My wife likes Las Vegas a lot. We go there at least once a year around Christmas time, and we sometimes go once or twice more during the year. I don't think you would call us typical Las Vegas visitors-- we don't gamble a lot, or do a lot of expensive shopping, or visit nightclubs. We like to wander around the Las Vegas Strip, walk around the themed indoor shopping areas like the Venetian or Caesar's Palace, eat at the buffets, and do some shopping at the outlet malls.
Our kids had never been there. My wife thinks it's not a good place for kids, with the ubiquitous gambling, the unhealthy second-hand smoking, and the people passing out semi-pornographic cards for adult services on the Strip.
But our plans for a trip to Yosemite in early April fell through because of a huge snowstorm in the Sierra Nevadas at the same time as the big rainstorm passed through Southern California. The park was actually closed for a few days to visitors and electricity was knocked out, so we decided it wouldn't be safe to drive on the mountain roads or much fun in the outdoors with snow and cold temperatures.
Since I had already promised a trip to our children and we had arranged to take one day off from work because it was the kids' spring break, I set up an alternate short vacation to Las Vegas. The plan was to visit a few child-friendly attractions, spend time at a nice hotel pool, and see the spectacle that is Las Vegas.
If you have children and they like pools, there are a lot of nice options in Las Vegas. Hotels like the Mirage and the Rio have tropical themes and waterfalls. There are wave pools and lazy river rides like you would find at a water theme park at Mandalay Bay and the Monte Carlo. You can find a lot of information on the Web by using keywords like Las Vegas and hotel pools and kid-friendly. We have stayed at a few of these properties, but many of them in the wintertime, when the main pools are often closed for the season. Ultimately, we chose the Golden Nugget which is in downtown.
The pool at the Nugget surrounds a large enclosed aquarium with a multitude of fish and a half dozen sharks swimming around inside. There is a three-story slide (you have to be at least 48" and be able to swim unassisted to ride it) which passes through the aquarium inside an enclosed tube. Even if you're not tall enough for the slide, you can walk or swim over at the pool to watch the fish and sharks swimming in the tank. Most of the pool is about 3 or 3 1/2 feet deep--deep enough for kids to feel like they are swimming, but shallow enough for adults to not have to swim. There is a shallow edge on one side as well, about one foot deep, where they have pool chairs set up for people to sit in.Like most hotel pools in Las Vegas, you generally can't enter the pool area unless you are staying at the hotel. You'll have to show your room card to get past the hotel employee.
There are a lot of fun things to do for kids around the Las Vegas Strip as well. Some of the free shows, like the revamped Treasure Island ship battle, are not appropriate for young kids. But some things that our kids found enjoyable included the Bellagio fountain show (every 30 minutes during the daytime) and the Mirage's erupting volcano (at nighttime only).
Also at the Bellagio is a wonderful Conservancy and Garden, which is redecorated several times a year for the current season. When we have visited around the holidays, the garden is decorated with holiday decorations and winter animals like penguins or polar bears. During this trip, the garden was decorated with a merry-go-round, a Ferris wheel, a Van Gogh painting come to life, and various spring flowers.
Our kids also enjoyed walking around the themed indoor shopping areas like Caesars Palace, with its Roman-themed fountains and statues, and the Venetian, where gondolas travel along the indoor canal along shops and restaurants. Unlike the casinos, these areas don't have a lot of people smoking. I'm not sure if smoking is prohibited, or people tend to smoke while they are gambling in the casinos.
On our middle day in Las Vegas, we decided to take a trip outside the city proper. It was a toss-up between Hoover Dam, about 45 miles away from the city, or Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, a federally-protected area west of Las Vegas with spectacular rock formations. I had read about Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas visitors' guides on earlier visits, and had wanted to visit for a long time, but we didn't have the luxury of a long three-day visit and an excuse to go until now.
Red Rock Canyon was a long drive out on Charleston Boulevard, a major east-west thoroughfare in Las Vegas, past the suburbs and recently-built Red Rock Casino and populated areas. Although we didn't have the time or proper shoes or equipment to go hiking, it was nice to walk out from the parking areas and explore the scenery.We also took advantage of the 24-hour buffet deal offered by the various Harrah's hotel properties. For 24 hours, you can go as many times as you can stand to the 7 hotel properties owned by Harrah's and eat at their buffets (except for the seafood buffet at the Rio). The price is $49.95, with a five dollar discount if you join Bally's Total Rewards club. Somehow kids seem to love the selection of a large buffet, and being able to eat as much and as many times as they like. For me, eating at a buffet more than two or three times in the same 24-hour period was an unpleasant experience.
On our final day in Las Vegas, we drove out to the Ethel M chocolate factory, about fifteen minutes on the freeway from downtown Las Vegas. There are no chocolate factory tours around Los Angeles that I know of, so our kids were really excited with the idea of visiting a real chocolate factory. The self-guided tour is open seven days a week, but they only manufacture candy on the weekdays. We had gone once before, and saw a few factory workers actually making candy, but on this visit, there was only one person inside the factory packing chocolate into boxes. No chocolate being made. The person handing out free samples said that they had been making candy earlier in the morning (around opening time, 8:30 am), and would be starting another batch later on in the day.There was also a pleasant garden outside with all kinds of different cacti growing, which wasn't so exciting for our kids, but there was an M&M store inside the same building as the factory tour (they are owned by the same company, M&M Mars), so it wasn't a total disappointment.
All in all, our kids had a whole lot of fun. Compared to other trips we have taken to places like San Francisco and Palm Springs, I think Las Vegas is different enough from anything else they have seen. We had seen families with strollers roaming up and down the Las Vegas Strip before and thought it was no place to bring a child, but if you are selective about where you go and what you do, it can be a worthwhile experience for the whole family.
