Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
you tell, I really, really like this hotel? (Though if swimming pools, fitness rooms,
and shopping arcades matter to you, you'd best stay elsewhere.)
The Aloha shirts worn by the largely Hawaiian staff is the first giveaway that
the
California Hotel & Casino
is the most popular resort in Vegas for the 808
state. Walk through the small second-floor mall with its Aloha eatery (p. 93), its
Lapperts Ice Cream stand (part of the biggest ice cream chain in Hawaii), and its
convenience store selling Spam and it becomes even clearer—you're never going
to be able to get a reservation here because the entire state of Hawaii has gotten
here before you. According to the management, the clientele here is about 90%
Hawaiian (as opposed to 70% at Main Street Station), and the place is often taken
over fully by high school reunions—they come here instead of using the school
gym for the occasion (family reunions are big, too). After staying here, it'll be clear
why the place is so popular. It's not the casino—built in the 1975 it has that
gloomy, “2 million cigarettes smoked down to the nub here” ambience. But the
laid back, convivial staff are extraordinarily friendly (at the blackjack table, I met
a return visitor who had just gotten a ride in from the airport from a porter he's
friendly with—at no cost); and the newly renovated rooms with their pseudo-
googie, ultragroovy '60s curves and bursts of color (deep red pillow cases, red and
royal blue chairs against brown plaid carpeting—hey, it actually works) are swell.
I think you'll enjoy the palm tree bedspreads, the rich birch wood headboards,
and the framed pop art posters on the walls, too. (
Tip:
Avoid the older East Tower,
which has smaller rooms and louder plumbing.) On the roof is a postage-stamp
pool that's shared with guests from the Fremont and Main Street Station.
The
Fremont
celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1996. In its day, it was
the
place downtown; the first high-rise here, its former showroom served as a stage for
Wayne Newton, Liberace, Lou Rawls and others. It also was instrumental in
introducing gambling as a pastime to female customers, opening up the first all-
female card room in Vegas. All that said, it's my least favorite of the three Boyd
properties (though I'd still take it over most of the other downtown properties any
day). It has a similar casino to the California's but minus dealers that remember
your name when you come back 6 months later. Somehow, it is just a bit less
friendly and the rooms are smaller, though they too have been re-done, here in a
mod palette of ice blue and midnight brown that's so chic, you might feel like
you're in some fancy Hollywood hotel. Though it had the first roof pool down-
town, that's since been closed; guests use the one next door at the Cal.
$-$$$$
Downtown's answer to the Strip, the spiffy
Golden Nugget Las
Vegas
555
(129 E. Fremont St., at Casino Center Blvd.;
%
800/634-3454 or
702/385-7111; www.goldennugget.com; AE, DC, MC, V)
is about to get even more,
well, “Stripified.” It's in the midst of a giant upgrade, which will add an Olympic-
size outdoor pool to the hotel, complete with waterslide and, in the midst of the
pool, an aquarium filled with sharks. (Funny that no one in this town ever
thought of swimming with sharks before.) It's just the latest salvo for the Golden
Nugget, which since its opening in 1946 has always managed to outglitz its neigh-
bors. Frank Sinatra opened its showroom, its spa was designed to look like the
Garden Room at NYC's Frick Museum (the fitness room is superb as well), and on
display in the lobby is the “Hand of Faith,” the largest known gold nugget in the
world today (all of 61 lb., 11 oz.). The Nugget was helped along in its glam quest
