Hellobee

Well… we did it! We traveled to Las Vegas with a baby. May I just say… I never intended to take the baby to “Sin City” at such an early age and also on a holiday weekend! But I had a huge work conference and thought it might be nice to just try and see how it went. I’m glad to say I survived, and learned many things about traveling with a little one in a place where indoor smoking is allowed and where the hunt for the nearest elevator is endless.

Here are some of my tips if you are traveling to Las Vegas with a little one!

• Bring all the noise machines you have (and a wireless speaker, if you have one!)

I couldn’t have accounted for who my neighbors were. I mean I knew Labor Day weekend was going to attract party animals, but I definitely did not expect my “hallmates” to be dozens of kids who opened all their doors, blasted music and roamed up and down the halls like it was the college dorms. Am I an old fart for saying that “in my day” I would have never done this?! Even with our 2 noise machines, their partying and hollering was loud enough to wake up the babies! In addition to our 2 noise machines, we ended up hooking up a wireless speaker to one of our phones and played a white noise app. With the wireless speaker blasting, it was extremely effective! (Good thinking, engineer husband.)

• If you are traveling with another family with a baby, get rooms next to each other (even without adjoining doors)

It was great being right next door with another family with a baby because we borrowed so many things from each other throughout the trip. We created little play areas by placing blankets on the ground and one couple could watch the babies while the other couple took a break. Even without adjoining doors, it was convenient to just keep going in and out of our rooms with the dead bolt out so we didn’t have to keep sliding our key cards. When one baby was napping, the couple could go in the other room and vice versa. The very first nap time didn’t work out so well and my poor husband ended up lying down in the bathroom in the dark because Baby Pencil and his cousin next door were both sleeping at the same time. We had nowhere to go! It was difficult for Baby Pencil to fall asleep when we were roaming in the room. (Later we discovered to haul a sofa piled with pillows in between us, so that he wouldn’t be able to see us.)

Cousins playing in their diapers!

• No need to bring your own blackout curtains, the ones in the Vegas rooms are really good!

The Vegas hotels are all about not being able to tell day from night. So their blackout curtains were amazing! The rooms get pitch black dark.

• Bring a wifi DROP CAM vs. a regular monitor

My sister’s family brought a Drop Cam and I really wished we did the same! We only brought a regular monitor. Since we were right next to each other, if one family wanted to go out, they were able to go downstairs or somewhere else since the other family was right next door. All of us could access the drop cam on our phones – how convenient! Even better, my dad was on the same floor so he could have easily watched both babies sleeping at night and we could have all partied together. The regular monitor could only handle about 3 doors down, then it would lose signal.

• When babies are sleeping, unplug the hotel phones!

There’s nothing like getting your baby to finally sleep… and the freaking phone rings! I’m sure it was a wrong call, but it woke up the baby and he only got a 45 minute nap versus his usual 1.5 hour nap. Bummer!

• Bring long sleeves and short sleeve PJs because you won’t know the temperature of the room

It was hard to figure out the temperature of the rooms. It was super hot outside so we dressed the baby in a short sleeve and a thin sleep sack, but I realized the strong air conditioning may be too chilly for babies. Since we were all in the room together, we set the room at around 72 degrees because the hubs and I are super hot! I think a very thin long sleeve and a thin sleep sack would have been perfect because the air was blasting all day and night. I felt his arms during the night and it felt a little too cold. But his head was warm! Temperatures drive me crazy but I would rather cover his skin if the AC was going to blast all night.

• Check into a smoke-free hotel or if it’s not, then it better have access to something worthy! (Traveling to another hotel for something is a lot of work.)

There are 7 hotels on the strip that are smoke-free, which means that there are no casinos. Some of them are really easy to walk to another hotel where there are some casinos if that’s what you want. I’ve had great experiences staying at the Vdara Hotel, but this time since I was traveling for work, we stayed at the Monte Carlo. I actually enjoyed staying there because it wasn’t too crazy packed, and it had a great “lazy pool” and a tide pool that was quite great for babies! The lazy pool just gently pushes everyone on a floatie around without any work. Baby Pencil really enjoyed the tide pool as well, even though there was loud music blasting. I think it’s not a bad idea to stay in a hotel that’s not quite the newest one, because walking around there versus the baller nice hotels was such a difference! Ours seemed empty, and Caesar’s Palace was literally elbow to elbow with people.

• Making a play area is super easy!

All you need is a few bed sheets or blankets and to drag a sofa over. Block any outlets, take off all the cords and ta-da! you’ve trapped your babies into a very secure play area. Throw in some toys and let them run around. Pretty efficient and easy!

• Bring an iPad… for emergencies!

We don’t even own an iPad but my sister’s family had one. Honestly? It was a life saver! There was a lot of down time and waiting around, so playing a few YouTube clips really helped keep the babies calm and entertained. I mean, it’s their vacation too right?!

• Prepare to bring your own baby food.

Since Baby Pencil is 17 months now, he can mostly eat our adult food, but I want him to eat somewhat well balanced meals during our trip. In our hotel, there was only a hot dog place, Starbucks, a Sbarro, Subway, pubs and the buffet. We couldn’t exactly eat out 3x a day with these babies, so it was quite difficult to find food for him! In our haste to find food for him, his first couple meals were not great. It would have been nice to have some emergency baby food jars or pouches so that he was at least getting some protein!

All in all, it wasn’t that bad. Besides the party animals and the smoke, it can actually be a pretty fun place for families with babies. There’s the Bellagio water show, which Baby Pencil was fascinated with. The Wynn Hotel has some beautiful decor and sometimes you can find empty ballrooms where the kids can run freely.

Has anyone else had any other Vegas experiences and tips?