If you are traveling to Lake Tahoe and need a place to stay, here’s my take of the Embassy Suites on the south shore.
Location
There are two major casino resorts on the south shore, Harrah’s and Harveys. They’re the center of the gaming and shows, along with Bill’s casino, The Horizon and the Montbleu. I remember years ago the Montbleu was Little Caesar’s (not the pizza version).
Right next to Harrah’s and kiddie corner to Harveys is the Embassy Suites. You can’t see much from the road but the property is quite large for Tahoe. The Embassy Suites is so close to Harrah’s that I bet some of the rooms there are closer to Harrah’s casino floor than rooms actually in Harrah’s. In fact, I paced it off at 50 paces.
A short walk can get you to other main attractions on the south shore like shopping, Heavenly Ski Resort and Edgewood Golf Course.
Rooms, er… “Suites”
The rooms are very spacious and comfortable. They’re broken into three sections: living room/office, bathroom, bedroom.
In the living room/office there’s a work/dining table, lazy boy chair, microwave, fridge and a nice flat screen TV. The couch also folds out into an extra bed. I did many hours of blogging and photo editing in the comfort of this room.
The bathroom isn’t the largest I’ve had in a hotel but it is more than adequate. There are plenty of fluffy bath towels and the shower has a water massage. A nice touch which saved my bacon was the included toiletries. I’d flown into town and had to put my toiletries bag in my Ogio Monster golf travel bag. I stored my clubs and bag at the course and forgot to get my toiletries. So at about 11PM I realized I had no shaver, toothbrush, deodorant or toothpaste. No worries as all of those items and more were there as part of the room. In fact, they had even supplied a men’s and women’s mini deodorant. Don’t tell anyone, but I put on the women’s. It smelled good.
The bedroom came with a giant king size bed with about 487 pillows. The sheets were silky smooth and the mattress was nice and firm. I have a bad back and if the mattress sucks, I’m very stiff and in pain the next morning. No pain. No stiffness. A great night’s sleep.
The bedroom has a dresser and TV, along with a separate sink. If someone is using the bathroom there’s that extra sink in the bedroom for someone to freshen up or brush their teeth.
Amenities
The Embassy Suites Tahoe has a great breakfast. The whole 2nd floor of this wide open foyer is the dining area, with about a 10 story ceiling (pictured right). At breakfast you can have everything from fresh fruit to full on custom made omelets. I had an awesome custom omelet my first morning, then french toast with scrambled eggs and bacon on morning two. Both were great.
I didn’t get a chance to eat dinner in the “Echo” restaurant so I can’t really comment. I did walk through and check it out and even poked my head in the kitchen. Based on my snooping and on the quality level of everything else, I bet it wouldn’t be a disappointment.
There’s an indoor swimming pool and hot tub along with a workout room, adjacent.
Critiques
All of my critiques lie in the bathroom. First there wasn’t much water pressure. Not even enough to clear my toothbrush of the excess toothpaste. The water wasn’t hot enough for my taste either. I take really hot showers and I had the temp all the way and still couldn’t get it hot enough. They probably do that because they don’t want anyone suing them for getting scalded. I get that. The shower head was at the level of my head so I had to duck to get my hair wet. I’m not that tall so someone over 5′ 10″ would really have to bend down.
My other critique is of the sound level of the pipes adjacent to my room. Every time my neighbor went to the bathroom I was the first one to know about it. That is a pain when the neighbor is going at 4AM.
Conclusion
I’d be inclined to check the Embassy Suites first over the casinos in Tahoe when looking for a room. The rooms are very spacious, comfortable and appointed very well. The location is walking distance to all the casinos on the south shore and and to the ticket booth at Heavenly Ski Resort. I even walked from the Embassy to play a round of golf at Edgewood Tahoe.
Embassy Suites Lake Tahoe Photo Gallery
I’ve got a small gallery of photos from the Embassy Suites Lake Tahoe resort located in the new Hooked On Golf Blog TRAVEL gallery! Click the link in this paragraph or any of the photos to go there.
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