Cosmo vs Hard Rock Hotel?

[rcs]

Myself and 4 other guys are heading to Vegas on the 27th of December to the 1st for a friends Birthday and NYE (obviously). We are looking to book into Cosmo using the Marriott 25% deal but our other option would be to stay at the Hard Rock Hotel. From what we have heard Cosmo is the place to be and we are quite keen on Marquee for new years. Do you reckon its worth it for the benefit of being in the same resort? And do you have any tips on how we should arrange club entry(ies) before hand?

If we had a big bucket of cash we'd go for Cosmo every time, but we are all 21/22 and our flight prices have gone up £100 ($150) in the last week as we couldnt get organised and so we are potentially rethinking where we should stay. Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Vater]

Cosmo, hands down. Hard Rock may be cheaper to book, but you're going to pay so much on cab fare to get to and from the strip. Cosmo is near the middle of all the action on the strip.

[Tara Denise]

Cosmo, hands down. Hard Rock may be cheaper to book, but you're going to pay so much on cab fare to get to and from the strip. Cosmo is near the middle of all the action of the strip.

+1 for this!!

We stayed at the Cosmo, and went to check out the Hard Rock one day (one of the girls wanted to see the Britney Spears outfit or something on display there). It was such a pain just to get there and back!

[T Dot]

If you can afford Cosmo, stay there. HardRock is just a cheaper option. But I wouldn't say a $10-$15 cab ride from HRH between 5 guys to centre strip is a boat load of cash.

[Vater]

You'll like the vibe/atmosphere of Cosmo more than HRH

But I wouldn't say a $10-$15 cab ride from HRH between 5 guys to centre strip is a boat load of cash.

5 guys = wait for a minivan cab. At times they'll have to split the group up, plus I doubt all 5 of them will be hanging together the entire 4 nights.

[rcs]

Sadly the Marriott plan hasnt worked... So we're thinking Mirage and Mandalay bay might be other good choices?

[Vater]

Mandalay Bay is nice but is on the far south end of the strip. A cab ride to Cosmo from there is about $10. There's a free tram that can take you from Mandalay to Excalibur. From Excalibur, it's about a 20 min walk to Cosmo/Bellagio.

Everything in Vegas is further than it appears. If Cosmo is out of your budget range, look at PH or Flamingo so you can be somewhere central on the strip. Mirage isn't too bad of a location.

[donniejay]

Cosmo hands down brother. You're right in the middle of the Strip, and IMO the Cosmo is the place to stay at when you're in Vegas. great ambiance and crowd as well.The rooms with the Terrace balconies are very one of a kind and totally worth every penny.

[rcs]

Hmm Cosmo is definitely out of our budget. We'd rather have an extra $200 to spend. Our choice now is the MGM, seems to have a decent location and Hakkasan looks incredible

[kp3205]

Here's a few thoughts since you are bringing $$$ into the equation.

MGM is on the south end of the strip. It's easy access when you buy the 24 hour monorail ticket to go up and down that side of the strip. Trust me, you will not be walking the strip, it's a lot longer than it looks on a map. I will assume you are getting the Stay well grand queen (2 queen beds) that I am seeing for $217 a night if I used my MLife card to show some comparisons.

Monte Carlo 1/2 block closer to center than MGM and across street has their deluxe room with 2 queen beds at $147/night for those dates.

New York New York which is same location as MGM but across the street has their Park Avenue Room with 2 queens for $168/night.

Mirage Resort Queen (2 queen beds) is $194/night.

I have stayed at all of these and I would take Mirage due to the central location. Remember there is a $25/day resort fee plus taxes still to be added on to the nightly rate I showed.

You can set up the club scenarios through promoters here on JC. You need to have a serious discussion with the group what the all in budget will be for clubs while you are staying there.

Remember 20% auto gratuity, 10% LET, 8% sales tax is added on to the bill so a $2k minimum all in is close to $2800 total. Now add in the tip to the host who set up your table deal(My rule is $50-$100 per bottle the host quotes as the minimum required depending on the tier of the club), individual tips, out of your pockets not on bill, for the bouncer and bus boy if you get a table.

NYE is ridiculously high at the clubs so be prepared to hear crazy minimum $$$ or bottle commitments if you are debating a table for one of the clubs that night. Honestly don't get your hopes up for Hak or any tier 1 clubs for a table since it will take buckets of cash needed for that scenario.

Hope this helps and cheers.

[Rival2378]

PH - similar vibe to HR, and dead center on the strip.

[donniejay]

As far as location, value, and environment goes..my favorite "budget" hotel would be the Mirage!

[Jay]

I would have to say that cosmo gets my vote as well

[boags]

found Elara to be great bang for buck, if you want great location on a budget. The walk through Miracle Mile gets old though.

Never stayed, but Jockey Club gets a lot of love also.