Anonymous wrote:I wanted to give a shout out to Las Vegas at Christmas since it's not getting much love. We've been the last three Christmas holidays, although our son was in high school at the time. There are a lot of fun things for families to do in Vegas including shows, hiking, and attractions. Weather is normally very pleasant although the pools aren't usually open. Some of my son's favorite things in Vegas include Area 51, the shark reef at Mandalay, the arcade at NYNY, and the Pinball Hall of Fame. How old are your kids?

+1 we did a Utah national parks trip and flew into Vegas before heading to Zion. Spent three nights, two days there. Kids were 11 and 8. It was awesome! We ended up wishing we had more time. Kids loved the restaurants, shows, pool, Adventure Dome at Circus Circus, Mandalay Bay aquarium, Bellagio Fountains, and children's museum.

Anonymous wrote:We went to Marco island a few years ago. Definitely pool/beach weather!

YOU had pool/beach weather. Could also be highs in the 50’s and 60’s.

I wanted to give a shout out to Las Vegas at Christmas since it's not getting much love. We've been the last three Christmas holidays, although our son was in high school at the time. There are a lot of fun things for families to do in Vegas including shows, hiking, and attractions. Weather is normally very pleasant although the pools aren't usually open. Some of my son's favorite things in Vegas include Area 51, the shark reef at Mandalay, the arcade at NYNY, and the Pinball Hall of Fame. How old are your kids?

We’ve done week on Hilton Head right after holidays. Weather may not be always “warm” but much warmer than DC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I live in Florida (Tampa Bay). December is actually a nice time to visit because it isn't so scorching hot.

You 'may' be able to do the beach-I'm from 'up north' and what I think is a nice day at the beach is cooler than what some native folks think.

But there is a lot more to do. It's a good time of year for kayaking and fishing. Not sure where you would be staying OP (orlando?) but there are nice state parks with springs around there. Tampa has some nice stuff to do (Zoo Tampa, the Riverwalk, Busch Gardens, ect). St Petersburg is nice also.

Crystal River area is also an option, especially if you’re interested in seeing manatees.

No it’s a dump

Red neck city

Old

Gross

Tampa Bay pp here. Clearly, you haven't been to Crystal River in quite some time possibly decades. Crystal River and the county it is in, citrus county, is growing like gangbusters. It has a really cute quaint downtown and even a cute mini golf place there, which I enjoyed on my birthday last month. It's definitely not what previous poster says.

We went to Marco island a few years ago. Definitely pool/beach weather!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I live in Florida (Tampa Bay). December is actually a nice time to visit because it isn't so scorching hot.

You 'may' be able to do the beach-I'm from 'up north' and what I think is a nice day at the beach is cooler than what some native folks think.

But there is a lot more to do. It's a good time of year for kayaking and fishing. Not sure where you would be staying OP (orlando?) but there are nice state parks with springs around there. Tampa has some nice stuff to do (Zoo Tampa, the Riverwalk, Busch Gardens, ect). St Petersburg is nice also.

Crystal River area is also an option, especially if you’re interested in seeing manatees.

No it’s a dump

Red neck city

Old

Gross

Las Vegas will be COLD -- there is almost 0 chance of pool weather. I would much rather do south Florida.

Anonymous wrote:Vegas is never a good choice for families

Wrong

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I live in Florida (Tampa Bay). December is actually a nice time to visit because it isn't so scorching hot.

You 'may' be able to do the beach-I'm from 'up north' and what I think is a nice day at the beach is cooler than what some native folks think.

But there is a lot more to do. It's a good time of year for kayaking and fishing. Not sure where you would be staying OP (orlando?) but there are nice state parks with springs around there. Tampa has some nice stuff to do (Zoo Tampa, the Riverwalk, Busch Gardens, ect). St Petersburg is nice also.

Crystal River area is also an option, especially if you’re interested in seeing manatees.

In Dec??

Yeah. Manatee season is November through March. They come inland to the warm springs when the weather gets cool.

FL PP here. Yes, and the TECO manatee viewing center in Apollo Beach is open then too and free!

Vegas is never a good choice for families

If you go to Florida and want warm weather, go to the Keys. They all have their own vibe so pick which works for you and plop there. Miami is also super fun. Any further north and the weather will be iffy.

Also, I think Vegas is fun even with the kids (unless yours are very little) but I don’t think there is enough to do there for a week and anything else is quite a drive plus if you go to Utah or somewhere else, it’s gonna be cold.

If you are looking for other continental US choices, Southern California and Arizona will also be great weather.

We did a super last minute Disney trip last year at Christmas and it was fun! We always said we would never go to Disney 😂 but for a variety of reasons it just worked out. We only did animal kingdom and Epcot, and then we spent a day in the area, including Winter Park and Blue Springs to see manatees. I forget how much we spent, but while the park tickets were expensive, I don’t think it was more than 2-3k all in because we chose to stay at the JW Marriott in Bonnet Creek instead of in the parks bc we brought our dog. I think as long as you go in with chill expectations it is fine. If you want to DO DISNEY and go on every ride at every park I expect it would be much less fun and require a lot more planning, but YMMV. I did spend a decent amount of time researching and figuring out which rides and in which order we would do them, but we never bought the Genie lanes and did all that nonsense and we didn’t ride everything. We did have a big wait for the Avatar ride but that was the only one that felt onerous (& I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it was worth it, it’s incredibly cool.)

I'm from Orlando and we would swim and go to the beach during Christmas week, though we lived up north for a while. The Gulf is generally a bit warmer than the Atlantic side.

If it's truly cold, that's when you go see the manatees come in to the warm springs. Blue Springs is a particular favorite.