Well, I picked my hotels.

I'm a simple man, really.  I'm not fancy.  My criteria for Vegas hotels is simple too.  I want:

• A clean, comfortable room.
• A good location
• A pool I can cool off in. 

I leave out a lot of things other people want.  The hottest nightclubs, a great spa, fitness rooms (ha!), the greatest party pool, a chance at meeting a Kardashian.  These things are important to some people, not so much to me.

I walk a lot, but then everyone does in Vegas.  If there's a restaurant, or a bar, or something I want to see, I walk. 

Other things I like in a hotel are a decent bar and a greasy breakfast place, but these are a dime a dozen in LV.

I also like to see different places.  If I live long enough, and start making a lot more money, I'll stay in every hotel in Vegas.

Well, getting back to my hotel choices.  I have five days, I looked at many places, ran the numbers more than a few times.  I decided to split hotels, three nights on the strip and two downtown.

For the strip, I was really leaning towards Ballys.  I've stayed there before and it's my kind of place - nice enough rooms, not a crazy party place, friendly staff.  Price was right, and you can't beat the location.  And I liked the pool.

I also looked at Tropicana, which seems like a cool place to stay, but the price wasn't right.

Harrahs and Imperial Palace were also in my price range, but I've been through the casino at Harrahs and it just hasn't impressed me.  Imperial Palace was the cheapest, but after checking reviews on www.tripadvisor.com and www.yelp.com, it seems the place is a bit run down and there is construction going on there, so I crossed it off the list. 

An unexpected contender arose - Planet Hollywood.  Yes, it's hip, and I'm not.  But what the hell.  It was only a bit more pricey than Ballys, and it will be a new experience for me.  Which, in it's own way, is worth the money.  So I'm on my way.

You might notice all my choices are owned by the same company - Caesars Entertainment (CET).  Later I'll write some stuff about players clubs, but really it came down to three things - I like the hotels, no resort fees, and the website made it easy to compare and price hotels. 

Maybe staying at the MGM hotels would have saved me a buck, but I'm not sure, since their website wouldn't take my info. Sorry MGM, ya lost my business.

I also booked a room downtown for two nights.  More on that later.

http://www.planethollywoodresort.com