Las Vegas with Kids

What’s an outdoor adventure family doing in Las Vegas? Awaiting our roadtrip to southern Utah, in all honesty. We had a hosted stay at the Outpost X immersive resort lined up but had two nights to spend in Las Vegas before that started. The craziest thing happened, we actually had a great time! Las Vegas has lots of things for families to do, especially if you have kids that are older. Here’s how I enjoyed two nights in Las Vegas with kids! This post contains some hosted experiences but the views and opinions are expressed are my own.

Why Las Vegas?

Truthfully, Las Vegas has never been on my list. Las Vegas with kids has definitely never been on my list. However, it might have been on my radar because of the Meow Wolf location. Recently, on a trip to southern Utah, we found ourselves with an extra two nights to spend somewhere. I decided that it was time to see what the hype was about. Thanks to some suggestions from my friend, Emily at Graham Slam bakery, we found an amazing place to stay. After booking our stay I started finding more and more things to fill in our adventures in Las Vegas.

Summerlin: a suburb.

We landed in Las Vegas on a Saturday afternoon. After a quick stop at Whole Foods for some snacks, we left the strip area to head for Summerlin, Nevada. Why? Two reasons. The first was because I didn’t want to be on the strip on a Saturday night. The second was because the hotel I wanted to stay at was $300 cheaper to stay at on Sunday night. Summerlin is a suburb of Las Vegas with nice, cheaper hotels, and it’s just a short twenty minute drive away from the strip.

Where to stay in Summerlin.

There are lots of places to stay in Summerlin but we opted for the Element Hotel by Marriott. We like this hotel chain because every room has two beds, a couch, a kitchen space, and large bathroom. The included continental breakfast is great for kids and families and the hotels also have pools. The Summerlin Element is just off the interstate in a safe and quiet business park.

Things to do in Summerlin.

Summerlin is a great little side trip on a vacation to Las Vegas with kids. In addition to the great hotel options, the downtown Summerlin area has lots of fun shops and restaurants. It’s a destination in of itself to walk around and explore. Plus, there is a Lego store.

• Downtown Summerlin – shopping, dining, and more.
• Red Rock Canyon – this conservation area is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and has fees to enter. The accept the America the Beautiful pass too. We drove the scenic loop since it was far too hot to hike. It’s a gorgeous drive with several places to stop and enjoy the views. Stop by the visitor center and gift shop too.

Las Vegas – the strip.

Never in my life did I think I would find myself in Las Vegas with kids, but we went there and we ended up having a great time. On our second night we headed for the strip. There are tons of options in Las Vegas for places to stay, eating options, shows to see and more. To be honest, it’s overwhelming. I had to just choose some things and go with it on our short schedule. Here’s what we did.

The Sphere Experience.

This should be on your list for Las Vegas with kids, but bear in mind it’s a splurge. The Sphere Experience is very expensive but we thought it was worth it. We did not attend for a concert. Instead, we got daytime tickets to see “Postcard from Earth.” The full experience includes 45 minutes to explore the lobby area. You can interact with several humanoid, AI robots named Aura. We found them to be incredibly fascinating but also a little bit unsettling. The robots can actually “see” who is talking to them and noticed a girl was holding something, then asked the girl about what she was holding.

After 45 minutes, you enter the theater. Right away we noticed the soundproofing in the tunnel as you enter the seating area. It is mind blowing, this arena can actually seat up to 20,000 people! The dome screen ceiling completely surrounds you and the sound is unlike anything we’ve ever experienced. I have to confess, as the film started I was disappointed because it was a rectangular portion of sphere but the whole thing. A few minutes later our jaws dropped as a vide of our Earth continued to grow, expand, and eventually consume the entire space around us. Postcard from Earth is a visually stunning, full of rich sound, and absolutely beautiful. As a whole, we loved the entire Sphere Experience and recommend it.

Las Vegas with Kids: Pinball Hall of Fame.

Our family loves pinball. In fact, my in laws have a super fun Jurassic Park pinball machine! When I heard about the Pinball Hall of Fame, I knew we had to go. It’s located on Las Vegas Blvd South and you can’t miss it. It’s filled with playable games, many of which are vintage. There are even some of the original style pinball games. The types of games span the decades and include some newer style games as well. My kids enjoyed the newer games and I loved the John Wick games, Jaws games, and the Star Trek pinball. The Pinball Hall of Fame isn’t just pinball, they have some other types of games and other vintage arcade entertainment. One note: the games are all their original costs so you’ll need quarters to play. There are money change machines on site, just be sure to bring cash.

The Cosmopolitan Hotel.

It felt so difficult to decided where to stay when taking a trip to Las Vegas with kids. I wanted to stay somewhere that would have great views, but let us stay away from the casino and party vibes. My friend told me about the Cosmopolitan Hotel and when I looked up the views, I was sold. However, it was $300 more expensive to stay on a Friday or Saturday night. Sunday night was still expensive, but significantly less than the weekend nights. I called the hotel directly to book an upper floor, fountain view room with two beds.

We arrived around 3:30 PM to check in only to find ourselves stuck in a line for almost an hour. Once we could finally check in, we learned our room wasn’t ready yet but that they would let us know when it was and our keys would automatically activate. So, we went to the Pinball Hall of Fame to wait. At almost 6 PM they hadn’t called yet, so we went back because I was irritated that I was paying so much for a room that we couldn’t get in. Luckily, because of the delay they gave us a $100 food credit and a room on almost the top floor (47th floor). The views were absolutely worth the wait. Check out a video of our view here!

The balcony of our room overlooked the Bellagio fountains. We could also see The Sphere and the Eiffel Tower of the Paris casino. We got to enjoy the sunset then see the lights start to come on as the fountains started up. Room service was easy to order and we all had a great meal from the peace of our room with a view. PS – I only had to put a towel over one picture of a showgirl in the bathroom. Mom life problems.

Book your Cosmopolitan stay here!

Driving the strip at night.

While my entire purpose of a room with a balcony was to avoid the chaos of the strip at night. Well, after dinner my son asked if we could go drive the strip to see all of the lights. Being the fun Mom, I said yes in a heartbeat. Because, I have older kids now and it’s easy to say yes to late night shenanigans. We got our rental car out of valet parking and set out to explore. Fun fact which we didn’t know: the traffic at 10:30 PM on the strip is worse than during the day. It took us forever to drive the full strip, including getting stuck in construction traffic. But it was worth it to hear my kids shriek with excitement about seeing The Strat, aka, the tower that Dude Perfect shot a basketball off of.

Breakfast at the Cosmopolitan.

The next morning we slept in. After enjoying the balcony with some coffee from the in room coffee maker, my kids woke up hungry. No one wanted to explore with me to find the onsite Starbucks, so I set forth while they got up and started packing (they are 13 and 10 years old, and well seasoned travelers). I got lost. Very lost. But in getting lost, I discovered the casino and the incredible Chandelier Lounge. I do love an adventure and this was a fun one to tell my kids once I made it back to the room with coffee and their breakfast sandwiches. All in all, great memories were made.

For more options for places to stay, here is a custom map with options. I have some of the places we visited tagged so you can look for places to stay that are nearby.

Las Vegas with Kids: Area 15.

This is a must see spot if you’re visiting Las Vegas with kids. It’s so fun for kids of all ages, but it’s also a great place to visit for adults as well, especially at night or for special events. Keep reading to see why we loved it so much!

What is Area 15?

Area 15, as they say, does not exist. It’s a collective of immersive art experiences, virtual reality games, restaurants, arcades, attractions, and so much more. While it’s geared toward adults in the evenings, it’s a blast for kids and families of all ages during the daytime hours. It’s also home to one of our favorite art experiences, Meow Wolf.

Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart.

My kids and I absolutely love Meow Wolf. We’ve been to the House of Eternal Return in Santa Fe four times. Last year we were lucky to receive preview tickets to the Meow Wolf Grapevine location. Omega Mart has been on our list since it opened and we were so excited to visit. We received gifted tickets to Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart. Even on a weekday there was a line before the experience opened, much to our (spoiled homeschooler) dismay. It moved fast and we were quickly inside. Here is a video recap of our Omega Mart experience.

The premise is that a company, DramCorp, has accidentally created collisions of universes and a grocery store, Omega Mart, is experiencing multiple parallel universes. One of the many things we love about Meow Wolf is the layered experience. You can try to solve the puzzles by opening everything and digging deep into every room. Or, you can just enjoy the art for what it is. A few things to keep in mind:

• Explore everything, we mean it. Open things, crouch down and look into things, touch, explore, and play. There are several secret passages that my daughter discovered quickly.
• You can pick up an Omega Access card from the counter inside Omega Mart to dive deeper.
• Almost all of the products in the store are actually things you can buy.
• Read all the labels, they’re brilliant and hilarious.
• There is an onsite bar with speciality drinks but it’s for 21+ only.
• Plan to spend one to two hours here depending on your tolerance for crowds.

Other Area 15 experiences.

Area 15 is an absolute blast if you love immersive art and unique art experiences. There are several restaurants onsite. We enjoyed eating at The Beast and grabbing coffee and drinks from Conduit Cafe. The whole interior is filled with pulsing laser lights, music, and a feast for the senses. In the middle is the beautiful led tree from Oddwood Bar. The tented Sanctuary Lounge is also really cool to walk around and look at. Upstairs, there is an arcade, golf simulator, axe throwing, and an indoor zipline experience called Haley’s Comet. There are also multiple virtual reality experiences and a few other immersive art attractions. For shopping there is a super fun toy store and some other neat boutiques, including one with LED light up clothes that is every rave go-er, or ten year old girl’s, dream fur coat.

• You can purchase different levels of experiences passes or buy one thing.
• On the level 2 and up passes, you can participate in a scavenger hunt that spans the whole building to discover the origin story of Area 15.
• It’s free to enter Area 15 but you’ll go through a bag check and metal detector to enter.
• There is some great art to explore outdoors as well.
• You can spend all day here if you want to, and I’d recommend this for ages 8 and up.
• If you’re visiting Las Vegas with kids, plan on exploring Area 15 during the daytime hours for a more tame experience.

The Hoover Dam.

If you’re visiting Las Vegas with kids, or even at all, this is sort of a must do. The Hoover Dam is an American icon that’s worth seeing, at least once. I had never been so I put it on our itinerary. It’s about a 45 minute drive to the Hoover Dam from the strip. Fair warning: it’s still really, really hot in August. We didn’t even hike up to the overlook. It was also still quite crowded. During our visit, we paid for parking in hopes of exploring more of the dam, but the visitor center was closed for construction. The only way to access any of the educational exhibits was to go on a guided tour, which we didn’t have time for. So, we walked across the top of the dam. It’s quite impressive and the sheer scale of concrete is a bit mind blowing. It was a great opportunity for a history lesson on our way out and back, despite our disappointment at not being able to get into the visitor center. The exhibits are expected to reopen in February 2025.

Why visit Las Vegas with Kids?

Visiting Las Vegas with kids was never part of my “must do this” plans. But now that we’ve gone, I’m really glad that we went. It was so much fun, especially with older kids. From playing all kinds of pinball, to driving the strip late at night, talking with the AI robot Aura, experiences multiverses at Area 15 and Omega Mart, plus enjoying the Bellagio fountains from 47 floors up, Vegas left it’s mark on our memory bank. Maybe we will go back and save some time for some shows. Viva Las Vegas!

Looking for more family travel trip ideas? Here’s a guide for a southern Utah roadtrip with kids. Or, one of our favorite immersive resort experiences at Outpost X, a Star Wars inspired place to stay in southwest Utah.