Tahoe......Harrah's Or Harvey's ?.....or....

Heynow Gamblers.....need some opinions if you have any.

Driving to Vegas from NorCal late October and have a comp night at either Harrah's or Harvey's in Tahoe. Not sure which to take, the reviews for both are not exactly stellar. Anyone been there lately ?

We also have essentially the same option for Reno, Harrah's or Circus, but the reviews are about the same for those also. The drive to either Reno or Tahoe is almost the same and we haven't been to Tahoe in years so thought that might be the fun choice.

Third option is bag the free rooms and just stay in Reno at the Grand Sierra or another nicer hotel. But being frugal at heart the comp bit is nice

What say the experts of the VMB ?

Thanks
Rusty

 

Sorry.....double post....don't know how to delete one, tried to edit.....bad poster, no donut.

 

These days Harrah's and Harvey's are twins at Lake Tahoe, cause they're no longer competitors... it's a "6 of one, half dozen of the other" situation IMHO. I've always been partial to Harvey's because of the better lake views. I'd definitely take a visit to Lake Tahoe over a trip to Reno for many reasons. but that's just me and I'm biased cause I live up here. Now that Hard Rock has taken over the old Horizon property, you have a 4 solid and decent sized properties (Mont Bleu being the 4th) to float between to get your party on.

 

Thanks Sonya.......I did a preview, hit post, then didn't get the view of the thread so rinse repeat. I do have some problems sometimes with the applepad doing odd things. I blame technology.

Smartone.....the lake view idea is something I hadn't even thought of, brilliant, that makes total sense. Thanks !

I mentioned I hadn't been to Tahoe in years, I stayed at the Horizon. I think it might have been something between Horizon and Hard Rock ?

So now the trip looks like Geyserville CA to Tahoe, Tahoe to Tonapah staying at the Mizpah, then on to Vegas from there.

Woo hoo ! ( that's what I look like when I drive on my way to Vegas )

 

Thanks Sonya

I stop at the Mizpah every trip down for pie and ice cream, a tradition I learned from an old friend I traveled with who has passed, in his honor. He was the king of dive hotels, bargain restaurants, and good pie. He would never stay in Reno, " too fancy, too expensive" he would say, and would stay in Carson City at the Ormsby House. Good grief, I think it was under twenty bucks a night, or in Hawthorne at the El Capitan. El Dumpo city !

Normally I shoot straight through from Reno to Vegas but Mrs. Rusty's tolerance for endless desert is not as deranged as mine. ( I have done Seattle to Vegas in one shot more than once with a co-driver ). I have always wanted to stay there and though the rate was higher than expected, $129/night, I think it will be nice. The new owners ran an Inn of some sort in Sonoma and I guess the food is pretty good so that was that.

My old travel friend actually would stay at the Clown Motel in Tonaph.....uh, no way....clowns are scary, even more scary at $39/night !

 

get a harveys deluxe room in the lake tower..high floor, south facing.
skip reno, as it never changes...go see lake tahoe since you never have.

 

We recently did a trip to Lake Tahoe and the wife and I enjoyed Harvey's a little more than Harrahs we booked one night for each property. We went casino hopping (at night) . It seems like the Hard Rock was the nicest one out of all the casinos. In the morning and day we stayed far away from the casinos and went hiking, fishing, mountain biking etc... the casinos are nice to have after a long day out. The city and surrounding area are beautiful. One of our favorite trips we ever took. They also have a few medical marijuana dispensaries a few blocks away on the California side just in case you wanna get high and watch the sunset before you turn gambler out on the loose!

 

I would pick Harrahs over Harvey's in Tahoe. Yeah, the views of the lake might be better, but most of the rooms at Harrahs have been recently updated. All the rooms have two full bathrooms as well.

 

I would take Harrahs over Harveys. If you look on the TR web site the Harrahs rooms are always more expensive than Harveys. I also like the two separate bathrooms in Harrahs rooms.

 

I've stayed in both . . recently

I would definitely prefer Harrahs over Harveys.

WIth the following caveats:

1)I don't care about the view.
2)Harrahs has the buffet, and it's in the same elevator as the room elevator
3)You can always walk to Harveys, it's right across the street (or through the subway)

 

Another vote for Harrah's. You can get a very nice lakeview room there too and the casino is much more lively. We always wander over to Harvey's for a bit but seem to have better luck at Harrah's. When we go to Reno we stay at Peppermill. Harrah's there is a dump. We'll be there at the end of Oct. too, probably the 23rd-27th. Tahoe is beautiful and, if you're into outdoor activities like we are, it's a hiker's paradise.

 

Sounding more Harrah-sy

 

We love Tahoe and really enjoy Harrah's Tahoe been there 5 times and Reno once (huge mistake). Totally agree with the above,,,remodeled rooms are great. We try and get there at least once a year and absolutely love it there. Like DaiLun says you can walk through the tunnel to Harveys, the coffee shop is open for breakfast/lunch and on the weekends dinner a good buffet (not a buffet lover) and Fridays Station for dinner at sunset is great. Have fun........Rick

 

Thanks Everyone

Bonus......another part of the trip just fell in line too, I don't need to drive all the way in to Oakland Int'l to pick up anyone from the wedding party and then head three hours back north. I can slide in to Geyserville CA after a fairly short drive down from Ashland OR, or Shasta CA, depending on quantity of Red Bull consumed.

We will be in Tahoe after the wedding in time to bet the last Sunday NFL game of the day but I am kinda' bummed, we'll miss the NASCAR race by at least three or four hours. My NFL skills are no where near as good as my racing bets, I'll probably just shadow Mrs. Rusty's bet, she is pretty darn good at NFL, she's fearless.

Already rented the car......with satellite, which is critical. Can't wait......

Love me a good road trip

 

Where ever you stay it doesn't really matter. I agree that the harrahs rooms are nicer than the harveys... but we just seemed to have a lot more fun at harveys... both rooms were free. However we were very open to our food options. Up the street not more than a few miles down the road was a sushi restuarant called "off the hook" best raw fish I ever had. Nice staff A+++ service. Beautiful waitresses. After we were done there we headed to "whiskey dicks" right across the parking lot. Awesome place, lots of friendly locals and some tourists man had the best time there. Drinks are dirt cheap and super strong. Plenty of stuff on tap. We loved it! Here comes my uber guy....After full bellys and just drunk enough and high on beautiful woman we went back to the harrahs and dominated the black jack and craps. Turned 300 into a few thousand in about 2 hours. Drunk and full. Best casino trip we,ever had. Luck was on my side. I didn't mention that harveys drink service is amazing....have fun bro!

 

I stayed at Harrah's last week in a Premium Spa Suite, it was very nice, I also visited Harvey's, the casino floor is better at Harrah's but it only takes 1 minute to walk between the two underneath the road, the view of the lake may well be better at Harvey's but at the end of the day I don't sit in my bedroom looking out of the window all day so that doesn't bother me!

 

I've enjoyed it, but the drive direct from Lake Tahoe to Vegas on (primarily) 395 is sparse... lots of whorehouses in trailers (I'm not kidding; it's a very trucker-heavy route) and mounds of gravel on the side of the road.

The handful of times I've it (at least once during the winter), miscellaneous roads can be shut down and you might get detoured. I recommend plugging in your destination into Waze or Google Maps and letting the gps (or your car's GPS if it's modern enough to be able to suggest detours) do it's thing.

Fun (if a little boring) trip.

 

One more thing... The drive from bay area to Vegas is about 8.5 hours... Bay Area to Tahoe is 3.5 and Tahoe to Vegas is (I'd guess) 7.5-8, so your inclusive travel times goes solidly up if you stop in Tahoe, since it's northwest of the bay.