Which four people you're going with could make a huge difference.
We stayed at Mandalay Bay for a bachelor party with seven guys between 25-30 years old. It was pretty sweet, an awesome hotel with a pretty nice pool (though perhaps a bit overrated once the phenomena of the wave pool grew old). Do it again and I might stay at the Planet Hollywood or Flamingo. Both are much more center strip and seemed pretty good, too. I think both can usually be had for an OK price, too, much better than the big name casinos that are right next door.
Can't emphasis walking shoes enough. I forgot my nice pair of comfortable brown leather shoes at home (nice enough for dinner and a club, but not very fancy) and had to borrow from a friend. I got MASSIVE blisters after our first night out simply from walking so damn far. The Hilton and the Stratosphere I'm sure are both nice places to stay, (we had fun doing the rides and gambling at the Startosphere) but that far down the strip will kind of be a pain in the butt. It's not hard or expensive to get around. It's just a process. We got tired of hunting down cabs and buses and trams and monorails. Had we stayed at one of the more central hotels, I think we would have avoided a lot of that.
That said, we spent most of our trip walking from hotel to hotel, just because none of us had ever been before and we kind of wanted to take in the sites. We gambled maybe 20-30 minutes at each place, then moved on. If someone didn't want to be as nomadic as we were, maybe being in the middle wouldn't be as important.
One night then we went to downtown Vegas. Took the bus. It was nice, but no club atmosphere or anything. We gambled and had fun. Don't eat at any of the super cheap lobster or steak specials. You get what you pay for.
Our best night we ate dinner at The Steakhouse at Circus Circus. It was about $50+ a person and one of the best two or three meals I've ever had. We had a bunch of penny-pinching guys with us and they loved every bite as well. Then we had reserved a table at Pure in Caesars Palace. That was insanely expensive -- $2,400 between us (would have been half had we not gotten drunk and ordered another round of bottles after the first one.) But as bad as it was, it was such an incredible experience I didn't feel bad about it, even on my shirtty journalism salary. I've never felt more like a movie star in my life. We had a bouncer that pretty much served only our table who was cool as heck and would get rid of anyone we wanted, no questions asked. "You'll never see them again." There were more incredible women than I've ever seen in my life.
It was an amazing night.
Don't stress the decisions too much. I've only been once, but I think it might be hard to fork up a trip to Vegas.
