Imperial Palace Las Vegas is the least expensive hotel & casino on the center Las Vegas strip. This is the spot where everyone wants to be, near the intersection of Flamingo Road and Las Vegas Blvd., across the street from Caesars Palace.

I've learned to avoid this segment of Las Vegas Blvd. when walking. It's much easier to cross over to the Caesars Palace side if you need to go north from Flamingo Road to the Venetian, Palazzo, Treasure Island, Wynn, Encore and Fashion Show Mall vicinity. In addition to Imperial Palace, this "megablock" of activity contains Bill's Gamblin' Hall and Saloon (formerly the Barbary Coast), Flamingo, O'Sheas, Harrah's, and Casino Royale. The pedestrian traffic is so thick that cars are often unable to turn into driveways and walking can be more of an involuntary going along with the flow than a choice of direction.

Almost everyone wants to be on the center strip and almost everyone wants a low room rate so... i guess almost everyone wants to stay at Imperial Palace? I've never stayed there but I have considered it a few times. Ultimately, my distaste of humongously large crowds leads me to choose a different location (I haven't stayed at any of the hotels on that block across from Caesars Palace.) When I have a rental car I prefer the south end of the strip (Mandalay Bay or Luxor), the north end (Venetian, Wynn, Treasure Island), or off-strip (Rio). For my walking trips I've mostly stayed close to the center strip, at Monte Carlo, Paris, Bally's and Aladdin (which is now Planet Hollywood.) A taxi to and from the airport to a center strip resort is going to cost $30 to $40 so if you're on a two night trip and rental cars are going for $30 to $40 per day, it's worth renting a car unless you're just going to walk the strip. If you plan on taking a taxi downtown or to the outlet stores, or if you want to visit Red Rock Canyon or Lake Mead etc., you should definitely rent a car.

I've visited Imperial Palace's casino a few times. It's kind of a rectangle like Bally's casino, easy to navigate and not overwhelmingly huge. If you need a center strip hotel and/or a low rate, I'd consider Imperial Palace, but read some guest reviews before deciding. Right now there are 1,633 Imperial Palace reviews posted on TripAdvisor. 180 rate the IP as excellent, 537 as very good, 441 average, 239 poor, and 236 rate it as "terrible." When close to one third (29%) of guests are rating a property as poor or terrible, it's something to pay attention to.