For Families

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Back to Las VegasFor Families

Family travel can be immensely rewarding, giving you new ways of seeing the world through smaller pairs of eyes. That said, Vegas is hardly an ideal place to bring the kids. For one thing, they're not allowed in casinos at all. Because most hotels are laid out so that you frequently have to walk through their casinos, you can see how this becomes a headache. Some casino hotels will not allow the children of nonguests on the premises after 6pm -- and this policy is seriously enforced.

Note also that the Las Vegas Strip is often peppered with people distributing fliers and other information about decidedly adult entertainment options in the city. Sex is everywhere. Just walking down the Strip might give your kids an eyeful of items that you might prefer they avoid. (They don't call it Sin City for nothing!)

On top of everything else, there is a curfew law in Vegas: Kids under 18 are forbidden from being on the Strip without a parent after 9pm on weekends and holidays. In the rest of the county, minors can't be out without parents after 10pm on school nights and midnight on the weekends.

If you do decide to take your family vacation in Las Vegas, the good news is that children under 12, and in many cases even older, stay free in their parent's rooms in most hotels. You'll definitely want to book a place with a pool. Many hotels also have enormous video arcades and other diversions.

For great tips and suggestions for your Vegas family vacation, we strongly suggest you pick up a copy of Frommer's Las Vegas with Kids.

You can find good family-oriented vacation advice on the Internet from sites like the Family Travel Network (www.familytravelnetwork.com); Traveling Internationally with Your Kids (www.travelwithyourkids.com), a comprehensive site offering sound advice for long-distance and international travel with children; and Family Travel Files (www.thefamilytravelfiles.com), which offers an online magazine and a directory of off-the-beaten-path tours and tour operators for families.