I had one day to spend in Vegas on my way back home from a trip and thought that Circus Circus would be acceptable. Was I ever wrong...Circus Circus was one of the worst hotels I've ever patronized.

Because Vegas was a layover for me, I wanted to spend as little money as possible for a room and Circus Circus had a $30 room rate advertised on its website. Other hotels on the strip were advertising rates in the $50 range and I didn't think that there would be that much of a difference between the hotels. When I arrived at the hotel I immediately knew I made a mistake when I saw the filth and crowds in the lobby area. The decor was "1970s rundown" style and there was a stench of dirty carpeting, cigarettes and booze. When I finally was able to check in I got hit with a $1 phone surcharge that wasn't advertised in the rate. Now $1 is not anything that I care about in most cases, but being told that the charge had to be paid in cash to the clerk (for local phone use, whether I used it or not) just sounded like a scam. If it's a mandatory charge, why not just include it in the room rate? At that point I just wanted to get to my room, drop off my bags, clean up and maybe head down to the casino to gamble for an hour before going to bed.

This is where the major shock was delivered...my room wasn't located in the hotel/casino building. The "cheap" rooms were actually located across the street in a totally separate low-rise room complex situated in the "RV" park area. On top of having to lug my bags outside in the Vegas heat and across a busy street into the "manor" area, the aura was pure slum. The Circus Circus "manor" was more like a public housing complex-the three story complex looked more like a cheap motel and when I entered the building it smelled even worse than the lobby area...a very strong smell of old cigarettes and filth. I finally found my room and it appeared to have been unoccupied for days. The air conditioning had been off for so long that I choked when I opened the door and the stale, stifling air poured out. Then I saw that the room was a decrepit pit with just a rickety bed, thin and worn carpet and a set of chairs and a table that looked like it could have come from a Salvation Army store. I've been in bad motels before, but this was the worst. It wasn't even up to the low standards set by the Little Rock Holiday Inn, let alone Las Vegas.

Luckily, the air conditioning worked (albeit noisily) and there was a TV as well. But the room was so far from the casino that I never bothered to trek over to it and I checked out as soon as morning arrived.

If you really want to save the $20 a night by going to the Circus Circus rather than other strip hotels, you should probably reconsider going to Vegas at all...the difference between staying at the ultimate dump that is the Circus Circus as compared to other hotels available is about 2 minutes worth of slot machine action. And if you have kids, there is no choice...children should NOT be exposed to the filth of the Circus Circus.

Recommended: No