Hands down my favorite spot in Vegas for staying the night, dining, and lounging poolside!
First, I just love downtown. It has a great 'feel' to it. It's friendly and easy to have fun affordably or luxuriously.
Second, The Golden Nugget is like Peter A. says: "The Crown Jewel of Downtown" and is also much nice than many mega hotels on the Strip.
Third, the Rush Tower is absolutely the best room I've had, ranking above Caesar's. It's clean, smoke free since it was built, has excellent design and bedding, a private check in desk, and is only $20 to upgrade from their Carson Tower room. HIGHLY Recoomend the Rush Tower.
Fourth, their pool is the bomb! Huge Shark tank with a water slide that goes through it. Lounge chairs in the shallow water, outside gambling tables (yes there are some $5 minimum tables too), a fire pit, and nice size hot tub for the evening, it's perfect, albiet maybe not big enough for the amount of people dying to use it.
Fifth, surprisingly delcious dining options, especially love the Grotto restaurant for amazing Italian fare at reasonable prices. (See my review on that) AND their Cafe is pretty darn good. The service is a tad slow there though.
So, for many reasons, the Golden Nugget is my favorite hotel in Vegas!