53 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good, but not perfect, September 8, 2007
This review is from: The Unofficial Guide to Las Vegas 2008 (Unofficial Guides) (Paperback)
I've been a fan of Bob Sehlinger, the author, ever since I first discovered his other book,
The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2008 (Unofficial Guides). Since I was planning a trip to Las Vegas, I decided to buy this guidebook even though I'd been to the city many times before. Partly I was curious to see if this would live up to his WDW book, and partly because I wanted input on planning which shows to see, which restaurants to visit, etc. I've broken my comments on each major section of the book into separate paragraphs below.
Hotels: This section is kind of an odd grab bag of information. The author has an extensive list of covered hotels and offers a write-up of each one. Yet the information covered is often more of a general description than a true critique that would help the average traveler. For example, the Wynn Las Vegas receives three full pages of text but in all of that, there is virtually nothing said about the rooms. When reading these entries, it's more similar to how a novelist would set a scene than how I would expect a travel writer to critique a hotel. There is a chart that shows an overall rating for the hotel as well as a room rating, but no details are offered.
Restaurants: There are far too many restaurants in Las Vegas for any guide to review them all in depth but the author does a good job of breaking down your options at the major hotels. Beginning with summarized lists that show favorites by category, coverage then shifts to more detailed write-ups for each location in alphabetical order. Each restaurant receives ratings for quality, value, and an overall score. In addition, there are helpful comments. This section is very helpful.
Entertainment: There is a chart that ranks all shows in order of entertainment value followed by detailed write-ups of each show with ratings broken down by age group. This is by far the best coverage of shows that I've seen in any of the Las Vegas guides. Given the cost of tickets to these extravaganzas, this section alone is worth the price of the book as it can steer you to a great experience or help you avoid a less worthy show that you might have been considering.
Nightclubs: This section is not as comprehensive as those listed above, but it is still quite good. There are no ratings, but there are detailed reviews and tips for each of the major clubs. I don't spend a lot of time on this because I'm not a clubber, but this is at least as much coverage, and probably more, as I've seen in the other guides.
Gambling: This is the only Las Vegas guidebook that I have seen with a whole section devoted to teaching the basics of gambling. I'm not sure how seriously to take the advice since I definitely feel they overstate the difficulty of playing blackjack. Overall, it's nice that they included this, but it's no substitute for a good book on the subject.
Other: The Unofficial Guide does a decent job of covering all the miscellaneous bases. Attractions such as the Star Trek Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton get solid reviews that will help you decide whether it's your cup of tea or not. The Liberace Museum, however, is almost buried in the back with a single paragraph of coverage. All in all, I would say that these items are covered better in the Frommer's guide and if they are a big priority to you, it will be something of a black mark against this book.
Overall, it's easy for me to recommend this book. I spent quite a bit of time going through
Frommer's Las Vegas 2007 (Frommer's Complete) and
Fodor's Las Vegas 2007 (Fodor's Gold Guides) and this is much more comprehensive. It does have some weaknesses, however, and they are worth considering. The worst flaw is the nature of the hotel coverage. While a good many pages are devoted to it, detail on rooms gets short shrift. Still, this is Las Vegas and people generally don't come here to spend a lot of time inside their rooms so maybe you really do care more about the casino, lobby, etc. on which a lot of the author's prose focuses. A more minor quibble is the coverage of miscellaneous attractions but this is still pretty solid for the most part. If The Unofficial Guide to Las Vegas isn't quite up to the level of the author's Walt Disney World guide, that's not really a crime. The key is how well it stacks up to other Vegas guides and the answer is very well indeed. I give it four stars and a strong recommendation. I'll hold the fifth star for the edition where hotel coverage is strengthened a notch.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining and informative guide book., March 13, 2008
This review is from: The Unofficial Guide to Las Vegas 2008 (Unofficial Guides) (Paperback)
Like one of the previous reviewers, I bought this book after previously buying their guide to Walt Disney World. The WDW guide was superb, stuffed full of information about everything you could possibly need to know in the planning stages and also during your trip. In fact there is nearly too much info in the WDW book, with the author going as far as giving exact measurements of some of the hotel rooms! As a result, I expected the same high standard from the Las Vegas book and I have to say I was left a little disappointed.
First of all I have to say that I love the way the authors write these books. They have a very amusing turn of phrase and they have an irreverence toward their destinations that I find a refreshing change from a lot of the overly serious travel guides. I have really enjoyed reading this book, I find that their mix of amusing background stories, reader reviews and helpful advice, entertaining as well as informative.
The area where I found this book a little disappointing was the descriptions of the hotels. When I bought this book, I hadn't yet booked my hotel and was hoping for a little guidance. Like the previous reviewer pointed out, there might be two or three pages devoted to a particular hotel, but little or no mention of the actual room quality size or amenities. After all, when you book a hotel, you're paying for a room, so this is surely the main area of interest rather than what the `feel' of the lobby is like. If I were feeling sceptical, I'd nearly think that the authors had not actually been in the rooms of the hotels they were critiquing but merely the public areas and gardens. I'm sure that isn't the case, but that is an impression one might get when faced with the complete lack of mention of rooms in some of the hotel descriptions!
Other than that, I really loved this book. The sections on shopping, restaurants and shows are outstanding and as a first time visitor to Vegas and a non-gambler, I really appreciated the `how to' section on gambling. There is also a comprehensive section on tours outside of Vegas, for those who want to escape the bright lights for a day or two.
Overall, I highly recommend this book, it is way more in depth than a lot of other travel guides that I have looked at. I would especially recommend it to visitors who are staying more than a couple of nights and who want to see more than the usual sights as this book is choc full of info on some of the more `hidden gems'. In fact, one other slight disadvantage to this book, is that it is quite thick and heavy and so may be better for pre trip planning than actually carrying round with you.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Useful right away, January 15, 2008
This review is from: The Unofficial Guide to Las Vegas 2008 (Unofficial Guides) (Paperback)
I've had this book in my hands for all of an hour and a half, and my trip isn't for a few months, but the book has already made itself worth well more than its cover price. By searching Internet travel web sites and comparing the inexpensive results to the reviews, I was able to find that one of the cheapest hotels is just as likeable to me as some half again as expensive, and verify that the rate I'm being offered is reasonable.
The book has a ton of information on hotels, restaurants, and shows - enough that I will be wading through it for a couple weeks to plan my ideal vacation. Normally when I'm traveling I buy 3 or 4 travel books and together they give me the information I need to know... after receiving this book, I think I will likely cut it back to just this one, and perhaps one for my travel companion.
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