Family-friendly activities in Las Vegas

Many people are surprised to discover that Las Vegas offers a variety of family-friendly activities perfect for kids of all ages. From magic shows to children’s museums to indoor amusement parks and more, Las Vegas really does have it all.

Visit the Discovery Children’s Museum

The Discovery Children’s Museum is a 58,000-square-foot, three-story facility located in downtown Las Vegas. This non-profit organization provides a variety of engaging, interactive experiences perfect for families.

Children will enjoy exploring The Summit, the museum’s 70-foot, 13-level climbing structure. Featuring several climbing tubes and slides, the structure contains multiple hands-on experiments within its boundaries. These experiments incorporate air pressure, electricity, magnets, and more, and children are free to study and manipulate them. The museum’s Water Works exhibit contains several play stations complete with water wheels, turbines, and whirlpools. Mystery Town is an interactive exhibit where your child will collect clues and investigate a mystery. Kids under 6 can explore Toddler Town which features a padded baby play area, art projects, rope-and-pulley system, and more.

Tour the Shark Reef Aquarium

The Shark Reef Aquarium is a public aquarium located at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. Its main tank holds 1.3 million gallons of water, making it one of the largest aquariums in North America. It houses over 2000 species of aquatic life, including sharks, sea turtles, jellyfish, a golden crocodile, and more.

For an additional fee, visitors can feed the aquarium’s stingrays. Available for guests ages 5 and over, the stingray feed experience features a guided tour by a Shark Reef resident expert and provides guests with the unique opportunity to feed stingrays and horseshoe crabs while a Shark Reef aquarist answers their questions.

Another experience requiring an additional fee is the aquarium’s scuba diving experience where certified divers ages 18 and older can dive in the Shipwreck Shark exhibit. This experience includes a guided tour of the aquarium in addition to the dive. At the end of the aquarium tour, a dive guide will take you on an in-depth, underwater tour of the shark exhibit where you’ll have the chance to swim with sand tiger, white reef tip, and sandbar sharks.

Visit the Downtown Container Park

The Downtown Container Park is an open-air shopping center and entertainment complex in downtown Las Vegas built from repurposed shipping containers. You’ll find plenty of options to keep both kids and adults entertained in this sprawling complex.

The children’s park is the main attraction for children. It features a 33-foot slide and a NEOS playground, an interactive, electronic playground that combines video games with exercise and outdoor play. An area containing large foam blocks, perfect for building, is near the entrance. Various music groups play nightly at the outdoor amphitheater, and several boutiques and restaurants are located within the complex. Note that while Container Park is family friendly during the day, you must be 21 or older to enjoy the complex after 9 p.m.

Explore the Adventuredome Theme Park

The Adventuredome is a 5-acre, indoor theme park located inside the Circus Circus Hotel and Casino. It features over twenty rides and offers plenty of other experiences, such as laser tag, miniature golf, arcade games, and clown shows, that will help keep the entire family entertained.

If you’re looking for thrill rides, Adventuredome’s first roller coaster, the Canyon Blaster, reaches speeds of 55 miles per hour. El Loco, another roller coaster, takes riders on a 90-foot climb followed by a straight drop that produces a negative 1.5 vertical G. Younger children will enjoy the Adventuredome’s Frog Hopper, a junior drop tower that’s appropriate for kids who are at least 36 inches tall. You’ll also find a carousel, bumper cars, and several other rides perfect for small children at the park.

Visit the Bellagio Fountains

Image via Flickr by wfvanvalkenburg via CC BY 2.0

No trip to Las Vegas is complete without a visit to the Bellagio Fountains, a choreographed water and light show set to music. This iconic performance is one of the most popular attractions in Las Vegas, and it’s free to view. A great spot to watch the show is on the sidewalk directly in front of the fountains. Simply walk up and find a good spot. Shows occur every thirty minutes during weekday afternoons and every fifteen minutes, starting at noon on the weekends.

The area near the fountains can get crowded, especially on the weekends, so be aware of your surroundings and encourage your children to stay close.

See a Show

Choose from a variety of kid-friendly shows that the whole family will enjoy. Whether you’d like to take in a concert, circus performance, or magic show, it’s surprisingly easy to find family-friendly entertainment in Las Vegas, including:

Magic Shows

David Copperfield, who has been called “the greatest illusionist of our time,” conducts a ninety-minute show featuring mesmerizing magic tricks with lots of audience interaction. Murray the Magician, another popular Vegas performer, hosts sixty-minute performances that feature a combination of magic and comedy, making them an entertaining choice for families with kids who aren’t quite ready to sit through a longer show.

Circus Performances

For incredible stunts and enchanting characters, take in a show by Cirque du Soleil. Check out “Mystere” and “The Beatles LOVE,” two of Cirque’s most popular family-friendly shows on the Strip. For a non-Cirque option, consider “La Reve the Dream.” It’s similar to a Cirque du Soleil performance, but tickets are sometimes easier to get and less expensive.

Musicals and Concerts

The Blue Man Group is a good choice for many families. Performances combine art, music, science, and theatrics to create an entertaining, interactive show. Beatles fans may enjoy the “Beatleshow,” where talented impersonators play dozens of Beatles classics, such as “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Here Comes the Sun.”

These six Las Vegas attractions should give you several fun, family-friendly options, but if you know of a place we’ve missed, please let us know. Just give us a call or send us an email here at the De Castroverde Law Group, and we’ll make sure to add it to our list.