Please forgive me if this has been covered elsewhere, and mods please feel free to link me and lock it up or merge if it has.

We're doing the big US family adventure this summer, and the first leg sees us driving from the Vancouver area to Phoenix, with a stop in Vegas planned around the 2+2 party. I'd like to go to the office there on Thursday, and then the party on Friday, leaving on Saturday. So I'm looking for things the wife and kids (12 year old girl, 10 year old boy) could do Thursday and Friday, and they don't have to be in town - a few hours away is a possibility.

My wife wants to keep the kids away from the whole gambling/drinking/smoking atmosphere, so things on the Strip aren't our first choice. I've never set foot in Circus Circus, so I don't know what the Adventuredome is like when it comes to being separate from everything else - I would hope there wouldn't be smoking in there, but this is Vegas we're talking about, so nothing would surprise me.

Grand Canyon would be an obvious answer, but once we leave Vegas we're going to Phoenix and renting a motor home for a week or two to get around Arizona and Utah, so we'll cover that then. Lake Mead/Hoover Dam came to mind, but I don't know how much there is to do in mid-July that doesn't involve baking in sweltering heat.

Anyone have any suggestions?

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Crazy similar situation to my own. Was just about to post the same question. 12 year old daughter but 8 year old son and also driving from Phoenix (only passing through as well).
Weird...

Plenty to see on the strip that's family friendly during the day and it's not like it's total stumbling drunkfest everywhere. Sharks reef, new York new York, bellagio fountains, mirage volcano, m&m shop, Venetian canal, madam tussads, and plenty of shows.

His name is not Pappagiorgio! His name is Rusty Griswold and he's a C+ student!

A couple places that immediately come to mind are the Ethyl M Choicolate Factory tour http://www.ethelm.com/about_us/factory_tour.aspx and the Springs Preserve http://www.springspreserve.org/education/exchange.html.

On Saturday or Sunday they can ride Thomas The Tank Engine in Boulder City http://www.nevadasouthern.com/.

Go to Hoover Dam, take the Dam tour, take all the Dam pictures you want, ask any Dam questions you like, just don't wander off from the Dam tour group.

The first two are excellent suggestions for us, thanks - my wife has already been looking at that Springs Preserve.

Not sure if anyone`s familiar with The Cliffs at Peace Canyon; we can get a one bedroom suite there for $41:

http://cliffs-at-peace-canyon.hotel-rn.com/?lbl=ggl

So if we do that, I guess we probably would do stuff in Vegas, so maybe this is just another run of the mill `what can we do with the family in Vegas` thread after all.

http://www.pinballmuseum.org/

Disclaimer. Never been - dunno if they even still exist. Been meaning to go for a long time, and have heard good things.

MM MD

Have a look at this thread in travel. Its about kids and vegas and might give you some good info.


http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/92...-kids-1110824/

I go there every year, and it`s awesome - probably holds more appeal for me than my kids, but I was thinking of taking them for a couple of hours.

Yeah, all of this stuff is okay as long as you finsh by 8 or 9 pm before the skanks come out. Do some research and make an itinerary.

Do they like boating? Rent a speed or house boat on Lake Mead?

Machine guns? Sky diving?

I don't think machine guns are 12 year old friendly.

There are parks where you can fly airplanes. If you're a hobby shop guy, there are a couple good ones in town. One of the parks has instructors who for free will help you fly your plane if you have a controller that allows an instructor to take over. It's like a dual controller thing... hope I'm explaining it well enough. This is one of the things I did in Vegas as a 14 year old. Plus if you decide to buy a plane (a beginner one is less than $90 if I recall correctly), you can box it back up to take with you on the rest of your trip.

Another family friendly place is the Golden Nugget pool.

you're not going to be to far from red rock casino... great facility, but not overly kid friendly. the buffet is good for the price if you need breakfast/lunch on the cheap... $4.99/8.99 with a players card. they have a really nice bowling alley and a state of he art movie complex, but that's about it. take the kids on a hike on one of the many red rock canyon trails, that's always good for a few hours. I think downtown is "fairly" kid friendly with the mob museum and touristy chachki shopping.

circus circus is always good if you are a kid... not so much if you are an adult.

adventure dome is separate from the rest of the casino and smoke free fwiw, but it's a pretty crummy amusement park. could still be fun though.

hoover dam is an option, but you guys will be driving right by that on your way to arizona anyway, so it makes more sense as a detour on your way. also, not sure a 10 and 12 year old would really appreciate taking a tour of the dam.

if they like the beach, there's always lake mead. water is clean. can rent a boat/jet ski

red rock canyon is a cool place to visit too. lots of hiking trails and things like that.. even avoiding the trails and just climbing around on some of the rocks is fun.

LA is about 4 1/2 hours away if they'd want to make that drive and visit hollywood and/or venice beach. it's kind of cool to see, but i'm telling you now it's over-rated.

see you at the meetup and pinball hof

Thanks for the suggestions, but I don't think any of these will work in our case.

Interesting. A quick search makes it appear that you need to be a member of a club or with a member, but maybe I'm going to the wrong websites.

Thanks.

Glad to hear adventure dome is separate; I thought it would be. A little surprised to hear it's crummy, but since my kids don't go in for big roller coasters , it might be their speed with things like laser tag.

Now that we're staying in town, I agree on Hoover Dam. LA we've done plenty of times and will do again in the future.

Definitely going to get a trip in to the HOF. Maybe two - one with the family, one without!