READER'S PICKS FOR KIDS

Indiana Mom writes (9/98): One suggestion I'd like to add to your list of kid-friendly attractions is a day-trip west of Las Vegas to the Old Nevada Ranch and amusement area where some of the "Bonanza" episodes were filmed. The Old West theme is carried out with gunfights and hangings in the street which is great fun for all ages. Next door is the Bonnie Springs Ranch where you'll find a petting zoo for the younger kids. It has been a few years, but what my kids remember most about the car trip out to the Old Nevada Ranch is not the high desert red rock scenery, but rather the wild burros. We stopped the car several times to feed these adorable animals who are tame enough to eat out of your hand. We fed them everything edible we had in our car, and will remember to take along a bag of apples if we go out that way again. In Las Vegas, our elementary school-aged children enjoyed the Discovery Children's Museum on North Las Vegas Blvd. It's one of those hands-on types of museums so there's plenty of "stuff to do", not just "stuff to see".

Susan in Gilbert, Arizona writes (7/99): I have just come back from a two-week vacation in Las Vegas (one of fifteen in the last seven years). Since I am only fifteen years old, I spend most of my time in the arcades and I have developed a list of my top ten favorite arcades. I have several criteria for judging them.
1. Cost per game.
2. Number of working games in arcade.
3. Length of game play (not too many "flip a quarter down a chute" games).
4. Friendliness of staff.
5. Quality of prizes in ticket arcades.

Top Ten Video Arcades
1. New York, New York
2. Sahara
3. Luxor
4. Harrah's
5. California
6. Stratosphere
7. Silverton
8. Hard Rock
9. Treasure Island
10.Reserve- just opened last week

I have visited 31 arcades that I can recall well enough to judge.

TOP TEN ARCADES TO BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS
1. Gold Strike Gold Strike falsely advertises that they have a nickel arcade. In fact, they only have two nickel games and one of them is broken. In addition, the games that they have are really expensive ( fifty cents and up) and are housed in the dungeon (basement) which has a very sticky floor.
2. Nevada Landing Ditto to all the above except that it is not in the basement.
3. Texas The Texas arcade is in a big, bare room with only a concrete floor. It is a disappointment because they have plenty of room to have a cool arcade but they only have about three games lining each wall. Many of these were "flip a quarter down the chute" games. They did give tickets but they didn't have any good prizes. They were mostly plastic rings and tootsie rolls.
4. Imperial Palace This arcade could be marginal if they tried really hard. The first day I was there I was lucky. They had two token dispensers for the machines and they were both out of commission. The second day I wasn't so lucky and the machines worked but the games did not. They had two pretty good pinball games but the flippers did not work on either of them. There was a lame driving game which was seventy-five cents for about a forty-second drive (maybe it would have been longer if I was a better driver).
5. Gold Coast To be fair I would have to call this a game area as opposed to a game room as it had no walls. On the plus side, as free entertainment you can watch drunken bowlers weave by on their way to the bathroom. I probably would rate it lower but I didn't really spend much time here as I decided to go bowling instead.
6. Frontier In it's defense, it has walls. Average price of games: fifty cents. Average age of game player: fifty years. They even have a sign up warning of prosecution should you try to unload your tokens on another player when you tire of playing their three games.
7. Arizona Charlie's This place is really depressing. This is where locals unload their kids while they blow the rent money. The sad thing is that the kids don't have any tokens to play with so they are just stuck in there for hours.
8. Plaza It is a small, narrow passageway, a hallway, really, on the way to the ice cream parlor. It is too narrow to work as both a hallway and a gameroom.
9 and 10. Mandalay Bay and Bellagio Both of these casinos forgot that kids come to Las Vegas and they did not bother even to put in an arcade.

Vegas's famous buffets represent a good family dining experience, but take care to eat dinner early (say, about 5:00) or the lines can be horrendous.

Pools and rooms are key to choosing your hotel. Most other facilities can be enjoyed by simply staying in a hotel next to them. NOTE: Nearly all Vegas casino-hotels share the bizarre practice of closing the pools promptly at 6:00 pm., presumably to encourage gambling and show-going. Pools are usually closed from October to March (although, in my opinion, the weather is nice enough for them to stay open year-round).

Kids and casinos do not mix. First of all, due to stringent state laws, the casinos are very aggressive about keeping kids from loitering in any casino, or even standing in line with you in one. Secondly, bear in mind that drinks are free to all players: as a result, there are many drunken people have just lost next month's rent. (You, as a parent, are used to hundreds of dollars fleeing your wallet, but others are not.) Many of them are just looking for someone or something to take it out on, and boisterous kids make an ideal target. (And casinos do not always attract the most wholesome of adults in the first place.) Kids need to be reminded to be on their best behavior while walking through the casinos.

NOTE: Bear in mind that while the strip is very safe, one of the ways it is kept that way is a curfew for kids starting at 9:00 PM. CAUTION: Unless your kids are very responsible (stop laughing, it's possible), write down your hotel, room number, and room phone number and make each of them carry it with them (or better yet, tattoo it on their arms). Even if you intend to do everything together, it's easy to get separated.