The Vdara Hotel & Spa doesn’t seem to be as popular as some of the other hotels on the strip, but in my opinion, it’s perfect if you’re someone who wants to unwind at the end of the night in a smoke-free slot-free environment.
We chose it because it was one of the cheaper options on the Costco Travel website and the description along with pictures seemed like a good fit for us.
It’s also very close to the T-mobile Arena so if we were ever to go back for an event there, I would 100% book with Vdara again.
The Lobby
My favorite thing about this hotel was that it was smoke-free. After being in many other hotels on the strip, I got tired of being around people smoking and having my hair and clothes drenched in that scent so it was nice to have a break from it.
We’re also not coffee drinkers or even big fans of Starbucks, but there was one in the lobby right by the entrance. Although we didn’t get anything from there, it was still nice to have the option to grab a treat or a refresher if we felt like it. 🙂
We didn’t find this out until literally an hour before we left for the airport, but there’s a hallway that connects Vdara to the Bellagio WHICH IS SO NICE. If we would’ve known this beforehand, it could’ve saved us about 45 minutes of additional walking time (depending on where we were going) since we always had to cut through the Cosmopolitan to get to the strip.
Compared to other hotels in Vegas, it was super easy to get picked up and dropped off by Uber/Lyft because it was right by the lobby. With others I noticed we had to go to the designated shared ride areas and depending on which hotel it was, we might as well have been in a maze.
The Room
We kinda learned from our trip to New York City that if we wanted to keep things simple with our bill at the end, not to upgrade rooms and/or order room service. Surprise surprise, what was the first thing the lady asked us at check-in? If we wanted to upgrade to a room with a view of the strip. Again, based on our experience with NYC, it’s not always how you imagine it. I knew the upgrade probably wouldn’t be worth it especially if we were planning on actually being out on the strip most of the time and not in our room.
Thankfully, we did keep things simple and just stuck to our room which was included in our Costco Travel package. The only thing that wasn’t included in our package was a $45/day fee (plus tax) and a $400 refundable deposit in case there were damages to the room.
As far as the room went, we didn’t realize we would be in a suite and initially thought the lady at the front desk had upgraded us even though we said we didn’t want to. 😂
This room was HUGE!! It came with a wet bar area, living room, 2 TVs, a king-size bed, and a super spacious bathroom. The view from the windows wasn’t very exciting but the blinds and curtains wouldn’t even go up so it didn’t make much of a difference for us. We also liked that the room was as dark as possible in the morning so we wouldn’t wake up too early. (I wasn’t always like this, but David has slowly turned me into an afternoon person instead of a morning person.🤪)
My biggest complaint about the room portion would be the inconsistent temperature of the water. It was so hard to get warm water in the shower. It would either be scorching hot or ice cold so we found a way to fix it. Although very wasteful, we figured out that if we turned on the sink faucet on full-blast, it would make the shower significantly less hot and actually enjoyable.
The sink also tended to clog up, so every few minutes I’d peek my head out to make sure it wasn’t overflowing.
Needless to say, showers were kind of rushed and not the most relaxing.
The Food
We only ate at Market Cafe once, but it was pretty good. Although expensive for what it was, I’d go back if we didn’t have any other options. (My first pick in Vegas will always be In-n-Out Burger.)
We considered eating at the restaurant bar in the lobby but never got around to it. This was their menu:
The Location
As I said before, the Vdara was perfect for us in every aspect, especially the location. It was quite a walk to get to the sidewalk of the strip, but not for the reason you might think. If the sidewalk had extended further from the Cosmopolitan, we could’ve been on the strip within 5 minutes of leaving the Vdara. Instead, we had to walk into the parking garage of the Cosmopolitan, go all the way through, up some stairs, and walk more to the bridge outside to get to the strip sidewalk. All because the sidewalk didn’t go that far and the small portion that was existent, was closed off. 😐
I’m pretty sure they do this to make people go inside and spend money at the casinos and bars, but it usually took 30 minutes to get to the strip from the Vdara lobby because of it.
I think it could’ve been a lot quicker to go through the crosswalk from the Vdara to the Bellagio, but we didn’t discover it on time so never tried it out to see if it was a better way to go. I’d say it just depends if you’re trying to go north or south on the strip.
Summary
It’s definitely underrated in my opinion and I’m not sure why since it’s been around since 2009, but the Vdara is incredibly clean and peaceful. Hopefully, not every room has the same water issue that we did, but I wouldn’t say it’s reason enough to keep us from going back. Next time we’re in Vegas, this is where we’re more likely to stay. 😉
