The best Las Vegas attractions for seven-year-old children include the Blue Man Group, Electric Playhouse and the Shark Reef Aquarium.
Family holiday in Las Vegas
I recently returned from a family holiday to Las Vegas. It was a bit of gamble – after all, Las Vegas isn’t necessarily the first destination you think of with a seven-year-old child in tow.
But we had a great time, and part of that was down to picking the right sort of Las Vegas attractions for children.
The are plenty more things to do in Las Vegas besides gambling, but these are seven of the activities that worked best for our family Las Vegas holiday.
Las Vegas for 7yos: Shark Reef Aquarium
Themed like a lost city in the jungles of Central America, the Shark Reef Aquarium inside Mandalay Bay is a fairly reliable kid-charmer. The displays of tropical fish from around the world are good, but it’s the walk-through tunnel that’s truly impressive. There were so many sharks swimming overhead, we couldn’t count them all.
Buy your Shark Reef Aquarium tickets here.
Child-friendly Las Vegas attractions: Arte Museum
I’ve done a separate review of the Arte Museum, but it was our seven-year-old daughter who got the most out of it. She loved playing and dancing in front of the giant projections of beaches and flower fields. But she especially loved drawing animals then seeing them come to life, animated on the wall.
The ARTE Museum needs booking in advance to avoid big queues – book here.
Las Vegas shows for 7yos: Cirque du Soleil and Blue Man Group
Not all Las Vegas shows are suitable for children, but the family-friendly Cirque du Soleil shows will likely have your 7yo entranced. Our daughter adored Mystere at Treasure Island and O at the Bellagio, laughing heartily at the clowns and staring in open-jawed silence at the remarkable trapeze acts.
Book O tickets here and Mystere tickets here.
We also saw the Blue Man Group doing theatrical percussion and physical comedy at the Luxor. Both children enjoyed this, although our 10-year-old is the one who has been constantly referencing it since.
Book Blue Man Group tickets here.
Our seven-year-old daughter really loved the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur, however. The pantomime aspect of this knights on horseback show – cheering the goodies and booing the baddies – really appealed to her. She was roaring her head off during the jousting battles.
Book Tournament of Kings tickets here.
Las Vegas attractions for 7yos: Omega Mart and Area 15
The deeply weird and potentially unsettling Omega Mart is not going to suit every seven-year-old. It appealed to our daughter’s sense of wonder and love of exploration, however. She didn’t necessarily understand what was going on most of the time, but that applies to the adults too. This giant Las Vegas art installation is spectacularly well done, though – I’ve reviewed Omega Mart separately – and there’s a high chance your 7yo will treat it as an enormous, super-strange playground.
Book Omega Mart tickets here.
Omega Mart is part of Area 15, which is home to a series of high tech art installations and interactive games. These were hit and miss, but the virtual reality games in the Lab section were great fun – even though our youngest daughter was too short for some of them.
Best Las Vegas activities with a 7yo: Electric Playhouse
In terms of high-tech games, however, the one place in Las Vegas our seven-year-old daughter truly adored was Electric Playhouse. Inside the Forum Shops at Caesars, Electric Playhouse is all about motion-based games, where you essentially use your body as a controller.
The biggest hit was the take on air hockey, where players run around kicking and waving their arms at a projected puck on the ground.
The Fremont Street Experience with a 7yo
The Fremont Street Experience has spearheaded the revival of Downtown Las Vegas, and for a seven-year-old, it is a feast of stimulation. The giant multi-block overhead LED screen canopy was mesmerising, but she was also quite taken by the promo girls walking up and down the street in colourful costumes and the live music acts.
Child-friendly Las Vegas buffets
If your seven-year-old is anything like ours, she will think a buffet is the most magical thing on earth. We went all out at the most expensive buffet – the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesar’s Palace – and our daughter came back with plate after plate, particularly gorging on the desserts.
In all honesty, though, a lot of it was wasted on her. She has no interest in the spicy Asian dishes or fresh seafood. The much cheaper Garden Court Buffet at Main Street Station would have done the job just as well.
More Las Vegas travel
Other Las Vegas articles on Planet Whitley include:
- The best single piece of advice for visitors to Las Vegas.
- What is the cheapest Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil show?
- The best stops on the drive from Las Vegas to Williams, Arizona.
- Which hotels are on the Las Vegas Monorail?
- Reviews of the Neon Museum and Museum of Illusions.
You can also choose from a massive range of Las Vegas activities and experiences here.
