we stayed at the circus circus in 2005, our 2nd visit to las vegas, (we have been back twice since and to 2 different hotels). It is a very cheap strip hotel, a little further out than most but still within walking distance to the central strip area. However check in took 4 hours!!!! this was a saturday lunch time. Also it was so crowded in the casino and all halls with children and families eating pizza, crying, hanging around running around. It only gets worse nearer your room as people are strewn ACROSS THE CORRIDORS eating more pizza and shouting. people bang doors all nite long. As there is no security before the rooms or lifts there are rooms with 8 or so people staying in each one! There are many other strip hotels that are slightly more expensive but worth every penny. As we British know, its the flight that costs the most so pay the extra few quid for somewhere better. one plus point is the steakhouse, lovely.

After reading the reviews of Circus Circus, it was with some trepidation that I made reservations to stay there. My son and I were meeting my parents, and they always stay there out of habit, and it didn't make sense to search for better lodging off the Strip.

There are some very good deals at Circus Circus (and it seems all of Las Vegas) on Sunday thru Thursday, but the room rates just soar on weekends. Our visit was from Wednesday thru Saturday. We had a special promotion code for Wednesday and Thursday for $40 per night including tax with some freebies and coupons thrown in. But the rate for Friday night was close to $200! I didn't book that night, and instead reserved a room at the Motel 6 about 3 miles away, but even that was $100/night. As the date of our trip got closer, the room rate for Friday at Circus Circus started to drop, and a few days before leaving, I found a room for $85 including tax on Travelocity, so I snapped it up.

We checked in late Wednesday night, and got "upgraded" to a newly renovated room in the West Tower. The room was large and bright, with new granite surfaces on the furniture and in the bathroom, and had a big wide-screen TV. The TV remote needed new batteries, so I called housekeeping and they brought me a new remote in about 15 minutes, even though it was past midnight.

Because I had two reservations, I had to check out on Friday morning and then check in again on Friday afternoon. I had been told that I could get in line and see if I could keep my room another day, but we were taking a Hoover Dam bus tour, so I didn't have time to wait in line. We left our bags in my parents room, and went off on our day trip.

On Friday evening, the check in line was so long that it wound around the corner by some of the concessions. I was fortunate that my parents had a room that I could hang out in, and that my reservation was prepaid. I was able to phone in my check in, and after an hour go wait in the check OUT line (about 15 minutes instead of a couple of hours) and pick up my room key. We were put into the West Tower again, but the room was smaller and dark, and had a regular TV. Even though it was a nonsmoking room on a nonsmoking floor, there was a definite, though not overpowering, odor of cigarette smoke, and a burn hole in the bedspread. However, the bathroom was clean and bright and had a granite counter. And the beds were comfortable.

My parents had a very dark room also. If you're traveling by airplane, bring a couple of 100 watt lightbulbs. If you're traveling by car, bring a small desklamp. MIght as well bring a coffee-maker too, as there is no in-room coffee and room service ends at noon.

If you are traveling with kids, I definitely recommend trying to get a room in the West Tower (instead of the Main Tower or the Skyrise Tower) because you don't have to walk thru any casinos to get to the Adventuredome (indoor theme park). You just step off the elevator, go around the corner, and you're there. A possible advantage to staying in the Skyrise Tower is that you're closer to the pool, but since the pool closes at 5 PM, we were never able to check it out.

I was annoyed by all the nickel&diming with room charges, especially the phone. There was a $1/day phone charge plus it cost 75 cents to dial an 800 number. But they were up front about all these additional charges, and so I had no unexpected charges on my bill. Another annoyance was all the advertising for EZ check out on your room TV, but both times that I tried to use it, the system was unavailable, even though I was trying to use it during the allegedly available hours.

In spite of the drawbacks, we enjoyed our stay. My son loved the Adventuredome, 24 hour Krispy Kreme, and the selection of family-oriented pay-per-view movies. I liked being able to return to our room for bathroom breaks and to get more money.

We stayed at Circus Circus Feb 17-21, 2008. Our experience wasn’t a bad one, nor was it an overly great one either. We arrived in Vegas at 10:45pm, after traveling five hours from the east coast. We took the Grey Line shuttle to our hotel, and after hearing some horror stories about the shuttle, we were pleasantly surprised. The other passengers on our shuttle were all headed to hotels on the lower end of the strip as well, so the ride wasn’t too long with dropping others off. I think we made it to Circus in about 25 mins or so, and that was after dropping someone off at the Riviera across the street. When we arrived at Circus, the check in line was long and there were people everywhere in the lobby. The line moved rather quickly and before we knew it, we were up. Our only request at check- in was to get an upgraded/renovated room in one of the towers. The clerk helping us was very nice and was able to accommodate our request, which was in the west tower. We hiked our bags up to the room, and once inside noticed that the temp in the room was 80+ degrees. My husband tried to turn the AC unit on, and it wouldn’t work. We called down to the front desk, and they told us to come back down, and they would reassign us another room, they also apologized profusely. They offered to have a bellman come move our bags, but my husband declined and said we could take care of it on our own. Once back down to the front desk, they assigned us another room (deluxe suite) in the main casino tower on the top floor. The also gave us two comped meal vouchers for the restaurants at Circus. So….we hiked up to the room and opened the door, and to our surprise the bed wasn’t made. It wasn’t slept in; it was a new pillow top mattress and box spring, which must have just been delivered. So needless to say we called back down to the front desk and they apologized again and told us they would have housekeeping come up to make the bed. I wasn’t angry at this point (almost 1:30am), just overly tired and wanted to get some sleep. The room itself was very nice & huge. It had a king size bed, two marble top night stands with lamps, phone, and digital clock, a 42 inch television in an entertainment armoire (the stations at Circus suck, only about ten stations and three of which are hotel advertisements), a separate area with a desk/chair, loveseat, easy chair, round coffee table, and another marble top table w/lamp. The bathroom area was just inside the door off to the left. It had a foyer area first, where there were luggage racks to place your suitcases, and a coat rack to hang clothes as well. After walking through the foyer area, there was a dressing area with a marble top vanity w/stool, a huge wall mirror, another coat rack, and a safe to put valuables. The bathroom itself came next, and had a marble top sink area, huge mirror, commode, and tub/shower. The bathroom itself was just standard. We were hoping for a Jacuzzi style tub, to no avail. All in all the room was nice and we had an awesome view of the strip, and could see all the way to Mandalay Bay, which was especially nice at night to see all the lights of Vegas. The hotel itself was okay, not the nicest I have ever stayed in, but served its purpose. One complaint would be all the kids, even during the week. This isn’t the hotels fault in any way, especially given the hotel theme. My idea of Vegas is an adult get-away, and next time we will stay somewhere else where there wouldn’t be so many kids for the same price. We spent some time over at the Riviera across the street, and didn’t notice many kids there, if any at all. Circus casino was big, and had many slot machines, and table games, plus a poker room that my husband played in nightly. The dealers at the table games were not the friendliest we’ve ever come across. They appeared tired and grouchy and constantly talked about the foreign non-tippers. We experienced the same thing over at the Riviera as well, but not at any of the other casinos we gambled in, not even in Slots of Fun, which is a small casino owned by Circus. The attitude of the dealers at Circus and Riviera, pretty much turned us off. As far as restaurants at Circus, we were comped two meals and had heard horror stories about the food at Circus with the exception of the steak house, so we decided we would use the comps for breakfast one day at the Buffet and the second day at the Casino Café because we wanted steak at a restaurant downtown. The buffet was okay- definitely not like the RIO buffet, more like a Golden Corral or Cactus Willy type, but it was breakfast food, and it’s kind of hard to mess that up. They had a pretty good selection of hot foods, but a huge assortment of breads/pastries and fruit. The Casino Café was good. It had a quiet relaxed atmosphere and big comfy booths. We both ordered the Circus Scramble which was three scrambled eggs with cheese, onions, & peppers and came with hash browns, bacon or sausage, and Texas toast in your choice of white, wheat, or rye. The food was really good, and the presentation on the plate was nice too. The service was very fast and friendly. We would recommend this place for breakfast. I can’t guarantee that it’s the best value for what you get, as it was a little pricey but it was very nice at Circus. All in all, the hotel was a nice place to sleep & shower. I probably wouldn’t stay there again unless for some strange reason I decided to bring my kids to Vegas- which won’t happen for another 10-15 years though.

Went to Las Vegas in 06 to celebrate my 21st with some friends and we loved every minute of it!!! We are due to go back again this October and with a few more friends this time too!!

We chose the hotel mainly because it was so cheap. As we all had varying budgets its only fair we chose the cheapest we could find that was also in a good location. The Circus Circus it was.

From the moment we arrived in the hotel we were mesmorised. Although the hotel is one of the oldest there, there is just something about it that makes it so magical. As we are all big kids at heart, the theme of the hotel suited us perfectly.

I've read reviews that the check in is a nightmare, i didnt find it too bad at all. Who cares your in Vegas, all your going to do is drop your bags off, freshen up and head back out again anyway!! Although i did get lost in the hotel a few times, its all part of the fun!
We had steak at 4am once too, which was an odd time to eat, but it was a nice steak! theres a McDonalds in the hotel and a 24hr one just outside. A subway right nextdoor in the slots place, the whole place is alive.

We went clubbing one night to celebrate and we went to Tabu in MGN, which was great too. This is we are planning to go clubbing more!

There were three of us that went and we were all the same room with 2 very comfortable queen size beds, in the tallest tower overlooking the strip (although i have read recently that there is a lot of building work going on around the hotel, but this didnt fase us on booking it again this year)

We didnt gamble, as we didnt know how to. But watching other people is amazing in itself. Definatly going to have a dabble this year though.

I always read that its quite a walk to the main part of the strip...i didnt once find this walk grueling, your in las vegas? why moan about the walk?? we were close to the fashion show mall, which we spent about four hours in and spent a fortune, on our first day!! bad idea. We went on a helicopter over the strip at night and to the grand canyon, both of which were amazing. We did everything possible, when to the Secret Gardens in the Mirage (which i wont be going back to, i remember seeing a panther pacing up and down and didnt like the condition the animals were kept in) the Shark Bay place in Mandalay Bay, the Roller coaster at New York New York and the Stratosphere, both scary but great! The Eiffel Tower in the Paris hotel, saw the water fountains at bellagio, the volcano at Mirage, and we went to watch the Pirates at TI, but it broke down half way through. We also went to watch a show, Le Reve at the Wynn, which was the most amazing show i have ever seen!!!!! we only booked the tickets 2 hours before the show (from the ticket office in Fashion Show Mall) we had great seats and we were mezmorised the entire time!

One place we didnt visit was Freemont Street, which i would of loved, but we just ran out of time (were there 5 nights 6 days)

We booked a limo from the airport too which was good, very cheap too.

We flew with Virgin as it was the only direct flight, and although it was 10 1/2 hours, i didnt fancy swapping and changing in the states as queues can be massive when trying to get your visa, and i was worried that if we got delaying going we might miss the connecting flight, and i havent a clue what to do if that happens.

Overall, anyway, Circus is great, as is Vegas itself!!

I would love to stay in a big posh hotel but unfortunalty budgets dont stretch that far which is a shame, but you are able to go into all of the hotels anyway.