Las Vegas: A Family Review of the Excalibur Hotel

When it finally came time to leave on our trip to Austin, my husband and I decided to cut our travel time in half and spend the night in Las Vegas the day before our departing flight (see the article The Southwest Airlines Experience: Flying with Kids in Tow).  Since we were only spending one night I started checking the travel websites for an inexpensive hotel in Las Vegas.  I’d originally started my search at the airport hotels but soon found that it was considerably cheaper to stay on the Strip.  I also found that some of the hotel’s direct websites offered lower rates than the travel sites and quickly narrowed our hotel options down to two; the Excalibur and Treasure Island.  Though we’re very familiar with Las Vegas due to its proximity to our current home in Southern Utah and our ‘hometown’ of Southern California, it had been a while since we’d stayed at either of those hotels.  While both showed a rate of $34 a night (we were staying on a Monday which meant very reduced rates), I soon discovered that Treasure Island had a somewhat sneaky resort fee that would be added on at check-in and would take the nightly rate to nearly $70.  The Excalibur also had a resort fee but of only $11 so that made my decision easy!  The Excalibur it was!

During my teenage years I spent a lot of time in Vegas with my parents and sister while my Dad was there on business trips.  Of course that was well over a decade ago and Vegas was at the height of turning itself into a “family-friendly” destination.  In fact, I remember staying at the Excalibur when it was a brand new hotel.

Our son in our room at the Excalibur Hotel, Las Vegas.

I wasn’t surprised to find that the hotel had suffered a bit in the years since I’d last been there.  The rooms were very basic but I was pleased to see that at least they were still clean and fairly large.  I’d booked a non-smoking room with two queen beds so that my husband could share a bed with our son while I kept our daughter.  When we checked in, I asked the lady helping us if she could put us someplace quiet and out-of-the-way since we had two small children.  She complied by putting us on the 28^th floor—the very top of the hotel—at the very end of the hallway in a room farthest from the elevators.  This was both good and bad.  Good because it was certainly quiet where we were but bad because it made the hike with our kids and our luggage all the longer. 

My only two complaints about this room were that it featured a rather old, beneath-the-window air conditioner that didn’t quite keep the room at a comfortable temperature (it was just a little too warm), and that it had no bathtub.  The bathroom and shower were both huge but I’d planned on giving the kids a bath before bed and we had to improvise with showers instead.  It wasn’t really that bad but if I’d been staying longer I definitely would have wanted a tub.  I’m pretty sure we were in an older section of the hotel so perhaps some of the other rooms do have bathtubs but it’s something I would certainly check into before making a reservation there again.  Other than those two things though, our room was fine. 

Our son relaxing in bed at the Excalibur Hotel, Las Vegas.

The beds were both very comfortable and there were plenty of pillows and towels.

Though our room worked out well, the hotel itself was just okay.  The walk from the parking structure where we had to park took us through another parking lot to the backdoors of the hotel, through the casino, then finally to the front desk.  It literally felt like a quarter of a mile and it took us an eternity to lug all our stuff and our two kids to the check-in counter.  Also, while other hotels I’ve been in have good ventilation systems to get rid of all the smoke on the casino floor, the Excalibur didn’t.  I couldn’t wait to get my three-year old and three-month old away from the casino so they wouldn’t be inhaling cartons of cigarette smoke; I mean it made my eyes water!  The hotel is also older so the condition isn’t as a great as many of the newer hotels but it was at least clean and I didn’t see anything that stood in need of major repair. 

After checking in and dropping our mountain of stuff off in our room, we decided to head back out to the Forum Shops in Caesar’s Palace to get some dinner and do a little shopping.  This of course meant another Everest-sized expedition down the hall, through the smoke-filled casino, out the doors, across the parking lot and to our truck but we made it eventually. 

Caesar's Palace Forum Aquarium

Seeing Las Vegas at night through the eyes of my three-year old was an… interesting experience; it didn’t seem quite the “family-friendly” destination that it had been when I was a teenager.  Even though we weren’t there on a weekend, the neon billboards still flashed pictures of things I didn’t particularly want my son looking at and being a particularly (and at times, annoyingly) observant child, he of course pointed every last one of them out to us.  My husband and I soon found ourselves spending the half-mile drive down the Strip trying to distract him with more child-friendly sights like the Bellagio’s fountain and the Paris’ hot-air balloon.  Once inside the Forum Shops it got better.  There he enjoyed watching the moving statues and fell in love with the giant aquarium outside the Cheesecake Factory that was filled with huge fish, sting rays, and eels.

All in all, our overnight experience at the Excalibur wasn’t bad.  If we’d been planning a longer stay in Vegas though, I definitely would have picked a newer hotel with better ventilation.  I also would have gone for one (perhaps like Caesar’s Palace) that offered more shopping and activities all in one place.  That way we wouldn’t have had to spend quite so much time distracting our son from all the Strip had to offer!

About the Author: Kelsey lives in Southern Utah with her husband, their 3-year old son, and their newborn daughter. They enjoy the adventure of exploring new places together and love building memories through family travel.