vacation planning - Pitstops for Kids

Guide to Las Vegas with kids: family-friendly Las Vegas vacation

June 1, 2021 By Amy Hagstrom

There was a time when I didn’t think of Las Vegas as a family-friendly trip idea, but in the past few years, Vegas hotels and attractions have made strides to be more kid-oriented. Whether your family trip focuses on Las Vegas entertainment, outdoor recreation, or dining (or all of the above), the following advice can help make your trip to Sin City much more wholesome.

During this time of uncertainty, outdoor activities offer the best ability to safely social distance. Hotels.com asked me to share my favorite activities and tips for exploring Las Vegas, so start here as you plan a safe and responsible vacation.

Where to stay:

Families will want to compare hotel prices in Las Vegas, but to find Las Vegas hotels that focus on kids, you’ll also want to look closely at amenities. Sure, Circus Circus is known for their big-top attraction, but families can easily visit their AdventureDome during a day trip. Better to find a hotel with a great pool, family-friendly dining, and preferably, no smoking. Think a family-friendly oasis is impossible to find in Vegas? It’s not! Our picks: the Westgate Las Vegas, or the Four Seasons Las Vegas and the Marriott Vacation Club Grand Chateau, both non-gaming luxury hotels.

Take day trips off the Strip:

Many parents (myself included, our first stay) make the mistake of walking along the Strip during the daytime. They believe it will be ‘tamer’, with less drinking and drunken people during the daylight hours. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and instead, families are subjected to the same number of drunken individuals, made worse by the fact that it’s only 11 am. In fact, seeing so much day drinking is downright depressing. Instead, take a day trip outside the Strip during the day.

Our picks:

Red Rock Canyon
Grand Canyon
Hoover Dam

Come back to your hotel by around 5 pm, clean up, and head out with the kids from 6 pm to 10 pm. You’ll see all the neon and lights, the glitz and the glamour of the Strip, but before it gets truly rowdy. This is a great opportunity to eat out at an innovative, fun restaurant before its most crowded time period, then take in a kid-friendly show or attraction, like the Bellagio water show or a ride on the New York New York roller coaster.

Where to eat:

Las Vegas has experienced a culinary renaissance of sorts in the past five years. Families can find top tier dining all over the city, but if you’re not looking for a four-diamond experience with kids, we recommend something different: the Tournament of Kings located in Excalibur. Families enjoy entertainment along with their meal (which is kid-friendly meat and potatoes fare) and adults will have fun, too. For something less extensive, try the Rainforest Cafe in the MGM Grand.

Need casual food options? Check these out:

Bobby’s Burger Palace: on the South Strip, near Aria
Snack Shack, outside New York New York
Miracle Mile shops (Chipotle, Earl of Sandwich, more)
Town Square (south of Mandalay Bay)

What to see:

Entertainment abounds in Vegas, but what to see with kids? Our top picks are the Comedy Pet Theater at Planet Hollywood or sea-life viewing at the Mandalay Bay Shark Reef Aquarium. If in doubt, treat kids to an evening at any number of high-end, extensive video game arcades along the strip. Some shops along the Strip are kid-friendly, like the World of M&Ms and Adidas store. Learn more about things to do in Vegas with kids.

Shows to catch while in town:

Blue Man Group: art, music, non-verbal performing…it’s hard to describe but stunning.
Penn and Teller: We love that these magicians are also funny…very funny.
Ka by Cirque du Soleil: the ultimate in circus performing arts, martial arts, acrobatics, and puppetry. In other words, something for everyone.
Tournament of Kings: Located in the Excalibur, this dinner theater showcases dueling knights and lots of action.
Recycled Percussion: this ‘junk rock’ performance allows the audience to play along on pots, pans, sinks, etc.

Arcades and attractions for older kids:

The arcade at New York New York is extensive, as is the Midway arcade in Circus Circus. GameWorks Las Vegas is located next to the MGM Grand. The Luxor’s Games of the Gods arcade is one of the best for virtual rides and interactive gaming experiences. Want an old-fashioned midway instead? Head to Circus Circus, the Excalibur Fantasy Fair Midway, or the Strat-o-Fair at the Stratosphere Hotel.

We really enjoyed the New York New York roller coaster, but be warned: you have to walk all the way through the extensive arcade to get to the ride entrance. If you don’t like heights, the location of the coaster, with the rail suspended outside the hotel’s skyscraper, might just do you in before the vertical drops and inverted loops do!

The Stratosphere Sky Wheel is tamer, or on the opposite end of the scale, the hotel hosts a whole slew of terrifying-looking rides on the tower. For families with older kids, the Vegas Indoor Skydiving allows families to ‘fly’ together in wind tunnels. (Except to pay dearly, however).

If you want to make an entire afternoon of it, head to the AdventureDome at Circus Circus (you may want to take a cab to this very North Strip hotel). Inside, you’ll find roller coasters, kiddie rides, a midway experience…basically a theme park inside a dome. Check ticketing options to get the best deal for your group…paying a la carte would add up!

Photo credit: Aigle Dore.

We worked in conjunction with hotels.com to bring you the best of Las Vegas. All opinions are our own.

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10 easy ways to decorate your hotel room for the holidays

December 4, 2020 By Amy Hagstrom

The Pit Stops for Kids crew will be spending the holidays in a Tahoe vacation home this year, so I’m making plans now to make our stay as festive as we’d enjoy at home. If you, too, will be spending your winter holidays away from home, we have 10 easy ways to decorate your hotel room for the holidays…or any condo or vacation home!

Decorate condo or hotel room windows or porch with a string of battery-operated Christmas lights. Find these at your local dollar store! Tip: you can wrap them around the handle of strollers or even around ski helmets to be festive on-the-go!
Buy a local wreath or garland. Once you’ve arrived at your destination, explore your immediate area by looking up a farmer’s market or holiday bazaar, where you can buy a locally-sourced wreath for your condo or vacation home door.
Check condo and vacation home storage closets for decorations. Most will have a stash of holiday decorations stored in a utility closet or pantry. Ask the home owner or lodging association if it’s ok to put these up (and take them down). I’ve never been told no!
Bring a holiday-themed tablecloth and candles for the table. It’s a small touch, but it goes a long way!
Buy a permit and cut down your own tree upon arrival. Going somewhere rural? Look up where to buy a Christmas tree permit before you leave home, and stop by for it en route to your condo or vacation home. Your first vacation activity can be a hike through the snowy woods for your own tree!
Decorate your cruise ship cabin door. Buy or make your own holiday magnets for cruise ship cabin doors, which are magnetic. The practice can get quite competitive, so bring your A game!
Play holiday tunes. Don’t underestimate the power of music to set a holiday mood. Bring a portable speaker and sync it with your smart phone or an iPod set on a holiday radio station.
Have a small tree delivered. Don’t have time or space for a regular-sized tree? Buy a small, live potted tree to use as a table-top centerpiece. Purchase at a local nursery, and decorate with a select few of your favorite ornaments from home, or order one.
Bring holiday bedding. Kids love curling up in their very own holiday-themed sheets and blankets, and these decorate the room, too. Bring your own bedding from home, or make a gift of new holiday bedding, which is easy to bring to a condo or vacation home.
Decorate yourselves! Buy the family holiday-themed pajamas to wear, or a matching set of Santa hats. When you’re all dressed up for the holidays, the feeling of celebration will live in your vacation home, hotel room, or condo with or without the decorations.

Remember: in addition to decorating your temporary living space, you’ll want to safeguard your actual home while you’re away. During our absences, we ask a friend to check on our house regularly, leave porch and holidays lights lit, lower heat and unplug appliances, and let ask multiple neighbors to watch our home.

Ski trip planning hack: Using GetOutfitted to rent ski wear

November 22, 2017 By Amy Hagstrom

Ski and snowboard wear is expensive–very expensive, in fact–and for some families, the cost to outfit everyone for one or two ski trips per season is simply not worth it. Our family skis much more often than that, but with the rate my teens are growing, I never know what will still fit them, even from month to month! Enter an interesting solution: GetOutfitted.

What is GetOutfitted?

It’s a new service that rents outer wear, plus ski gear ranging from ski packages to Go Pros. You select the items you need online, picking your jacket and snow pants a la carte based on the styles you like, or selecting a pre-determined package. I’m very familiar with the latest outdoor wear brands, and they’re all here. Once you’ve made your selections, you input your vacation dates and destination, and GetOutfitted will FedEx your ski wear directly to your hotel, condo, or vacation home. If you opt to rent skis and/or snowboards, too, they’ll be delivered to your door via a local ski rental partner. When you’re done with you vacation, you just put the ski wear in their pre-paid, included package and drop it off at any USPS mail center. You get free shipping both ways.

What can I get?

Premium outerwear packages for women or men include a top-brand jacket, pants, gloves, and googles and rent for approximately $45/day. Standard packages include the same items, with slightly less trendy brands, and cost $30/day. Kids’ packages are $18/day, which is a true deal. As mentioned, you can also shop a la carte, plus can add base layers and socks, which you buy instead of rent. If you don’t have base layers, we highly recommend getting them. They’re listed for approximately the same prices you’ll pay anywhere else.

In the ski gear category, you can rent full ski or snowboard rental packages, starting at just $25/day for adults and $15/day for kids. Rental packages come with helmets as an optional addition (recommended). All ski wear and gear has a three-day minimum rental period outside of Colorado Rockies resorts.

Where is it offered?

Just about everywhere you might go for a destination ski vacation. The company is based on Colorado, but we used the service for a ski trip to Lake Tahoe, California.

Our experience with GetOutfitted, start to finish:

We didn’t need to rent full outerwear packages from GetOutfitted, which is the most affordable way to do it. We still got a good value, however, renting pants for our Pit Stops for Kids’ dad. His pants were $48/3 days. Buying him a pair of pants for the trip would cost $150 at the minimum, assuming we found a good deal on quality pants, and buying the exact pants he rented would have been $299.

Pit Stops for Kids’ dad in GetOutfitted ski pants.

While we were renting pants, we decided it would be fun to rent a Go Pro for the teens to use on the mountain. Merry Christmas to them! The Go Pro rented for $40/3 days, and the chest mount to wear it cost $12/3 days. Is this $52 critical to our ski trip? No, of course not. But it’s a vast savings on buying action camera equipment we’ll only use occasionally, and the kids really loved it.

While on the site, I initiated a chat with a GetOutfitted expert, who answered my questions promptly. What I asked: ‘Can I reserve for fewer than three days?’ and ‘Do you rent helmets’. The latter is not obvious until you select the ski resort or town you’ll be visiting, which pairs you with a local rental company. When I placed items in my shopping cart, I selected the exact dates of rental, and when I checked out, I entered our vacation rental home address. The ski wear and gear were sent directly to our rental.

When we arrived at our vacation rental, the box from GetOutfitted was waiting for us by the front door. Inside, we found the ski pants and Go Pro, plus a large, prepaid return envelope. Included with the Go Pro was a set of instructions, which, combined with a Google search for the Go Pro website, proved adequate for figuring it all out. We were provided with a memory card, USB cable, and the chest mount equipment (which we paid for), plus a few more mounts, which we could use to mount the Go Pro onto our helmets (after buying disposable adhesive mount stickers, which are found at any ski gear store at most ski resorts).

The kids had fun taking video on the mountain, which we downloaded to our computer at the vacation home (use the USB cable). You’ll want to make sure to download all your videos before returning the Go Pro (or pay a fee for GetOutfitted to download it all for you).

The ski pants worked perfectly, and we returned everything at the end of our trip by dropping off the package at a USPS store. Easy-peasy. To rent your own ski gear, start at GetOutfitted.com and go from there!

We tried out GetOutfitted free of charge, for the purpose of review.

Southern California CityPASS or Go Los Angeles pass?

January 23, 2017 By Amy Hagstrom

If you’re planning a trip to Southern California, AND you plan to visit at least one or two major theme parks in the area, you will almost certainly save money buying either a Southern California CityPASS or a Go Los Angeles attractions pass. But which one is right for your family trip? Ask yourself the following questions to find your answer.

Where will you spend the majority of your time?

While Southern California is not a large geographical area, it sure feels like it is once you factor in traffic. We recently stayed in North Hollywood, and it took 1.5 hours to drive a distance of 35 miles. The Southern CA CityPASS focuses mostly on Orange County and San Diego, so if you plan to focus on Disney and the lower part of the state, you should look closely at that pass option. If you plan to stay in the Los Angeles area, such as Hollywood and Universal Studios, opt for the GO card.

How much time will you spend in theme parks?

CityPASS gives you a stellar deal if you plan to visit Disneyland Resort. You get three days in the parks with park hopper passes, plus admission to SeaWorld, Legoland, and one additional San Diego attraction (you choose between the San Diego Zoo or Safari Park). It’s a no-brainer: get this pass if you plan to do three days at Disney plus at least ONE of the other attractions.

If you don’t plan to do Disney at all, but will be exploring all the San Diego attractions, do the math before purchasing. Depending on admission rates at the time of your visit, you may be better off buying a la carte.

If you plan to go to Universal Studios, choose the GO card if: 1. you only plan to go to Universal for one day, and 2. you plan to take advantage of at least TWO of the many other LA area attractions offered. Note that during our visit with the GO card, admission to Universal was only included on weekdays, so plan accordingly.

How much do you want to see?

Is your vacation all about doing as much as you can while in Southern California, or are you planning to relax by a pool or by the ocean at least half the time? If you want to go, go, go, one of the passes may be for you. If you don’t, either opt to build your own GO card (where you can select a smaller number of options for less money), or skip a pass altogether.

Note: As noted above, traffic in Southern California can make ‘hopping’ from one attraction to another frustrating or downright impossible. Even when Google maps tells you two attractions are just a few miles from each other, plan to visit no more than two per day (for the shorter attractions, museums, and tours) and only one theme park per day.

How old are your kids?

Kids are a good deal on both pass types, but note that the age span for a child on a GO card is 3-12, but under age 10 for CityPASS. Most likely, this is because CityPASS offers tickets to Disneyland, who has similar categorizing. Also note that GO cards only include Universal Studios tickets on their 3-day and up versions.

A few more things to note:

Both CityPASS and GO cards have running clocks on their passes, which starts when you use the passes at your first attraction (not when you purchase them). You have 14 days to use your CityPASS tickets, and two weeks to use your GO cards…so basically the same thing!
Both passes allow you to skip the admission line and go directly to the turnstile or check-in for each attraction…treat it like an admission ticket. Even at Disney and Universal, which is a nice timesaver. You CityPASS cards work at Disney just like a ticket to retrieve FastPass vouchers.
Both are non-transferrable. You’ll have your photo taken at some attractions (like Disney), and for activation, you need to sign your GO cards and show ID.

Which pass system works for you and your family? Let us know in the comments!

Top three hidden gems of the Caribbean for families

July 22, 2013 By Amy Hagstrom

As a top destination for cruises and tours, the Caribbean has no shortage of enticing tropical landscapes and attractions. The region’s predictably warm, balmy weather and aquamarine sea attract visitors year-round. And yet, the Caribbean still harbors some lesser-known places which can offer a more low-key excursion. These are not the types of places you’ll find all-you-can-eat buffets or “tourist trap” restaurants and souvenir stands. These are hidden gems.

Away from the attractions most tourists flock to, these three places still exude untouched natural beauty. Visitors can dine in solitude or swim in pristine waterfalls. These three quiet escapes provide alluring tranquility amid the natural beauty of the islands.

1. Dominica: Isle of Delights

Dominica is an island whose beauty is founded on its unspoiled natural setting. The island has been subjected to much less development than many of its island neighbors. Made up mostly of rainforest, the island is known for the abundance of deep green jungles filled with exotic flora and fauna. The island boasts over 365 waterfalls, springs and rivers, all of which beckon visitors inland from its soft sandy swaths of beach.

The island’s rugged inland terrain is marked by volcanic activity, providing warmth for several hot springs and even a boiling lake unfit for swimming but frequented by intrepid hikers. The Morne Trois Pitons National Park is a World Heritage Site that features a mix of Dominica’s tropical flora and fauna and volcanic rock formations. The hit film “Pirates of the Caribbean” was filmed on and around Dominica, adding to its mystique as an island of intrigue and drama. Those hoping to catch a glimpse of Captain Jack Sparrow might be disappointed — he is, after all, a fictional character — but might be delighted by the actual sparrows in the sky, as Dominica is a hotbed for tropical bird-watching.

2. Saba: Suspended in Time

Because the island of Saba receives fewer than 25,000 visitors a year, it manages to maintain a timeless natural mystique. The nearby islands, St. Maarten and St. Bart’s, just a stone’s throw away, are both frequented by major cruise companies making them far more crowded than Saba. Visitors will first notice that Saba is lacking in resorts and fancy shops. There are no designer retailers to be found. However, Saba makes up for the lack of posh shopping by offering up its own variety of lushness in the form of gorgeous nature and eco-tourism.

Saba represents the original, raw beauty of the Caribbean, prior to commercialism and human intervention. The beauty of Saba is not limited to its lush hills or secluded beaches — it extends underwater to the surrounding sea. Saba is actually one of the world’s top destinations for scuba diving and is considered among the best spots on earth for underwater exploration. For such a tiny island, Saba boasts a dizzying diversity of beautiful aquatic life. Adventurous visitors can spend the morning underwater exploring Saba’s rocky reefs, and then in the afternoon ascend its tallest peak, Mount Scenery. Above water and below, Saba’s ecology is inspiring, timeless and well-preserved. Its beauty highlights the fragility of a region impacted by heavy tourism.

3. Los Roques: Radiant and Lovely

Officially under the jurisdiction of Venezuela, Los Roques is an archipelago that is designated as a national park. The magnificent marine ecosystem of Los Roques is protected by the national park status, and is just a short hop from the capital city of Caracas. Los Roques has become a popular destination for nature lovers seeking to explore its unique flora and fauna. The island welcomes tourists who support its small local economy and offers several friendly inns. Visitors can also opt to stay in posadas, which are former houses of island fishermen and have been renovated for use by tourists. The Los Roques experience is both more rugged — and more radiant — than many other destinations in the Caribbean.

About the Author: Louise Barnes is a travel writer and author of several books about Caribbean history. She enjoys exploring options for Caribbean excursions on Expedia where she finds deals on vacation packages.

Photo credit.