by Marco Fiori

Created on: September 07, 2009

Naivety is not an excuse. When you pay twenty dollars for a room with en-suite and two double beds you shouldn't be shocked when you're faced with the pie in the face that's Circus Circus. Aging, full of screaming kids and as far up the Strip as possible, (bar the Sahara / Stratosphere); Circus Circus provides Las Vegas revellers with a place to sleep and little else. In fact, unless you're actually carting around your offspring, (which if you are, you need to rethink your parental responsibilities), the fifty year old Casino offers a roof and little else.

Despite its age the hotel does has air conditioning to save you from the triple figure temperatures, and if you're put in the Skyrise Tower you'll actually have a reasonably furnished room to enjoy. You'll find it decked out with Cable TV, an in-room safe (safety isn't an issue thanks to key card rooms), ironing board, and a relatively large bathroom. The rooms, even at the most basic of rates, manage to provide visitors with a comfortable stay. The dcor could do with a twenty-first century makeover, but on the whole everything looked bearable.

You should bear in mind that we did spent minimal time at the hotel. If you're visiting Vegas with your kids in tow, Circus Circus offers the young 'uns plenty of fairground games. It'll keep them occupied while Mummy and Daddy sneak off to explore the slot machines / game tables. If you get peckish, there's minimalistic food at bargain prices, but if you have the cash wander down the strip where you'll find much better food. The sun always seems to shine in Vegas, so if the rollercoasters begin to grind feel free to head to the pool. It has everything you would expect from a Vegas hotel, but it's all in a sad state of disrepair.

Turn a blind eye to its wrinkles and you'll get on fine. Anyway, from an adult's perspective all the fun is to be had down strip anyway. The monorail is within a five minute walk and it's a further ten minutes to get to the Bellagio or MGM Grand. Walking there will take you twenty-five minutes, but the heat will make it three hours.

If we had to do it again, we wouldn't. You would be better off spending the extra twenty dollars a night for a mid-strip hotel. If you're scrapping the barrel for holiday funds Circus Circus will just about pass, but don't expect any of that glamour you see on TV - the clown's no longer smiling.

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