Age Gap Family Vacation Ideas in Las Vegas, Nevada

We scoured and found plenty of things to do for your family vacation in Las Vegas! These are age appropriate for elementary to teen ages! if you have a family with a large age gap like ours, consider these family friendly fun ideas in Las Vegas!

Every family vacation for us has some unique challenges. With a six year age gap in between my second and third finding things elementary age and teenage age kids want to do presents some careful planning.

This year we were able to relax for a few days and get out of the rain where we live to head to Las Vegas, Nevada. We have family in Saint George and Mesquite so we spent the weekends with them and during the week relaxed in Las Vegas. The weather was perfect, the pools were warm and we were able to find some great activities that kept all the kids entertained! If you're looking for ideas for families in Las Vegas, here it is! PS: We also have this guide for family friendly activities in Mesquite Nevada!

WHERE TO STAY

There are many, many great hotel deals in Las Vegas. You could consider a rental home off the strip. Some families love the option of doing an Las Vegas RV Rental.

This time we opted to do a timeshare through BookVIP.com. We got a two bedroom hotel for $199 for 3 nights. It was amazing! Each room had a washer dryer, kitchen and dining and living area. So nice for large families! And while we aren't always crazy about going to these presentations, we loved our timeshare sales person. He was a former NFL player and talked to us about some great places we could take the kids and some things that would be coming to Vegas in the next couple years for families. We are excited to come back and loved that there were some not so touristy ideas he gave us.

Of course, that came with the obligation for a timeshare presentation. Our two hour presentation turned into a three hour presentation. Note to self, NEVER use this excuse:

We found some great ways to get out of timeshare presentations and stay on time. We loved our presentation because we found the place we were staying at was nice, but we could go get a day pass to the larger facility that gave us access to five pools, a large arcade, bowling, a huge fitness center and equestrian events for my oldest teen to watch. It was nice to bounce back and forth to each resort. We also signed up for players cards at both of the adjoining casinos and they offered us two free buffets per players card. That was two cheap dinners for the whole family!

1. Can we see the contract before signing? We aren't signing unless we can read the clauses before hand and we aren't signing the offer intent until we see and can look over the contract. (They will fight you on this, tell you you have three days after you sign to change your mind, etc. but stand firm...they give up after about five minutes).
2. I will rescind. Other timeshare people say this has gotten them out the door in 17 minutes. Wish we would've seen this one beforehand.
3. When you time is up, stand up, thank them and then cross your arms. It will look really weird to have two people standing with their arms crossed standing by a desk over the salesperson. This is a technique used a lot by company executives to signal the end of a meeting.
4. Print out or pull up some for sale properties through the timeshare company. (Look on eBay, timeshare users groups (TUG:
   https://tug2.net/), etc). Show them to them and then stand up.
5. Do not answer any questions. Poker face. Very awkward but it works.
6. For overly nice people who can't be mean to salespeople:
   "Thank you so much for your presentation. I am so sorry, but we have to leave now for x (scuba tour, whale watching tour, dolphin encounter, etc). We have been looking forward to doing x for several weeks now so we are quite excited. Bye! (And then stand up!)

THINGS TO DO FOR FAMILIES IN LAS VEGAS:

1. The Strip: Walking The Strip always offers lot's of things to do. You can pop into the Coke or M&M store, the Hershey's store, or pop into one of the hotels on The Strip like Bellagio to see the atrium. Bring a stroller for younger children and know that kids will need lot's of breaks. There are tons of things to do at each hotel too. Gondola rides at the Venetian, the Flamingo Encounter at the Flamingo, the Volcano eruption at the Mirage, the list goes on and on and on! Bring a stroller for younger kids as if you walk the whole strip you are talking Disneyland caliber amounts of walking! Stop for some snacks and shows along the way. The M&M factory offers a free movie and the unique malls offer free shows (Caesar's Palace, Hard Rock Mall).

1. Golden Nugget Pool: This pool is amazing! My boyfriend's uncle said that he always stays here with his teenage daughter because of the pool alone. A clear slide sends you flying through a large aquarium with sharks! Kids will talk about this for days! If you have a larger family, check the prices first. Just the swim alone is twenty-something dollars. We found some amazing deals that made it cheaper to stay a night at the hotel then to pay the swim fee. We have this on our to-do list for next time.

1. Circus Circus: This is a fun place to kill a couple of hours with young and old kids. The older kids can ride the rides, all kids can do the arcades, and the younger kids will love the free circus shows happening throughout their time there.

1. Hoover Dam: The Hoover Dam is awe inspiring and we found the tours were the best for the teens. The younger kids got a little scared and didn't like the underground part but they loved the movie, the staircase and the exhibits. The teens loved the photo opportunities and walking along the dam outside. We also had lot's of 'dam' jokes by my teenage son during the tour.

1. Boulder City Train Museum: If you stop at the Hoover Dam, make sure you stop at the Boulder City Train Museum. The best time to go is over the weekend when the trains are running, but as you can see the kids loved being able to climb all over the trains. The didn't seem to mind at all that the trains weren't running. they had a blast going on the tracks and we were floored that the teenagers were having the most fun.

1. SHOWS!! Vegas has some incredible entertainment. Since shows change often, just Google "family friendly shows in Vegas" and read through the descriptions. We were debating between Blue Man Group and Mystere and then came across V, the Ultimate Variety Show. We were floored that all the kids loved the show. It featured some of their favorite acts they remembered from America's Got Talent. Because of the smaller size of the theater, the kids loved watching the faces of the acrobats and watching the acrobats soar over them.

1. Water Parks: We love going to water parks in the summer time. It can be a little tricky depending on the age gap between children though. I found that it was difficult if I took them myself because one kid wanted the kiddie pool and the other was scared to ride alone on the tube slide but wanted to. So it took some planning but usually if I had one of them bring a friend or cousin they did alright and it was actually a great way to spend the day. Las Vegas has some great waterparks including Wet N' Wild and Cowabunga Bay.

1. Museums: I am like the next parent. Let's just say by the time that the kids become teens I'm a little "museum'd" out. I've gone on field trips to museums, taken them over the summer to children's museums and learning museums and I'm just done. Las Vegas though has some of the coolest museums! And my teens and younger children LOVE them and so do I! Some are incredibly cool immersive experiences and others are ones that the young kids will love playing with the displays while the teens love the learning aspect. A few of ours on our list are Springs Preserve which boasts a 180 acre learning and fun zone. It has two museums, live animal exhibits, train rides, bike rentals, botanical gardens and a flash flood exhibit. CSI: The Experience is another fun experience for teens and kids. If they love solving crimes, this immersive learning experience helps them solve crimes in a forensic science lab with amazing special effects. Other unique museums include the Mob Museum, a great museum for kids who love to learn more about crime and law, The National Atomic Museum for kids who want to learn more about the history of atomic testing in Nevada, and the Clark County Museum with it's fun structures and buildings. Other fun museums include the Neon Museum, the Pinball Museum, Marvel's Avengers Station Museum, and Nostalgia's Street Rods Museum.

1. Parks: And let's not forget to add parks to the list for parents. How many parks have we pushed strollers through, pushed our kids on swings for hours on end, and gotten tailbone bruises from going down bumpy slides that we remember not hurting that bad when we were younger?? Las Vegas family parks are the BEST around and offer some great unique experiences for parents, teens and kids. Container Park is the first to come to mind. Teens and kids love the park and there is a TON of things to do here! Littler ones will love the Treehouse while older kids have a lot of activities for them too. Parents will love the concerts and movies. Exploration Park is also a fun park to kill some time at. The park features picnic areas, playgrounds, waterplay area, walking trails, replicas of a western town and Indian village, archaeology dig site, and outdoor amphitheater. Centennial Park offers a nice park for everyone. Ramps for all abilities are included, a large dog play area, water features, soccer fields and more offer plenty of room to relax and unwind from the busyness of the strip. Western Trails Park offers a unique experience. It's an equestrian park but offers old town buildings, large areas for the dogs to run and walk, walking trails and more.

1. Experiences: One of our favorite dinner experiences was Medieval Times. Our teens loved it and my four year old at the time was completely into it! I was shocked, thinking I would have to take her out several times or she wouldn't enjoy it but she LOVED it and was mesmerized from the time we got there to the time we left. The Excalibur offers the Tournament of Kings which is very similar. The SeaQuest Experience is a lot of fun too! There are many different activities to choose from including Sleeping with the Sharks, the Animal Whisperer Tour and animal feedings and experiences. The GlowZone offers a lot of fun for all ages too. This HUGE glow in the dark facility offers rope climbing, bumper cars, miniature golf, arcade, ninja course, laser maze, Bazooka ball and a whole glow in the dark playground for kids under 7. The prices are reasonable too!

If you've found a family activity in Las Vegas that catered to families with large age gaps like ours, let us know! Because at the end of the day, the goal is to get your kids to look like this. This kid helped grandma and then had a 3 hour nap! Bonus Mom read a book time!!

Resource Links:

Las Vegas for Kids-the 2019 Guide: Santorini Dave

Things to Do in Las Vegas for Kids: Family Vacation Hub