A Las Vegas Hotel Won’t Allow Children and I Can’t Wait to Visit!

A new Las Vegas resort announced that no children are allowed on property.

And I applaud their decision. In fact, I’m excited to visit this joint!

Here’s the story.

Circa Las Vegas

Circa Las Vegas — a new casino-resort in downtown Sin City — is set to welcome hotel guests on December 28. (Though other areas such as the pool, casino, and restaurants will open two months earlier.

Circa replaces the old Las Vegas Club, at the corner of Fremont Street and Las Vegas Blvd.) According to KLAS (the television station, not the airport), the 44-story tower will be the first “ground-up” casino resort in downtown Las Vegas since 1980. It boasts 777 guest rooms (See? Lucky 7s? Vegas? I get it!)

“Circa Resort honors the golden ages of Las Vegas circa 1940, 1980, and 2020,” the property’s website says.

It also states, “[H]ere, everyone is on the guest list.”

Well, “everyone” doesn’t include people under the age of 21.

In fact, that was made quite clear during a Tweet this week.

Once, Las Vegas held a certain mystique as this fabulous place where only grown-ups could play. Call us old-fashioned, but we think adults need some of that mystique back in their lives. Book your room starting June 24th at 9am for #CircaLasVegas, a 21+ experience. pic.twitter.com/HBW5gweARn

— Circa Las Vegas (@CircaLasVegas) June 22, 2020

Halle-friggin-lujah! (FWIW, there’s at least one other adults-only hotel — The Artisan — in Vegas.)

What’s My Beef with Kids?!

Nothing. I love kids. I’ve written about how traveling with my daughter changed my life for the better. (And some children behave better than some adults.)

And I love Las Vegas. (I’m such a nerd that I play this song on the way to the airport. Every time, much to the annoyance of some business colleagues.)

But not everywhere should be kid-friendly.

While Las Vegas certainly has some of family-friendly activities (roller coasters, arcades, etc), its adult-oriented qualities such as gambling, drinking, smoking, a former mob-lawyer turned mayor who had a liquor endorsement deal while in office, topless swimming pools — don’t scream “kids.” (Call me a prude, I know.)

I Admit It: My Family Has Stayed in Las Vegas

My three-year-old daughter already has a couple of Vegas trips under her belt. We have friends in Vegas and usually visit them once a year.

She enjoys Vegas. The lights, bells, whistles, and incessant “Wheel! Of! Fortunnne!” sounds are pretty fun, especially for most kids.

Most of all, it’s because she gets to spend every single moment with Mommy and Daddy. Why? We can’t really take her anywhere besides the Fun Dungeon at Excalibur and the swimming pool of wherever we’re staying.

We’ve taken her to a couple of nice-ish restaurants (but clearly not that upscale if they allowed me in! 😉 ). But we feel out of place because, oh yeah, it’s an adult-geared business. (Plus, her mac-n-cheese cost us about $10 per bite she actually ate.) She can’t throw down Old Fashioneds with us at a bar. There’s too much cigarette smoke in many places. And adults let loose — and that’s fine.

We don’t necessarily want our kid overexposed to it — nor do we want a child to distract from or disrupt other people’s grown-ups weekend out.

Final Approach

I’ll be interested to see if Circa brings back the old Vegas vibe it hopes to. I have several relatives who enjoyed Vegas back in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s. But they can’t stand it now. (That’s also around the time the mob was pretty much pushed out. Coincidence? Not really, from what I’ve heard.)

Their gripes? It’s overpriced, not as safe, customer service has taken a downturn, too many families running around (legitimate ones, that is), and the place isn’t as classy as it once was.

It’ll be fun if Circa can replicate at least some of that experience. And if it means no kids for a weekend, I may have to visit and check it out myself.

— Chris

Featured image: Photo ©iStock.com/Inside Creative House. Rene’s Points composite.

Read Being Oscar by former mob attorney and Las Vegas Mayor — and current First Gentleman! — Oscar Goodman