Question of the Day - 09 October 2014

To best answer this question we turned to Barry Lindemann, a huge Las Vegas fan and long-time LVA subscriber/contributor, who uses a power wheelchair to get around full-time. Barry responds:

To give a little background on the guy answering this question, in March of 1995, when I was 22, I was in a diving accident in rural Alberta that injured my spinal cord and deprived me of the ability to walk. About 15 months after I got out of hospital, my friends invited me to go to Las Vegas for my first post-injury trip. The father of one of my friends was something of a high roller, so we wound up staying at Caesars Palace, and I still recall receiving comped tickets to see Cirque du Soleil's Mystère show, Dennis Miller, and Rita Rudner, all while getting around Vegas by transferring in and out of the hotel-provided limousines. I loved the fact that, regardless of being dependent on my wheelchair, I was still able to go anywhere on the Strip that my friends went and I truly had a lot of fun - as much as the others in my party did. Right there and then, I knew that in Las Vegas I had found my vacation spot of choice, for life.

Fast forward to the present day -- 35+ amazing trips and almost 20 years later -- and I now have a seasonal home in Vegas (and cry when I have to get on that plane to go home -- and back to work so I can finance my next trip out!) I share this only to underline how much I love the city and how much experience I've had of navigating it in a wheelchair.

Judging by how the question is phrased, I'm going to assume that the person in the wheelchair, and/or their companion, is a Vegas newbie and, hence, will most likely be wanting to stay on the Strip or downtown. As anyone who's ever visited Las Vegas knows, the majority of casinos on Las Vegas Boulevard South are huge and your sense that this can be daunting is well-founded: As fun as it was, my first visit was in a manual wheelchair and I soon found out that the plush carpet makes it very difficult and hard work to roll around. Anyone who's ever spent any time in a wheelchair soon learns to love hardwood, cement, and seamless floor tiles! While you have to be careful not to slip, it sure is better than having to maneuver a wheelchair that sinks into deep shag pile every time you stop to look at something – which in Las Vegas happens often, especially on your first trip...

Every hotel-casino on the Strip or downtown will have wheelchair-accessible rooms (it's the law!) and even if you're not in a wheelchair or scooter, but still have trouble walking, remember you are on vacation and Vegas wants you to have fun, too, so don't beat yourself up by trying to be hero or martyr by getting around on foot: Check my previous QoD (2/24/2014) for suggestions on how/where to rent an electric wheelchair/scooter to get around so you can focus all your energy on having the time of your life!

While every hotel will be able to accommodate you, here's my personal list of those casinos that I think make it a little easier to get around for folks with mobility issues:

• Palms: I love the hard surfaces and the clear main pathways this casino offers. Plus, with multiple lots, there's the added feature of being able to park at either end of the main building, meaning I can usually get to wherever I specifically want to go prettily easily, without covering too much ground.
• Wynn: While admittedly there aren't a lot of accessible parking spots on any level of their parking structure, if you can find a spot I love that, unlike many casinos, their self-parking is but a short distance from the casino floor and main showroom.
• Hooters: While perhaps not the "classiest" of joints or to everyone's taste, Hooters has some of the best accessible surface parking at the south end of the Strip. Once you've parked, it's just a quick trip through the power doors and the flooring there is easy to get around on. It's a compact little place, with pretty much everything else you might want to get to located around the central casino, making it far easier to navigate than a big sprawling place like Caesars or MGM Grand.
• Cosmopolitan: The footprint of this casino is a lot smaller than the other large Strip resorts, so instead of the wide meandering spaces of a Caesars Palace or a Planet Hollywood, at Cosmo you'll find a lot of the areas in the hotel to be easily reachable from the elevators and your room, via highly polished and wheelchair-friendly surfaces.
• Stratosphere: Located on Las Vegas Boulevard, about halfway between the main Strip and downtown, the Strat is not as large as a lot of the other big guys, so I find it easy to get to my room from the very-central casino.
• Downtown: If your mobility is challenged, it's nice to stay downtown, where it's a lot safer and more fun and vibrant than it used to be a few years ago, and you can enjoy a bunch of different casinos without having to cover too much ground. Keep in mind a lot of these hotels are older and the guest rooms are smaller, so keeping your mobility equipment bedside can cause some space issues. You're probably best off opting for some of the more recently modernized/refurbished joints, like the D or Downtown Grand, hotel-wise.

Some final thoughts, plus one dishonorable mention: In my opinion and from my experience, there is no vacation spot anywhere else on Earth that has as many good and wheelchair-accessible/friendly activities and hotels than the four miles that constitute the Las Vegas Strip: If you don't believe me, book a trip and come find out for yourself how many fun things you can do while here! If walking is hard, borrow a manual wheelchair from the casino to get around (they all have at least two, by law). If pushing yourself in a manual wheelchair is too hard, beg, borrow, or steal (okay, scrap that last thought!) an electric scooter or wheelchair and you'll see what I mean. Just steer clear of the back of Mandalay Bay, where that sculpted concrete flooring in the restaurant area is like rolling on cobble stones – it is a bone-jarring trip for anyone on wheels, to be avoided if you possibly can.