I had recently been scouring every hotel on the Vegas Strip for my good buddy’s bachelor party. I had effectively learned everything there is to know about every suite on the strip and knew the prices like the back of my hand. Getting a bunch of guys to agree on a price and a hotel is not as easy as it sounds, but we were finally able to come to an agreement with the Hilton Elara. The Hilton Elara was formerly known as the Planet Hollywood Westgate Suites. It was bought out by Hilton and is now part of their Hilton Grand Vacations portfolio that includes hotels and timeshares all over the world. I ended up booking a 3 room suite for 10 people and I can’t tell you enough how fantastic the suite and the hotel was. I booked the hotel for about $650 a night, which is fantastic for a weekend in Vegas. It is also very affordable when splitting the cost amongst a big group of people. Some of the other really nice suites I was looking at, such as The Palms, Bellagio, Aria, and others ranged from $800-$2,000 per night!!!
The Hilton Elara is situated across the Miracle Mile Shops, which connects it to the Planet Hollywood Casino. This was great because our lobby was just like a regular hotel and not full of smoke and gambling. However, if you want that, it’s only about a 3-5 minute walk from the hotel lobby and you’re right in Planet Hollywood’s Casino. Planet Hollywood also has a great location on the strip and the Elara is situated just behind the hotel. It’s hard to miss with it’s very noticeable red outer lining that gives an interesting color to the inside of the Suite rooms.
We checked in and our suite was situated on the 53rd floor, giving us a fantastic view of the strip. The room was equipped with a kitchen, a living room, a projector screen that covers the wall as you walk in and welcomes you with your name on it, as well a hot tub in the master bedroom, and two adjacent bedrooms that make the room quite a considerable size. Even if you only wanted a one bedroom suite, the suites are all quite large and have more or less the same layout.
The layout in most of the suites
The layout in our suite:
Living Room
Behind is the projector TV that displays against the wall:
To the right of the TV projector is a little hallway with a couch that is surrounded by glass and overlooks the strip. The view is awesome and sunset was even cooler. The glass was tinted with a red color so it was kind of strange but also sort of cool to see Vegas in red. Be sure to book a Corner Suite if you want the big sweeping views of the strip.
The red tinted color makes for an interesting view of the strip
Sorry for the grainy quality but I think I had filters on when I took some of these photos. The master bedroom was pretty awesome and there was a button that controlled all of the shades. The bathroom shower was amazing with a huge area and two shower heads pointing at you from both directions. Not to mention the hot tub…
Master bedroom
The hot tub in the master bedroom
The master bedroom’s double shower
The pool was nice and had a bar on the side with some cabanas but not very exciting compared to the other big hotels on the Strip. It’s a regular pool with a Jacuzzi. If you’re looking for a hotel with a large pool with gambling or pool parties, then I recommend you take a look at a different hotel. The fitness room was a bit underwhelming, but not many people seem to care about the fitness rooms in Vegas hotels, so I didn’t make much of it.
Hilton Elara’s Pool
I didn’t take pictures of the additional 2 bedrooms. One was a bit bigger than the other and included half a kitchen. The other was basically an added on bedroom. The price for the 3 bedroom on a weekend was fantastic compared to the other known hotels on the strip. Overall, the location, price, quality of the room, lack of smoke, and great amenities made this trip an unforgettable one. Not many people seem to know about this hotel and it seems like Vegas’s best kept secret. So if you’re planning a trip to Vegas in the near future, I highly recommend you take a look at the hotel and check out the prices in comparison to the bigger named hotels on the Strip. Also, being part of the Hilton chain, earns you valuable reward points in their program and I happened to take advantage of a 3x points promotion that was going on that netted me over 40,000 points for the stay + 2x points for booking on my Chase Sapphire Preferred. You can’t beat that!
would you mind including the cost of the room? The review is fantastic and the pics looks like its so much larger than the standard suite at the Plazzo, but its pointless if its out of my price range. Thanks
Alex, you’re absolutely right. I included the price I paid in the first paragraph just as a reference. Depending on the amount of rooms you want it can range from $160 for a 1 bedroom to about $1,000 for a 4 bedroom. I looked at some random dates next month and found these prices:
1 bedroom suite: $166
2 king bedroom suite: $359
Corner 2 king bed suite: $503
3 king bedroom suite: $683
Corner 3 king bed suite: $789
4 king bedroom suite (they’re all corner suites): $1,009.
It can get pricey but if you’re looking to go with a big group of people, it’s definitely affordable and a lot of fun. I had the Corner King Bedroom Suite which had awesome views, so plan accordingly!
@Alex – quick search on hilton’s website showed 3 BR suite going for $1,100-$1,300 per night for Fri-Sun this and following week.
Great article! You have talked me into booking a 2 BR corner suite here in a couple of weeks for a bachelor party (with my CSP!). Do you know if the room you stayed in was a corner suite, or did they upgrade you to what some people are referring to as a 2 BR penthouse? I just want to make sure I get one of the rooms at the end of the hall with the double doors. Thanks in advance for any information so I know what to request.
Hi Aubrey, I’m pretty sure I had a corner suite which looks the same as the penthouse suite videos on youtube and we had double doors (it looks like corner and penthouse are the same thing). So you should be good, but if you really want to make sure, then just call up the hotel or request a corner suite with double doors and you should be good. Enjoy the hotel!
Finding open minded bachelor party suites in Las Vegas is a much more difficult task than I ever expected.
Hi,
Just wondering if all 10 of you fit ok in the 3 bedroom suite? what is the bedding situation e.g. how many fold out sofas etc or places to sleep other than the 3 x king beds?
cheers
Yes, there was plenty of space for 10. I actually think the 3rd bedroom was unnecessary. The couch was quite comfortable and someone also brought an air mattress, not to mention there was plenty of floor space. We also had a roll away bed delivered to the room.
Hi, do they check room cards at the elevator? I have booked a one bedroom suite, but wanted to know how many people I could fit in if we got roll-away beds or just used the couch.
Yes, they do check room cards at the elevator. When you check in, ask for as many key cards as you can get and you guys can just recycle the cards between you guys when you go back up to the room or tell them you lost a card and need another. But I remember them not really caring if you brought people up to the room so you should be fine!