Las Vegas with Teens?
 

I'm wondering if it is worth it to take two teenage boys to Las Vegas. Logistics of an upcoming trip make it a convenient add-on but it is not the kind of trip we normally take as a family. Aside from Hoover Dam, what else can we do to enhance the trip and make it of more substantive other than hotels, restaurants, shows.....? DH and I are not gamblers. I wouldn't mind a day lying by the pool, but other than that....??? Thanks for your ideas and suggestions!



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You can take day and night trips to the desert (jeep or horseback) and some of the big resorts are catering more to families (Mandalay Bay has a great pool for kids)but in my opinion if you don't gamble at all, it would be kind of a waste.

I (unfortunately) am in Vegas quite a bit on business. I do not understand why anyone brings children there. I see tons of parents pushing children in baby strollers outside in 100' heat in June...I don't get it. It's just my opinion, but I don't see what a child can do in Vegas that he couldn't do at the local Holiday Inn pool.

Might also want to check that a particular pool is even open when you will be there.

Gee, what a Holiday Inn you must have!
Ours doesn't have a roller coaster, nor does it have live lion or white tiger exhibits. There's no thrill ride at our Holiday Inn that shoots you in the air like the Straosphere, nor a several acre game arcade. Most kids love malls, but ours is nothing like a couple of those in Vegas -- like the shops of Caesar's for example. Our Holiday Inn doesn't have a huge theatre showing O or Mystere or LeReve or any of the other major shows -- yours does? We live in Florida so there's no Red Rock or Valley of Fire to explore here, and the only smallish man made bridge just doesn't hold a candle to Hoover Dam. And the local Holiday Inn pool is just a pool, no comparison to the water park or lazy rivers of the Vegas resorts.

But I'd love to check out this Holiday Inn you mention if it offers half the stuff that Vegas does for teens. Were you kidding, cfntmpn? Surely you weren't being serious.

Okay, keep the nice replies coming! The attractions that are at the hotels - the coasters, etc - are there fees for those, and if so, are they high?

I feel the same way about babies and toddlers in strollers at Disney, miserable in the heat...but I've got a 13 and 17 year old. I'd like the trip to be part educational (they are both engineering types, so Hoover Dam is perfect), nature types, typical teens (shows) and they enjoy a pool with waterslides.

Please keep the feedback coming - it's really helpful.

There is loads to do for non-gamblers like you, your children, and me.

Despite its detractors, Las Vegas is one of the great tourist destinations of the world.

It is heaven on earth for teenage boys and others who are into kitsch and camp.

Some highlights are wandering around The Venetian, watching the dancing waters at Bellagio, and going to cheap afternoon shows, such as "Mac King."

Just heed the warning, given above, to not put your teenage boys in a stroller and push them around town on a hot day.

Have fun.

HTTY

"The attractions that are at the hotels - the coasters, etc - are there fees for those, and if so, are they high?

Yes. and Yes.

Here's a fun link for roller coasters in Vegas:

casinogambling.about.com/library/blcoaster.htm

At my age, the kids could put ME in a stroller and wheel me around.

Thanks for the coaster link. I forgot that DH and kids are all coaster fanatics. They get one ride each so we can stay on budget ;)

I guess if we combine kitsch with culture in the way of nature and engineering it would work.....

Hoover Dam
Ethel M Chocolate Factory (free)
Helicopter or plane to Grand Canyon
Roller Coasters and rides
See Mystere or O (Cirque shows)
Red Rock Canyon (only a few miles)
Zion National Park(3 hrs away)
See Volcano errupt
See Belagio fountains
Good shopping in Vegas
Eat at the Burger place in Mandalay
Indoor skydiving

A warning- I have found most of the pools at Vegas are somehow freezing cold in 100 degree weather. Maybe, thats just something we have experienced, I dunno.

We have taken our 13 year old daughter there a couple of times. We are not comfortable with Vegas and she isn't either. However, we always have a good time. We are not the sin-city type. But there is a lot to do there and see. It is an education just seeing the strip. I would think a couple of days would probably be enough for your boys. We did a 3 day Raft the Grand Canyon this past summer using Vegas as our base. It was great. We spent the day before and day after Vegas. Saw Cirque show,good food, and enjoyed Forum shopping.

I have taken teens to LV twice and have had a great time each time. I do want to warn you that the boys will see some things you may not be comfortable with. Drunk adults walking along the strip with drinks, call girl cards littering the sidewalk, pussy cat dolls dancing on the bar in the middle of the casino, etc. I'm not saying anything against it, I'm just saying that it is part of LV's "personality". I use it as an opportunity to talk to the kids about those subjects.

Great reply Neo.

Yes, I agree, it does give us an opportunity to talk about these things - which we have encountered in different ways in our travels. I'm intrigued by Red Rock and Zion, which I remember visiting years ago - it seems like a vacation of extremes.

Which hotels would you recommend that are not too kitschy, not too overpriced, have a great pool - or is that combo unreasonable? I remember Circus Circus when I was a teen - I can't deal with that. Something more low key as a place to chill?

The Flamingo is usually reasonably priced and is centrally located. Excalibur is also reasonably priced, but is also at the far end of the strip. It has carnival-type midway games, and because it is kid-friendly, it is crawling with kids of all ages.

In addition to spiro's list, there is a Gameworks arcade, Shark Reef at the Mandalay Bay, Auto Collection at Imperial Palace, a Harley-Davidson Cafe. Plenty to keep teens busy, besides just the spectacle of the whole thing.

Just beware that there are things like massive billboards of girls in thongs on the strip. A lot you may not want your kids to see just walking down the street.

That said, don't miss the Fountains at The Bellagio.

That said, when are you coming? Most of the pools are now closed for the winter and it is too cold to swim.

Will teenage boys be offended at images of girls wearing tongs?

What is the opposite of "offended"? :))

Erratum:

wearing tongs >wearing thongs<

I think a lot of teenaged boys would like to find a girl who really knows how to cook. If she's wearing a pair of tongs around her neck, maybe that's a GOOD sign? A garlic press on a chain, however, might be a little off.

Meanwhile, what's with the warnings about billboards of scantily clad women? Do we think that if we don't allow teens to see such things while they're with us, they won't see them on their own either -- or hopefully won't even know what a female body looks like?

We'd be coming in April.

I'm just laughing about the boys' being offended about anything from tongs to thongs to stripper handouts. I was telling older DS about the stripper handouts and he said "cool". Considering the constant assault they have from the media, paper handouts that I can grab out of their hands and dispose of seem like something we can handle.

We have taught the boys, btw, to appreciate both tongs and thongs. Red blooded American boys. They have their priorities straight ;)

Actually, we didn't see a single handout for stippers/escorts or whatever they call them.

Las Vegas seems to be trying to clean up that problem.

As long as you are comfortable discussing gambling,drinking and prositution :)

You have to be honest with teens. tell them the truth about what they are seeing.

The folks handing out literature about massage parlors, etc. are an infinitesimal part of the Las Vegas experience.

Heavens yes - they've seen plenty when we've been to NYC or Boston - everything becomes a platform for discussion. Glad to hear Las Vegas is trying to clean some of that up though.

LV must have cleaned up pretty quickly because when we were there at the end of October they were handing out the cards. We went walking on the strip early one morning and the cards were littered all over the sidewalks.

We did the Las Vegas/Hoover Dam/Grand Canyon/Zion/Las Vegas trip three years ago when daughter was 15 and son was 11. Now the son at 14 realizes what he was really too young to notice and wants to go to Vegas again! Kids see it all, and like someone said, talk honestly about things (even every day at home). We stayed at Treasaure Island and the Flamingo. It was a wonderful trip. We also did Red Rocks one day. We had a great time and are looking forward to going back in a year or two. There are just so many places to visit and now with an 8th grader and a college student, vacation time is tough to find. We are lucky enough to spend most of our summer at a camp on a lake that's local to where we live. We were in LV in April and it was barely pool weather. Great for walking around, though. Oh, we didn't gamble very much - we're not really interested in that.

We call them "porn flickers" because they snap the cards against their hands to draw your attention and then shove them into your unsuspecting (or maybe completely suspecting!) hands. They make for super free souvenirs!

Depending on how long you'll be in Vegas and if you'll have a car, there are tons of "off-strip" options, both near and far.

Spiro gave you a good list, but I feel the need to expand on it. Red Rock canyon is definitely worth the drive. From any hotel on the strip, it's realistically a 30-45 minute drive, depending on traffic. There is a 15-mile, one-way scenic loop to drive with marked trails all along the way.

Valley of Fire is a little further, with not as many trails, but a great scenic drive, especially if you loop down past Lake Mead.

Zion is 2.5-3 hours, a fairly scenic drive, and totally worth the trip, even just to drive through the park. If you don't want to go that far, St. George Utah has some great canyons and state parks.

Two hours away is the China Ranch date farm - a true desert oasis.

Death Valley is about 2 hours away. Interesting history (Borax mining, pioneer route, etc.).

Any of these are a 1-day trip if you don't mind spending most of the day in the car!

Finally, I wouldn't recommend the Excalibur if you don't want too much kitsch. It's pretty gross. Luxor has a huge arcade and would be a more agreeable option for both teens and adults. TI (Treasure Island) is also a little more appealing for the younger set, as well as Caesar's.

And of course, if you want to do an overnighter - the Grand Canyon is about 4 hours.

The question you need to ask yourself is this: what message am I sending to my teenage boys if I organize a trip to Las Vegas to go to Las Vegas? The posts on this thread are indicative of the kind of topics that arise when Las Vegas is mentioned. We have so few years when our children are with us that I feel it is imperative to fill those years with wholesome memories and a great sense of adventure when it comes to travel.

In your post you yourself wrote that "it is not the kind of trip we normally take as a family." My thought is this~ if you want to take your teenage boys on the trip, fly to Las Vegas, rent a car and hightail it out of there ASAP to our national parks. Research Zion, Bryce and the Grand Canyon. Go to one or two or all three, depending on how much time you have. Make sure if you go to the Grand Canyon that you have a minimum of two nights of accommodation all set INSIDE the park. If you go, no matter which park or parks you go to, work into your itinerary time for your boys to do day hikes in the parks. Your teenagers will have an unforgettable time seeing these extraordinary parks, and you'll have a great time experiencing some of the best of what our country has to offer.

Jane

I think the problem with defining it as "unconsented-to touching" is that that is so incomplete a definition that I envision the child telling an adult a rape was committed when it was "only" touching of private parts. I'm certainly in no way condoning the latter, but the incompleteness of the definition could cause a problem later.

<i>what message am I sending to my teenage boys if I organize a trip to Las Vegas to go to Las Vegas? The posts on this thread are indicative of the kind of topics that arise when Las Vegas is mentioned. We have so few years when our children are with us that I feel it is imperative to fill those years with wholesome memories and a great sense of adventure when it comes to travel. </i>

The message I want to send to my children when we travel is that we love to travel with them, and to be with them, and we want them to experience things the way they really are. The national parks are great, but they're certainly not all that area has to offer. I see nothing wrong with my kids seeing &quot;real life&quot; whether it's on the streets of Las Vegas or New York or San Francisco.

dmlove, you have a point, but I'm really struggling to find any possible negative outcome of a 10 year old child coming to an adult and saying she (or he) was &quot;raped&quot; because Uncle Bob touched her private parts without permission. Surely some talk will follow, and between them they will discover the exact nature of the assault. But frankly I'd much rather have instilled the message and have the child come back to report it than to have said, &quot;go ask your mother&quot;, which she never did, and now ignores reporting what happened at all. There had to be some reason the child asked what rape meant to begin with.

As I've said all along, it depends on the child -- and if you think the child is capable and ready for a full fledged discussion of the difference between total penetration and &quot;only&quot; being fondled, then more power to you -- fire away with the full definition, perhaps with a blackboard, books, and well executed illustrations -- maybe even a film. But I'll still maintain, for most 10 year olds who asked to begin with, the basic &quot;incomplete&quot; definition is probably enough for right then.

I take my kids everywhere &amp; they are younger than yours, and that includes, Key West &amp; New Orleans. However, I would not take them to Vegas proper as there are certain unsavory elements that just can't be avoided. That being said, I was quite unsettled by all the kids that were present last time I was there...If you have to go - I'd head out to the Dam, the Red Rocks area, etc. be cheaper also.

dmlove, Thanks for sharing your clear thinking with us. HTTY

A few year ago we took our teens to Las Vegas to meet some friends. I wish we had never gone. There a lot of places to see the outdoors, take in roller coaster, etc. I had read how, LV had cleanup etc but you are still taking your teens to a place meant to gamble. Even if you have no intention partaking in it you have to walk through the casino to get anywhere. That is what they want you to do, gamble not sit by the pool. It is a personal choice. Your post sounded like I could have written it before I went.
I would recommend flying into Phoenix, spend some time by a pool there and make your trips from there.

I've never taken a child to Las Vegas (ours was 4 the last time we went and it just did not seem like a good idea on any number of levels), but we frequently take our now 12-year-old on casino trips, mostly to Atlantic City, and notably to the Gulf Coast pre-Katrina, and have usually felt it was successful. Now, the places we frequent are both cleaner and with less kid appeal than LV, but it depends on both your comfort level and what kind of kid you have. Ours is obsessed with both dining and architectural details, and is not yet interested in pictures of girls in thongs. I would say that you need to be comfortable with your children witnessing adult behavior, and I'm not sure I would think it a really good idea to have teen-agers walking around without an adult (and I believe there is a curfew on the strip). There is a lot of interesting stuff, and a kid who was interested in technical stuff might really enjoy both the Bellagio fountains and the Stratosphere, as well as the Hoover Dam. By the way, while we love casino trips, we're not really gamblers either, which has become something of a running family joke.

Thanks so much for all your frank responses. I think we are going to cross LV off the list for this trip - it's not a clear cut enough destination for who we are - we'd rather stay near our family visit destination or just go straight to a national park. Your responses really helped us realize that Las Vegas is a bit of a stretch for us, and we really appreciate it. Going to miss the Hoover Dam, tho, we all would have loved that - but not a reason to walk by a gazillion casinos!
Happy trails to all!

&quot;Brutforce&quot; is very wise.

&quot;Wise&quot; would certainly be a stretch, informed may be more accurate.