Sin City

Vegas Visit with the Kids Is Drenched in Debauchery

It looked so much nicer in my head. The way I pictured it, we were going to spend a few days of bond-bolstering family togetherness at a Las Vegas resort that would cater to our every fickle whim. By day we would lounge poolside; by night we'd venture out to ooh and ahh over the city's convenient cultural lessons: the Venetian's canals, Luxor's Sphinx, Caesar's Trevi Fountain.

In my imagination — over-enterprising as it may be — we were going to find freedom in the clean light of the warm desert sun.

Instead, we got drenched in debauchery.

On reflection, yes. It was witless to seek a virtuous vacay in Sin City, the nation's unapologetic adult playground. In the 1990s, Vegas's tourism office made a marketing push to lure families there. But the campaign went bust and the tourism office did an about-face, adopting the decidedly grown-up (notice I didn't say "mature") motto, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas."

They no longer woo kids. In fact, the Bellagio hotel doesn't even allow children inside unless they're registered guests, and the new Encore and Wynn hotels have "no strollers" signs on their doors.

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