Because it is not a regular Hilton hotel, members of the Hilton Honors program may be a little disappointed. They give out points for your stay but you won?t get the typical favored treatment that you will find in other Hilton properties. This hotel will reserve that special treatment for their high stakes gamblers.

If you have stayed at other Las Vegas hotels, you may be familiar with the assault on your senses that hits you when you walk in the front door. This assault comes in the form of lights and noise from the slot machines just a few feet from where you walk in. This won?t be the case with Hilton; you will actually have a very comfortable, attractive, and spacious lobby to greet you.

The pool at the Hilton is small even though the pictures make it look bigger. If there are more than 25 fellow guests in the pool, you will have a hard time doing laps or swimming comfortably with your family. The sun bathing area though is quite large and very comfortable. You can bargain with the pool management for the rental of the cabana so unless the place is packed ? don?t pay full price!

The rooms at the LV Hilton are very nice with all of the electronic extras that one would expect from a Hilton. Hilton Honors members will be quite at home.

The main buffet is fantastic. The breakfast was like have a great Sunday brunch every day. The dinner featured excellent food including steak, prime rib, crab, different varieties of fish, nearly every vegetable that you would wish and finally a desert bar that was guaranteed to add an inch to your waist. Simple wines and beer are included in the price.

This is a very good hotel to enjoy Las Vegas but not be stuck in the whirlwind of the bigger name hotels. The rooms are reasonably priced and quite comfortable and very suitable if you are traveling with your family. As with any LV hotel, though, if you are a single man walking the hallways or bars after about 11 P.M., you can expect to be talked to by a moderately attractive woman in tight fitting clothes that wants to be your friend for awhile – beware!

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Recently, the Hualapai opened up the West Rim for viewing by tourists. The landmark facility in their effort is the glass skywalk which allows the visitor to walk on a cantilevered structure that overhangs the edge and has a glass floor. This gives the vacationer an unforgettable view of the Grand Canyon.

While the view to the bottom of the canyon is glamorous, it does not come cheap. In fact, few things on the West Rim are inexpensive. Be forewarned that the ticket to go on the Skywalk is an additional cost on some other tour package that you will buy (or is included in a tour package). The minimum that this walk on glass is going to cost is $75 per person. Don’t drive all the way to the rim without knowing this! It is a little deceiving when you look at the official web site because in order to see these costs, you have to go to the Adobe Flash portion of the website, then click on the other pricing options available. Here is the direct URL to the pricing page for your convenience. When we were there, they said a huge number of people don’t understand the costs and get frustrated (maybe they should make it more obvious on their website).

Most, if not all, of the tour packages will include some sort of meal. The meal was good but not great. If you are looking for a great culinary experience, you are going to miss out. Eat a sandwich before you get to the reservation so you aren’t starved and disappointed.

The tour will include a stop at Guano Point. This was actually better than the Skywalk! Budget the time to spend on this peninsula of rock that sticks into the canyon. The view is absolutely spectacular and your family will enjoy climbing on the rocks around the paths. If you don’t use 30-40 pictures on your digital camera, I would be amazed. On the way to Guano Point your driver should point out the Eagle and Sleeping Dog that nature has carved into the canyon walls (see this picture).

Most people will visit the West Rim from Las Vegas. There are tours that originate from the strip and you should check with your travel agent or concierge for options. Driving on your own is not terribly tough and it will take you across Hoover Dam so you can visit there as well. It takes about 90 minutes to get to the dirt road through the reservation. This road is quite navigable by nearly any vehicle but you will get very dusty! Make sure that you have at least 3 hours worth of fuel in your car before you leave Las Vegas as the cost of gas in the desert is much higher than in the city.

Overall, the trip to the West Rim is a great experience and if you are vacationing in Las Vegas, it is a great way to save money away from the casinos! As the Hualapai continue to develop this spot with more hotels and restaurants, it will be an even bigger attraction and may make a trip to Las Vegas even more attractive to families and non-gamblers.

Besides the links above you may want to read these articles:
Grand Canyon Skybridge – Where Is It Anyway?
The Grand Canyon for Beginners

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The view is not as majestic as it once was a few years back. Lately the water level in Lake Mead (the lake formed by the dam) has been intentionally lowered in favor of other reservoirs so now there is a white rim around the lake that looks to be 15 feet or so wide. The look on the other side is quite impressive though since you can really get a great impression on how deep Lake Mead really is (check out the picture to the right that came from Wikipedia). Your children will be tempted to try to roll pennies down the side of the slope and I guess that is okay but they won’t roll all the way – it is way too far!

Kids should also get a kick of walking from Nevada to Arizona and back again.

If you have seen the movie Transformers,it is interesting trying to find the various scenes and mistakes that the movie makes with the dam. Read more about the movie here and here.

The facts and figures on the size of the lake and the amount of concrete in the structure (enough to pave a highway from New York to San Francisco) can be found several places on the web and this is a good reference.

The gift shop is not overly impressive unless you are a collector of magnets and vanity plates/cups. Interesting that they were selling “Hoover Dam rocks” which are simply rocks that are laying on the ground (I suggest that you save your money and pick up a rock as you walk back to your car).

There are also some great pictures of the views on a variety of structures on the web. Take a look here and I put a few below this post. The commemoration of the “high scalers” is very well done.

You can get to the Hoover Dam in an easy drive out of Las Vegas. After you are done losing money in the casinos of Vegas, take a 90 minute drive out into the desert to see this magnificent display of engineering.

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