The first time we brought our youngest two to Las Vegas, they were 8 and 9 years old – old enough to appreciate the epic pools and massive hotels around The Strip. They loved the wave pool at the Mandalay Bay resort, and we spent a LOT of time there. Check out my itinerary with the kiddos from back in 2019 here. In that article, I list a whole bunch of other stuff you can do with kids, but it’s nowhere near comprehensive. Here, I’m going to update that list with a few additional activities as well as a hotel recommendation coming from the kiddos themselves.

This time, in July of 2023, the kids were 11 and 13, so they were a bit more itchy to do stuff that wasn’t just pool time. We stayed at the Venetian Resort, which our kids would recommend if you are coming to Las Vegas with under-21’s. Eli said it’s the best because you don’t have to walk through a casino to exist outside your hotel room. This is totally true, because the casino is on the lower level of the resort, and you can almost completely avoid it if you exit through the Grand Canal Shoppes level above it. Check out my overview of the Venetian Resort here!

When you’re visiting with kids, I highly recommend renting a car and exploring all of what southern Nevada has to offer. Last time, we went to the Hoover Dam and Red Rocks National Park. This time, we spent a very hot morning driving around the Valley of Fire State Park, which you can read all about here. I absolutely love this park. It’s full of easy hikes and gorgeous rock formations, and blows away the views that you get at Red Rocks. It’s a bit further of a drive, but 100% worth it. One of the reasons you should stay at the Venetian is that they have Hertz rental cars right in their garage – perfect for a quick getaway!

A Cirque du Soleil show is a great way to pass an evening on The Strip with your kids – especially the middle school set. The acrobatics are stunning, and the production value is always good. I’ve seen every Cirque show on the strip except the newest one – Mad Apple at New York New York, and I can say they are all good and appropriate for kids. Ka might be slightly scarier for really little ones, because it’s loud and there are battles, but perfectly fine for older elementary and middle schoolers. This time, we saw the Beatles Love show, mainly due to Clara’s current Beatles obsession. It’s the closest you’re going to get to seeing an actual Beatles show and she and I were so emotionally moved by the end that we had tears in our eyes.

One of the other reasons the Venetian is a great resort to stay at with kids is all of the different stuff they have to do within the resort. The wide range of activities include an escape room, which we didn’t even have time for, a VR Sandbox, which the kids had a ton of fun at, and they even have a rock climbing wall, which both kids enjoyed.

Of course, there are also a ton of fun shopping options in the Grand Canal Shoppes too, including candy stores, bakeries and gelato stands, in case your kids actually need more sugar!

For restaurants, you don’t want to skip Black Tap Burgers at the Venetian, for their enormous and delicious shakes. If you’re eating dinner here and not just getting shakes, I would highly recommend splitting the shakes as they truly are enormous!

We were in Vegas with the kids for a whopping four nights this time around, and there was very little down time, and actually very little pool time, especially since it was 115 degrees every day. If it wasn’t so hot, we would’ve also checked out the Linq ferris wheel and the ziplines over there. Additionally, since we were in Vegas with the kids, the Sphere has opened, showing “Postcards from Earth” several times a day. I absolutely would not skip seeing this show at the Sphere, and you can check out my overview and tips for going to the Sphere here! Don’t hesitate to consider Las Vegas as a family destination – you’ll have a ton of fun!