My family recently returned from a vacation in Las Vegas, Nevada. Each time we go we discover even more fun things for kids to do in Las Vegas! That’s why I’m excited to share them here—complete with a map, recommendations of outdoor activities, and free things to do in Vegas.
Although the city’s reputation as Sin City might make you raise an eyebrow at me, taking kids to Las Vegas is actually a great idea. Here’s why.
- Las Vegas is a budget-friendly destination. It is typically inexpensive to fly to Las Vegas. We flew there as a family of 4 for less than $500.
- Las Vegas has great weather in the winter. We fly to Vegas when it’s cold, rainy and grey in our home base of Oregon. The vitamin D is 100% worth the trip.
- There are so many awesome things for kids to do in Las Vegas!
In this post, I’m highlighting the family-friendly activities and attractions in Las Vegas that make my kids love visiting. (Nevermind that my kids pronounce the city as “Lost Vegas.”)
Read on for my recommendations for Las Vegas kids activities, including museums, hikes, kid-friendly casino attractions, parks and street art destinations!
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Map of things for kids to do in Las Vegas
I get it: When you’re planning a family trip in an unfamiliar place, a list of kid activities is helpful. But you know what’s better? A map!
That’s why I made this map of things for kids to do in Las Vegas.
At a glance, you can see where everything is. You can open up the map and pin the kid friendly hotel in Vegas where you’re staying. Then easily see where you are in relation to these fun things to do with kids.
You can even download the map onto your phone so you can reference it anytime.
1. Springs Preserve
When I planned our first family trip to Las Vegas, I was surprised to find a nature preserve in the city. Isn’t Las Vegas in the middle of a desert?
Yes, of course, and Springs Preserve protects a portion of that desert—and much more.
As I learned, the 180-acre Springs Preserve is like a combination nature park / playground / natural history museum / hands-on museum. And admission gets you into everything.
My kids loved seeing desert animals such as snakes and scorpions—all in cages, don’t worry!—in the animal area of the museum. We walked along winding paths that took us through various desert habitats and past dry weather-loving plants.
That said, we all agreed that the butterfly house was by far the best part!
The enclosed butterfly habitat is open seasonally, in spring and fall. The winter weather is too cold for butterflies and summer temperatures too hot. We were lucky enough to visit Springs Preserve, Las Vegas on the last day the butterfly habitat was open!
Pro tip: Consider buying a membership to Springs Preserve, like we did, even if you don’t live in Las Vegas. That’s because membership here gets you benefits to more than 300 reciprocating organizations all across the country!
2. Walk the Strip
Las Vegas’s most famous landmark is the Strip, and for good reason. It is the perfect example of what makes Vegas the over-the-top city it is: lights, lights, and more lights!
(Oh, and people. Lots of people, too.)
Especially if it’s your first time checking out Las Vegas kids activities, put walking the Strip onto your things to do list. Your kids will be blown away by the sights and sounds.
Pro tip: If your kids have special sensory needs, plan ahead. They may want to wear noise-canceling headphones or skip this family activity in Las Vegas altogether.
As you walk, pause to take in the cool sights and attractions of each casino. We particularly like the Greek sculptures and fountain outside Caesar’s Palace and of course the Bellagio fountain.
Pro tip: Carry cash! I rarely pay with anything besides a card so had to borrow a few bucks from my mother-in-law to pay the performers who walk around the Strip and take photos with tourists. Thanks Mom!
3. Valley of Fire State Park
One of my all-time favorite things to do in Las Vegas with kids: Leave the city behind and explore Valley of Fire State Park!
This state park is home to the best family-friendly hikes near Las Vegas. The park lies just an hour east of the Strip, making it an easy day trip as long as you’ve rented a car (or driven your own).
Valley of Fire is also full of kid-friendly hikes. The trails don’t gain a lot of elevation, most are less than 3 miles long and they have incredible payoffs, such as the famous Fire Wall.
Within Valley of Fire State Park, you can also see petroglyphs left behind from thousands of years ago. Kids (and their grownups!) are also welcome to climb the enormous red boulders and stone formations. Beehives, directly next to the park’s west entrance, provides the best place for kids to practice their lemur skills.
Read my full post on Valley of Fire State Park for all the details.
4. Seven Magic Mountains
If you’re looking for giant, rainbow-hued installation art, Seven Magic Mountains is just for you. This permanent art piece is made up of brightly colored rocks stacked on top of each other. They make a surreal sight in the middle of the stark Mojave Desert.
You won’t need a whole lot of time at Seven Magic Mountains. Kids are welcome to run around, and you’ll definitely want to take photos.
Seven Magic Mountains are about a half-hour’s drive south of the Strip. They are on your way if you’re driving from California via Bakersfield or LA.
5. Explore inside the Casinos—it’s possible with kids!
If you’re going to Las Vegas with kids, you may be confused about the rules around children in casinos. Here’s the deal: Children cannot stop in casinos anywhere near gambling. So if you’re walking through a casino and want to drop a few bucks in a slot machine, no-can-do if you’re with anyone younger than 18.
That said, you can walk through casinos as a family! In fact, many of the casinos have sections that welcome children.
Keep in mind that people still smoke in casinos in Las Vegas. We limited the amount of time we spent in casinos at one time. Many areas that are focused on family friendly activities, such as the Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Gardens, aren’t filled with smoke. You have to walk past the cigarette-heavy slot machines to get there, though.
The extravagance of casinos is next-level—and definitely worth a place on your list of things to do in Las Vegas with kids.
6. Fremont Street, Las Vegas
Casinos can be a lot for anyone—including kids. The lights, the crowds, the noise, the smoke… it can be overwhelming!
If you want to give your kids a smaller scale experience of casinos, try the Fremont Street area.
About a 10-minute drive from the strip, you’ll find casinos, shops, restaurants and more. An open-air plaza that spans several blocks connects the buildings so you can walk easily between attractions.
Basically, Fremont Street is a slightly scaled down version of the strip. You can walk two blocks to get a sense of it—then wrap it up.
7. Las Vegas Street Art
My family and I seek out street art wherever we go, and Las Vegas is no exception. We loved finding Las Vegas street art, making this one of the best kid-friendly activities we did in Vegas!
The Las Vegas Arts Distric is an excellent place to begin. Look for murals all along Main St: There’s hardly a building that doesn’t have art on its walls.
You can also find epic murals near the Art Hotel. You probably won’t be able to get inside this hotel, which has become the canvas for hundreds of artists, but you can explore the blocks around it. In fact, you can even book a Las Vegas Flytographer photo shoot like we did! The murals make for incredible backdrops. I’m still absolutely in love with our photos. (I paid in full for our shoot; we didn’t receive any discounts. I just genuinely loved our experience.)
8. Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art: Free museum in Vegas
If you and your kids want to see a different kind of art, check out the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art. On the UNLV campus, this free museum in Las Vegas is small enough to see in one doable visit, and robust enough for the visit to be well worth the trip.
I love the museum’s dedication to making the experience of art more diverse and more welcoming to all people. Its collections focus on perspectives too often marginalized by art institutions, especially the voices of people of color and artists who are LGBTQIA+.
In addition, the art museum is open to all—regardless of how much money you have in your pocket. Admission is free, and the suggested donation for adults is $5—and totally optional.
If you need a break from the glitz of Las Vegas, take a breather in the free art museum on the UNLV campus.
9. Discovery Children’s Museum, Las Vegas
Maxine and Edie are obsessed with hands-on science museums. The Discovery Children’s Museum in Las Vegas didn’t disappoint!
Like many other children’s museums, this Las Vegas kids museum is full of different areas and rooms focused on science, art and other themes. My kids adored the maker’s area, where they nailed and hot glued inventions and artwork.
Kids can also climb several stories up in a multi-tiered structure. Tunnels, ladders, steps and even hollow tubes where you can make music: You’ll find it all in the Discovery Children’s Museum central structure.
Don’t miss the water area, too! The Las Vegas kids museum provides ponchos so your kids don’t get drenched playing and splashing here.
10. Las Vegas Natural History Museum
Another destination to add to your list of things for kids to do in Las Vegas: the Las Vegas Natural History Museum.
From prehistoric fossils to live sharks, the natural history museum has it all. Kids will particularly love the dinosaur exhibits (models look incredibly realistic), the dioramas with lifesize animals and the Egyptian exhibit. The museum recently added this awesome model of a dilophasaurus, based on the largest specimen of the species!
When researchers aren’t in the field, they may be working in the museum. The Ditton Learning Lab is usually open to the public on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
A hands-on section of the museum, called the Cox Charities Young Scientist Center, encourages littles to experiment with fossil excavation, microscopes and more.
Pro tip: The Las Vegas Natural History Museum has free parking!
11. Welcome to Las Vegas Sign
Admittedly, the Welcome to Las Vegas sign is a semi-obligatory tourist trap. You may find yourself waiting a long time for your chance to take a photo in front of the iconic sign. So if that’s not your thing, feel free to skip this family friendly activity in Las Vegas!
That said, if you visit during off-peak times of year—like in the winter, when we visited—you may find the lines are minimal. I went one morning in November and waited maybe 10 minutes. Not bad!
You can also try to visit the Welcome to Las Vegas thing first thing in the morning. If your kids are early risers, hit it up before all the revelers have dragged themselves out of bed!
Pro tip: If you want a Las Vegas sign photo op but don’t want to deal with crowds, check out the Downtown Las Vegas Gateway. You’ll see a big Las Vegas sign, light-up showgirl signs and enormous dice. Find this Las Vegas landmark at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Main Street, at 1810 Las Vegas Boulevard.
You can also find a great Las Vegas mural in the Arts District. Find this mural off of Main Street!
12. Container Park, Las Vegas
If you’re looking to venture off the beaten path in Las Vegas, check out Container Park. This is a community-centric area where you can shop, grab a bite to eat and—have I mentioned?—let your kids run wild in an awesome playground.
The Container Park playground looks like a treehouse and industrial shipping container had a baby—then added a bunch of winding slides for good measure. It’s awesome.
We also like Container Park’s enormous metal praying mantis. It’s not that often you get to see a bug the size of a house!
The praying mantis lights up at night, too!
13. Red Rock Canyon
Las Vegas is known for its neon lights, but just outside the city, you’ll be blown away by another color: red. Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is just a half-hour drive off the Strip and 100% worth a visit.
A scenic drive winds through Red Rock Canyon passes deep red cliffs, umber rocks and white-and-pink-striped canyons. My goodness it’s gorgeous.
You can find lots of kid-friendly hikes in Red Rock Canyon, including the children’s discovery trail that takes you to a small petroglyph. Make sure you stop at the visitors center at the entrance to pick up a Junior Ranger booklet, stamp your national parks book and get a Junior Ranger badge!
14. Kraft Boulders hike
Just a few minutes down the road from Red Rock, you’ll find an easy and family friendly hike. A mostly flat trail leads to the Kraft Boulders, hunks of Kraft Mountain that have tumbled down and made excellent bouldering sites for rock climbers.
(Maxine and Edie haven’t been trained as rock climbers, but it clearly comes naturally to them.)
Hiking to the Kraft Boulders is a great outdoor thing to do with kids in Vegas. What’s more, it’s the perfect antidote to neon overwhelm. Hike as far as you and your family likes, and let your kids embrace their inner mountain goat.
See my full post on hiking at the Kraft Boulders for all the details.
Is Las Vegas worth it for families?
Yes. I’m going to be straight-up here and say I don’t love Las Vegas as a city overall. I don’t drink much, gambling gives me the hives and whenever I stay up past 9:30 pm I marvel that I made it past my bedtime.
But Las Vegas is totally worth it for families.
I say that for a few reasons. Firstly, getting to and staying in Las Vegas is cheap, at least from where we live in Portland, Oregon. Las Vegas is consistently the cheapest place to fly from PDX. Both times we’ve flown to Las Vegas as a family, I got tickets for around $125 round-trip. Hotels are also less expensive than other parts of the country. You may even be able to get a suite or adjoining rooms for a similar price as a single, standard room elsewhere.
Secondly, this is a great destination because of alllllll the fun things for kids to do in Las Vegas. There are seriously so many great family-friendly activities and attractions.
I know the sign says, “Welcome to Las Vegas,” but I like to think it says, “Come back soon.” With so many family friendly things to do in Las Vegas, there’s a good chance we will!
