comment!

Continuing our 'Vegas Tips' series, this article talks about the pros and cons of the different ways you can book your Las Vegas vacation. Keep reading to learn more. If you're looking for the other articles in the series, click here.

These days it seems like there are about a thousand ways to book your vacation to Las Vegas. Having tried most of them over the years and being exposed to stories from folks through the Web site, I'm writing this article to hopefully help guide people in the future.

Keep reading after the jump for the whole article.

I'm starting a new category on the blog called 'Vegas Tips'. The category is for articles designed to be helpful to Las Vegas travelers instead of the news headlines that dominate the blog.

The first in the series discusses the infamous '$20 Trick'. I get more questions about this than anything else. I'll share what I know here and hopefully answer a few questions.

What is the $20 Trick?

An important part of Vegas lore, the $20 trick is a common technique designed to obtain free or discounted room upgrades from the check-in clerk after slipping them a $20.

Does it work? How do I do it? Will I get in trouble?

Want the answers? Keep reading...

Technorati Tags: las vegas, tips, tricks, vegas