Skip to content

Nevada

Las Vegas with Kids

Las Vegas is a city built around gambling and adult entertainment that also happens to contain some of the largest hotel pool complexes in the country, a run of spectacle that is free to walk past, and a position within two hours of genuinely outstanding desert scenery. It is not a children's destination and does not pretend to be, but it works for families who go in with clear eyes: the resort pool is the trip, the shows and the day trips are the outings, and the Strip itself is something to pass through rather than to linger on. The trade-offs are concrete rather than moral. Under-21s cannot stop on a casino floor, and almost every resort routes guests across one; the Strip in the evening carries adult advertising and street solicitation; and summer heat makes the walk between two neighbouring resorts much harder than the map implies.

Best for ages
7+
Suggested stay
2–4 days
Best months
Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov
Daily budget
€285

Mid-range, family of four

Why Las Vegas works with children

  • Pool complexes on a scale that fills a day

    Many Strip resorts have several linked pools, a lazy river or a sand-bottom section, which is what most family days here actually consist of.

  • Red rock and a dam within an hour

    A scenic canyon loop lies about 30 minutes west and the Hoover Dam about 45 minutes south-east, both straightforward half-day drives.

  • Rooms cost less than the setting suggests

    Large rooms on the Strip are often cheaper than a modest room in a national-park town, because the room is not what the business sells.

  • Reliable dry weather in the shoulder months

    Spring and autumn are warm and almost rainless, which is when outdoor walking and the desert trips are actually comfortable.

Where to stay

Best areas in Las Vegas for families

4 areas cover most trips here; the difference is mainly families who want the pool and the spectacle versus quiet stays and the dam side.
  • The Strip (Las Vegas Boulevard)

    Best for families who want the pool and the spectacle

    The large resorts, the biggest pool complexes and the shows. Almost all of them route guests through a casino floor to reach the lifts, and the pavements outside carry handbillers and adult advertising in the evening. Resort fees and parking charges are added on top of the room rate as standard.

  • Just off the Strip (Paradise Road and the side streets)

    Best for quieter nights and non-gaming hotels

    Suite hotels a block or two east, some of them without a casino at all, which removes the daily walk across a gaming floor. Cheaper and calmer, at the cost of a 10 to 20 minute walk or a short ride to the resorts.

  • Summerlin and the western suburbs

    Best for families treating the desert as the trip

    Ordinary suburban resorts and rental houses with pools on the western edge, right beside the red rock canyon and a world away from the Strip. It means driving in for anything on the Boulevard, typically 25 to 35 minutes.

  • Henderson and Lake Las Vegas

    Best for quiet stays and the dam side

    South-east of the city, closer to the Hoover Dam road, with residential resorts and rental homes. Calm and green by local standards, and roughly half an hour from the Strip.

Family hotel picks in Las Vegas

  • Large resort hotel on the Strip with a pool complex
    Las Vegas Boulevard (the Strip)Mid-range

    Large resort hotel on the Strip with a pool complex

    For a family, the pool complex is the reason to be on the Strip at all: several linked pools, often a lazy river or a shallow sand-bottom section, and enough space to fill an entire day without leaving the building — which is what makes the heat survivable and the room rate worth it.

    • Multiple linked pools, often with a lazy river
    • Food courts and casual restaurants inside the building
    • Shows, arcades and attractions without going outside
    • Large rooms for the price, by national-park standards

    Fitting a family in

    Two-queen rooms are the standard and take four; one-bedroom suites with a sofa bed take five or six and are widely available at rates that undercut a second room.

    Watch out. Lifts, restaurants and pool entrances are almost always reached across the casino floor, where under-21s may pass but not stop — this shapes every movement through the building. A mandatory daily resort fee and usually a parking charge are added to the quoted rate. Some pool areas are seasonal and some are restricted to over-21s, so the family pool needs checking specifically rather than assumed. The building is enormous: the walk from a room to the pool can take fifteen minutes.

  • Suite and non-gaming hotels a block off the Strip
    Paradise Road and the streets east of the BoulevardMid-range

    Suite and non-gaming hotels a block off the Strip

    Some of these properties have no casino at all, which removes the daily walk across a gaming floor entirely, and a two-room suite with a kitchenette costs less than a standard Strip room once the resort fee is counted.

    • Two-room suites, several with kitchenettes
    • Some properties have no casino floor
    • Free or cheaper parking than the Strip resorts
    • Quieter at night, away from the Boulevard

    Fitting a family in

    One- and two-bedroom suites sleeping four to six, which is the easiest way to accommodate five in this city.

    Watch out. Reaching the Strip means a 10 to 20 minute walk that is genuinely unpleasant in summer heat, or a short ride each time. The pools are ordinary rather than the resort complexes that make the Strip worthwhile for families, and the surrounding streets are commercial and empty in the evening.

  • The lit resort towers along the Las Vegas Strip after dark, seen from the length of Las Vegas Boulevard
    Summerlin and HendersonMid-range

    Suburban resorts and rental houses with a pool

    A private pool, a kitchen and a garden on the western or south-eastern edge of the city, minutes from the red rock canyon or the dam road, which suits families treating the desert as the trip and the Strip as one evening out.

    • Private pool and enclosed garden
    • Full kitchen and laundry
    • Minutes from Red Rock Canyon or the Hoover Dam road
    • Quiet residential streets and free parking

    Fitting a family in

    Three- and four-bedroom houses sleeping six to eight, cheaper per head than two Strip rooms for a larger family or two families sharing.

    Watch out. Anything on the Boulevard means a 25 to 35 minute drive each way plus resort parking, which rules out a spontaneous evening. Private pools are usually unheated and unfenced, and the desert edge means very hot afternoons with no shade in the garden unless the property has built some.

All family stays in United States

Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you book through one, the price is the same for you and we may earn a commission. How this works.

Things to do in Las Vegas with kids

  • Red Rock Canyon scenic drive
    NatureBook ahead

    Red Rock Canyon scenic drive

    Las Vegas

    A conservation area about 30 minutes west of the Strip, with a one-way scenic loop of roughly 21 km past red and cream sandstone cliffs, and short marked trails to a spring, a petroglyph wall and a small waterfall that runs after rain.

    Ages
    3–16
    Time
    4h
    Adult, from
    €15

    Good to know. A timed-entry booking has been required to drive the loop during the busier months in recent years, and slots go in advance — this catches out families who decide on it the same morning. There is no shade on the trails and summer temperatures make midday walking genuinely dangerous; the loop road also closes in the evening. Water is available at the visitor centre and nowhere on the loop.

  • Hoover Dam
    CultureBook ahead

    Hoover Dam

    Las Vegas

    A concrete arch dam of the 1930s about 45 minutes south-east, holding back the Colorado River between Nevada and Arizona. Visitors can walk across the top, look down the face from a pedestrian walkway on the bypass bridge, and take guided tours down into the power plant.

    Ages
    6–16
    Time
    4h
    Adult, from
    €25

    Good to know. The interior tours involve lifts, tunnels and confined spaces, and the deeper tour has a minimum age — the shorter power plant tour is the one that admits younger children. Security screening applies to vehicles and to bags. The walkway on the bypass bridge is reached by a long ramp and stair with no shade, and summer temperatures over the concrete are punishing. The plaza and walkways are exposed for the entire visit.

  • The lit resort towers along the Las Vegas Strip after dark, seen from the length of Las Vegas Boulevard
    City

    The Strip after dark

    Las Vegas

    The free outdoor spectacle along Las Vegas Boulevard: the fountain show on the lake in front of one of the central resorts, replica landmarks, themed facades and the lit canopy over the old downtown street a few kilometres north.

    Ages
    7–16
    Time
    3h
    Adult, from
    Free

    Good to know. Neighbouring resorts are 15 to 20 minutes apart on foot and crossings are via pedestrian bridges with stairs or escalators, so the walk is much longer than the map implies. In the evening the pavements carry handbillers distributing cards for escort services, costumed performers charging for photographs and mobile billboards with adult advertising; the downtown canopy street also has stage performers in minimal costume. None of it is dangerous, and all of it is unavoidable on the street — moving through the buildings and bridges reduces it. Walking any distance here between June and September is hard work at any hour.

  • The lit resort towers along the Las Vegas Strip after dark, seen from the length of Las Vegas Boulevard
    Theme park

    Indoor theme park at Circus Circus

    Las Vegas

    A fully enclosed, air-conditioned amusement park under a dome at the north end of the Strip, with a roller coaster, a drop tower, carousel rides, an arcade and a small water play area, plus free circus performances in the resort above it.

    Ages
    3–13
    Time
    4h
    Adult, from
    €40

    Good to know. Its real value is that it is indoors, which makes it the summer afternoon answer when outdoor plans are impossible. Rides carry height minimums and a day pass is poor value for a child too small for most of them, so single-ride tickets are often the better buy. It is at the quieter northern end of the Strip, a long walk from the central resorts, and reaching it means crossing a casino floor where children cannot stop.

Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you book through one, the price is the same for you and we may earn a commission. How this works.

Getting around Las Vegas

Distances on the Strip are deceptive: neighbouring resorts are often 15 to 20 minutes apart on foot because the buildings are enormous and set back, and crossing the Boulevard means pedestrian bridges with stairs or escalators rather than crossings at street level. In summer that walk is genuinely punishing with children. A monorail runs behind the eastern resorts on a separate paid ticket and does not serve the western side; free trams link a few neighbouring properties; buses run the length of the Boulevard; and ride-hailing is cheap and usually the right answer for a family of four. A hire car is unnecessary for the Strip and awkward — most resorts charge for parking — but is required for Red Rock, the Hoover Dam and the Valley of Fire, so hiring for the specific days it is needed usually costs less than keeping one for the week.

Las Vegas tips for families

  • With kids

    Under-21s cannot stop on a casino floor

    Nevada law bars anyone under 21 from loitering in a gaming area. Children may be walked through on a designated route but cannot stand, wait or sit there, and staff do enforce it. Since the lifts, restaurants and pool entrances in most Strip resorts are reached across the casino, this shapes every movement through the building — it is worth finding the route that avoids the floor on the first day, and worth noting that a parent cannot leave a child for a moment anywhere on it.

  • When to go

    Summer is too hot to walk the Strip

    Between June and September daytime temperatures frequently sit between 38°C and 43°C, and the pavements and buildings hold the heat well into the evening. Outdoor plans in those months realistically mean early morning and after dark, and the desert day trips become genuinely risky in the middle of the day.

  • With kids

    Check the minimum age on every show

    Many of the large resident productions set a minimum age, commonly around five, and a number of them are explicitly adult and admit nobody under 18. The titles do not always make the difference obvious, so the age policy on the ticket page is the thing to read rather than the poster.

  • With kids

    The pavements change character after dark

    In the evening the Strip pavements carry handbillers distributing cards for escort services, costumed performers who charge for photographs, and mobile billboards with adult advertising. It is legal, persistent and unavoidable rather than dangerous. Families who mind it tend to move between resorts through the buildings and bridges rather than along the street, or to do their walking earlier.

Las Vegas with kids: common questions

Is Las Vegas suitable for children?
It suits some families and not others, and it is a better fit from around seven than for toddlers. The resort pools, the shows with a low minimum age and the desert day trips are real draws. Against that, children cannot linger on a casino floor and most resorts route guests across one, the evening pavements carry adult advertising and solicitation, and there is very little that is designed for children outside the hotels.
Can children walk through a casino in Las Vegas?
They may pass through on a designated path but may not stop, wait or sit in a gaming area — Nevada law sets the limit at 21 and staff enforce it. Because lifts, restaurants and pools in most Strip resorts are reached across the casino floor, it is worth working out the route through the building that minimises it.
What can families do in Las Vegas away from the Strip?
A scenic canyon loop drive about 30 minutes west with short marked walks, the Hoover Dam about 45 minutes south-east, and a red sandstone state park with petroglyphs about an hour north-east. The Grand Canyon's western rim is around two and a half hours away; the South Rim is four and a half and makes for a very long day.
When should families avoid Las Vegas?
High summer. From June to September temperatures regularly run between 38°C and 43°C, which makes walking between resorts hard work and the desert trips uncomfortable at best. March to May and October to November are far better.
How many days are worth spending in Las Vegas with kids?
Two to four, usually as a stop rather than the trip. That covers a pool day, a show, and a day out to the canyon or the dam before the setting starts to wear thin with children.

More of United States