When setting out to Vegas, one keeps a sharp eye out for signs, omens, portents -- any indicator of what's to come. Such is human nature, we are always trying to discern the future with certainty even though all we can really know are the odds.

In this case, my trip started out with me getting a first-class upgrade on my flight, for no other reason than I asked the right person at the right time (thanks United), followed by me spilling my drink all over my big, comfy first class seat. What does that mean? I'm going to be a big winner but do something embarrassing in the process? Does it mean that I should not enjoy any good luck, because what Vegas giveth, Vegas taketh away? When I hit some hip ultra-lounge, should I ask for my Bombay Sapphire martini in a cup with a no spill lid? The answer is unknowable.

We start at The Mirage, a very good, if somewhat schizophrenically priced hotel. Depending on where you check on prices, The Mirage can be up in the Bellagio/Venetian stratosphere, or it can be in the more reasonable realm of the Aladdin or Luxor. Luckily I managed to snag a price in the more reasonable realm. Whatever the cost, what you get from a standard room at the Mirage is about on the same level as a better quality Hyatt or Westin in a more conventional city. No complaints, but nothing all that special.

Famous for its jungle theme and Sigfried and Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat, The Mirage attracts plenty of children who should probably be in school on a weekday. The indoor jungle itself is fairly unimpressive, just a wooded pathway really. There is a free tiger exhibit where you may actually see one of the white tigers pacing back and forth, seemingly annoyed at being in the free display. (The Siegfried and Roy shows, as you probably know, are off indefinitely.) Coming to the Mirage in 2005 is a Beatles themed Cirque Du Soliel. Combined with the Disney-esque erupting volcano in front, reinforces the idea that The Mirage is OK for kids, even if it is not marketed that way.

With the families all heading for the Secret Garden, I turned in the opposite direction for the pool. Yes, on a 68 degree day in Vegas, people were actually swimming and sunning in their bathing suits. I joined them, and it wasn't bad at all except when the wind whipped up. The pool is heated to 78 degrees so there is a bit of a shock when you first get out, but if you dry off quickly you can deal. It's actually kind of pleasant in a way, to sun yourself outside without the blistering desert heat to sap your strength. The pool area is lovely and expansive. A trio of lagoon shaped pools with a large rock formation fountain and a couple of bridges to cross and a poolside bar. Perhaps because of the weather, no waitresses, scantily clad or otherwise, could be seen delivering drinks.

As you would expect from a not-quite-top-of-the-line Strip hotel, The Mirage doesn’t really offer any celebrity chef level dining experiences, but I can speak to the quality of the food and service at Samba Brazilian Steakhouse. Try an appetizer sampler and wash it down with an excellent mojito. Again, it's not the ultimate, but it's impossible not to like.

Another good aspect to The Mirage is the casino. It is spacious and not terribly intense. Dealers are not surly. The crowd is a good mix of all types of gamblers. Table minimums can be found down to about $10, even on the weekend nights, which is a good for an up-market casino on the Strip.

The service was top drawer. Check-in and out were fast and easy. A call to guest services for an Ethernet cable brought one up promptly. I still couldn’t get the in-room broadband to work which I don’t blame on The Mirage. It was probably the fault of either the broadband provider, my flaky laptop, or my own blockheadedness. There was no resistance when I asked them to remove the broadband change since I never got it working, or when I asked them to remove the improper mini-bar charge. Although the appearance of the mini-bar charge itself is a black mark. (Long time readers know of my somewhat fanatical opposition to the mini-bar.)

The Mirage is thought of as the hotel that ushered in the New Vegas and ushered out all the old school rat pack type properties. It has since been superseded by the Bellagio, Venetian, Mandalay Bay, and so forth. The Mirage is a good, quality place to stay; unostentatiously classy and competent. It is not a destination in itself, but you won’t go wrong.

Another favorable mark for the Mirage is location. Flanked by Treasure Island -- uh, excuse me -- The TI to the north and Caesars Palace to the south, across the street from the Venetian and Imperial Palace, and only a couple of doors down to Bellagio, Barbary Coast, and the Flamingo, offers ready access to all to mid-Strip properties by foot. Although technically speaking I don’t think Bellagio is all that close. It's just on the other side of Caesars, but Caesars is about 8 miles long.

Proximity to the Venetian, Caesars, and Bellagio give you all the celebrity chef dining options you could want. I can recommend an early lunch (call it brunch) of poached eggs on spicy chicken and sweet potato hash at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill -- truly tasty stuff, infinitely better than waiting in a buffet line. Bradley Ogden is a bit on the stuffy side, my maytag blue cheese soufflé was only so-so. Of course, Todd English's Olives is about the perfect combination of casual atmosphere and exquisite food. If you want the whole epicurean experience mid-Strip is where you should target.

The other thing the central location gives you is lots of casino options and, while the Mirage casino is ace, you can find a more advantageous blackjack game across the street at the truly evil Imperial Palace. In the next couple of paragraphs I will reference some blackjack concepts that will mean nothing to you if you don’t play. Don’t worry, it'll pass.

I don’t pretend to understand the probability calculations, but sources I trust tell me that the house advantage drops a fraction when the dealer uses a single deck, versus the six deck shoe used at most tables. However, though many casinos run single deck tables, they reduce the payout on a blackjack from 3/2 to 6/5 to make up for reduced house edge. Not at Imperial Palace. You can get a single deck table with a 3/2 blackjack payout and, since it is one of the low end casinos, you can also find minimums down to $5.

Now, I have played a decent bit of blackjack over the years. I've had good sessions and bad sessions. But I have never had my backside severed, sautéed, and served back to me with fava beans and a nice Chianti like I have at the Imperial Palace.

Perfect example: I'm dealt a pair of eights and the dealer has a six showing. A knowing blackjack player gets shivers of joy when deals go like that. I split. I get a 9 on one of the eights (seventeen) and another 8 on the second eight. I split the second and third eights. As good as it was, it's even better. I get a 10 on the second eight (eighteen) and a 3 on the third eight (eleven). Sweeter still. So I double down on the eleven and get a six (seventeen). So now I have three hands, two seventeens and an eighteen, and the dealer has a six showing. He flips his card and it's a queen. Sweet Fancy Moses! He has 16 that he has to hit. I couldn't be sitting prettier. The odds are extremely good that he'll bust and I'll clean up on all three hands.

He gets a 4. A 20. He beats all three of my hands. A situation any blackjack player would kill for and I lose four times my original bet. Excuse me while I go beat my head against a brick wall. And the thing is, that the kind of thing that was happening all night. I couldn’t buy a blackjack. I must have had a string of ten straight hands were I was dealt a 14 or 15. Meanwhile, the woman sitting to my immediate left had nearly tripled her money and was getting blackjack every other hand. For the first time ever in my life I was cleaned out of my original buy in. And this at a table where the house edge was a small as possible. Aye Carumba!

The Imperial Palace is probably a decent place. It's a bit worn at the edges and can seem seedy, but frankly, next door to the Venetian, anything short of opulent can seem seedy. My guess is that it is excellent choice for a cheap room in the center of all the action. For the most part the casino is hopping. They have tables where the dealers dress like celebrities. The cocktail waitresses come around at reasonable intervals. In general it gives off a fun vibe what with all the chincy, faux oriental memorabilia.

But that night the place took on the air of Dr. Han's fortress from Enter the Dragon. I expected a man with a steel hand flanked by comely women to emerge from the background to announce that my play had dishonored the casino and order his lackey to whip a ninja star at me. It was that bad.

I read myself to sleep that night with my guide to blackjack, just reassure myself that it was all in the cards and I didn’t screw it up out of blatant idiocy. I still avoided the blackjack table for the rest of my trip. Curses!

I think I can safely say there is no better way to recover from a disastrous blackjack session than to indulge in a hot stone massage at Canyon Ranch Spa in the Venetian the following day. Completely changed my outlook on life, I do declare. I have been to the flagship Canyon Ranch destination spa in Tucson, so I had a good idea what to expect. That is to say the service is utterly flawless and the vibe is over the active healthy side of the spectrum as opposed to the new age relaxation side.

The spa itself is a little on the small side. It might be a bit trying if it got crowded. But the whirlpool is nice and hot and, as is the eucalyptus steam room. The real gem is the fitness facility. The gym and equipment are comparable to an excellent health club. There is a climbing wall, assorted classes such as yoga and Pilates. The on-site café is a paragon of nutrition and reticence (sort of an anti-buffet).

When you think about it, Canyon Ranch is very much out of place on The Strip. It's a small area devoted to your good health and well being in a city designed to corrupt your body, mind and soul and indulge your worst impulses.

I can verify that there are few things more relaxing in life than an 80-minute hot stone massage. Of course, you pay for that. A lot. Canyon Ranch is phenomenally expensive, and the irony of easing your mind about blackjack losses to Dr. Han by yet further gratuitous hemorrhaging of money is not lost on me. For most, instead of buying a spa service, a cheaper alternative would be to just get a day pass and have a workout, steam and soak.

One of the most inexpensive activities in Vegas is also one of my favorites: just walking The Strip at night. Even the bitter cold of late November didn’t stop me. It just made me have to duck into more of the hotel casinos to warm up. You can look at The Strip and see the gaudy squalor and the dissoluteness of the timeshare hawkers and the hooker pamphleteers. Or you can see the all the shiny beauty and brilliance and appreciate it for what it is: civilization's greatest monument to itself. I am definitely in the later camp.

Wandering The Strip on a Saturday night, not only gives you the opportunity to see all the various forms of action going on, it also gives you a chance to troll the sports books for the best odds the next days NFL games. Although in practice, virtually all the Strip hotels either follow the odds published by either MGM/Mirage or Caesars (Park Place Entertainment). The best sports books for hanging out and watching the games are Caesar's and Mandalay Bay, with the possible exception of snaring one of those super luxurious reclining chairs at Bellagio.

A familiarity with Strip hotels can be a boon when planning Vegas travel. For example, I think an extra long weekend of 4 nights is about the perfect length of time to spend in Vegas. (Those of you on the West Coast may feel shorter is optimal, but 4+ hour plane trip translates to a good solid seven hours of travel annoyance which makes quick jaunts less appealing for those of us east of the Mississippi.) The weekend rates can be lofty and then they drop significantly for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night. A good plan, therefore, is to pick a cheaper hotel for Friday and Saturday, the move to one of the top properties for Sunday and Monday.

For example, as I write this, on the weekend on 1/14, per Travelocity, about the best rate you are going to get for a decent Strip hotel for the weekend is $136 at the Tropicana. Another $50 will get you into the Flamingo or Monte Carlo or possibly Aladdin, but those aren’t worth the extra. Come Sunday/Monday night, roughly the same price will get you into The Mirage or New York New York. A few more bucks gets you MGM. This is kind of the best of both worlds -- save a bit of money but still get a taste of the 4-star theme hotel experience. Unless you’re an old Vegas hand who's burned out on the theme hotels, it's a good strategy.

I was fortunate enough go during one of the cheapest times of the year and get a wicked low weekend rate, so The Mirage was my weekend hotel. My weekday hotel was THEhotel at Mandalay Bay. I'm a big fan of Mandalay Bay -- in fact, I like the entire set of Mandalay Group properties, which includes Luxor and Excalibur, but Mandalay Bay in particular. As a rule I think you get more for your money when you figure in the size of the rooms and the fabulous pool setting. The casino feels very roomy, the sports book is comfortable, and there is a wide variety of restaurants. All in all, possibly the best overall package in Vegas.

The pools are amazing, but in season you are going to go elbow to elbow with your neighboring lounge chair The wave pool is really only beneficial for the kids. The nicest touch is the private adults-only pool called Moorea. They charge you to get in but it's much less crowded and there is actually reliable food and beverage service. Definitely worth the few extra dollars if you're going to spend a day in the sun. Of course, that's moot when it's 59 degrees and there is a wind advisory, but in season it works out well.

Mandalay Bay can almost be considered as a collection of hotels. The upper floors are actually a Four Seasons; a great idea really -- a top-of-the-line traditional hotel, secluded from the hubbub, but with access to all the Mandalay facilities.

THEhotel (could there be a more pretentious name?) is a high style alternative to the standard, and excellent, traditional Mandalay Bay. It has its own front desk, check-in concierge, restaurant, etc., but allows you use of the Mandalay pool and casino facilities.

THEhotel is a strikingly beautiful place, with touches of minimalism and creative lighting, and a consistent color and architectural theme throughout. You can think of it as one of those designer/boutique hotels writ large. The rooms -- I believe they are all suites -- are simply lovely; probably the only hotel room I have ever stayed in where I could have enjoyed simply spending time in the room. A real bedroom and living room, not just separate sections of the same space. Quality furniture, a wet bar, and three -- count 'em -- flat screen TVs, one each for the living room, bedroom and bathroom; the one in the living room being one of those big screen jobs. A wet bar. A water closet and a truly enormous bathroom with separate shower and deep tub. Sheesh. I should live so well at home. It becomes plain why a fine place like The Mirage can't stand up to the more modern monstrosities.

Mandalay's restaurants are top notch, if not quite in the celebrity chef stratosphere of the mid-Strip properties, although I would avoid Rum Jungle for food – it may be a good club later in the evening, but lunch here was lacking in taste. Puck's Lupo is fine Italian with a light touch. Aureole for wine, Red Square for Vodka, China Grill if you feel the need for the biggest portions imaginable. Red, White and Blue serves up fine stick-to-your-ribs breakfasts that seem to work wonders if you had too much to drink the night before.

All in all, I think I prefer the south Strip location and the Mandalay complex in particular to the center Strip area. Center Strip comes out slightly ahead in celebrity restaurants, but you still get a Wolfgang Puck or Emerils down south. And there's certainly no shopping in the south like the Forum Shops or Canal Shops, but those are just malls, aren’t they? There is something lower intensity about the south Strip, but they don’t sacrifice quality. (How sick am I to have a preferred region of the Las Vegas Strip based on its feel? I really need to adjust my priorities.)

By down south I mean the Mandalay complex, Luxor, Excalibur, New York New York, and MGM all of which are connected by walkways or trams. This gives you easy access to lots of different stuff but in a less bombastic way. There's no major shopping mall, but there are little gems such the shopping area between Mandalay and Luxor where you will find the Burger Bar. This place cooks the best burger on The Strip. If you're feeling decadent -- and I was -- try the Kobe beef burger at $16. This is not imported Japanese Kobe beef, it's American Kobe, which may disappoint purists. While Kobe beef, to my tongue, doesn’t offer much of a superior taste, it is beyond all others in tenderness. It practically turns to liquid in your mouth.

Even if you opt for a more reasonable species of beef, you will get a deliciously prepared burger -- my medium rare order leaned towards the rare side, which is correct. Just one fine little place to know about when you need a break from the painfully contrived dishes at the finer restaurants.

Luxor and Excalibur both have excellent, and highly underrated, poker rooms. The dealers are casual and professional. These cater well to the uninitiated. Each day at 2 pm they provide poker "lessons", played with fake chips. If you are nervous, you can sit in on one of these games and get a feel for how things flow in a Texas Hold 'Em game in a casino. Don’t come if you know absolutely nothing about poker. These are not how to play poker lessons, these are just games to get you comfortable with the language and the procedure of playing. After the "lesson" is over, they run a very low stakes game that you could probably play for hours with just a $100 stake even if you are pathetically bad and got lousy cards.

New at MGM is Cirque Du Soleil's Ka. I managed to get tickets to Ka during a preview week. I believe I caught the third ever show. Ka is a martial arts themed version of the usual Cirque bizarre-stuff-in-your-peripheral-vision acrobatics with plenty of pyrotechnics, and I mean that literally, as in lots of special effects with fire. This one gets a slow start, and there were a couple of hiccups -- dropped batons and so forth -- presumably due to this being a preview showing.

Taking center stage in this production is, well, the center stage. A huge platform that can tilt 180 degrees and in rotate 360 at the same time. This leads to a couple of nearly indescribable sequences; one involves the good guys essentially wall climbing this platform as it is tiled at about 80 degrees while the bad guys are chasing them up the wall. As they clash, archers are firing arrows into the wall which both sides are using to climb higher and to catch themselves as the tumble and fall. Amazingly precise choreography.

The other is the grand final battle where the stage is tilted at a right angle to the audience so it appears as though you are looking down on it from above. The two armies are suspended by bungies from the waist so, again, it appears you are looking directly down on the battle. Furthermore -- and I have no clue how they do this -- each acrobat's contact with the platform/stage/battleground initiates a sort of rippling light effect. You end up having to consciously remind yourself that you are not actually looking down on this display, but at it from the side.

That said, it's not the best Cirque I've seen; it's lacking any lightheartedness and the more traditional acrobatic sequences are only average, but I have no doubt it will be another winner. Interestingly, that makes four Cirques on the Strip (O, Mystere, Zumanity, and Ka), with a fifth -- the above mentioned Beatles themed one -- on the way; one at each of the major MGM/Mirage properties. Considering MGM/Mirage has a deal pending to buy the Mandalay Group (Mandalay, Luxor, Excalibur and Monte Carlo) I think it's safe to say The Strip of the future will effectively be a Cirque du Soleil theme park, thus providing job security for sub-Olympic quality gymnasts and sadistically-disciplined, triple-jointed Chinese adolescents.

Four thousand words later, it's time to wind it up. I made one last spa visit, this time to THEbathhouse, which is the spa in THEhotel. Nice showers that rain down from directly overhead, and impeccable styling, but not so great overall. The hot tub was only lukewarm and the cold plunge was barely chilly. Still, it was wonderfully quiet and comfortable.

Without a doubt, the cheapest weekend in Vegas would be one where you didn’t even get a hotel room. Just bring a change of underwear or two in a backpack. Stay up all night gambling and drinking and doing whatever (Vegas is truly a 24 hour city). When the sun rises, stop at THEbathhouse, wrap yourself in a comfy bathrobe and crash all day. They have everything you need in the way of deodorant and toothpaste and other toiletries. Come dinnertime, go out and hit the casinos and shows and clubs for the night. The next morning, repeat. This would work until you needed to do laundry. Were I still a frat boy, I would be doing this every other weekend. But I digress.

I recovered a healthy portion of my blackjack losses by ending on the plus side in the poker room and sports book. In the final tally I was down a hair over a c-note, which for five days of fairly active gambling has to be considered about break even. Although, on the way out I quickly made a bet on both the AL and NL 2005 baseball champion (Cardinals at 3-1, Twins at 9-1), so technically I can still come out ahead, I just won’t know until October next year.

Now that I am thrice traveled to Vegas I feel remarkably comfortable there, almost to the point where I don’t feel the need to go back. Almost. Well, not even almost. Next time: more poker and less blackjack, and during the warm months so I can crash by the pool. Maybe I'll even leave The Strip (yeah, right). I'll never be done going to Vegas. Or at least as close to never as the odds can get.