For spring break this year, we decided we would take a mini family vacation. However, living in Utah, the options are slim, especially when you’ll only be staying for three nights, and plan on driving to your destination. We decided we would head to Las Vegas, (yet again) and try to experience some of the things we’ve never done before.
Las Vegas is often referred to as “sin city” for it’s gambling, nudity, drinking, prostitution, and partying. So why in the world would you want to take your family on vacation to this “sinful” city? While it’s true, the theme of Vegas is often, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” there are also many family friendly options here.
When we decided on Las Vegas as our Spring Break destination, the first thing we looked into was finding a family friendly casino to stay at. We knew we wanted this trip to be more relaxing and laid back, so we wanted a hotel with a great pool. After looking at just about every hotel, condo, and casino in Vegas, we ended up booking our three nights at The Mandalay Bay
View from our room
The Mandalay Bay is perfect for families. The rooms are large, there are plenty of restaurants on site, Shark Reef Aquarium is here, and the pool area, known as Mandalay Bay Beach, is amazing! Not only are there 3 pools, but they also have a lazy river, wave pool, cabana and gazebo rentals, 2 outdoor dining options, and 2700 tons of real sand.
Day One:
We woke up early Friday morning and headed to the highly recommended Baby Stacks Cafe for breakfast. If you like pancakes for breakfast, this place is a must! They have so many options that we ended up ordering a bunch of different plates and shared. I think the favorite ended up being the Cinnabun Pancakes and the Cookie Butter French Toast. We also tried the Rocky Road Pancakes, the Cookies & Cream Pancakes, and an omelet.
After devouring our breakfast, we headed over to the Neon Museum. This is a great spot to visit for all ages. The Neon Museum is a one hour tour of old casino signs such as, The Golden Nugget, The Aladdin, and The Sahara. As well as seeing these old iconic signs, you will also learn a bit about Las Vegas history. I have a post dedicated to our time at the Neon Museum that you can read here. The Neon Museum tour is outside, and so once we finished, we all wanted nothing more than to head back to the hotel for a swim. We ended up staying at the pools until closing, which is 6:00. We headed up to our room to freshen up so we could hit the Strip for some sightseeing and dinner.
The Las Vegas Strip is an amazing sight with all those lights! It truly is one of a kind. You can pretty much find anything and everything on the Strip. Casinos, shops, restaurants, museums, street performers, you name it, it’s there. If traveling with kids, be warned, there are some pretty inappropriate things to be found here, but also many kid friendly options as well.
Finding a restaurant on the Strip at 8:00 on a Friday night can be difficult. Every place we stopped, had a long wait, and we were all starving. We ended up eating dinner at Bobby’s Burger Palace. You can never go wrong with a Bobby Flay restaurant. There was no wait, the options were exactly what our kids wanted and the prices were very reasonable for anywhere, let alone a prime location on the Strip. The menu is pretty straight forward; burgers, fries, shakes, and sodas. They do offer some vegetarian options as well as kids meals. I ordered the Bacon Crunchburger (bacon burger with potato chips on top) and it was so good.
Day Two:
We woke up Saturday morning (later than planned) so we stopped by Einstein Bros. for a quick bagel before heading over to the Mob Museum. The museum offers a view into the world of organized crime throughout the world, as well as how the Mob came to be in Las Vegas. For a more detailed guide of the Museum, head over to my blog post that is dedicated to our visit there. We had a great time here, and I would highly recommend it, especially if you have older children.
Once again, we found ourselves at the Mandalay Bay Beach in the afternoon. Before jumping into the pool, we ate lunch at the poolside cafe. There’s just something fun and relaxing about sitting at a table enjoying lunch and a Coke Zero while listening to music and being outdoors. The prices are a bit steep for the small amount of food you get here, but we thought it was worth it to be able to eat and then within seconds, be in the pool. The kids spent most of the afternoon enjoying their time in the lazy river and wave pool while Win and I just enjoyed lounging in the sun.
We decided last minute that it would be fun to take the kids to see a comedy or magic show. The bad part was, because we waited so long, and because it was a Saturday night, a lot of tickets were sold out, and it is hard to know which shows are “family friendly.” We ended up getting tickets to the Mike Hammer, “Get Hammer’d” Comedy and Magic show. The show is held at the Lady Luck Casino in “old” Las Vegas. The best part of the entire show, was when I was picked to come up on stage and be part of the closing act. We all got a good laugh, and the kids kept asking me how he pulled off his final magic trick. I just kept telling them, “I have no idea!”
Once the show ended it was late, and everyone was starved! Win and I wanted to head back to the Strip for dinner, but the kids said they couldn’t wait, they needed to eat now! We ended up at a buffet (against my better judgement), and let’s just say it was below average. I’ll just leave it at that. We headed back to the hotel after dinner and went straight to bed.
Day Three:
Sunday morning came all too soon! We slept in until ten, and then had to rush to be packed and out the door by eleven (check out time). It’s always hard to see a vacation come to an end, but we had a great time exploring Las Vegas and doing things we hadn’t done there before.
If you’re getting ready to head to Las Vegas on a family vacation here are some more family friendly places that I recommend (from previous trips).
Places to Stay:
Tahiti Village: Family friendly and fun! This is not a casino, but is located on the Strip. Lazy River, sandy beach, and large pool make it a favorite for the kids.
South Point: Further south on the Strip, so you are not in all the traffic. Large rooms and they have a Steak n Shake inside.
The Orleans: Off the Strip, so traffic is a lot better. Large rooms, bowling alley, movie theater, and tons of restaurants on site.
Places to Eat:
The Yardhouse: Great for dinner! Get the chicken nachos as an appetizer. They will feed your entire group.
Wicked Spoon: Our favorite buffet in Vegas. It’s a bit pricey, but oh so yummy!
Hash Hash A Go Go: Great breakfast restaurant. Lots of options and fun atmosphere.
Raising Canes: An inexpensive restaurant for a quick lunch.
Bahama Breeze: Another favorite dinner location.
Margaritaville: It’s a bit of a wait since it’s on the Strip, but its’ such a fun location for kids. They have a pirate ship, they do a little singing show every hour or so. Lots of fun!
Things to Do:
Nathan Burton Magic Show: I highly recommend this for kids! Our kids still talk about this show and we went probably 5 years ago.
New York New York Roller Coaster
I did receive free tickets to the Mob Museum and The Neon Museum, however, all opinions are my own.