The one possible good thing the Luxor may have is the gambling. Rows of chain-smoking, depressed blue-haired ladies robotically operating 5c slots aren't quite the norm here, and there is actually an inner 'sanctum sanctorum' of Actual High Rollers, which is the only part of Vegas I've ever seen that reminded me at all of the Roald Dahl The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar story. There are a few blue-hairs, and the gambling more or less caters to all levels of...rollers.

Apart from that, the place irritates by making a pretense at "luxury." A good number of the rooms (over half, if memory serves) do not have bathtubs; exercise caution when making reservations. The lower-tier (eg, no tub) rooms are really shoddy: thanks to the slope of the pyramid they're more claustrophobic than the worst NYC hotel, and they are bizarrely amenity-free: low rollers are treated to very little; bring your own toiletries and ask at the check-in to have more towels sent up. The larger rooms are fairly impressive if not somewhat ill-designed: the whirlpool is in the same room as the bed and most everything else, and a relatively useless room with a small table will go unused. Note also that a set of seven or eight (!!!) toiletries come with the larger rooms...

...the toiletries come from the spa, which isn't worth it even with a "comp." The "pampering" concept is lost here; it is pay-as-you-go, and argue with the aesthetician to get her to believe that, despite what she may have learned at Arlen Beauty College, you really don't want your injured neck massaged by her. (Politeness doesn't seem to go very far in Vegas. Curiously. Unsurprisingly.)

The food is soundly mediocre middle Americana, no matter which of the bizarre theme restaurants you choose. Vegetarians should probably give up the ghost; the rest of you may want to at the sight of the buffet, unless you are under 2 or over 95 years old. The ritziest place is a steak house, gussied up like a 'Morton's' but serving 'Sizzler' food. Room service is similarly depressing.

The service is wildly uneven: it was either a free limousine, or fumbling unfamiliarity. The mind does boggle at how anyone can keep a hotel of that size running smoothly, mind, so some annoyances are probably to be expected. I didn't encounter anything so bad as to remember it here, but I didn't hit on any "Was any member of our staff exceptionally helpful to you? Please let us know..." people.

Dress code varies between prom night and 'Whip Me Tie Me Fly Me' t-shirts, so you can at least relax about the clothing business, no matter where you are in the hotel. This may or may not be a good thing, depending.

If it's important to you to gamble in a nice environment and stay in the place you're gambling, and for some reason any other likely Strip suspects are out of the question, the Luxor may be worth a go. Otherwise, there's little to recommend it -- yes, it is in Las Vegas and therefore fun on that basis, but it's at the very end of the surprisingly long strip -- meaning a cab (or limo if lucky) to get anywhere else.



Recommended: No