A fun bonus when you stay at the Flamingo!

Photograph by Larry Gauper (posted with the permission of the Flamingo Hotel & Casino)

Our long-time favorite hotel on the Las Vegas Strip is The Flamingo; there's no place more "center-Strip" than this property. Along with a heritage that dates back to Bugsy Siegel's time (he founded the original Flamingo on its present site), there are lot of new attractions and the rooms, both standard and upgraded, are spacious and oh-so-convenient to the Strip. Caesar's Palace is across the street (Las Vegas Boulevard South) and the Bellagio is located diagonally across the intersection that's only a few steps north. That mega-shopping-hotel-dining complex, the City Center, is just north of the Bellagio, and Bally's (the former MGM Grand in the older days) nearby too.

But, to me, one of the best attractions--a bonus treat located right on the Strip and on the Flamingo property--is Jimmy Buffett's famous and popular Margaritaville Cafe. The photo above is of a sign located right inside one of the entrances to the Flamingo and, if you walk to your left, as you look at the sign, you'll go right into the relatively new Margaritaville Casino and then on into the Cafe itself. Not seen in the photo, is a pail, just beneath the sign, containing a broken "flip-flop" and a "lost shaker of salt." 

As we always do, we dined there last trip out, spending a couple of nights at the Flamingo right after enjoying Thanksgiving with our kids in Summerlin (a suburb in the foothills of the Sierra-Nevada mountains). Naturally, I ordered the specialty of the house; what else but the burger that has it's own song written and classically performed by Jimmy Buffett himself:

I like mine with lettuce and tomato

Heinz 57 and french fried potatoes

Big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer

Well, good God almighty which way do I steer for my

Cheeseburger in paradise!

And when you order that "Cheeseburger in Paradise," it does, in fact, come with everything Jimmy sings about including one of the most delicious "big kosher pickles" I've ever tasted. Along with the food, you can watch Buffett and his friends perform lots of songs from his Caribbean home base, as well as the country/western genre featuring many of today's hottest singers and groups. 

And I haven't even mentioned the Margaritaville's wonderful - you guess it - margaritas! I had the classic, on the rocks, trimmed with salt. Mmmmm...good! Waitress...ah, make it one more for my baby and one more for the road. Now I'm mixing Frank and Jimmy. Both great and unique (each in their own right). The margaritas at Jimmy's joint are second to none!

For the Flamingo's website, click here.  And here's a hotel reservations tip: I've been making mine through a website called www.Vegas.com. This is a Vegas-based site where you can see all of the rates from most of the hotels (if not all), both on the Strip, downtown and all-around the metro. Like I say, I've used their service several times when reserving at the Flamingo; I've found what Vegas.com does works very well and they've delivered some extremely low rates when occupancy and the season are favorable to getting a really good deal (which is most of the time these days in Las Vegas).

At any rate, we were very pleased with our recent stay at the Flamingo. As we've done before, we'll be back. And, as with all of my reviews on any service or product, nobody paid me to share my experience with you. - LG