El Cortez Hotel And Casino Rating: 2.0 Pearls

Downtown/Fremont Street, Las Vegas, Nevada

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On Fremont Street, in Las Vegas' older downtown section, El Cortez Hotel and Casino is just east of the densely arranged, small-scale hotel-casinos. Guests are minutes by foot from the Golden Nugget, Binion's Horseshoe, and the Fremont Casino. With the exception of the Nugget, which has spent years undergoing renovations, El Cortez's neighbors generally look like the weather-beaten 20th-century relics they are. In the hotel's most immediate environs lie a nightclub, Mexican restaurant, market, and Super 8 Motel.

Known as "Glitter Gulch" or "Old Vegas" -- where the city first started to develop its hotel-casinos back in 1906 -- downtown Vegas consists of about 15 smaller-scale hotels and casinos on the westernmost four blocks (about a half-mile) of Freemont Street, an area closed to vehicular traffic and lined with mobile stands selling T-shirts, caricatures, jewelry, and other touristy gewgaws.

Though typically cheaper, the hotel-casinos here -- save the famed Golden Nugget -- are a bit less wild and exciting than the dazzling stretch of newer giants along the Strip (about two-and-a-half miles south of downtown). The area is quieter, the average visitor tends to be closer to retiree-age than clubber-age, and the main draws tend to be low-minimum tables, nickel slots, and cheap eats like Golden Gate's 99-cent shrimp cocktail.

But there is a kitschy charm to these brightly lit streets -- a slice of the Las Vegas of yesteryear. You can spot the neon cowboy, Vegas Vic, waving howdy from over a gift shop. And anyone visiting Vegas shouldn't miss downtown's nightly music, light, and video show cast over the evening skyline, the Fremont Street Experience.

• One block from the nightly musical lightshow, the Freemont Street Experience
• 15-minute drive (or $25 taxi) to McCarran International Airport
• 10-minute drive to the casinos, performances, incredible restaurants, nightclubs, and designer shopping on the Strip
• 10-minute drive to the Las Vegas Convention Center
• 30-minute drive to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area
• Free on-site parking

Junior Cabana room

• Pavilion rooms (265 square feet) and Tower rooms (340 square feet) are a bit older and smaller than the typical hotel room in Vegas; each has either two queen-size beds or one king
• Junior and Superior Cabana Suites start at 400 and 550 square feet, respectively, and come equipped with at least one 42-inch flat-screen TV, an iPod docking station, luxury linens, a snack bar, mini-fridge, coffeemaker, retro-style furniture.
• Tube TVs in the standard, Pavilion and Tower rooms
• Wi-Fi fee