A letter to Las Vegas

Las Vegas is known as the City that never sleeps, and that is how we already feel with two toddlers, so what better place to live for four months than Vegas! People don’t normally think of Las Vegas as a place to bring their kids but we actually did so many fun things with our two toddlers there. Don’t get me wrong date night out was also super fun but Las Vegas really surprised us with how family friendly it was as well! Also if you’re looking for a fun date night but you can’t make it to Vegas — Read about our favorite Game Night date here!

A lot of people who come to Las Vegas don’t even stay for four days, and we lived here for four months so we got to see ALL of the things! It was so much fun and Peyton Riley loved walking down the strip, the first time we went she was walking down the street yelling that we finally made it to “the big city” and she loved it here!

Here are some of the fun things that we did with the kiddos:

The aquarium at Mandalay Bay – Shark Reef Aquarium
The High Roller Observation Wheel (aka named “the big wheel” by our kiddos) (Also we did this during the day time and night time and either way it is an amazing view, during the day you can also see the mountains, at night there’s all the lights!)
Lion Habitat Ranch
Mirage Volcano
Red Rock Canyon (You can hike or just do the scenic drive, either way you need to do this in Vegas!)
Flamingo hotel garden
Bellagio fountains
M&M world
Cesars Palace Mall and St. Marks Square in the Venetian (both amazing, and tons off cool things to see! Venetian has the Love fountain!)
The Strat
Black Tap Gourmet Milk shakes
Lake Mead/ Hoover Dam
Bellagio Botanical Gardens and Planet Hollywood indoor rain shower
Ethel M chocolate factory and Botanical Garden

I honestly was not expecting Las Vegas to be so kid friendly but it made it 100x more fun to see the kids in awe of the huge buildings and bright lights!

Another important thing that we learned while we were in Las Vegas was where to park for FREE! The strip is HUGE so we always tried to do strategic parking based on where we were going! Heres where to park for free!

Treasure Island -At the top of the strip and it has a tram to the mirage where you can easily walk to the Venetian or Cesars Palace
Stratosphere: Free self park; also offers valet for a charge
SLS: All parking here is free and its very close to the monorail
The Venetian and Plazzo: Free self parking
Wynn: Free Self parking; valet has a charge
The cosmo: Free parking is seasonal but the location is amazing! Free parking before May 16th
MGM: off season free parking (be sure to check this one, I know there is a charge right now)

Hiking in Las Vegas was another one of our favorite things to do with the kids! We got to see some gorgeous desert views and also went on some pretty challenging hikes! Red Rock Canyon has hikes that range from easy to extreme and it is gorgeous! I never got used to the giant mountains that seemed to come out of nowhere! If you have time I would definitely make a trip out to Red Rock Canyon or Valley of Fire!

Now you know Tyler and I love a good date night, so lets talk about some of our favorite spots to have some adult fun

My top most favorite spot was Circa. This is a 21+ hotel on Fremont St. and it has EVERYTHING you need! Stadium Swim at circa is the roof top pool party you are looking for in Vegas, go in winter and you can still enjoy the party with heated pools! Inside Circa you can go to the worlds longest bar and grab a cocktail, then play the machines if you’re feeling lucky!

Fremont Street is also a fun place to go. You can see performers all over, do penny slots, and even play $1 black jack during the day. We’re not big gamblers but this was a cool way to just have some fun!

If you have been to Vegas then you know that there is the BEST food everywhere! A restaurant right on the strip that I loved was a dumpling place called Din Ti Fung. All I can say is you’re missing out if you don’t eat here. Tylers favorite place that we easily ate at ten times (or maybe more) was a place we found off of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. It’s called Dirt Dog and you need to come hungry! These hot dogs have fries, bacon everything you can imagine, and trust me you want to pay the extra 79 cents to get it on a lobster bun. For breakfast make sure you go to Hash house for Waffles and Pancakes that are bigger than your head! Breakfast, or maybe brunch if you like to sleep in will not disappoint, but make sure you make a reservation!

Our family had so much fun getting the opportunity to live in Las Vegas! It was such a fun experience and we feel so lucky to be living our travel dream! Next up we have a FIVE DAY road trip! Read about our best moving tips here!

Heres some of our favorite photos from Las Vegas! Scroll to the bottom to see a few peaks at our exclusive Desert Gallery or click here!