Harrahs Laughlin Review: Hotel, Buffet & Shockers

Harrahs Laughlin Review.  It’s a horror show.  Please scroll down for links to our video but we invite you to read the following beforehand: on this page we’ll focus on the rooms and the resort in general, with a few lines of introductions of what you should expect from your Laughlin trip, a short paragraph on the positive aspects of this ‘resort’ and a longer section on the very bad aspects with link to the ‘famous’ video, as well as (further down) a summary of its buffet.

We were comped during a very expensive weekend; since we were traveling last minute we welcomed the freebie and, most importantly, we were excited about reviewing Laughlin!

The drive from Vegas is only about 1 our and 30 minutes; the moment you arrive you realize that Laughlin is tiny compared to Vegas; the river is the focus of all attractions and the better resorts have some sort of river-walk connecting them all, from nice and romantic to grungy and dark.   We have a video showing all of this (check our updates page so you can see when the Laughlin videos will be posted).

Despite the small size, Harrah’s Laughlin is the furthest out and, for that reason, you simply cannot easily walk to the main area: the walk is very long and somewhat ugly; you’ll often find yourself all alone walking through an area where only cars drive by, with nothing around.  You can drive of course or use the water taxi to reach the other resorts (4 dollars one way, 8 dollars return, but prices can change suddenly).  Harrahs Laughlin Review

You’ll have a small river beach you can use when the small adult or family pools are closed, though theoretically you can only stay on the beach until 9pm.  The ‘resort’ itself is rather grungy with the North Tower and the Central Tower being the worst.

Harrahs Laughlin Review: The Positive Aspects

The North Tower is the family-friendly tower and the South Tower is the adults-only tower, which is a welcome aspect of this resort and we wish all Vegas resorts adopted this separation; this separation is repeated in the pool area, where you’ll find an adults-only pool (rather small) with one jacuzzi tub, and a ‘family’ pool.  To continue on the positive side of this resort, you will also enjoy a non-smoking casino section, where the slot machines seem to be, ironically, more generous.  The smoking section can be rather smoke-filled.

The wireless Internet, part of the resort fee, was fast and worked well.

Harrahs Laughlin Review: The Horror Show (negative aspects)

Cleaning does not seem to be at all a priority in this property.  We were assigned a room in the North Tower, on the 14th floor, and it was filthy.  It was supposed to be a remodeled room but all we saw was 2 beds with white sheets, a lonely, basic desk on one side, a lonely TV hanging from the wall and… Nothing else, except for the dirt and the stains.  The worst part of it was the fecal matter stuck on the side of the toilet seat.  We asked a room change and we were assigned a room on the 17th floor (the higher you are and the nicer the view is, by the way, especially if you don’t have a river view): this was was even worse:  the bathroom had clearly not been cleaned so we had to buy cleaning material and clean it ourselves before we even dared to use it:  what was worse in this room, however, were the many insects which were happily running around the floor, which had also some debris from the previous guests (what looked like cotton imbued with blood); some finally ran out of the room but one happily went back to its ‘home’, namely a large crack between the wall and the floor.  We have a video showing both Harrahs Laughlin Rooms.

We slept with the lights on every night, as if to deter the insects from coming onto our beds (which seemed to work, for some strange reason).

The whole ‘resort’ is run down, un-kept and filthy; some public areas, mostly around the North Tower, ooze some strange smell too.  The elevators are slow and have no air conditioning, which can be trying in such a hot place (it can be hotter than Vegas).  If you are comped and you prefer to save money staying here rather than in a Vegas resort, I’d suggest you bring your own cleaning and disinfectant wipes (or similar).

Other negative aspects are:  the gym closes at 6pm (ridiculous, whilst in Vegas they close later), the pools are both small, given the size of the resort; they were also somewhat dirty.  The TV channels were not in HD, the channels selection was average and the TV Guide was non-existent (no interactive guide at all, you have to watch a slow rolling list of channels and programs).  The elevators were very slow and had no air conditioning, something we also found in some Vegas resorts on this trip, however.  Let’s talk about the buffet as an important part of our Harrahs Laughlin Review:

Harrahs Laughlin Review: Buffet

Although all Laughlin buffets are rather pitiful in variety and quality compared to the best ones in Vegas, they are also more affordable.  Their variety is usually non-existant and the quality poor.  Harrah’s buffet, however, despite looking just as low-end, surprised us all during the weekend (quite a different story during the week) with great flavor and a decent variety of dishes, albeit all cooked and most of them heavy.  You have no healthy options here (and the salad bar is small and low-end), but the cooked section was incredibly tasty, so much so that we asked if they were using MSG (to which they replied that they do not)!

However, the weekday food was just as bad (if not worse) than most other buffets in Laughlin: all the ingredients were inferior quality than those served during the weekends; the cooking process was also inferior (as if other cooks had been in charge of the weekend meals).  As example, the fries (chips) served during the weekend were made of real potatoes, had their skin still on and were cooked to perfection (as if a real chef had prepared them).  During the week, at dinner they had the cheapest fries made of reconstituted potatoes: eating them made us actually unwell; in fact, most of the dishes served were so heavy and so of such inferior quality that we felt very unwell throughout the day and evening.  A huge shame because the personnel was always very polite and helpful.  The nice cook behind the Calzone, pizza and pasta station was so nice that he made us a special-order Calzone and let us pick the ingredients!  By the way, the Calzone and pasta station was thankfully still tasty, although later on in the evening the personnel changed again and we felt there was no interest in serving us well anymore.

We will discuss the buffet in detail soon and we will also be posting a video review of this buffet soon, so keep an eye on our updates page and ask us if you don’t see the updates soon enough!

If you found this page on Harrahs Laughlin Review useful, you will find our general review of Laughlin useful too.  Don’t forget to check our updates and our latest videos.

Video of the Room at Harrah’s in Laughlin