Vegas Baby! Sin City may offer everything men and women may want but it is a little bit more difficult to find some things for our four legged fur family members. In order to make sure that we had a great vacation experience in Las Vegas with Rafa, we had to do a bit more research and even then, we still did a lot of calling. There are very few hotels that are dog friendly on the strip. There are places like the Marriott and the Westin that are traditionally dog friendly but we wanted to have a hotel that had a casino. We looked at the Trump Towers which are suites and dog friendly. There is a $200 dog fee (you can bring up to two dogs for this fee), a parking fee, but no casino attached to it. The only other hotel that has a casino right next to it is the Four Seasons which is connected to the Mandalay Bay complex and gives its guests shared access to that hotels guest amenities such as workout facilities. There is no additional fee for dogs to stay at the Four Seasons (www.fourseasons.com) and besides the great doggie amenities (doggie bed, snacks, bottled water, bags), they also have great complimentary offerings for human guests including great workout facilities where you can use the spa’s steam room and shower, pool area (which is connected to the Mandalay’s Beach that you can have access to), coffee and tea service in the comfortable lobby until 9 am, your choice of national and local newspapers delivered to your room, bottled water delivered twice a day, turndown service, bottled water offered to you every time you leave the hotel on hot Vegas days, and apples at the front desk. You can’t leave your pet in the room by him/herself (and we wouldn’t do that anyway even if they said it was ok) so if you have to go to a show and dinner, don’t fret, the Four Seasons has a babysitting service for your pet and they can make arrangements for you. With the great shows and restaurants at the Mandalay complex (and we were right next to the Luxor so that’s another option), you’ll be able to do both and get back before the sitter needs to leave without having to drive at all!
Overall, the service at the Four Seasons was great – particularly the valet staff. They were friendly, fun, and helpful! The staff at the front desk were just ok – nothing spectacular and sometimes almost irritating, particularly when we checked in. The guy that checked us in looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there (really, it was 11:30 pm, he should know the night shift is probably slow and boring) and was more interested in what my dog couldn’t do rather than being welcoming to us. Other than that, our experience was fantastic. A couple of things that the Four Seasons should do though is to have a bigger grassy area for the dogs to wander at to do their business or just simply walk around. Also, if more parts of Mandalay Bay (maybe Mandalay Place) could be pet friendly, it would be great. There were fantastic restaurants there (we had all three top chef masters restaurants that we tried!) and fun bars to go to so the more places we could walk our dog to, the better.
As for restaurants, we went to a couple of places that were pet friendly. Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf’s Sedona Restaurant (http://www.sedonaclub.com) in West Las Vegas was very pet friendly. You can bring your pup to their outdoor patio which had modern comfy furniture/couches and great food. It was affordable with the lunch specials priced at $12 and included either a soup or salad (try the cesar salad) and an entrée (large servings!). There is also a prix fix dinner priced at $24 and included a soup, salad, entrée, and dessert. The décor inside was hip, red everywhere, and was both a restaurant bar. Your friends can go in and out and you and your pup can enjoy the outdoors with great food, drinks, and ambience. In the same mall that Sedona is at is Einstein Bagels which also lets your pet hang out at their patio so instead of paying quite a bit for breakfast at the strip, you can get your breakfast at Einstein’s after having lunch at Sedona’s to take to your room for the next day or come back here. For more savings, the Four Seasons is right across the street (so no need to drive) to McDonalds, Subway, and an Asian restaurant. You can easily walk over, grab something and take it back to your room. Another place that may want to go to (a very quick drive and away from the strip) is the Whole Foods store off Las Vegas Blvd. You will also see the Las Vegas Outlet Shops right next to where the Whole Foods is at so you can continue to get great bargains at those stores – and have the pet enjoy a nice walk in that outdoor mall. There are actually so many pet friendly places off the strip that we wanted to try (good Cuban and Mexican restaurants that have patios for your pets) but we didn’t have enough time. We certainly plan on goin to those at our next visit.
Note to Las Vegas – if you want to expand your clientele, think of having facilities that are pet-friendly. So many more people are traveling with pets. I spoke with so many people staying at the Four Seasons with their pets and like us, they had a hard time trying to find a place that would welcome their four-legged family member(s). All of us are now fans of the Four Seasons brand and look forward to staying there at our future visits to Sin City which for us is at least twice a year. And readers, while we were able to have Rafa enjoy Vegas in the summer, it would be best if you were to go to the city on cooler days should you decide to bring your pet with you.
