A Complete Guide to Las Vegas with Teens, Las Vegas, Nevada

Rich and I told Teen Traveler we were taking a three-night trip to Las Vegas over winter break. Teen Traveler responded that she was sure she would hate it because “It’s fake and commercial and I hate things that are too commercially.”

Much to her surprise, she -and we- had a lot of fun in Las Vegas. She even reluctantly admitted to enjoying some of the cheesier parts of the Vegas Strip. And we found quite a bit to do away from the strip, both around town and outside of the city.

Here’s all that we crammed in to a four-day weekend in Las Vegas with a teen, including the surprise hits and near misses.

If you do a mid-week visit you can usually find a good deal on hotels in Las Vegas. On weekends rates go up, especially if there are any major sporting events going on; people come to Vegas to bet on sports happening all over the country.

We stayed at the Elara by Hilton Grand Vacations because we got a complementary stay through Hilton’s loyalty program. All the rooms are apartment style suites with one to four bedrooms, a large living space with a kitchen and comfortable seating area. The bathroom was large and well-designed to be shared.

The room had stunning views of the city and mountains. The hotel has a good location, next to but not right on the Strip. It doesn’t have a smoke-filled casino, which was nice when you’re visiting with kids. There were almost always taxis waiting out front. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).