PRICE:
Frommer's Highly Recommended

This hotel switched from the Holiday Inn brand to Clarion, and we aren't sure if, over time, that will make an ounce of difference. We hope that if it does, it's not for the negative. Housed in three peach-stucco buildings, the Emerald Springs offers a friendly, low-key alternative to the usual glitz and glitter of Vegas accommodations. You'll enter via a charming marble-floored lobby with a waterfall fountain and lush, faux tropical plantings under a domed skylight. Off the lobby is a comfortably furnished lounge with a large-screen TV and working fireplace. Typical of the inn's hospitality, there is a bowl of apples for the taking at the front desk, something we usually see only in more expensive hotels. (Why is that? It's not as if the fruit is expensive.) Although your surroundings here are serene, you're only 3 blocks from the heart of the Strip.

Public areas and rooms here are notably clean and spiffy. Pristine hallways are hung with nice abstract paintings and have small seating areas on every level, and rooms are nicely decorated with bleached-oak furnishings. Even the smallest accommodations (studios) offer small sofas, desks, and armchairs with hassocks.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Las Vegas 2008, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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