Help budgeting a family Vegas Vacation?

[cjbcam]

We stopped there for two nights at the end of March on our way to Arizona. We have 4 kids we stayed at the excalibur. As another poster said playing My Vegas you can "buy" real things.
We needed two rooms and they gave us a king connected to a room with two queens. With my vegas we only had to pay for one room each night. We also used our My Vegas to get tickets to shows and BOGO buffets. Sign up for players cards as they give you discounts at restaurants and stores.
As another poster said Groupon has also got some great deals. We have used quite a few in the past.
The kids (keep in mind mine are way younger than yours) loved the free shows (fountains and volcanoes). We also took them to KA. I was worried how my almost 5 year old would do. All 4 kids sat mesmerized the whole show.
We also did the bus pass. It was a feet saver. Have fun we had a blast with our kids.

 

[kathy884]

A previous poster said:

"Check out Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, The Cirque shows, The aquarium/shark slide at Mandaly, the Dolphin/Tiger Habitat at Mirage, the rides on top of the Stratosphere, the NYNY Roller Coaster and the huge new Ferris Wheel - Those are things your kids would probably like!"

I agree with these suggestions. We like all these things with kids in Vegas, but do note they aren't cheap -- each items runs in the range of $30 pp. And Cirque shows are more in the range of $100 pp. I don't gamble or shop when I am in Las Vegas and instead usually do things like this.

The Bellagio Conversancy -- botanical gardens and Fountains both free are wonderful and both are well worth hitting. Do go inside and see the gardens. Those are my two big must do freebie activities. I haven't been, but have heard great review for the Pinball Hall of Fame.

The Hoover Dam is a nice day trip too. And it's pretty easy and inexpensive to do on your own with a car. I haven't been to the Grand Canyon West, but the typical recommendation is that the Grand Canyon National Park (south) as the preferred place to hit. But it is a distance from Las Vegas for sure. People who have done both say the Grand Canyon West is a tourist trap and the South is the real Grand Canyon (Trip Advisor Las Vegas travel forum is the source for these frequent comments).

Vegas is interesting to kids for a short stay IMHO, but we typically just do an overnight and a day or two and like to head to either Sedona or Springdale/Zion. But we are really into pristine natural places. // I know you're set on going and there are lots of people who like to go there with kids, but for me after two days with kids I'm wanting to leave and do something else for both budget and entertainment reasons.

The inexpensive things to do in Las Vegas are read, hang out at the pool, and walk around and see different resorts. Anything else starts getting pretty pricey pretty fast. When DH had a five night/four day seminar in Las Vegas I went along with my toddler. I was too long for me. The next time DH had a five night/four day seminar there I opted to stay home.

 

[nancygirl1]

We just got back from Vegas with our family. I also did Myvegas and was able to get a free buffet and a few other things for just playing a game. That works if you have the time to do it. I went online and found a lot of discount coupons. I was able to get one for Madame Tussauds Wax Museum for $10.00 off per ticket, BOGO for the Eiffel Tower at the Paris and the roller coaster at New New York. Groupon had some good food offers.

We did a lot of the free stuff..Bellagio fountains, volcano at the Mirage, walking through different hotels and checking them out and we took a taxi downtown (about $25)to Freemont Street and saw the "Freemont Street Experience." That whole area is an experience all in itself! There is a anamatronic show inside Caesars forum shops that is awesome, but it wasn't working when we were there. I had seen it before. There's the gondolas inside the Venetian and they have performers in "St. Mark's Square" during the day. We also spent an afternoon at the pool. It's relatively inexpensive if you can drive yourselves to the Hoover Dam and take a tour. Otherwise it is very expensive to take a bus tour.