The wife was working for a travel company for a convention and she stayed at the Paris. I wasn't allowed to stay with her (her employer's rules)due to the fact she was working so I booked a room at the Sahara on the cheap (ok, maybe I spent a little time in my wife's room at the Paris, but don't tell anyone!).

The room at the Sahara was $35/night ($42.17 after an enery surcharge and taxes). It was about the right price for what you got which was a room about equal to an old Holiday Inn. But all I needed was a clean bed, a clean bathroom, and a clean shower with decent water pressure. The Sahara delivered on all those. You can also gamble cheaply at the Sahara as it has blackjack as low as $3 and offers $2/$4 limit hold 'em. Food in the cafe was fine. I was told via the web and people I knew to stay away from the Sahara's buffet.

The best thing about the Sahara was the low price coupled with it being right on the monorail. I bought a 3 day monorail pass and traveled up and down the strip that way. Great way to get around and go anywhere on the strip.

Played poker at MGM, Luxor, Paris, Bally's, and Stratosphere. Ran into multiple loose agressive maniacs playing $2/$4 at MGM and Luxor. Particularly at the Luxor. Causes some serious bankroll swings even if you play tight agressive since you always seem to have multiple people until the river.

Paris and Bally's have relatively new rooms. Paris needs to build up their business but you got a lot of friendly people new to the game there. Even though the Paris room isn't really a room and is in the middle of the casino, it wasn't bad since the Paris is a quiet casino as Vegas strip casinos go.

Bally's also isn't really a room and is in the middle of the casino. Louder there but it was still a nice place to play and right off one of the monorail stops.

On my last morning I walked up to the Stratosphere and played. I've stayed there before and wanted to play there in the morning because that casino is the loudest I've been in at night. You can't hear yourself think in that place once the live band is onstage and the bar has the music cranking.

A great trip overall. I'd recommend the Sahara if you are on a budget. You can gamble cheaply, stay cheaply, and eat fairly cheaply while having easy excess to the rest of the strip via the monorail. Good place to stay if you want to devote most of your money to poker and gambling and if you only spend a few hours a day in your room to catch some sleep and shower. I'm going back to Vegas at the end of January and I'll be trying out the Monte Carlo.