Vegas with Kids 2017
August 15, 2017Our Vegas Trip with Kids 2017
It seemed insane when a good friend of mine took her kids to Las Vegas, sin city. However, she came back claiming that they had a wonderful time.
Since we were looking for a trip to take to finish our summer break out with, we decided a little trip to a big city might be something our kids were big enough to handle.
Bring on the sunshine and palm trees!
The Hotel
So, our family like others, doesn't have an unlimited income to spend on a room at The Cromwell or The Bellagio, but we also are pretty particular about where we stay when traveling.
Location was a very important deciding factor for us. There is one area of the strip that I really like, and the rest honestly kind of grosses me out. LOL!
I knew I wanted to be in the bubble surrounding Caesars and Bellagio, yet didn't want to spend an arm and a leg to do so.
Additionally, I wanted a pool that the kids would enjoy. It didn't need to be fancy, but something fun for them would be nice.
We found our happy place at The Flamingo. It isn't one of the fancy new hotels, in fact, it is one of the oldest on the strip. Yet, I found it charming. It was clean and our room was one of the newer remodeled rooms.
Let me tell you, the location was perfection! We could walk right across the street to Caesars for our show, it was close to Paris where we knew we wanted to eat, and it bordered on a great little square between it and the link where we could find easy snacks and drinks.
See the map below. The sweet spot on the strip is between Paris/Bellagio down to the Mirage/Venetian. I could spent ALL of my time in Vegas in that small section of the strip and be just fine. It is the cleanest part of the strip, with the best restaurants, shopping and sights.
The agenda
We knew our Beatles fans would want to go see the Cirque de Soleil LOVE Beatles show. Our oldest, at 13, has been obsessed with The Beatles since he was 9 when he tried The Beatles Rock Band game for Wii.
The tickets were a bit pricey, as you would expect for anything in Vegas, but it was well worth it. Honestly, we purchased mid level tickets ( $104 per person) and they were great. I think truly there are no bad seats in the house. From every angle you will get to see the beauty of the show.
It was truly stunning! We weren't aloud to take pictures during the show, but I found a couple to share to give you an idea of the imagery to expect. Truly truly artful and visually enticing!
Once we figured out that we wanted to see a show, we checked out Vegas.com (I am not paid to recommend that site but it was truly helpful), and found there were a miriad of other activities that were not terribly expensive to do with the kids.
Simple things like the fountains at the Bellagio, the statues at Caesars Palace, and the Gondolas at Venetian were completely free to go look at. Additionally, our kids loved walking through the hotels and simply looking at the extravagant decor. Here is a really bad picture of our oldest in front of the Bellagio Chocolate fountain. He made sure we made a special trip over there before we left for an extra look at it. Ok, the picture is bad, but truly he loved looking at this thing and really wanted a picture in front of it.
We did go check out the aquarium at Mandalay Bay, which was pretty cool. It was $25 per person to get in, but it was a nice cool way to get out of the sun and the boys thought it was pretty cool to watch the sharks.
Of course, we spent some time at the pool. Nothing like basking in the hot Vegas sun on a lounge chair next to the pool.
One of our favorite activities was TOP GOLF at MGM Grand. My husband is an avid golfer and the boys and I had so much fun golfing with him. We spent about $150 between rounds of golf, drinks and food and would do it again in a heartbeat.
They have lovely lounges for the rest of the family to sit on while others take their turn, the drink menu was legit, and the kids loved the food.
The Food
Speaking of food, man Vegas has it. We eat gluten free and it was super easy to find yummy meals. (I can do a whole post on this another time).
Our fave spots (we eat at most of them every time we go) are:
Mon Ami Gabi
Seriously, we LOVE this place! For real. Most of the menu is gluten free, so there is that little nugget. However, even if this isn't an issue for you, seriously try this place. The prices are not insane, and the food is amazing. Our kids at this point refuse to order off of a kids menu because they want the good stuff, and this restaraunt offered some delicious options for them to try.
Border Grill
We have eaten here several times and just adore it. Very interesting and delish dishes inspired by caribean and mexican flavors. They have amazing hand crafted cocktails and don't even get me started on the benedict options if you go for brunch! Yum! If you go, you must try the fried plantains. They are amazing! And... now I'm hungry. The desserts are interesting like this basic mexican flan with a pineapple sauce and caramel.
The Wicked Spoon
My oldest, 13, did a lot of Youtube research on restaurants in Las Vegas. He decided that we just HAD to eat at The Wicked Spoon in the Cosmopolitan Hotel.
I have to say, I am not really a buffet person. I prefer to order off of a menu and know I am getting a well prepared, gluten free meal. I was pleasently surprised with The Wicked Spoon. The chef came out himself and walked me through the line to tell me exactly which items were gluten free. Surprisingly, much of the food was gluten free. There were wonderful plated gourmet options, a seafood bar, and an entire gluten free dessert section! If you eat gluten free, you know this is rare. We enjoyed our meal at the Wicked Spoon and Ezra, our oldest, was the happiest boy in Sin City.
The Verdict
Las Vegas is totally doable with kids! We would go back in a heartbeat to explore, dine and be entertained. It was a great trip and we all loved spending time together exploring, eating and sightseeing. I expected it to be stressful since it is the city of sin, but really, it felt totally appropriate. The boys had a blast and had many stories to share when we returned.
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