How to make the most of a family holiday to Las Vegas
Many people say it's a mistake to take your children to the world's centre of gambling, indulgence and excess. But Las Vegas* is actually a great place to have some seriously memorable family fun.
Yes, it'll be a gluttonous break for all ages, and not a cheap one at that, but there are ways to save by planning ahead and timing your activities. Find out how to make the most of a family holiday in Las Vegas with these top tips.
Getting there: find great value family breaks to Las Vegas with Virgin Holidays*, while flights are also available with Virgin Atlantic*, direct from London Heathrow.
Zip lines
Get a bird's eye view of The Strip from Fly LINQ Zipline, which starts from the LINQ Hotel and sails above the LINQ Promenade. While you'll get a good view for the first part of the ride, many find the experience a little slow (despite reaching up to 35 mph), hard to locate and over too quickly.
Instead, head out to the original Las Vegas Strip, the Fremont Street Experience, and climb the tower to ride SlotZilla.
As long as your children are over 35 kg they can ride the main zipline, which is 11 storeys high and flies you face-first along five blocks above Fremont Street's neon lights and crowds (which tend to be a bit wilder than LINQ Promenade's).
If the little ones aren't quite heavy enough, you can still take the shorter, lower zipline, which starts at seven storeys high and travels two blocks. This line has you fly in an upright position, better for nervous children (or adults!).
The heavier you are, the faster you'll go, so maybe tell the kids you won't be alongside them much, but the sights and angle of the line make it great fun whatever your size.
Your pick of Cirque du Soleil shows
While there's no such thing as a cheap family visit to Cirque du Soleil, the fact that there are several of the famous Canadian troupe's shows on at any one time in Vegas means you have a better chance here than elsewhere of finding a performance with late availability.
Wander around the hotels where Cirque du Soleil have residencies (that's New York-New York Hotel & Casino, The MGM Grand, Treasure Island, Mandalay Bay and Bellagio) on a quiet day and you may even find performers handing out vouchers for reductions.
Either way, tickets for Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas are cheaper than for their shows in London, and if your children like death-defying leaps, impossible tumbles and turns, pyrotechnics and some of the most dramatic and creative staging anywhere in the world, this experience will have you remembering the thrills and spectacle long after you've forgotten the bill.
Ride a real-life rollercoaster
At New York-New York Hotel & Casino, located on the southern end of The Strip, you'll find a roller coaster complete with loops, high drops and wide views of Las Vegas and the mountains beyond.
Unlike the Statue of Liberty replica, this is no miniature copy, The Big Apple Coaster reaches speeds of 67 mph and has a 203-foot drop, making it a must for children and adults alike.
You need to be over 54 inches (137 cm) high to ride it, and do check ahead that it's running before you go, as it can close at short notice for maintenance.
Once you're inside the hotel, there's an arcade where the kids can play while a grown-up queues. There are also VR rollercoaster experiences available in case you don't fancy the real thing.
Once done, head downstairs to Hershey's Chocolate World for some sweet treats. Don't do it in the opposite order unless you're certain of your group's ability to hold down large volumes of chocolate while looping the loop!
All-you-can-eat buffets
Picky kids? The buffets have you covered. Aficionados say the Las Vegas buffets aren't what they used to be, but they still have a huge range of foods at self-service stations, a range of free soft drinks (alcohol for the grownups) and endless desserts you can offer as a reward for brave tasting of new vegetables.
Food can be very pricey in hotels along The Strip, where it's easy to be charged $20 for a croissant! So, filling up at a buffet can be a good way to try to get some value. The Buffet at Wynn Las Vegas has a reputation for being one of the best.
You can enjoy king crab, wagyu beef, sushi, an 'Eggs Benedict' station and more while less adventurous palates fill up on charcuterie, a good range of bread products, rice, wings, noodles, crudites and potatoes in various guises.
At the dessert aisle, there's a make-your-own-s'mores station, and some delicious dainty puddings and cakes that will tempt you back with a new plate at least once.
Las Vegas buffets are famous for their long queues. It's not unheard of to wait for over an hour, but you can beat this by buying priority seating or by carefully timing your visit. Try The Wynn's afternoon buffet around 1.30 pm, not long after opening, and you're likely to be seated without waiting too long.
The fountains at the Bellagio
You might be greeted with moans if you tell the kids you're heading out to look at a fountain. Don't worry, they'll love it when you get there.
The Bellagio takes up a substantial portion of The Strip and is fronted by a large water feature (the size of a small lake) where free-to-see fountains and lights delight expectant crowds.
These spurt into life every 30 minutes, Monday to Friday between 3.00 pm and 7.30 pm, then every 15 minutes from 8.00 pm until midnight (on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, the half-hourly schedule starts at midday).
While there's a reasonable amount of space to stand in front of the hotel and watch, if you want a real treat, book a table at Mon Ami Gabi, the restaurant in the Paris Ls Vegas Hotel & Casino opposite the Bellagio.
It's first-come, first-served for tables on the patio, but if you get one, you can enjoy steak and frites in comfort while the fountains do their thing.
Expect coloured lights and coordinated water works, each show set to one of a variety of songs. And don't worry if the little ones seem bored initially; the show builds to a crescendo of booming drama as water cannons shoot jets hundreds of feet into the air, with the audience oohing and aahing at the spectacle. Go after sunset to get the full effect of the light show.
Step inside Sphere
If you're staying at one of the hotels east of the strip, and your view isn't of The Strip, chances are that when you look out of your window, you're seeing a large round object that keeps turning into a huge emoji face that seems to react to passing airplanes.
The giant ball might then split into thousands of dazzling colours and patterns in incredibly high definition, before advertising a U2 concert. That's Sphere, and it's even more impressive on the inside.
It houses the world's highest-definition screen, made up of 160,000 square feet of LEDs, creating a 16k x 16k resolution, where you can see two different shows in brightness and clarity that draw gasps from the audience.
The standard show is Darren Aronofsky-directed Postcard from Earth, which is billed as suitable for children over six, but, being Aronofsky, has some emotive moments that might upset viewers with a fragile sensibility.
The doors open around 45 minutes before each show starts, and you should aim to be on time as the building is huge inside, and always busy, meaning it can take a while to find and take your seat.
Look out for the AI robots being demonstrated in the foyer; they captivate and occasionally worry children with their not-quite-life-like mannerisms as they answer questions from the audience.
Hit the highs at I Love Sugar
Sin City has no shortage of ways to attack children's enamel, from the world's tallest chocolate fountain to the huge M&M's Las Vegas. There's a lesser-known place, though, that really will have your kids wide-eyed and nagging until you give in.
Situated on the LINQ Promenade, I Love Sugar is two floors of seemingly endless pick-n-mix. From traditional hard sweets to industrial-strength sour powders via Nerd Gummy Clusters, blue rock candy and saltwater taffy, it'll take no time for small hands to (use the tongs to) fill a bag.
The cost is weight-based, and not cheap, but a child can easily claim enough sweets in one wide-eyed visit to last the whole trip, without ever running out of variety.
Find more grown-up fun, head to the over-21s-only Candy Martini Bar where gummy bear cocktails can sate your own sugar craving as you wait for the excitement to subside downstairs.
Slushie heaven
Vegas, being a party town for adults, brings an unexpected bonus for your kids in the presence of numerous slushie bars.
These shops, which you'll find all along The Strip, are primarily there to sell liquor-laced ice refreshment to grown-ups, but the many flavours and colours of crushed ice are available without alcohol added, meaning your kids can probably try flavours they've never even heard of before.
Fat Tuesday is a crowd favourite where you can order Electric Lemonade, Hurricane or Miami Vice, to name but a few.
Be aware that Nevada licensing laws mean that under-21s are not permitted on the premises of most drinking establishments, so that means you might be asked to keep your children on the other side of the threshold at slushie shops.
Even though they appear to be open air, legally they're not, and the boundary between the shop and the strip is the line that minors aren't allowed to cross.
Dose up on candy apples
We've all seen the bright red sugar-coated toffee apples that have been around as long as hyperactive kids and exasperated parents. In Las Vegas, they've taken that staple and made it an art form.
If you don't want to go too far to find the apple of your dreams, head to Sloan's Homemade Ice Cream in the Venetian, at the northern end of The Strip, to pick up an M&M-coated apple the size of a small melon.
If you don't mind travelling for your sugar rush, though, try the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory at Fremont Street. The sheer variety of toffee apples (called candy apples in the US) will make all ages gape in wonder.
Types on offer include Pecan Caramel, English Toffee, Apple Pie and Pecan Bear Caramel all featuring a crisp Granny Smith at the centre, so it's technically one of your five a day!
The Habitat at Flamingo
With its huge structures and neon lights, the strip might not be your first-choice destination to see wildlife. While you're there, it'd be a shame to miss the Flamingo's charming nod to its name.
Inside the courtyard created by the hotel's two large structures, a small lake with surrounding planted areas, known as The Habitat, is home to a flock of beautiful flamingos, who will delight children of all ages by standing on one leg, burying their heads in their wings, and generally being pinker than they'd ever imagine of a bird.
You'll also see turtles, white-faced whistling ducks, koi, albino catfish and a charismatic pelican named Bugsy, who takes his moniker from the infamous founder of the hotel.
Bugsy engages kids with his preening, bobbing and sitting against the window watching the crowds go by. Bugsy was found wrapped in fishing nets in the sea and, unfortunately, had an injury that means he'll never fly again, but his life in The Habitat seems a very happy one.
Go at 10.00 am any day of the week to catch feeding time and a free talk on the animals that call The Habitat their home.
Climate in Las Vegas
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum daytime temperature °C |  14 |
 18 |
21 |
 25 |
 31 |
37 |
41 |
39 |
35 |
 28 |
20 |
14 |
| Hours of sunshine (daily) | ||||||||||||
| Days with some rainfall |  3 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
The above guide shows the climate in Las Vegas. Find out more about conditions across the state in our complete guide to the climate in Nevada.
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