Las Vegas may have been built on adult vice, but it has loads to do for the whole family.
Parents planning a trip to Las Vegas often struggle with whether to bring the kids or leave them at home. The reality is that Vegas caters to everyone: you can make it an adults-only getaway with all the naughtiness and nightlife the city is known for, but you can also craft a completely G-rated vacation for the whole family. From rides to aquariums to massive family pools, your only problem may be narrowing down the options. Keep in mind that some resorts are easier for families than others. Where some resorts excel at keeping every restaurant, pool area, and retail store at the highest possible level of quality and price, many families want a save versus splurge option. For instance, you might want to take the whole family to a big-ticket dinner but save on breakfast and lunch. Resorts like The Venetian and Caesars Palace have both, not just in the resort proper but also in the shopping centers they connect with. The Grand Canal Shoppes at The Venetian have a great food court, or go for mid-level pricing at one of their casual restaurants, then book fine dining for dinner. (Or splurge on lunch and hire a sitter for the kids while you have a parents’ night out at dinner.) Similarly, Caesars Palace’s Forum Shops has a Cheesecake Factory at one end that’s no more expensive than you’d find in any city; the largest buffet in the world, and fine dining at Restaurant Guy Savoy and Nobu, among others.
In short, yes. Go to one of the bigger resorts and you’ll find family pools packed with kids, attractions that cater to them (but are also fun for adults), and plenty of variety in restaurants. But while Vegas is a great family fun zone, you may want to take certain things into consideration. Just as in normal life, you can’t control other people’s behavior – and here it’s perfectly legal to drink alcohol on the street. There may be some costuming choices on the Strip that you’ll have to explain to kids.
You can stay in one of the megaresorts and rarely venture out, and you still won’t run out of things to do. Or do that for part of your stay and take some day trips to the Valley of Fire, Red Rock Canyon, The Grand Canyon, or Hoover Dam, all of which are great options for the whole family.
The iconic Fountains of Bellagio are awe-inspiring and possibly the very best free entertainment in Las Vegas. The nearly nine-acre show lake has more than 1200 sprayers and shooters that send water up to nearly 500 feet in the air. The fountains are programmed to dance and sway to the music, and there’s a revolving playlist that includes Vegas oldies-but-goodies like Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, but also Faith Hill, Tiesto, and BTS. While many of the images you’ll see of the fountains capture their drama at night, they start fairly early in the day: on weekdays from 3 pm to midnight and weekends and holidays from noon to midnight. If you’re pushing a stroller, you’re in luck: this section of the Strip’s sidewalk is really wide.
In Downtown Las Vegas, the three-floor Discovery Children’s Museum is hugely popular with locals and is packed with things to do. Older kids can enter Discovery Lab and work with its CAD software, 3-D printers, and kiln. Little ones will love Toddler Town, where kids can play train engineer and mine fake rocks and boulders into an overhead bucket system. And if you want to tip kids off to what real life is going to be like, take them to Eco City, a mini city where they can learn what it’s like to have a job and be a member of the community. And yes, there is plenty of climbing courtesy of The Summit, a 70-foot tower with 12 levels of climbing structures.
These two massive stores (“world” is the right way to describe both), sit across the street from each other and aren’t just packed with chocolate, but also with fun activities and even a movie. You’ve seen the half-size replica of the Statue of Liberty at New York-New York, but have you seen the 800-pound chocolate statue? It’s inside Hershey’s in the same resort. You can customize your own chocolate bars, star in a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup ad, and fill bags at the Wall of Kisses – an entire wall of flavors of Hershey’s Kisses you may only ever see here.
M&M’s world is in the Showcase Mall next to the MGM Hotel & Casino. You can create custom M&M’s with a personal printer – or make Vegas ones like the Las Vegas sign or a deck of cards. There’s a free 3-D movie, too and an “academy” where your kids can learn how M&M’s earned their trademark (in case you’re the kind of parent who needs the giant chocolate store to be educational).
One of the advantages of paying extra for the stingray feed and touch pools is that you get special early entry into the aquarium before it opens and a guided tour with an expert.
More than 2000 animals, including sharks, rays, piranhas, green sea turtles, and a Komodo dragon live at the water’s edge or within the 1.3-million-gallon tank at Mandalay Bay. You’ll walk into the tunnel that goes right through it all, and even check out the shipwreck at the bottom. There’s a touch pool for the littles in the Shark Reef Aquarium, with horseshoe crabs and stingrays you can feed.
One of my favorite places to eat is at Sadelle’s, which opens onto the conservatory. There’s nothing better than diving headfirst into a plate of pastries and watching kids gawk at the seasonal display.
This sunlit Art Nouveau-style atrium, with its 50-foot-high glass ceiling and floral displays that change with the seasons (plus Lunar New Year, in February), is a must-see for everyone and is perfect for families. Ever since Bellagio opened over 25 years ago, more than 100 horticulturalists, engineers, and artists create floral fantasy lands to walk through. You’ll see massive animatronic creatures and lanterns and umbrellas that bob from the ceiling. These engineering wonders often contain as many as 10,000 flowers, and you’ll never see the same thing twice.
You might imagine that there would be flamingos at Flamingo Las Vegas, and here they are, along with pelicans, ducks, and swans, all in four acres of serene gardens. Twice a day at the Wildlife Habitat at Flamingo Las Vegas, a keeper gives talks about the wildlife habitat and how they care for the animals. And with its streams and waterfalls, you may forget where you are. It’s also free, which families will appreciate.
The world’s highest Ferris Wheel may seem scary, but it’s actually a relaxing and fun trip the whole family can take together. The High Roller is actually an observation wheel, with 32 glass-enclosed pods that fit up to 40 people—not the kind of Ferris wheel two-seater you may be thinking of. It’s 550 feet high, which is taller than the Singapore Flyer or the London Eye, and moves so slowly that it only makes one revolution every half hour or so. When you’re at the top, you’ll get the best view of the Las Vegas Valley and the Strip.
Las Vegas can be a good walking city for your kids if they can tolerate a fair amount of sustained walking without breaking down. (There’s nothing you want less than a kid petering out in the middle of a massive casino.) The sidewalks are generally wide – just understand that it’s not a straight shot up and down the Strip. For safety, the city has installed pedestrian walkways at some intersections, which you can access via escalators and elevators. Las Vegas resorts are wheelchair accessible, which also makes them quite stroller accessible.
You can rent a car or take one of the many car services or bus trips on day trips that leave right from your resort. Keep in mind that Nevada has strictly enforced car seat laws that require kids younger than six and under 57 inches tall to be secured in a car seat in a motor vehicle. There are exceptions in the law, including public transportation like buses and taxis. Nevada classifies rideshare as public transportation, so car seats aren’t required. But it’s easy to find car and taxi services that have car seats. And if you rent a car, you’ll need the child restraint. Some of the car rental agencies offer them for rent and there are equipment rental outfits in Las Vegas.
Finally, you’ll need to keep it moving. Kids under 21 aren’t allowed on a casino floor alone. They can move through it briskly with an adult on their way to somewhere else but even accompanied they can’t linger anywhere on the floor, including the slot machines. If you’re tempted to take a cute picture with your child at a slot, know that the casinos do not mess around when it comes to enforcing this rule. Las Vegas also has a strict curfew for kids, who aren’t allowed out after 10 pm without a parent or guardian. Some fine dining restaurants don’t allow kids under five. So it’s always best to check resorts’ policies and restaurants’ individual rules before you arrive.
