The city's oldest hotel boasts no-frills accommodations and an overflowing shrimp cocktail.

by Ryan Slattery

In Short
Going by the slogan "Where Las Vegas Started and the Fremont Street Experience Begins!," the Golden Gate has seen the city grow up around it. This historic 106-room hotel originally opened in 1906 as the Hotel Nevada and was home to the city's first telephone. Their bargain shrimp cocktail--first served in 1959--remains popular to this day. Guest rooms feature cable television, computer ports and complimentary newspapers.

08/12/05

Good Value on Fremont Street

by dhboyd

Like stepping back to the 1950's. Its clean, with friendly people who seemed to have grown into the place. It thankfully lacks what we have come to expect in the overaggressive adrenaline fueled new Vegas. (You wont be accosted by tip hungry bellhops getting in your face three times as you walk through the door at a strip casino) The rooms were smallish, quaint, but comfortable having a California "craftsman" bungalow feel. Its rare these days that you can experience this. The wooden doors and hallway paneling were obviously handcrafted in a bygone era. If you want the cold generic, 'big box' white-drywall strip suite, look elsewhere, but if you appreciate the past and want to take a step back and feel what Vegas may have been like before the strip, then investigate this place. The rates are cheap...and they have the largest Craps table I have ever seen.

• Pros: Craftsman Feel, Cheap Shrimp Cocktail, Fremont St Experience