Spending a week with my granddaughter in Las Vegas means finding fun things to do with a toddler. Most of the hotels and casinos on The Strip have offerings for children of all ages, but what if you want to get out of the crowds? Or off the main drag and out to do fun and enriching things the locals enjoy?
One area about less than 15 miles from hustling downtown Las Vegas is Aliante. My daughter, Lauren, and I took my granddaughter, AJ, to Aliante Downtown Nature Discovery Park). The park reopened in May 2019 with a fresh look and new play equipment.
With play opportunities for toddlers and older kids, AJ started on the swings as usual and quickly wanted to get on the “Tower” and slide area built for older children. We adults were able to follow her on lower more accessible parts of this more challenging area and I can’t wait to visit again when she can climb up to the upper stories via rope and ladders and look down at us from new heights.
Play tower for smaller children 
First level of older children’s tower 
Merry-go-round at Aliante Nature Discovery Park 
Fun teeter-totter at Aliante Nature Discovery Park
AJ enjoyed a merry-go-round unlike one I’ve ever seen. It required an older person to spin it from the outside, but the cable-containment ball was a cool and safe feature for smaller children.
We encouraged AJ to play on the smaller tower and slide area, but it was no match for the lure of the much more impressive tower with rope climbs, higher and higher circles to climb up through, bubbles to peek out of and the steepest slide I’ve seen in a playground.
A musical area allows the kids to play an enormous xylophone, and several metal drums which all made melodic sounds though the stainless-steel drums. These will likely be prohibitively steaming in higher temperatures.
The water play area with snaking sprinklers, frogs, etc. was tempting, but we were not prepared with swimwear and it was a little chilly for a two-year-old with a cold.
The standout feature of the park was a massive triceratops head that children (and adults) could walk through to the other side to “dig” in a gravel archeological dig. We did not play in this area as the thought of all that grit in a little one’s clothes was not something I was ready to clean up afterwards. I would say that this activity was best reserved for older children.
Aliante Nature Discovery Park 
AJ playing on the baby triceratops 
Around the “dig” site, was a walkway where visitors can walk through the “ribs” of a dinosaur and end at a line up of baby triceratops they can climb on or climb in already-hatched eggs.
I recommend this playground for anyone who wants to take a break from the overwhelmingly fast-pace of The Las Vegas Strip and have a free-admission breather with a kid.
Added feature: there is a nature walk in this park and a beautiful pond system for duck, goose, pigeon, Koi and turtle watching.
Have fun!
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/nevada/aliante-nature-discovery-park
