Best Las Vegas Pools
The only reason I would stay on the Strip would be to spend the day in an elaborate swimming pool, which resorts always reserve for guests only. There are a number of pools with sandy beaches, water slides, wave pools and more.
Flamingo
Among the best is the 15-acre Flamingo Las Vegas pool complex, which includes a wildlife habitat and three pools with water slides, water falls and dense foliage that wrap around each other and safely allow kids to pop from pool to pool all day.
Four Seasons
The Four Seasons Resort pool is a quiet oasis with two whirlpools and an abundance of lounges and arbors for shade. Attendants glide by offering light meals and smoothies, Evian spritzes, fresh fruit, chilled water or icy cucumber slices to refresh your eyes. Four Seasons guests also have access to the pools at Mandalay Bay, which include a wave pool, lazy river, three swimming pools, jogging track and 2,700 tons of real sand.
Monte Carlo and The Golden Nugget
The pool at Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino remains one of our all-time favorites with a winding lazy river, 11,000 square-feet of waterfalls and four pool areas, as well as a wave pool.
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The wave pool at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
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All pools offer cabanas for an additional fee so that you can eat and stay cool all day. Downtown, the $30-million tank at Golden Nugget is open year around—as are many, but not all, Vegas pools—with a three-story water slide that swoops through a 200,000-gallon shark tank. Kids can swim alongside the sharks, separated only by a thick (we hope!) Plexiglas barrier as adults sip Cosmopolitans at a shaded cabana.
A number of resorts now offer “European bathing.” Meaning topless. These are not open to the under 21 crowd, but may be adjacent to all-ages pools. And while all hotels offer some kind of pool, many would be more aptly labeled “wall-to-wall cement lounge areas surrounding a puddle.” So, if you are booking for the pool, call to ensure that it will be open and kid friendly, and be sure to ask what kind of features it offers.
Vegas Still Great for Families
In the 1990s Vegas began to make an attempt to accommodate adults traveling with kids by adding childcare facilities, family-friendly swimming spots and game arcades. The national press went wild. At its nationally touted “family-friendly” peak, about 10 percent of its 35 million visitors per year were under the age of 21 (the only demographic statistics it keeps for “kids”). Now that "What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas" targets freewheeling young adults, about 10 percent of the 39 million visitors per year are underage.
Parental Warning
You can’t responsibly write about Vegas for families and exclude a few necessary caveats. If you wouldn’t let your kids wander through New York’s Central Park on their own, neither should you consider letting them wander through a large hotel alone. Some resorts have upwards of 5,000 rooms that when completely booked host 10,000 to 15,000 guests and an equal number of visitors hurrying to a restaurant, show, club or convention. Resorts are stricter than ever about letting parents know that kids and casinos don’t mix. It is illegal for parents to bring kids onto the casino floor; it is also illegal to park them just outside the floor while parents gamble.
Many resorts do not allow kids in at all unless they are room guests or have reservations at a show or restaurant. Certainly, kids should never, ever, be left alone to wander through facilities that are as large as my home town and as consistently busy as Grand Central Station. A few resorts, like Mandalay Bay, not so subtly discourage children by requesting only the number of adults on their online reservations page. Most, however, realize that families with limited free time enjoy traveling together to Vegas. The best hotels treat underage guests with the same respect they treat their paying parents. —Lynn Goya
When most people say “Vegas” they mean the Strip, which is made up of multibillion-dollar casino resorts. The CEOs of these resorts decided a few years ago to return to the model of the Sin City adult playground. World-class restaurants replaced cheap buffets. Broadway and Cirque du Soleil shows, luxury shops and high tech nightclubs have almost made the two-drink-minimum lounge show a thing of the past. Although 87 percent of visitors still gamble, most visitors say they come for entertainment, rather than gaming.
There is very little on the Strip for preschool children, but as they approach and enter their teens, Vegas’ eye-popping visuals, extensive arcades, concerts, magic, museums, shows, shopping and thrill rides make a family Vegas vacation like no other. Off the Strip, you’ll find breathtaking landscapes, festivals, small museums, spray parks and playlands, all of which are surprisingly family friendly. [Read about Kid-Friendly Activities in Las Vegas and Museums for Teens in Vegas.]
[This article has been updated since it was initially published on our test site earlier this year.]
Comments
2 Comments on this article | read all commentsWow!
by DM on December 31, 2008
Amaizing A red rock window!
Helpful tip
by Calistoga on February 8, 2008
I'm always surprised by how many people turn their kids loose in Vegas. Comparing it to Central Park gets the message that kids should be supervised across. Thanks!