if the hotel doesn't take your breath away, the rollercoaster rides on top will!! (Stratosphere Tower)

Member Name: jamiebeck

Product:	Stratosphere Tower
Date:	28/05/09 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: tower with rollercoaster rides, unique view of the strip

Disadvantages: quite close to the not so nice down town

A hotel and an attraction, all rolled into one. The Hotel Stratosphere in Las Vegas was where I stayed last year for 5 days and I absolutely loved the city and the hotel.

The hotel stratosphere is located at the bottom of the strip just next to down town, it is the last top quality hotel before you walk further and see the down town apartments with cheap and nasty casinos! However, it is perfectly situated as it means you can walk in just one direction down the strip towards the interesting stuff, not a long walk really.

The hotel itself has a lower floor that is one big casino, like most other hotels in Vegas, and this is what you'd expect; machines everywhere, backgammon, diners, 40/50 year old women in full make up and 80's uniform serving people drinks. Although perfectly polite and friendly they can disturb you a little, but its all part of Vegas' make up. The next few levels are for the guest rooms and they are very nice. I travelled in a group and we managed to get two double rooms next to eachother, comprising of nice comfortable beds, air conditioning (crucial there in the summer), shower and bath and a sink. We were just down the hallway from the communal ice machine (which was used a lot!) and a floor down from the launderette. The laundrette got busy at times and you don't want to leave your washing alone so you could find yourself there for an hour at a time. However we experienced a few problems with the machines and often they would stall and eventually finish washing.

A few more floors up there is the pool which is a nice size and comes with a nice big communal hot tub with a little waterfall that we spent many hours in! The rest of the pool you can play volleyball in but not swim in realistically and the lifeguards are always in two's and always on hand. As for the seating there is plenty of that and they were never fully occupied. There is also a good friendly bar, a little over-priced but nothing too outrageous and also a gym which is free to use and never fully in use so i definately recommend that if you're feeling as unhealthy as what I did then!

The huge bonus for me was the stratosphere tower which comprises of rollercoaster rides and a 360 degrees panoramic view of Vegas which really does take your breath away. Over 1000 feet up the viewing rooms are not for people suffering from vertigo, i am a little scared of heights myself but i braved it and it was totally worth it for the views. Follow the stairs up and you are on the roof, scary enough right? Wrong? There are three fully operational SCARY rides up there; X-Scream is a seated ride in which you are flung over the edge of the tower so that it stops and you are left staring at the ground 100 floors below, there's Big Shot, which is a vertical ride that shoots you up to the top, even higher up (!) and slowly brings you down, and finally the worst of all, the aptly named Insanity which is a ride that goes round and round...over the edge! Even further out than X-Scream this is truely terrifying but well worth it. Once you've 'achieved' all three you will feel very proud of yourself!!

Other attactions include famous actors doing Q & A and talks (they had Danny Trejo when i was there), world class magicians and singers from around the world. Unfortunately we didn't get to see any of them but there was so much to do in so little time! Downstairs, there is also a bar called Polly Esthers which was a very good night, we paid around $30 (£16 then) for free drinks all night and i must have had at least ten coronas, definately got my money's worth there. Very classy and trendy bar which wasn't fully open (only a Wednesday night) but still very busy and played good music.

So in general, this is a brilliant hotel in a city of top hotels, plus the tower provides a unique edge that no other hotel can compete with. I cannot recommend this hotel enough.

Summary: at the bottom of the strip there lies the hotel stratosphere, great hotel with a unique edge..