Families & kids

Is Las Vegas a good place to bring kids?

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Vegas Guide Team Team

Better than its reputation, with real limits. Ages 5 to 12 do best; toddlers are hard work, and teenagers run into the 21 line everywhere.

The honest downsides

  • You cannot get from your room to the pool without crossing a casino floor, which is loud, smoky in most resorts and full of things a nine-year-old will ask about.
  • Strip sidewalks carry card-slappers and adult advertising at child height.
  • The walking is long at any time (a "next door" hotel is 20 minutes) and brutal in summer heat.
  • Dinner reservations and shows run late.
  • Pools close from roughly November to March.
  • Under 21 means no casino floor, bars or clubs, which is half of what the adults came for. Teens also hit the curfew: off the Strip without a parent after 9 p.m. on weekends.

What works well

  • Shows with real age policies and afternoon curtains: Mystère from age 1, Tournament of Kings with dinner, Mac King's 3 p.m. magic
  • The free fountains and Conservatory, and Fremont's canopy show before 10 p.m.
  • Springs Preserve, Shark Reef and Omega Mart
  • Mandalay Bay's wave pool and lazy river, and the Silverton mermaids
  • Red Rock and Hoover Dam, half an hour away

How to set it up

Stay on the south Strip (Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, MGM Grand), tram-linked and near the airport, or at a non-casino chain a block off the Boulevard. Four nights suit families better than three, because the pool day and the desert day each want a morning. Come in spring or fall for the weather, or in summer only if the pool is the plan.

The rulebook (casino floors, curfew, strollers) is in Las Vegas with kids, shows by age in family-friendly shows, and trip length in how many days.

Link

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