Best Hotels in Las Vegas for Business, Bachelor Parties, and More

In the City of Sin, the greatest wrong you can commit is booking a bad hotel. Seriously, you can’t toss a roulette pill without hitting a top-tier hotel, even if you’re off the Strip. That being said, for every great hotel, there is also a not-so-great one waiting for your misguided booking. Don’t be fooled by their mirage: You can even book incredible hotels for cheap prices in Las Vegas, given the wealth of competition.

So, whether you’re passing through town for a bachelor’s trip, a couple’s escape, a convention, a concert, a leisurely escape, or a shotgun wedding, there’s a hotel with your name on it (somewhere in the subscript, though, since the names in lights tend to be of the Wynn, Waldorf, and the Caesar variety). And this roster of Las Vegas’ best hotels is the surest gamble on your next visit through town.

Best Hotels in Las Vegas for Business, a Bachelor Party, or Shotgun Wedding

1. Best High-End Luxury Hotel in Las Vegas: The Palazzo Las Vegas

Towering over the Venetian Resort and Convention Center complex, you find one of Vegas’ most awesome, luxurious properties: The Palazzo. There are only suites here—some over 1,000 square feet—and detailed with marble bathrooms, sunken living quarters, as well as glowing city views (after all, it’s the state’s tallest building, and the U.S.’s most spacious, too, with nearly 7 million square feet). A two-story waterfall welcomes visitors in the atrium; grandiose architecture recalls old-world Italy at its most stately.

2. Best Boutique Hotel in Las Vegas: The Cromwell

So much of Vegas hospitality is standardized, given the huge parent companies that run such large-scale hotels. The Cromwell, on the other hand, was the city’s first standalone boutique hotel, and matches if not exceeds the luxury and attentiveness of the big guys. (It is part of the Caesars network, after all.) It plays host to Drai’s nightclub and fine Italian eatery Giada, the latter from Ms. De Laurentiis herself. The Cromwell is also pet friendly, for those who value 5-star hospitality for four-legged companions.

3. Best Small Luxury Hotel in Las Vegas: Nobu Hotel Las Vegas

The ever-expanding Nobu Hotel chain got its start at Caesars Palace in 2013. Gilded details and modern art give the property its Japanese-inspired ambiance, while the seven onsite pools help give it big-luxury bravado. Best of all, you have direct access (as well as a room-service option) for Nobu Restaurant, which is under the direction of famed chef Nobu Matsuhisa.

4. Best Design Hotel in Las Vegas: The NoMad Las Vegas

With “residential comfort of a European home,” the NoMad pays attention to each design detail, while esthetically paying homage to the desert and City of Lights (that is, Vegas, not Paris). A mix of Vegas glamour and New York sensibility give its rooms and public spaces much to post Instagrams about—that Tiffany glass ceiling in the casino, for starters…

5. Best Hotel Pool in Las Vegas: Mandalay Bay Beach

Mandalay Bay Beach at Mandalay Bay has the city’s best adult-friendly waterpark, an 11-acre beach-lined oasis in the Nevadan desert. Rent a cabana to laze the day away, or do the same in the lazy river or lounge-friendly lagoon. Its 1.6 million gallon wave pool is an attraction in its own right, as are the beach bodies that line the perimeter of each pool.

6. Best Resort in Las Vegas: JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa

In Vegas, pretty much every hotel qualifies as a resort, given the expanse of offerings. But JW Marriott in Vegas’ Summerlin area may take top prize thanks to its secluded nature along the TPC Las Vegas Golf Course, with the Red Rock Canyon as backdrop. You’ll get a reprieve from the bustle of the Strip (it’s a 30-minute drive west), enjoying a spa treatment or an afternoon among the property’s waterfalls, river, koi ponds, and walking paths. This oasis connects all three towers of the resort, and centers you like the kind of resort escapes you’re accustomed to.

7. Best Budget Hotel in Las Vegas: El Cortez

The “original icon of downtown Las Vegas,” El Cortez is 80 years young and still family run (it also has one of the city’s few remaining family-run casinos). It’s on the National Register of Historic Places—the only casino with such a distinction. Despite that historic nature, El Cortez stays modern with its go-southwest decor, its latest overhaul done in 2019. As iconic and immortal as it may be, El Cortez remains affordable, and gives you a nice change of pace from the heart of the hectic Strip.

8. Best LGBTQ-Friendly Hotel in Las Vegas: Virgin Hotels Las Vegas

Virgin is tucked inside Paradise, an unincorporated area that is technically not Las Vegas, though both are roommates in Clark County. The newly redesigned Virgin is at the LGBTQ epicenter, with the right balance of vibrancy, taste, and cheek that confirms you are not in a formulaic hotel off the Strip—though, for convenience’s sake you are very much near the Strip.

9. Best Casino Hotel in Las Vegas: South Point Hotel Casino & Spa

Take it from the locals: They flock to South Point, for its 2,200+ slot and video poker machines, along with the 60+ casino pit table games. Watch the game on either of its               two wall-sized TVs or various plasma televisions around the Sports Book. And, despite being a 15-minute drive from the strip, South Point has 2,100+ rooms in its 4-star property, proving that if you build the best casino in Vegas, they will come.

10. Best Casino-Free Hotel in Las Vegas: Las Vegas Vdara Hotel & Spa

Casinos are nearly a given in Vegas, but certain travelers may want to retire home in the evening without the sound of slot machines or even the crowds that come with it. Vdara has all the makings of a standard-fare, gold-star hotel, but in Vegas it seems a fish out of water sans casino. It’s a 3-star Strip property that feels like 4 (how many 3-star hotels have a spa, poolside cabanas, and luxury suits?). The standard of hospitality is so high in Vegas, and Vdara competes against the best of ‘em by smartly choosing its amenities.

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